The Gilpin - Reviews and Discussion

[mikef]

Took a half day today and ventured to The Gilpin poker room. Played 2-4 structured limit hold em for 3 hours. Very refreshing to play a structured live game in CO. Only 3 of the 16 tables were going, but this was early in the afternoon. Other games they will have are stud, omaha and holdem 5-5 and 2-5 spread limit.

The room has a lot of space, and lots of space between the tables. Good to adequate lighting. Typical cushion chairs. Half the tables are smoking, half are non-smoking. The 3 going today were smoking but nobody was. Everything even smelled new, clean bathrooms.

I think the place will get good reviews from others, and will improve over time. Some things that were not there. The ordered drink and food trays were not in yet, and Lillian's downstairs doesn't deliver. You had to do takeout at the bar on the 1st floor. At some point, they will have a poker room menu to order from.

I thought the rake was kinda high. 10%, with the 3rd dollar going to the jackpot drop, with a followup extra jackpot drop at $70. You could have $5 taken out of a big pot. Jackpot was new at $1500, didn't ask if they took an "administrative fee", I guess I just assume they do.

No tournaments today, but there will be some this weekend. Someone mentioned a $10 buy-in.

For now I give the room a 6 out of 10, with excellent potential to move to an 8 or better.

Mike

P.S. Oh yeah I won $70 in 3 hours too. Thank you daytime-regular bad-player fishies!

[pseudoswede]

Great review. Can't wait to hit the 2-4 tables in a few weeks!

[direwolf]

anyone have the phone number of the poker room?

curious about tourneys this w/e?

[pseudoswede]

anyone have the phone number of the poker room?

curious about tourneys this w/e?

303-582-1133

[idrinkcoors]

The number for the poker room is: 303-582-2092.

I just called, and they said on Saturday, they will have single table tourneys in the morning. Plus multi-table afternoon tournaments:

1:00 NL tourney

3:30 NL tourney

I'm not sure of the buy-in.

He also said they will have an Omaha tournament Saturday night, and a ladies only tourney on Saturday night.

[kskillz]

Thanks for the report.

Just curious, do the tables have autoshufflers?

Also, do they serve any good beer?

Mountain High doesn't serve any real good beer, the best there is Avalanche, which is mediocre.

Now the Colorado Rose in Cripple Creek serves bottles of Fat Tire. YUM.

Does anyone know if the Gilpin serves Fat Tire or anything else as tasty?

Thanks!

[mikef]

Autoshufflers, thank you for the reminder! Yes, there are 5 tables with the autoshufflers right in the middle of the table. I was at one of these tables. I have to admit, as much as I didn't like the things in my blackjack days, this really speeds up the game. All the dealers have to do now is cut the deck.

One note of caution, be careful how you muck your cards across the autoshuffler as you can catch the edge of the felt on the other side of it and flip the cards over as I did a couple times.

Not sure about the beer, I don't drink.

[coloradomrg]

I had a good time last night... Drink Menu was good, but the lighting was not so great... kinda complimented my results though :oops:

[idrinkcoors]

Just got back from Blackhawk. I tried to play in the 3:30 Saturday tourney, at the Gilpin, but nobody seemed to know anything. Plus there didn't seem to be any kind of customer service. I realize that they are brand new, so hopefully that will improve.

After asking about the tournament 3 times, I was pretty much ignored, so I left. Too bad, because it seems like a classy place.

[DenverPokerClub]

Lighting - poor
Dealers - poor overall
Game Selection - poor
Competition - poor
Drink Service - excellent
Staff - clueless

Granted this was a Sunday night so they were not busy at all. I think they had 2 tables going and were trying to get some SitnGo's going as well. This room has sooooo much potential. The overall feel was awesome but I think the $2/$4 structure has to go. Maybe my opinion on the 2/4 game will change over time but right now I do not like it. The potential for winning any money is almost nill. I thought the 2/5 games were bad but they look great compared to this. The only good thing that may come out of this is that it is cheaper to play than the 2/5 typically and that could bring out more and more first timers who want to learn the game which is good for the rest of us. The whole thing with the moving button confused not only the players but the dealers were pretty clueless too and the floor was just as bad when they were called over. I also didn't like the guy runnning around asking everyone in sight if they wanted to play in a SitnGo. They were trying to get 2 going - a $115 and a $35. We played for 20 mins with 2 tables of 5 without them combining the tables - both were 2/4. I think given time this will be a great place to play but right now they are going through the growing pains. I can't wait to check it out on a Friday or Saturday night.

Having said that I was very impressed with CCS - especially the idiots that were playing - Thank You Fish!

[coloradomrg]

Friday night wasn't alot better than what you describe... except they had probably 3 dealers that were decent, and atleast 3 that were definetly new not only to dealing but to the game in general. I personally liked the 2/4 game... just couldn't catch a hand to save my life, and when I played a mediocre hand was having trouble giving it up if I caught a piece (obviously my fault, not the casinos). There were 2 floor supervisors there Friday night, a guy named Matt and a woman whose name I didn't catch. Matt sure was pissing off alot of people that night... Just didn't have much of a clue, while the woman seemed to be atleast on top of the tables. I'll go back in a few weeks and see how things are, I love that its so far away from the dang slots!

[DenverPokerClub]

I agree that it is nice that it is set off by itself and away from any slots, however I think they need music or something in there.

[tjholdem]

You can tell this place is still in its infancy. It should pick up fairly soon, but for now, I still enjoy Mountain High....I like the people.

[coloradomrg]

music would be nice... cept there is a mechanical unit in the ceiling (which is an open grid painted black) that makes one heck of a racket when its running. I could hardly hear the dealer while it was on, and I was only 2 seats away :?

[DenverPokerClub]

sounds like they have a few things to iron out

oh and it was freezing in there last night. they had the AC on or no heat while it was snowing outside :evil:

[coloradomrg]

sounds like they have a few things to iron out

Atleast they have the desire to iron them out at this point, lots of potential :)

[znamenacek]

I agree that the Gilpin has a great deal of potential. I think it is great to have 2-4 limit in Colorado, and I think that the potential for winning money is not far from what it is in a 2-5 spread limit game. What really needs to happen is for Colorado to raise the limits to $10. It has been far too long since the $5 max bet was introduced, and $5 just doesn't buy as much as it used to. Shouldn't they at least consider the effects of inflation? It would be great if they could spread 5-10 games.

Anyway, back to my review:

The lighting needs some work. The room looks rather dark. The lighting above the tables provides plenty of light to read the cards, but the people sitting on the ends (2, 3, 8, 9 seats) get to stare into a bright light because of the angle of the overhead lights. Also, it was rather cold in there on Sunday. Sitting at the Sit and Go tables (near the window), we had a great view, but it was freezing.

The Sit and Go tournaments are good, the $30+5 is nice, but I would really like to see more people in there to get the $100+15 sit and go going. According to their tournament schedule, they have multi-table tournaments scheduled every day of the week, but I don't know if any of them have been a go because nobody is signing up for the multi-tables.

From what I have seen so far, they just don't have enough players yet. At peak hours (from what I noticed) the Gilpin had 30-40 people where all of the other rooms in town were full with 100+ and a waitlist.

I think they still have some issues to work out, mainly lighting, temperature, experience (dealers and floor) and players, but this room has the potential to be the best in town. I hope it gets there.

[pseudoswede]

So myself and two friends went up there on the chance the 44-player, 1pm tournament would actually happen. We arrive just after 12pm, and there is...get this...ONE 1/2 table...period. The floor manager said the only reason why that game was going on was because some people wanted to learn how to play poker. I think there were more employees than players in the room! Obviously, we never thought that today was Easter Sunday--heathens that we are.

We look at the tournament sign-up sheet...one name. We write our names down to the meager list. The two floor managers that day were very cool and accomodating. We asked about opening another table, and Kevin asked what kind of game. We said 2/4, then he said to hang tight for a few minutes. Sure enough, Kevin was able to gather 9 players (some from the 1/2 game) to start a table. We played until about 2pm when we inquired about the tournament. There were 18 names, but 5 were scratched out. I suggested a SnG, and they started two sign-up sheets ($100+15 and $30+5). Within 30 minutes, 15 people had signed up for the $30+5, and five people signed up for the $100+15.

Myself and my two friends played in the first $30+5, where I busted out first (pocket Js beat by pocket 8s--he got the straight on the turn). :(

I waited about 10 minutes before they opened up another 2/4 table. By 3:00pm, they had two 2/4 tables, one 1/2, and one 1-2-5-5 tables running. Because they got exactly 22 players on the $30+5 waiting list, they actually ran a two-table $40+10 tournament.

We left just after 4pm.

Now my review...

ROOM

It's now my favorite room. I love how spacious it is. I also enjoy that half the room is non-smoking. They even had music going. I never had any issues with the lighting.

STAFF

The floor managers were great. If you told them a suggestion, they would listen. One of the dealers said, because of the interest, they even started a Razz game on Friday night. Hopefully I get these two guys again when I'm up there.

The dealers were friendly and error-free.

The two waitresses tended to disappear for periods of time.

TOURNAMENT

It was very well run. The other floor manager even spent 5 minutes explaining the rules to the newbies. I also liked how they had a tournament clock going on one of the plasma TVs.

FOOD

Unfortunately, the only free food was snack mix. I did order a roast beef sandwich, which was very tasty. My friend said the chicken tenders were very good.

[Stark]

Well, I've hit the Gilpin about 4x since it opened now. I've played at pretty much all of the places up the Hill, and I can definitely say that I have no intention of playing elsewhere with the exception of Colorado Central's tourneys. I guess off the top of my head as to why:

I guess in order from most important to least important to me, first of all, it's quiet. No irritating slot machine jingle that you can't get out of your head for a week. No *chunk chunk chunk* of coins constantly dropping in the pans. No belligerent 3-card poker players who figured free drinks meant have 17 beers whooping it up every time they get a pair. Other than the usual poker room noise, it's just peaceful.

Secondly, drinks. I have yet to figure out why, when poker rooms seem to be such a huge draw here, that they cannot hire enough drink slingers to service the customers. But the "drink an hour, if you're lucky" service is so godawful at every other place in town that having a room where you have a cocktail waitress hitting you up before you even finish your last drink is like a God-send to me. It seems like a stupid thing to get stuck on, but seriously, how difficult is it to have a waitress hitting the tables regularly? Because years later it's still apparently too difficult for the Lodge and the MH.

Lastly, I like the room itself -- granted I have 20/20 vision so the darkness thing people have mentioned doesn't bug me, but then again how many times have you played at the Lodge in the summer and the glare off the table from the windows makes it impossible to see the board unless you're in the middle seats? It's roomy, so you're not getting kicked in the back every 10 minutes like at Colorado Central, there are side tables so you can sit down for a few minutes and have lunch or a smoke away from the table, and they actually have non-smoking tables, which is a big plus (not sure if other casinos here have that, but I don't ever recall that choice being offered before).

In terms of the games, a few things I've noticed. One, I prefer 2/4 to 2/5, personally, so it's nice to see someone slinging that. Two, in the 4 times I've been there they've been running at least 4-5 tables, no wait, and they have a great Omaha game. Other than that, the only thing I noticed is that there's an inordinate number of dealers from other casinos playing there ... easily half the Omaha 5-5 games I play, half the players are dealers from the 2 other main joints.

It's also pretty nice that the wait list for all of the games is a massive whiteboard on the wall, so you don't have to constantly be going up trying to peek at the floor manager's scribbled notes or decipher the Mountain High's computer screen to figure out when you get to play.

Overall, I just can't find a reason to go back to the Lodge or Mountain High at this point other than the Mountain High has a Starbucks in it :D They've taken a lot of suggestions from the players there (such as more starting chips in the tournaments, the first few they were trying to give you $500 with 20 minute blinds), and I see no reason why they'd stop doing so. Not to mention the $50,000 NL tourney this weekend (which has money added in), and all the sit n' go's.

My 2 cents,

-R

[znamenacek]

Stark,

Thanks for posting a review for Blackhawk's new poker room. I have played at Mt High, Colorado Central Station, The Lodge, and Fortune Valley. I must say that I think you are either a little confused on locations or your information is sorely out of date. I've been to Mt High's poker room at least a dozen times, and:

1. I find the drink service to be as good or better than any other poker room in town (my opinion, of course).

2. The nearest windows to the poker room is off to the side near the blackjack tables, a good 30 feet away from the nearest poker table, and they are small windows near the ceiling. You have to strain to see them, and from many tables you cannot even see the windows, so I don't think the glare is ever a problem there.

3. As long as I have played poker at Mt. High, they have maintained a paper waitlist. The Lodge has a computer screen.

That said, I do like the whiteboard list, I do like the different games they spread, I do like the room and the tables, and I really enjoy the non-smoking tables.

The last time I was up there the ends of the table (3 and 8 seats) had a spotlight pointed directly at their eyes - on several tables. It feels like you are driving into the sunset (I'll bring my hat next time). I know they are working on it, but they still have some work to do.

While I really like the Gilpin's new poker room, the other rooms still have a lot to offer (like more players - especially for tournaments).

Z

[pseudoswede]

I don't know if anyone's said this yet...

The Gilpin's bad beat jackpot is aces full of EIGHTS or better.

[Stark]

Stark,

Thanks for posting a review for Blackhawk's new poker room. I have played at Mt High, Colorado Central Station, The Lodge, and Fortune Valley. I must say that I think you are either a little confused on locations or your information is sorely out of date. I've been to Mt High's poker room at least a dozen times, and:
Choice 1, I always mix those two places up =) Will edit the original post after I hit submit on this, thanks for pointing out the mistake. In terms of the drink thing, either "your mileage may vary" or this was recently changed, because up until a few months ago when I stopped playing there regularly the drink service was laughable. If that's changed that's great, although suprising.

Pseudoswede, same thing on the Lodge/MH screwup ... what you mentioned btw is the other reason I'm not a huge fan of that room, I always thought it was sort of a dingy cramped lil' corner. Although I will give Mt. High the nod over the Lodge in one respect to that, simply because at least at the Mt. High you can sit at a 3-card table idly hemorhaging away money while waiting for a poker seat, whereas at the Lodge you can't hear your named being called upstairs doing the same.

-R

[TJ]

I went to Gilpin Sunday night for the first time, and they had 2 tables running. 1 Omaha, 1 2/4 Hold Em.

I like to hear that the bad beat there is Aces full of 8's, but they have a really small beat in comparison.

On topic with the drinks, I think it changed when Ameristar took over, now they ration out their drinks. The waitress is supposed to come by every 45 minutes from what I hear. One thing that got to me the other night was this. The girl came by and took drink orders, I ordered a drink and she told me that I must play for 4 hours to get a comped drink. I politely told her she's full of it and that the other card rooms don't have a time qouta for me to have a beer.

[pseudoswede]

Some other notes gathered after going up last night...

* They serve Guinness and Newcastle Brown Ale. mmmmmmmmm.
* They do have music playing over the speaker system. It's at a nice volume so that you can either listen to the song or tune it out.
* SnG's now have the option of paying two (80/20) or three places (50/30/20). This may depend on the floor manager, but I think players could also vote for it.
* Current starting chips for SnG's: $10 - T500, $20 & $30 - T750, $40 & $100 - T1000. Blinds start at 25/50.
* No SnG will start after 10:30pm.
* If you have a group of 10 people, you can start your own limit table or tournament. If you want to have a tournament, set the buy-in, and pay the juice ($5 for buy-ins of $10-100, 10% for $101-200, and 20% for $201-500).
* WSOP qualifiers are coming. Satellites and regular tournaments for seats to the 2005 WSOP will be starting soon. In addition, they will be giving away a seat to the WSOP as a raffle. Tentatively, if you get pocket aces or a full house beat, you get one entry.

[znamenacek]

pseudoswede -

Thanks for the good info. Sounds like they are getting more organized as time goes on. That is good to hear. As far as the tournaments go, did you mean to say $10 for 101-200, and $20 for 201-500? I think collecting $1,000 juice (20% of 5000) for a single table tournament is a bit high...

Oh, and by the way Stark, I believe at the lodge poker room you can tell them to phone the blackjack pit when your seat is ready.

[pseudoswede]

From what I gathered, it sounded like 10% and 20% of the buy-in at those levels. I could be wrong, and I'm sure the rate could be negotiated. That said, I highly doubt you'll see any games over $100 being played inside a casino. If you got that kind of cash, you probably already know of private games with dedicated dealers.

[pseudoswede]

mikef just told me...

He and a friend went to The Gilpin on Friday night to play in the 44-player, $40+8 tournament. It was sold-out by 8:15pm (starts at 9:00pm), and they arrived at 8:30. He also said the poker room was packed, in general.

[Rick]

I am going to try to get up there next week at the latest. This week I have too many people running around the yard. :lol: