The Arena Poker Room at Casino Arizona's Talking Stick Resort (Scottsdale, AZ) -- FAQ in OP

A floor person runs and manages those games from the back of the room, unlike all the other games that are called from the main board at the entry of the room. You can sign up anywhere, but the seats/games get called by the floor handling those handful of games.

Went on Sunday to play the satellite for the Pot O'Gold tournament (one bullet, 80 runners, 16 seats, I didn't win one)

Floor guy explained liquor license issue as so: licensee no longer works at TSR. I expect that was the old poker room director? Seems strange to link the license to a single individual, not a corp entity or position, like CEO or perhaps Director of Poker?

I've seen bars and such have to halt liquor sales for a period of time (30-90 days?) because of a sale, but I also assumed (look out!) a larger operation like a casino resort would have this **** figured out.

Seeing as that was Sunday, and Monday was a holiday, I don't expect them to have figured it out yet, either.

Enjoy!

As of today, the liquor license is back.

Ramblings on the new room: New tables make it hard for the 1 and 8/9 seat to see what's going on with the other. The room and chairs are pretty sweet. They did not think about visibility of the board from the outside of the room. I still don't really get why they have the separate HL board in the back. Better service for HL players? I do miss the self serve soda machine. Smokers patio is nice. Location/Parking is great.

I’ve always liked the 1 and 8/9. Too tough to sit there now. Dealers are not aware for the most part of the stitching on the rail indicating proper seat position on these kidney shaped tables.
Actually, a little entertaining to watch the players in those seats struggle. Much worse for the 1 to see the 8.
Not sure how you’d fix this. Anyone?

It's not fixable due to the shape of the new tables. There is a cutout where the dealer sits which puts the dealer in front of seats 1 and 8 and blocks the line of sight between those seats. On the old tables there was no cutout and therefore no real problem as the dealer was directly parallel to seats 1 and 8.

Au contraire, the sight lines can be improved IF, the players are instructed where to sit ((between the stitching on the rail)). The problem is most dealers are unaware as of my last visit. IMO the SAND TRAP is the bigger issue.

I made my first visit to TS. I heard some bad reviews but figured there will always be haters at the beginning. It turns out they are right. I am shocked at how many little and in some cases big issues this room has. I'll start with the good and then the bad.

Good

1) It's a big spacious room
2) The seats are very comfortable.
3) There is more room between tables.

Bad

1) Seats 1 and 8 can't see each other.
2) The people at the poker board can't see people waiting at the other end of room.
3) The people playing low stakes can't hear the floor call them to higher stake games
4) Some tables have terrible lighting.
5) I heard the wall paper has already come off and is super cheap.
5) The carpet is already tearing apart.
6) There is an exit at the back of the room but you can't get in that way so you have to walk a long distance to get to higher limit area.
7) You have to walk a long way from higher limits to the restroom.
8) The restroom has only 4 urinals and you have to wade through pee to get to them and then stand in more pee. The paper towel dispensers hang too low so the towels are soaking in standing water. The soap dispensers rarely work.
9) The food service is terrible regarding wait times. I ordered the lo mein. The noodles were soggy and the chicken was dry.
10) The chip service is terrible regarding wait times.
11) If you are at the low limit area you have to walk to the end of the room to check the high limit board
12) I was happy to hear they built a smokers balcony because I was sick of walking into the room and smelling the smoke. However, I guess they have since now added smoking areas right outside the entrance as well.
13) They have plenty of TV's but they aren't easy to see from some areas.
14) They have had glare issues at the back of the room.
15) The food is still ridiculously priced.
16) The game waiting list for low limit is not visible from inside the room.

This is not a room related gripe. The high limit floors on both days I was there started a 40/80 game which left the 20/40 game short and the 40 was also short. I saw one day where the they called the players to the 40 but the game didn't officially start for about 20 minutes. I think the 20 ended up breaking. It looks like the 20/40 game there is extremely fragile. I talked to a few 20 players who said they rarely show up anymore because they never know when the game will go or break or be converted to a 40/80. The 40/80 was pretty good one day but absolutely horrific the other with a bunch of grinders. I guess there are a couple players they depend on for it to be a good game.

Some of these negatives I heard from regs I talked too. I get there being a few glitches in a new room but this seems excessive. I talked to dealers and floor who said they aren't shocked. The people running the place don't seem to put a lot of thought into things. The room looks nice but it's more lipstick on a pig.

Yep floors completely incompetent been saying this for some time. Worst run room I've personally visited. Such a shame because would be pretty easy to have a great ecosystem in a wealthy area.

Huh this doesn’t bode well for my trip there next month to play 20-40.

Fridays the games seem to be good and often have two games going.

Saturdays seem to be all over the place. I've seen two games on Bravo. When I was there it was 4 handed.

Thursdays they run a big high hand promotion in the lower limits. This often times leaves no dealers for the 20 or 40. They eventually get a game going but not until the evening.

Sunday also has a high hand promotion. I haven't been there so no comment on 20/40 game availability.

Mon- Wed looks really bad. I'd say it's hit or miss when or if a game will be going.

If you are willing to play 40/80 that will significantly increase your odds of getting on a table. It's not possible these days to predict when the games will start like the good old days.

The limit player pools has lost players to the mix games, NL, death, poor floor management and banishment. You could make a full table of the players banned in the last two years.

I don't want to scare you off but just be aware that the game has become quite fragile.

Fridays the games seem to be good and often have two games going.

Saturdays seem to be all over the place. I've seen two games on Bravo. When I was there it was 4 handed.

Thursdays they run a big high hand promotion in the lower limits. This often times leaves no dealers for the 20 or 40. They eventually get a game going but not until the evening.

Sunday also has a high hand promotion. I haven't been there so no comment on 20/40 game availability.

Mon- Wed looks really bad. I'd say it's hit or miss when or if a game will be going.

If you are willing to play 40/80 that will significantly increase your odds of getting on a table. It's not possible these days to predict when the games will start like the good old days.

The limit player pools has lost players to the mix games, NL, death, poor floor management and banishment. You could make a full table of the players banned in the last two years.

I don't want to scare you off but just be aware that the game has become quite fragile.

Good feedback, thanks.

Yeah thanks for the detailed info.

I’ll be there wed night through Sunday. Not yet sure which days/nights I’ll be playing yet, I’m there to visit friends primarily. But the good news is seems like mostly during the times that are ok.

Not really planning to play 40-80. Possibly once if it’s all that’s offered. But more likely to just go do something else. Or maybe play smaller for a bit to just **** around.

Maybe I’ll see pope!

People still play limit poker? My last trip to Vegas one of the hard core local pro's told me 'real men don't play limit' and I guess I took that to heart.

Im just a little boy.

Just thought I would make a quick trip report, skewed towards the 20-40 holdem game.

I was last here about 2 years ago, and then 2 years before that. So I'm an infrequent visitor. I used to stay at TSR, but their poker rate policy at the time was abysmal, so I switched to staying elsewhere. I vaguely recall that they "fixed" it, though I have not yet tried again, and while I was at the cashier I saw a notice about tournament rooms being sold out, so who knows, maybe it's still a problem.

The new room is nice and big, right next to where the old room used to be. (Park in the same place as before near the West Garage.) The tables are reasonably spread out, though with the side tables or food tables scattered around you did sometimes have to squeeze by a little to get to your seat. There did seem to be plenty of drink and food tables.

They still have the screwy system where the board up front only displays the wait lists for the non-HL games, you have to walk to the back to see the lists for the HL games. Which I guess is maybe better for people who are only signing up for one or the other, but when you are split half and half it makes things a little more cumbersome.

The tables themselves are kidney bean shaped, not oval/racetrack, which is a little odd. Tables were 8-handed (at least in the cash games I was playing). As mentioned previously by others, the 1 and 8 seats can't really see each other since they have to look through the dealer's body in this weird table configuration. In fact, when I was in the 1 seat the dealer's arm would come to rest such that I couldn't even see the board sometimes and would have to crane around to look at it, which was mildly annoying, and the dealer couldn't even tell on his own because those seats are actually sitting behind him so I am out of is field of view half the time. But the tables are very large with a lot of room, so to help solve this those two seats often push around towards the 2 and 7 seats somewhat, so they are almost facing each other at the ends, and even then it didn't feel crowded at all. A strange setup, but whatever works.

I only had one meal at the room, but it was decent-plus. Some of the dishes seemed somewhat expensive, but some of the specials were really cheap for casino food. I had the burger, fries, and an ice cream, and it was like $9. Not a bad deal. But looking at what other people got it all seemed good or better quality, I wish I had sampled a few more dishes. I think you get comps for playing but I forgot to ask and didn't use them for my $9 meal.

Temp wise, it was in the 90s outside, but comfortable inside. I was neither hot nor cold at any time, which was nice. I did notice the weird A/C vents in the floor. Hopefully they were arranged to not be directly under the tables, I didn't really check, but if you happened to be sitting on top of one I can imagine it would be unpleasantly cold and drafty.

Chairs were not the usual 5-armed, starfish-shaped legs, they are normal 4 legged chairs on wheels. I thought that would be a little weird or unstable, but they were fine. Neither the most nor least comfortable chairs I've sat in in a poker room, so that's at least a passing grade.

Players, dealers, floor were all very friendly and helpful. When I play in Vegas I sometimes feel like the regs are all super cliquey and as an outsider it can feel pretty awkward and un-fun, but there are a steady stream of tourists there which mitigates it. Fewer tourists at TSR so it could have been worse, but people were generally quite friendly so it wasn't an issue.

--

20-40 specific stuff

Arrived very late wed night. Wouldn't have gone anyway, but from my checks before and after flight I don't think 20-40 ran that day.

Thurs I met a friend for lunch, and afterwards checked bravo and there was 1 table. Showed up and there were a couple open seats. Table stayed about the same over the next 3-4 hours. I had to leave at that point to go get dinner with friends. I checked back later that evening (again, wasn't going to play, was just checking) and I think the game had broken already.

Fri I had plans all afternoon. There were two games listed at one point, but by the time I arrived at maybe 6pm it was down to 1 table, I was second on list. Waited 20m and got a seat. Played until 1:30am when the game broke. The last 2 hours we were playing 4 handed. It was a friendly lineup so that wasn't too big an issue but we all just kinda jointly agreed to break at that point. I was expecting some late night arrivals, but none materialized over multiple hours.

Sat I had plans all day again. Made it back to the room at maybe 730ish, 1 game running, 1 seat open. Perfect timing. Unfortunately, the game got short around 10 and broke at 1045. Pretty lame.

I was up in all three sessions, so a good trip for me. The 20-40 HE game appears to be very unstable and weak though, barely supporting a table on Fri and Sat nights and breaking early, which is unfortunate because I saw the same thing happen to the 15-30 game at my home casino and it eventually died out completely.

It is worth noting that the 20-40 mix game seemed more popular (I think it was always running when I was there), as was the 40-80 game. Both seemed much stronger. I like mix games but don't know them well enough to want to pay tuition on them at the 20-40 level, especially when they are running split pot which I think many of them are. And I'm just less interested in playing 40-80, though I suppose I would at least play occasionally if it were the only option.

Overall, a fair trip from my perspective. New room seems solid from a visitor perspective. I would definitely continue to come back, except that the game I want to play seems to be on life support now.

So obviously my experience was a little bit better than this, but just to comment quickly:

2-3: All three days I was seated at 20 while my name was still listed for the 8-16 HE. The room was not very busy any of the three days so maybe a little bit easier for them to see, but all three days I heard them call me for the 8-16, and 2 of 3 they saw me signal a no thanks from the back of the room, and the third they saw me on the second call out.

4: Did not notice this at my 3 tables

5-5a: did not notice

6: Yeah, I tried to figure out a faster way in too, it seems like there should be a door at the back of the room that leads to the hallway similar to the way they had at the old room, maybe they just didn't want to have to have security there or something. In any case I need the exercise and since I'm only there a few days it's not a major issue for me.

7: agreed it's too far, but for my short trip not a big deal. For daily players would get annoying.

8: I never had to wait for a urinal, but agreed on the standing puddles of urine. No issue with the paper towels for me either.

9: my food actually got delivered pretty fast. Drink orders also came fast, and a waitress arrived pretty quickly after putting on the service light. I did hear other people complaining about wait times on sat when I didn't get food though.

10: subtle brag: I never needed to rebuy this trip, a first for me. We didn't really have problems with this at my table though. Players did sell to each other when needed for big chips or cash, and chips arrived reasonably quickly when a runner was needed.

12: I agree the smoker balcony was choice. I was sitting right next to it one day and even though I was close I never smelled any smoke. I didn't notice any smokers anywhere else either, but it just wasn't very busy any time I was there.

13-14: The TVs are a little high especially from tables close to the wall, but I never cared about anything playing so it didn't bother me much.

15*: wasn't an issue while I was there (that I know of), but the people at my table did mention that sort of thing happening when we were all talking about how the game was dying and they were bitching that one floor in particular was always doing **** like that which broke the 20 for no good reason.

I was one of the four, the one on your left who may have appeared to be stoned. I would normally have played more hands but was very card dead that night.

Most players who used to play the 20-40 now play the 40-80 so there are only a handful of us to keep a 20-40 going when the 40-80 is going. Still, there are enough other games in the room that I expect the 20-40 will continue to break out sporadically for quite a while. See ya next time!

Indeed! Nice to meet you after the fact haha. See you in a year!

What was in the mix?

Don't really know. I went over to get a rack at one point and saw the lammers they use (dozens of them) in a bucket and just peeked at them. The only one I vaguely remember was a Badugi / Drawmaha lammer (which I assume was somehow split pot between them, but maybe it was rotating somehow). I think I saw a pineapple one as well. Seemed to include all the usual and some unusual games.

Better off just ignoring me and waiting for someone who actually knows though heh.

Thanks for the report, glad you got some play in.

Was I the one you were hoping to randomly show up?

haha no, I just thought maybe someone would show up in the late evening on a fri or sat night. basically no new players after 8 or 9pm.

though of course you know i'd love the chance to grab another beer with you!

Imagine that there's interest in small stakes plo in Phoenix.