Trip Report: Seneca Niagara Casino (NY)

Even though it's not that long since

I got back from Vegas, I was having

some serious withdrawl symptoms

and was craving for live poker action,

so I made some plans for Friday night.

Picked up Chris Markle in Woodstock
around 5pm and headed down the 403

towards Niagara Falls.

The competition at Casino Niagara on
the Canadian side has gotten a lot tougher
over the last year, so I decided to go to
Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls NY.
It seems like 70% of the players at CN,
I know them by name, even though I dont
consider myself to be a regular there.
Just hasn't been enough tourist traffic and
weak casual players to make the game as
beatable as it used to be. (Used to pull out

$200+ most trips without much effort)

Crossed the border quickly, without any hassles
and were inside Seneca by 6:40pm. We put our
names on the $1/2 list. Gina and I were seated
within 10 minutes and Chris's name was called
before we were done buying our chips from
the cage. Heard from some other players,
Casino Niagara had a 1.5+ hour wait,
so they drove over to Seneca.

Seneca has a rather large poker room.
Decent chairs, recently re-felted tables.

Lighting's a little dim. Makes it tough to
see the denominations of the chips at first.
The $5 chips (white with faded red edge)
look very similar to the $1 white chips,
until you've been playing a while and
your eyes adjust. Atleast the chips are clean
(cleaning the chips is probably the reason
they've faded). Casino Niagara has some
dirty ass chips. When you go to pick chips
off your stack and four of them stick together,
its time for the casino to clean their chips !

Seneca has twenty plus tables,
most of them were running.
They're no longer spreading Omaha games,
but they did have some 7-card stud going.
On average, the Dealers were decent,
A few excellent ones, a few that couldnt pitch
cards accurately, but certainly good on average.

My table must have been only opened

recently, as there wasn't anyone who had

more than $140 (It was $100 max table).

It started out quite passively, small raises

($5-7), which I was a little surprised by

since the rake was $3 on the flop.
It was encouraging / funny / sad...
to see people calling $2 in the cut-off
and only the blinds stay. So there's $6
in the pot. Deal out the flop and the
dealer takes $3 for the rake (only $3 remains).
Check, check from the blinds and the cut-off

bets $10 (into the $3 pot), the blinds fold.

The cut-off tips the dealer $1 for a total profit

of ZERO dollars. Risk $12 to win your original

$2 + $1 and then give that $1 away !

I was licking my chops seeing that some people

at my table have absolutely no clue at all.

The other notable difference between CN
and Seneca was that there were more

people buying in short. At Casino Niagara,
it is a mostly rare occasion for someone to
sit down and not buy in for the full $100 max.
The odd youngster will, but its so that
poker doesnt cut into the number of beers
he can buy. At Seneca, there were a lot more
people buying in short. Some would leave
as soon as they busted, others would
just plop down another $50 once or twice more.
One guy rebought for $60... six times.

Surprised there werent more people

taking advantage of the the free alcohol.

Probably the same number of drinkers

as at Casino Niagara, even though

they have to pay for booze there.

I wish I could give you a recap of a bunch
of exciting hands, but there weren't that many
(plus my memory is pretty shitty if I dont
write stuff down shortly after it happens).

One player who I consistantly took chips
from was sitting across from me.
Early on, pot was raised to $7 and I call
with AQ suited in middle position.
Four players ($25 pot). Flop is 2 J J.
Checked all the way around. Turn is Q.
Check, check, I bet $15.
Guy across from me makes it $40.
Other 2 players fold. I ponder if he has a

Queen, or if he slow played a Jack.

That would be a pretty typical way for

a lot of players to play it if they hit trips

with TJ or KJ. They would check on the flop

and bet the turn no matter what card comes.

I chatted the guy up trying to get some info

from him, I even showed him my Queen,

but I wasnt really too sure. The information

was there, I just couldnt decifer it.
I folded, and based on his reaction after,
I was thinking I probably had him beat and
layed down the best hand. I only had $17
invested in the pot, so not the worst fold ever.

BUT, laying down that hand to him early
probably earned me far more money in the
long run anyways. He might have pegged

me as a weak passive player who's afraid

anytime someone reraises them. Over the

course of the next hour or so, I called him down

with just a pair (3 times) and won each time.
Later, in one hand, I purposely took a long

time to make my decision after he bet.

I caught him touching his lips, so I called

his bluff on the river with just Queen high !

and won a very nice pot.

Although there were a couple of action tables
on the other side of the room which had a bunch
of pots in the $300-700 range (Chris was seated
at one of them), I was quite content to stay at
my table and grind out some small-ball profits.
Other than a single early double up hand (I was

down to $65), I didnt have to put my whole stack

at risk the entire night. Compare that to

Casino Niagara where I seem to continuously

find myself in spots where I either have to fold

like a pussy (often with the best of it) or put

my entire stack at risk on a coin flip.

It's a much more relaxing game when you can

control the size of the pots you're playing and
get your money in with the nuts or close to it.

We set a time limit, 2AM. (7hr session)
I cashed out + $280 profit.

Hosting a home game next weekend,

so probably wont be able to go back

until the end of the month.