Here are my observations based on 10 hours of play during last weekend:
Good things:
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1. Great chairs
2. The food is affordable and delicious
3. The only place to play legal poker within 150 mile radius from Atlanta, GA
4. Streamed games on You-Tube channel, RFID technology table, which includes cash games and some final tables of tournaments.
5. Time rake ( renamed to avoid liability as "rental chair price"), increasing discounts with the pre-paid amount purchased.
6. Somewhat ( but not overly) friendly cashiers, floor, and dealers.
-----this is where good things end -----
Bad things:
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1. Dealers forget to clock-in and clock-out the customers. Results in over-payment or underpayment of time rake by unsuspecting fish.
2. Dealers play as customers too, often on the same day, right after their shift. According to my experience in other venues, management which allows these practices completely disregards integrity of the game ( collusion, conflict of interest etc). I wouldn't be surprised if those were present at LKQ, too.
3. Unlike a casino, this charity room is reluctant to throw unruly, rude, disrespectful, or otherwise undesirable customers out and deny them entry. During the short period of my play, I witnessed two brawls with no consequences.
4. Dealers forget to announce it when the empty seat is available at their table, and when they do announce, the floor manager forgets to pay attention - despite the 15+ long waiting list.
5. Dealers call other dealers and regulars by name, and completely disregard non-regular guests in their interactions. Selective preferential treatment of wrong category, not healthy if the goals is to bring in more players.
6. Players in this establishment have tendency to place subtle marks on, and bend the Aces. Dealers pay no attention.
7. Tables have no automatic shufflers, and dealers are often rushed to deal the next hand, which results in not -so random dealing.
8. I saw tournament winners collecting their winnings. Tournament prizes are paid out by checks, not cash.
9. This establishment logs every time you buy and sell the chips, thus having complete information about your wins and/or losses. It is unclear to what extent this data is shared with the IRS and under what circumstances.
10. The management is reluctant to enforce any standard of player abuse prevention, hence incentivizing the players to engage in questionable conduct. For example, I overheard the following conversation between a dealer, who played as a customer, and an apparent regular at my table: "Dude, the guy in the black cap on Table 3 is such a fish! Let's go there!"
11. No change seat button at tables
12. No change table formal process
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Bottom line:
The only reason this establishment exists are prohibitive gambling laws of Georgia state, and poor player treatment at their closest competitor (Cherokee's Harrah's).
The place has some potential, but if (currently mediocre) management does not address work ethic and integrity issues among their staff (and security of fish from other players' abuse), I envision very short lived operation at this room. If you pre-paid your time rake to get that discount, your dollars may be at risk.
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First off, I want to thank you for your honest opinion. I am going to address the one thing I have issue with first. We did not have "brawls" take place. This indicates, at least to me, that we had a physical fight take place and we did not. We did have a loud heated argument twice and I for one am not proud of even that happening. I appreciate the "good" comments and to be honest except for the term "brawls" being used I am not inclined to argue with any of your "bad" comments. Not clocking in and out as we should is unacceptable, and we will work to correct this. Staff playing has been an item we have gone back and forth on. I assure you we have the highest regards for the integrity of the game and this is something we will also look at very closely. I will agree this has become a bigger issue as we grow than it was when we started and is not just being overlooked. Staff training is ongoing and your concerns there are also valid in my opinion. I do ask that you consider this is new to our state and we are doing our best to get on top of these things. We are not in a spot where the staff it takes to do this is readily available for us at the present and we are having to work our way to being the best and doing things as correctly as possible. Card marking is definitely unacceptable and that too shall be watched better. Tournament payouts are done by check per the state's requirements for record keeping. Player abuse prevention will be reviewed as well. This too is unacceptable. I will also get the proper tools of the game we seem to be missing. Any time that you have purchased with us is still in place and if for any reason we do not continue it shall all be reimbursed. As a charity, the last thing we would ever do is not have all funds in place as required. Now what I would like to say is we are a charity organization first. When I say this, we really are. We donate and help others way more than any state requirements and that is what we want to do. Poker is a tool we use to raise funds and we are establishing other tools as well to do this. LKQ started years ago as a charity not a poker room and we will continue to be a charity first. I really do appreciate your review and I am now going to work on these concerns. Hope to see you here again and that we have eliminated your "bad" list.
Respectfully,
Mike
