Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa (Atlantic City, NJ) -- FAQ in OP, updated 2021.08.16

I'm not a fan of any money coming out of the pot. But I realize that many of the players I want as opponents like it, so I guess I have to like it. It was better when they reduced the promo drop to $1 at midnight and there was no high hand promo after that time. The worst was when they kept the drop at $2 but had no high hand overnight. WTF? At least now the overnight players can hit something, and sometimes it's $500 or more.

When someone complains about the promo as you described, you should point out the bad beat jackpot is still available. "What? You folded that without seeing a flop?" Lol.

All the promo money is distributed one way or another. If all players tipped 10%, then it doesn't matter what formula they use. The dealers will get the same money on average, but it will be distributed differently. Also, now the overnight dealers get some of the cheese. In practice, smaller jackpots mean more tips for the dealers. Players tend to tip a higher percentage for smaller jackpots. When the jackpots are large, 5% or lower comes into play. Yes, the magnitude of the tips will be higher with higher jackpots, but there will be more tips received and at a higher percentage of the prize with smaller jackpots (again, assuming all the monies are distributed). So, dealers should prefer smaller jackpots and players should prefer higher jackpots (save on tips and it draws in more players who play for jackpots).

Does Borgata double rake for their bomb pots? $14 per hand seems insane for the 2/5 bomb pot table over the weekend

No. The rake is the same, but it's always at max rake--$5+$2. They require five players to participate at five big blinds each. That's at least $75 in antes in the 1/3 and $125 in the 2/5--which triggers both the max rake and promo thresholds. The bomb pot is on the dealer push. But players can agree to play more, but all players have to agree for additional bomb pots.

Additional bomb pot info:

The button doesn't move after the bomb pot. So the blinds pick up where they were if there was no bomb pot.

They started a new wrinkle recently. They have bomb pot games. In that game every other hand is a bomb pot. I've only seen it in the 2/5 stakes.

If you missed the blinds, you can still participate in the bomb pot. You still owe the blinds going forward, and can continue sitting out.

They also changed the rule to qualify to share in bad beat jackpots. Previously, you didn't have to be dealt in the hand to share in the jackpot, so long as you didn't miss your blinds. Now, just having chips on the table qualifies you (perhaps not if you are a new player who hasn't played a hand yet). This is because you can play a bomb pot owing blinds (and the first board can hit the bad beat). A better rule would be to either not owe blinds OR have participated in the bomb pot that qualified. But it is what it is. Perhaps they'll change it in the future.

Bad beat hit again today. JT > 65

There are people who won more this year on a single high hand than a table share on that bad beat lol

Horrible time to hit a bad beat lol

Anyone grinding a lot during winter open? Trying to split a room a week or two prior?

Will be grinding cash games, HMU

Try the travelodge if you got a car. Nice rooms and they have cheap weekly. It's a straight shot 10min drive to Borgata.

This pic popped up on my phone from 10 years ago today … the good old days at the Borgata 2-5nl… I think the cap was 500

The only hand I remember was flatting AA in the cutoff and SB and MP went nuts pre…

Remember when we used to butcher hands and fall ass backwards into a stack…

Spoiler

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Anybody now being prompted to verify identity with ID.me when checking in on the app, and having trouble doing so? I've never had to do this before

So day 1 of the winter series and we’re already closing the cage in the poker room at 5pm meanwhile the main cage out in the casino floor only has 2 windows open….can we really be this incompetent?!?

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How bad it is at Borgata since MGM took over.

Yesterday, we didn’t see the waitress for almost 2 hours!!!
Floor person tried to call ( He tried 3 times but no response)!!!

The current winter poker opens structure isn't too bad. It's pretty good structure.
I messed around and max late registered with 10BB and managed to push/fold my way to day 2 which is min cash.

Well, that's hardly a phenomenon that's new/new since covid/new since MGM...

The Asian gaming pit in the old racebook area had a cashier open last time I was there (probably a month ago)

Not me.

They lowered the ante for the bomb pots. In 2/5 NL it's now $15 instead of $10. In 1/3 it's now $10 (from what I was told) instead of $15. I don't know about PLO. And I don't know if it was because of complaints or an attempt to increase participation. Still a lot of nitty regs sitting out.

I was also told the bomb pot game is every hand, not every other hand.

Does anyone know what the rock game is? I saw it listed on Bravo a few times and have no clue. I hope it's not similar to what Mason wrote about in one of his books decades ago.

Rock is winner of the last pot mandatory straddle. 2/5 it’s a 1500 cap buy in, idk about 1/3. They started offering it months ago but it never really took off.

Bomb pot tables are every hand now. Originally they were every other hand with a mandatory straddle in the off hand

So at 2/5, you'd have a $2 small blind, $5 big blind, and a $10 straddle which could be anywhere. Action probably starts left of the straddle. First raise is to at least $15, but probably is $30-$35 in practice (at least until the players learn the sweet spot). Since you have to repost the straddle, a raise to win the blinds is actually to win only $7. That suggests a smaller raise is in order. But a smaller raise prices in the straddle, requiring a larger raise. That in turn requires a tighter range than normal to raise. That discourages others from calling or re-raising without an even stronger range. So the wind-up is that the game will play tighter than the normal 2/5 game, let alone if someone straddled normally. Bad structure. If it catches on it won't last, nor should it.

What they should do is introduce a $5 big blind ante ($3 in 1/3), and offer no other structure (They'd probably have to reinstate the posting rule for new players to minimize angle shooting). That would encourage action rather than discourage it. That would also almost guarantee max rake every hand, and greatly reduce chopping opportunities. And it would force the nits to play more hands or be eaten by the blinds and antes. Why cardrooms don't do that is baffling.

i did this last time i was there (september-ish) and the cashier told me she wasn't supposed to cash out people from the poker room, which i obviously was because i had a few racks, but she did anyway.

if i tried to do it again, i would probably try to color up as much as possible with the dealer and/or players at the table.

Damn lowly poker players need to quit sneaking into the high limit bacc pit /s