Hard Rock and Squares

CK and I went over to check out the new Hard Rock Poker Lounge yesterday. We both hated it. It's very dark and it feels cramped in certain areas the way Foxwoods feels dark and cramped. Unless something drastic changes, it will be the usual mix of 2-4 and 3-6 LHE and 1-2 and 2-5 NLHE, which is all they had going when we stopped in. I was at a home game on Wednesday night with one of the dealers, and she rattled off an impressive list of games the Hard Rock is going to try to spread. Yet if the players don't show up in enough numbers to support those games... Based on our initial impression yesterday, I'd say they won't. Time will tell.

I took some photos but I see Poker Grump has beat me to the punch so I'll just send you in his direction if you're curious.

Point number two for today: squaring up a table. The tables at Mirage were originally intended to be 9-handed. Somewhere along the way, the management of the poker room switched most games to 10-handed play. Fine. That means the tables are a bit cramped, but it's not the biggest deal.

What does become a big deal is when a new player shows up at the table and tries to commandeer his allotted section of the felt (because, you see, the other players have comfortably spread out) by asking the dealer to square the table. *Every* time this happens, somebody at the table pitches a fit. Yesterday it happened for the third time in a row that I've been to Mirage. You'd almost think the player had been asked to hand over a rack of red chips rather than slide a few inches to the side.

I wish I knew why this was such an issue, because it never fails to elicit indignant outrage from somebody at the table. Maybe poker players are just miserable, joyless people.