[tm2204]

Post title says it all really; SE like a ghost town tonight. Sad to see.

[RockRory]

Was there wednesday myself and only 14. Hope this isnt the future trend. Love playing here

[tm2204]

Lot of uncertainty in the place. The only talk tonight by players, dealers, management & door staff was how bad things have gotten lately.

Yes it would be a real pity if it went under & I hope it does not and that this is only a blip.

Sporting have been accused, many times, in the past of ignoring players requests and maybe this is the players way of showing them that, at the end of the day, the customer should not be overlooked and/or ignored.

Hopefully things will improve.

[ollyk1]

Originally Posted by tm2204

Lot of uncertainty in the place. The only talk tonight by players, dealers, management & door staff was how bad things have gotten lately.

Yes it would be a real pity if it went under & I hope it does not and that this is only a blip.

Sporting have been accused, many times, in the past of ignoring players requests and maybe this is the players way of showing them that, at the end of the day, the customer should not be overlooked and/or ignored.

Hopefully things will improve.

I ran into 3 wealthy Italian tourists looking for poker action last wednesday and brought them into the SE where they only wanted to play a cash game and the staff wouldn't even put there names up on the board for a cash game wait list instead preferring to encourage them to gamble on the gaming floor.

With an attitude like that I won't be shedding many tears for the SE as they don't care about players trying to make money from the game only donkeys paying rake and accepting second class treatment.

[sickpuppy]

Ive been talking to a lot of players who were regs,
the most annoying thing if putting in a 5 6 hour session of poker is having only coffee and little chocolates to eat its simply not good enough,
there probably more reasons but lack of food has to be a biggie.

[tm2204]

So it's more a case of the SE regs moving elsewhere than poker dying a death or slowing down at least?

The food thing has been an ongoing issue for quite a while now. It was addressed at the last big buy-in tourney but it's probably a case of too little too late.

Oh, and when I was leaving tonight at about 11:30pm there was not even 1 cash table going

[yeah-buddy]

its basic busness really, poker peaked about a year or two ago, now its on a slow decline imo

[sickpuppy]

Dunno a bout elsewhere loads of games in the fitz lately.
Crowds attract more players so its a vicous cycle no crowds no players.
I can pop into theitz at 8 on any week night order a proper dinner for 10 quid play 4 hours of poker and still be in bed at half 12.
Ithink people are talking with there feet sick of no grub and what seems like shoddy treatment of customersby upper management Alex and John are very decent blokes but is seems there pissing againest the wind with regards the poker room.

[Taxipete29]

86 in the tourney in the fitz on Wed I believe, so dont think that Poker is dying just yet

[DBC2007]

fitz had 60 for theirs on wed nite..the other 26 were playing 5card draw

[fowlerDgrowler]

recession lads... most people dont have as much cash as they used

[tm2204]

Spotted a couple of the SE regs (Mick Stephens & another face I recognise) in discussion with John (poker room manager) before tourney tonight. Neither of the 2 lads played the tourney or hung around for a cash game.

[Lao Lao]

Originally Posted by yeah-buddy

its basic busness really, poker peaked about a year or two ago, now its on a slow decline imo

Sorry but poker ain't dying in Dublin just yet, it's down to poor upper management decisions by the SE. I play there a lot (a lot for me is 2-3 times a week) but things have rapidly gone downhill. This I believe is nothing to do with Alex or John as they both run a very good show and know what they are doing. The problem is that their hands are very clearly tied by upper management who quite frankly don't give a flying fcuk about the poker room.

The numbers have been gradually been decreasing over the last 6 months. The first mistake was to introduce a tourney schedule which included 5-6 €100 buy in events out of seven. Personally, this didn't bother me at all, however, it clearly didn't suit a lot of the regs as all of a sudden playing 3-4 nights a week was now costing up to €400 a week.

I've constantly tried to stay loyal (for want of a better word) to the SE as I do enjoy playing there. The location, surrounds etc are all ideal in my opioion. The cash games on a Thursday-Sunday night are fantastic due to the fact they are so close to all the pubs and attract great drunken fish, however over the last couple of weeks, it's just gone too far

Last weekend, I had planned to travel to Waterford to play in the Big Slick event however due to unforseen cicumstances beyond my control, i couldn't make it. Instead I decided to head in on Saturday night and play a bit of cash. I reckoned the WSOP sat that the SE were running held no value (would have needed 50+ runners to generate a winner takes all first prize) so instead I arrived at 9:15 expecting some juciy cash games. I walked into the poker room to find that there was NO players there at all. The tourney was cancelled as only 2 people turned up and there was nobody on the waiting list for cash.

I left and headed for the Fitz where there was 5 cash tables going. I had to wait an hour to get a seat due to the demand and before I took a seat I rang the SE again at 10:15 to be told that there was 3 names on the waiting list to start the first cash game

On Wednesday, I couldn't make the tourney but headed in at 10:30 to play cash. 14 runners for the tourney and one name on the board for cash. I waited until 11pm and still nothing was happening so I headed to the Fitz again and got a game within 10 minutes as there was 8 people on the waiting list and all we had to do was wait for a dealer to come off her break before they started a new table. That night, they had 3 PLHE tables and 1 PLO table running most of the night (the PLHE only dropped to two tables at about 5am) I also say 7 ex-SE regs playing there on Wednesday

I've heard loads of people say how the poker room in the SE is not profitable and that all the money is made downstairs on the BJ / Roulette etc and as such that is why the poker room is over looked by upper management but quite frankly, I think this is a load of BS. The Fitz has less BJ / Roulette tables than the SE however they are clearly making money and are clearly a viable business. Why is this....hmmm, let me think, maybe, just maybe, it's because they get good numbers for their tourney's and always have 3-5 cash games going. If they are making enough money to stay in profit and open as a business with less house games than the SE and some poker than the SE can easily do it if upper management remove thier finger from their anus and sort their sh1te out.

I was talking to the staff in the SE on Sunday night and they all seem in no doubt that the only way to get players back is to start running GTD tourney's. I'd love this to happen as it is my favourite place to play but I can't see it happening. It would cost very little to GTD a few tourneys to get the crowd back in and they would make back their outlay in no time. Sadly, the upper management have no foresight at all

While I'm on a rant, I'll finish with this. I have one major bone of contention with the SE and that is how every now and again, the upper management will wander up to the poker room and be all buddy buddy, sleazy sleazy with all the poker players, standing around the tables, talking ****e as if they actually know something about poker, when in fact, their actions show that they clearly don't give a sh1t. One thing I can't stand is two faced hypocripsy (spelling???)

Good night and good luck!

[sickpuppy]

Super post LAO LAO sums it up very well

[Conbro]

R.I.P.