Expansion signifies return of poker to Mohegan Sun

Mohegan, Conn. — Before Bill Burton could write a book about playing Texas Hold ’Em, the New Britain resident went to Mohegan Sun’s poker room.

It was 2000 and poker’s popularity had yet to explode, but Burton sometimes waited up to two hours to sit in a Saturday morning tournament.

Then, about five years ago, it was all over. Mohegan Sun shut the 54-table room on the brink of a boom that would bring the game onto the nation’s television screens, Web sites and bookshelves.

At the time, Mitchell Etess, then the casino’s executive vice president of marketing, told the Norwich Bulletin Mohegan Sun felt “the poker market isn’t growing.

“We felt we could probably be best served by converting that area into slots, where, fortunately, there’s demand,” he said in 2003.

When the Casino of the Wind opens this week, its 42 poker tables will mark the game’s return to Mohegan Sun. While Foxwoods Resort Casino officials have said in the past they’re not worried about the competition, Burton, who also writes a casino guide for about.com, said the move rectifies a situation that shocked many players at the time. Still, he said, the change comes at a puzzling time.

“They’re also opening it up during the biggest gas crunch,” Burton said, adding the room should do well. “That’s what I’m hoping for anyways — that they can pick up where they left off.”

Bruce Dixson, the new director of poker operations at Mohegan Sun, said consistency in dealer’s calls, service and a strict moral code are key to establishing, or re-establishing, a poker room.

“This will be a room of integrity,” he said. “There will be no side betting going on.”

Dewey Hill, 61, of Averill Park, N.Y., routinely takes a bus to play poker at Foxwoods and blogs about his travels. He wrote in an e-mail the most important components of a poker room include reasonable rakes (the amount of money casinos take from each pot), full tables, free quality drinks, efficiency in how the room is run and being offered a bargain.

“Something is wrong when I can fly across the country to Las Vegas (even with the more expensive airfare) for 11 days and save enough on my hotel bill that the total cost of transportation and hotel is less than going to Foxwoods for a week,” he wrote. “Add in the cheaper food and more easily earned free food in Vegas, the nicer weather, the free entertainment and the full-pay video poker and these Connecticut casinos can’t compete as bargain destinations ...”

“I am hoping that the Mohegan Sun/Foxwoods competition for poker players results in some promotional benefits for the consumers. It should. Up until now, Foxwoods has had a monopoly.”
Norwich Bulletin

News Added: 29 August, 2008

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