Many of the players in this poker room may recognize the faces in the picture above. On the right is the Parx Poker Room Director Bill Entenman, and on the left is Ari Mizrachi who is the Senior Director of Table Games and Poker Operations. Mizrachi was the poker room manager at it's inception, and I had a moment to sit down and discuss with him a little bit about the state of poker at Parx Casino.
One thing I can say about Ari is that he is a wealth of knowledge when discussing poker and the poker industry. He's worked in casinos in Connecticut, Atlantic City, Florida, Las Vegas, and now Pennsylvania. He has seen, worked in, and ran numerous poker rooms across the country. A little known fact about Ari is that before entering the gaming industry, he was one of the top Jai Lai players in the world. But back to poker...Ari came from Bally's in Atlantic City to open the room, and knew that he wanted it to stand out in the community. He worked on making the room as player friendly as possible, while also assuring it was well run.
Ari worked on making sure some of the little things were different in the room. When I asked him for an example, he brought up the chip runners. In any of the casinos you may have been that had chip runners, they would take your money at the table and go to the cage before returning with chips. The process was slightly flawed, because of the delay that would ensue after giving the runner your money. Mizrachi's idea was to have runners with carts, so the transaction could happen at the table, and expedite the entire process. This makes the waiting time less, while keeping the lines at the cage shorter as well. The idea of nine handed cash games is also something that you may have noticed at Parx, and is something that many of the regulars enjoy about the room.
It wasn't until some time after the room would be open, that Tuesday night would attract the big mixed games (150/300-200/400-300/600). This is where Ari would have a chance to talk with Matt Glantz, and where the relationship with Glantz and the poker room would blossom. Ari tinkered with the idea of partnerships when it came to tournaments, hosting both the DeepStacks Poker Tour and the WPT. Once Glantz, Ari, and Entenman had a chance to put their heads together, they knew that having their own brand was they way they wanted to go. That leaves us here today, with the Big Stax Series, and the overwhelming success we are seeing from it.
It's the dedication and drive to make this room the best in the area that we see from Mizrachi, Entenman, and Glantz. Ari was very visible in the room when he was the manager, but since being promoted can't make it over as much. But all three of the guys mentioned are all very approachable, and are always open to suggestions and comments from players.
The success of the room is growing each day, and it's also you...the players who make this room what it is.
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