News from the Trop

The are so many rumors surrounding the Tropicana poker room that I decided to find out what is real. After hearing more rumors once I got to the Trop, it took a while to figure out what was true.

I was hearing bad things about the Trop ever since Columbia Sussex took over the casino in January. In fact, the problems are so bad at the Trop (and not just the poker room) the industry’s largest labor union is considering opposing an operating license for the casino.

The Trop has laid off over 700 people in the past six months, which has had an effect on the poker room.

The poker room has gotten rid of its monthly invitational. The invitational was one of the best things going on in the city when it came to poker. It was a free roll for players who played a certain number of hours a month. In lieu of the free roll, the Trop is hosting Mad Cash Mondays. According to their site, Mad Cash Monday is held on the last Monday of every month. Every half hour, they will give away $200 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Players must qualify by playing 20+ hours (cash games only) in one month to receive one entry. Players with 50 hours or more will receive two entries. Winners must be present and claim prize within 15 minutes. Unclaimed prize will be added to the next drawing. Drawn tickets are re-deposited for multiple chances to win.

Also, all daytime tournaments have been canceled, which started last week. In addition to cancellation, the tournaments are now capped at 100 people per event.

Many full-time poker dealers have been laid off and the room is left with a bunch of part timers just trying to make money, not worrying that none of them gets benefits. This is what I have learned.

Now, we get to the rumors. The first rumor was that the Tropicana is building a new poker room. It was supposed to be a 38-table room with shuffle machines at every table. The truth is that there were plans for this room, drawn up and everything. But once the Trop started scaling back the room was scrapped.

The rumor is instead they plan on closing down the high-limit side of the poker room and integrate the No-Limit players with the rest of the card room (God forbid!) because slot machines rule all.

Everyone had different opinions as to why this was happening, but no one was happy. There was speculation that Columbia Sussex is trying to “flip” the casino. It lays off people, has fewer games in the poker room (after all that doesn’t make money) and then will have less of an overhead. Then, generate more money and make it look as though the casino is prosperous and they can sell at a high price.

In the Tropicana, poker has become an afterthought. The game makes the casino the least amount of money, so the owners don’t care about it. They are going to do anything to save money, including not having a bathroom staff.

Picture: That woman actually mopped the bathroom. I swear she did. Damn it. No one is gonna believe me.