Friday, October 12, 2007

Rating poker rooms

As readers of this blog know, I've committed myself recently (and I should be committed for undertaking this) to visiting every legal poker room in the United States. I didn't set a time limit for this, and I know it's going to take me years to do. But it gives me a good excuse to visit states and cities I would probably never visit and I *do* like to play poker.

In the process of visiting all of these card rooms, I'm going to be mapping the locations and writing reviews of each of the rooms. At present, I've 'officially' visited most of the rooms in Atlantic City and a few in New Hampshire. This December, I'm going to be going to as many as humanly possible in the greater Las Vegas area. Sometime in November, I'm going to do a sweep of the cardrooms in South Florida. But these are places I visit time and time again. Next year, I'll be planning 3 day weekend trips to more far-flung destinations and gathering data for the rest of you to peruse at your leisure.

Which brings me to the topic of this post. What kind of information do YOU want in a card room review? We've all read reviews before of poker rooms that include the basics: Location, number of tables, games played, etc... What I want to know is, what other important, but often overlooked, statistics would you like me to gather. Keep in mind that I will NOT be making a return trip to the vast majority of these rooms, so once I'm out the door, there's no more information to be had. My vision is to map out all of the card rooms in Google Maps and have each one link to a full page review on my site. (Pretty cool, huh?)

So please, comment here and tell me what kind of stuff you want to see in a card room review. I want to be as comprehensive as possible. Some of the things I've already thought of:

1. Rake structure
2. Smoking/non-smoking
3. Proximity and cleanliness of bathrooms
4. Approximate skill level of opponents
5. Hotness of waitress staff
6. Availability/price/quality of food in room and on/near premises
7. Comfort level of chairs
8. Skill/friendliness of dealers
9. Quality of equipment used
10. Room dimensions and lighting
11. Overall cleanliness of room
12. Noise level of room

I must be missing dozens of other things that I can't think of. Please weigh in and help me compile this list!

2 comments:

Jordan said...

When you start planning those three day trips to random poker destinations, let me know if you'll want some company. I, too, have been enthralled with the idea of visiting random poker rooms. I've already visited a room in the Seattle area and in Buffalo/Niagara Falls, along with the usual AC/Vegas locations. Definitely provide information on whether tournaments available and what games are spread. Also, it might be worth finding out what the comp rates are for the rooms that have players' cards.

Jamie said...

Cell phone reception