I'm sorry to necro this thread, but I have not been around for awhile and well, the search function made me do it!
Anyone else on cardschat play here?
I play fairly regularly here and love it. Of the choices in northeastern PA it is far superior to Mt. Airy for poker. The poker room is much bigger, and the dealers are much better. Mt. Airy dealers have to split their tips, so they have no incentive to deal faster or be more accurate, while at MS at Pocono Downs dealers keep their own. I have not been to the Sands in Bethlehem so I can not comment on that.
They run two tourneys a day, one at 12pm (10am on sat and sun) and one at 7pm, all at a $60 buyin with an optional $5 2k chip add on that goes right to the dealers. Exceptions are the last Saturday of every month when there is a $280 buyin at 2pm and is the only tourney that day. This tourney is capped at 120 players and usually sells out well before the 2pm start. Next Saturday will be the 4th one and it is fairly well run, at least from what I saw from playing the one in February. The other exception is Tuesday nights they run a $120 buyin which includes a $25 bounty per knockout. You get an actual $25 green cash chip as your bounty chip, fun times.
They spread a decent number of 1/2 tables which are pot raked, and there is usually one 2/5 running with a waiting list. the start time on the 2/5 table varies on weekdays but is usually in full swing by 6pm. The 2/5 is $5 per half hour and no pots are raked. 200 min 800 max buyin, and there are alot of the same faces at that table. It usually turns into a 2/5/10 game with it being understood that if you open the pot it is for a 15 minimum in order to give the 10 'blind raise' his option. No straddling allowed in PA like in CT so this gets around it.
If anyone has any other questions let me know!