[BigKyle]

I was near Atlantic City today so this evening I decided to go play a little 1/2 NL and am glad I went with my friend to the new Showboat room. The old room was on the second floor tucked away by itself. It had about 15-20 tables I believe and was fairly decent.

The new room is sweet. It is now on the first floor by the boardwalk. You can walk right in and play, or right out (smoke, fresh air, get a hot dog, whatever). There are big floor to ceiling windows so you can see the shore, which is really nice. Above all, the room is neat and clean. There are a few more tables (about 25) but the room is much bigger, with plenty of space between them. The tables are nice and the chairs are comfortable. The only downside is the chips are old and need to be replaced. They are pretty ratty.

As far as game selection I only inquired about 1/2 NL, but supposedly they have some 2/5 and 5/5 games there occasionally as well as the standard low stakes limit games too. The tourneys are 65 on the weekdays, 100 on the weekends, with 50-100 blinds to start and 10k stacks. 20 minute levels, no rebuys, addons, or antes. Pretty good structure for the price.

The 1/2 NL game was like most 1/2 NLHE games I have played in AC casinos but on the whole a little bit tighter than usual. I bought in for $120 (a stack of ones and fives) and played for about 4 hours and left with about $340. I won one big pot and the rest I won just by playing tight and aggressive.

Overall this room is probably the second best right now behind Borgata. Taj may have higher stakes but the environment here is so much better. Some folks would probably even prefer it to Borgata because of the more relaxed atmosphere.

[Savior17]

Good to hear. Thanks for the update. I was there a while back and played in the Saturday tourney. The structure allows for about a 5-5/12 hour tourney. We are thinking of going again to play in a tourney, then go to the Borgata for cash games. On a brag note, I took 4th in the tourney after getting slammed on a bluff. I raised in MP with a mid pair and got called by the button. I watched him wince as the flop came AAx with a FD. I fired out a bet and he thought and thought and called. The turn was another blank not completing any draws and I fired again. He held his cards in between his fingers and was about to toss them in the muck. I gave no reaction and he called. I checked the river and he flipped over JJ. I was down to 1700 at the break. I proceeded to push every decent hand and began to chip up. No one played back at me until I moved AI against a shorter stack. He flipped over KK to my 99. Well, I hit a 9 on the flop and another 9 on the turn. He grumbled and ran out and is on life tilt now.

[PhilLaFond]

Thanks for the post. I'm heading to AC at the end of the month and will make a point to take a break from Borgata to check out the Showboat, just based on your review. Nice.

[BigKyle]

Yeah I will never say the Showboat is better than the Borgata, but it is the best you will get otherwise. The tournaments there are full of bad players, at least they used to be, and I would expect that trend to continue. The lack of antes makes it a much better value than Borgata's daily imo, and the blinds go up very reasonably. I found this structure today on the web:

10,000 in starting chips
20 minute levels
no rebuys or addons
no antes

50-100
100-200
200-400
300-600
400-800
600-1200
800-1600
1000-2000
1500-3000
2000-4000
3000-6000
4000-8000
6000-12,000
8000-16,000
10,000-20,000
15,000-30,000