Singapore Poker RWS vs MBS - Who wins?

Disclaimer: This is purely based on my experience of playing at the two casinos over the last 4 weeks, incidents, players, staff that happened to be there at the time. I was not swayed or influenced to say one thing or another. I am just being brutally honest but my intention is to help players who have not been there to see a clearer picture, and maybe even casino management to make further improvements. 

What attracted me to visit this time was the Resorts Poker Championships at RWS. The event was rake free with a decent guarantee. Skip this paragraph if you are only here for my cash game reviews. Possibly due to the lack of experience, there were some stark issues that I believe needs to be changed immediately. For example, every flight for the main plays down to 35 players regardless of the number of participants. Whilst I understand they are concerned about the number of players that make day 2 (due to the limited number of tables) but this is not the proper way to progress. In an extreme example, if day 1A only had 35 runners, 100% of players will qualify for day 2. Had 1C had 350 runners instead, then only 10% will make it through. Please do not use stack size as the way to explain this off. Instead there should be a % of players that make it through. If you are concerned about day 2 numbers, then cap the max number of buy ins. Secondly they should let day 1 play into the money. Otherwise I see some poor locals who make day 2, having to pay the levy ($150 a day) twice and still not cash the event. There was also a pay jump that had 0 increment. This is a big no no for me. You can easily adjust, even a $100 difference is still a pay jump. There were communication issues too. Some staff thought day 1 ended at level 15, some said it ends at the end of level 15. This is a huge difference as some players were stalling by level 14 knowing the wrong information. Announcements were poor, for example at bubble time, they didn't even mention which hand belonged to the short stack. Bagging took 30+ minutes because they needed to count every chip, get players and dealers to sign, wait for a print out.... This is where the kiasu side of Singapore comes into play. BUT, I don't fault them on this, being careful sometimes is fine. However it can be simplified to make it smoother for sure. Consult with some tournament veterans and you will know how to streamline the whole experience. 

MBS chips are nicer

As for the cash games, I will review each casino separately and draw my final conclusions. 

Marina Bay Sands (MBS)

• Games: They spread 10/20, 25/50, 100/200 and sometimes even bigger games. 
• Rake: 5% capped 5bb (for 10/20) - I didn't pay attention to the others but I believe it scales down
• Tables and queue: They had 9 tables, I believe most days the game runs 24 hours, queue is long in the evenings and weekends, especially when they are running bigger games and have less tables for 10/20. 
• Amenities: There isn't a proper waiting area, drinks are served

Pros

• MBS is a well designed casino. High ceilings, classy decor, comfortable seats and tables, bright lights, high end vibe. 
• From my observations, MBS attracts more tourists and a younger richer crowd. 
• There are more players there, new tables start up quickly, they run almost non stop. 
• MBS has a higher buy in min and max. So the games plays slightly bigger. Pots and swings would usually be bigger too. 
• MBS queue lists shows player names, so you can see who else is waiting and whether it is worth waiting around for a new table to start. 
• They seem to be more receptive to feedback, evident when "buying the button" was disallowed after 3 weeks into operation. Although I disagree with the decision, but it is good to see that they are flexible. 
• Poker room location is prime, so the possibility of getting some curious cats to try out the game is higher. 

MBS at night

Cons

• All the sharks are there. Due to the hype of the room, most of the top regs of the country now resides there. So as good as the game sounds, most days you have tables full of regs targeting 1-2 spots. 
• It is surrounded by slot machines, which can get a bit noisy and annoying
• I hope this is just temporary, but most of their dealers are terribly slow and prone to mistakes. 
• Rake is high. You'll be surprised how much it adds up.
• Floor prioritizes bigger games, so 10/20 players feel like second class citizens. My personal experience was I waited 3 hours from being 11th in the waitlist to be at the top, only to have to wait for another 8 slots to clear because the floor decided to kill a 10/20 table to make way for a 25/50 list that had 4 players queuing. I would understand if there were 8 ready to go on 25/50 but not when there's 4 whereas 10/20 had 30 waiting. 
• Service was poor and rude at times. For example, any curious player that wandered into the poker area was often met with stern tone and ushered out. I understand they are just doing their jobs but there are no signs or forewarning, and staff can just be kinder. There was another incident where the dealer over-raked $5 by mistake, realized his mistake and asked the floor if he could give it back to the player. First floor agreed, second floor said no, because the hand was dead. She even tried to explain it away that even if they under-raked, they would not ask for it back (which is totally untrue). The player clearly upset later asked the floor to reconsider and under slight duress she over turned her own decision. I understand Singapore is a country of rules. But rules are meant to be bent if it meant for the good of the business. After receiving the $5 back the player tipped the dealer instead. It is not about the money, it is how you make a customer and observing customers feel. The player unfortunately went on to tilt away a few thousand bucks, and maybe to never return. This is what I don't understand about the "kiasuness" of Singapore. Clearly you are a country full of smart people. There's doing right things and doing things right. Sometimes rigid adherence to rules is not the right thing. 

Resorts World Sentosa (RWS)

• Games: They have 5/10 on weekdays, and 10/20 on weekends
• Rake: 5% capped at 3bb (for both 5/10 and 10/20)
• Tables and queue: They have 11 tables at full capacity. But due to MBS poker opening they rarely run more than 3 tables nowadays. Weekdays game usually start at around noon to 1pm, and weekend games slightly later than that. Some days just missing the first 8 seats, I waited 2+ hours for the 2nd table to start. 
• Amenities: There is a reasonably comfortable waiting area, drinks and occasionally they will come by with finger food or snacks. 

Pros

• RWS has the lowest casino rake in all of Asia
• They have a few good dealers that keep the game flowing (but still the occasional one who stalls on purpose) 
• Although you can still hear the hum of the slot machines, it is less annoying than those at MBS
• Service overall feels friendlier and homely. Regulars get greeted by name, floor and staff would interact and joke with players. You feel genuinely welcomed and at home. 
• The migration of pros means there is a vacuum of top regs at RWS

Cons

• Although RWS was completed just 3 months before MBS, it feels like it is 20 years older. The design in my opinion is not well thought through, it's dark and gloomy. 
• RWS seem settled on attracting the older folks. There are table min bets of $1, free lunches for annual package holders, concerts of 80s singers.... I would guess average age of the typical patron is 50. 
• Location of the room is obscure. In my months of visiting the casino, I just realized there is a completely different area that I have not been to. Wouldn't surprise me if most patrons didn't know the poker room existed. 
  
• There are a lot of unnecessary delays. For example starting a new table takes 20 minutes. Checking the new decks also take way longer than MBS. Just having an unnecessary top card cover wastes 2 seconds every hand, so for grinders like me, it's less hands played, wasted opportunities. 
• Bureaucracy and inflexibility seems prevalent in Singapore. There was an incident where one table was running auto-straddle and the other wasn’t. Both tables had a seat open. Floor brings a new player to the auto-straddle table and causes the auto-straddle to break. Player complains that she should have given the player a choice to play at the other table that didn’t straddle. Floor insists that players are not allowed to choose tables and auto-straddle is voluntary. Please don’t hide behind rules or “this is how things are”. Be smart, there are better solutions, use them. It’s no wonder everyone knows it’s wrong to call it carrot cake yet no one wants to change. (It’s a radish cake for goodness sake)

So who wins? You might be surprised but in my opinion, at least for the time being, RWS. More people at MBS doesn’t mean the games are better. In fact I found it to be consistently worse. I was lucky to be on some good tables while I was there, but most of the time it took a lot of maneuvering and tricky table changes to get there and sometimes only to fill the seat the fish left and having other pros switched there as well. MBS has a high concentration of the best regs in Singapore while RWS has only a handful. I find every game at RWS had at least 3 clear spots or better. Those who migrated their annual levy to MBS will be there for at least a year so it created a unique opportunity to grind at a much weaker game than it was. While it is true that MBS attracts more tourists and whales, but since priority is given to bigger games, you’ll find that the 10/20 seats are usually filled by early bird pro campers whereas the whales give up after waiting for a long time. However I must say if you want bigger swings and higher stakes then MBS does have its strengths. If they continue to be flexible and adjust positively, then they might one day take away RWS’ edge. I look forward to returning in a few months and report back if anything has changed. 

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