MGM Mirage - Big Layoffs

Signs of the weak economy hitting
Las Vegas and other gambling
destinations keep rolling in.

Last week various media sources
reported that MGM Mirage had
laid off 2,500 employees, as a
cost-cutting move.

MGM officially denied the reports.

Anonymous inside sources (MGM Mirage
management types) say the media
reports were untrue. The real number
is more like 4,000 employees getting
pink slips.

WPT Fallsview

A 67-year-old retired real estate broker
from Kitchener-Waterloo took home
the North American Poker Championship
title and $1.2 million at the Fallsview
Casino in Niagara Falls this week.

Glen Witmer survived a strong field
of 454 players, competing in only his
second major poker tournament.
Witmer and fellow amateur player
Jim Trenholm, a Toronto firefighter,
were the only two amateur players
to make it to the final table, going
against four experienced professionals.

Unfortunately for Trenholm, he didn't
last long and was the first to be eliminated
from the final table. He was followed by
Ottawa poker pro Marc Karam who headed
for the rail in fifth place earning $171,175.

Next to go was another Canadian Ryan Fisler
who pocketed $228,234 for fourth place.
(Yet another poker pro coming out of
Waterloo, ON. What's in the water there?)

Highly respected US player Kathy Leibert
finished in third place earning $277,684.
This made way for heads up combat between
Witmer and well known tournament pro
Gavin Smith (originally from Guelph,ON),
who resides in Las Vegas.

In the final hand, both players were all-in
with Gavin holding pocket 5's to Glen's AK.
The cards fell Gavin's way, until an Ace on
the river sent Smith home with $532,545
and gave the WPT championship and
$1.2M paycheque to Witmer.

It was an huge return for a small investment.
Glen won his way into the event through a
$170 Step A satellite qualifier.

Craig from PPT

Many of you will know Craig Robillard,
tournament staff from the Premier
Poker Tour events. Craig has been
doing some writing for poker site
http://www.TexasHoldemPoker4U.com/

Drop by and show some support.
Ya just might learn something too.

Full Tilt FTOPS 9

Bigger and better than ever.
Starts Nov. 5th, going for 11 days
covering 25 events taking place
$16 Million in guaranteed prize $.



Event# /Date /Entry/Guarantee

#1 11-5 21:00 $200+16 NL Hold'em 6-max $1Mill
#2 11-6 14:00 $240+16 PL Omaha/8 K/O $200k
#3 11-6 21:00 $500 + $35 NLH 3x S/O $300k
#4 11-7 14:00 $300+22 NLH (1R / 1A) $600k
#5 11-7 21:00 $200+16 Limit Holdem 6max $150k
#6 11-8 14:00 $500+35 PL Omaha 6-Max $350k
#7 11-8 16:00 $100+9 NL Hold'em $600k
#8 11-9 14:00 $240+16 NLH 6-Max K/O $600k
#9 11-9 18:00 $300+22 NL Hold'em $1.5Mill
#10 11-10 14:00 $300+22 Mixed Hold'em $250k
#11 11-10 21:00 $1000+60 NL Hold'em $1.5Mill
#12 11-11 14:00 $ 200+16 HA (PLH/PLO) $150k
#13 11-11 21:00 $ 500+35 HORSE $300k
#14 11-11 21:00 $ 200+16 NLH Turbo $500k
#15 11-12 14:00 $ 200+16 Omaha 8ob $150k
#16 11-12 21:00 $ 300+22 NLH 6-Max R/B $1Mill
#17 11-13 14:00 $200+16 NLH 4x S/O 6max $250k
#18 11-13 21:00 $300+22 Razz $150k
#19 11-14 14:00 $200+16 NL Hold'em $400k
#20 11-14 21:00 $200+16 Stud 8-or-better $100k
#21 11-15 14:00 $500+35 NLH Heads-up $500k
#22 11-15 14:00 $5000+200 NLH 6-max $2Mill
#23 11-15 16:00 $100+9 PLO R/B $400k
#24 11-16 14:00 $120+9 NLH K/O $500k

Main Event
#25 11-16 18:00 $500 + $35 NLH $2.5Mill

Caesars Mega Stack

Yet another deep stack tournament
series for Las Vegas bound poker players.

Caesars Palace is hosting its Mega Stack
poker series, which will follow the currently
ongoing Caesars Poker Classic. It will run
from November 2nd to 20th and feature
17 events with entry fees from $200-$1,060.

Mega Stack Schedule:

Date /Time / Buy-in / Game
11/1 -- -- (Satellites Begin)
11/2 -Noon- $500+40 NLHE
11/3 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/4 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/4 -3pm- $180+20 PLO
11/5 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/6 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/7 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/8 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/9 -Noon- $500+40 NLHE
11/10 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/11 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/11 -3pm $180+20 Omaha 8/B
11/12 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/13 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/14 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/15 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/16 -Noon- $500+40 NLHE
11/17 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE

11/18 -Noon- $1,000+60
Mega Championship (NLHE)

11/19 -2pm- Mega Ch. Day 2

11/20 -2pm- Final Table

http://www.harrahs.com/images/non_image_assets/CLV_nov_mega_stack_093008.pdf

Poker After Dark - Cash Game II

I really enjoyed the Mayfair Club
episodes this week. I have read
quite a bit about the NY poker scene
back in the day from different books
and magazines. Cool to hear it from
the guys who actually lived it.

October 13-19 looks like another great week !

PAD Cash Game #2 -- $200/400 NL

Patrik Antonius
Dee Tiller
Howard Lederer
Doyle Brunson
Gabe Kaplan
Eli Elezra

Paris LV Poker Room Closes

As of Monday October 7th, the Paris Hotel
permanently closed down their poker room.

This was unannounced to staff or patrons,
but still a heavily predicted closure. According to
the staff at Ballys, all Paris poker room staff will be
transferred to Ballys (Paris' sister hotel which is a
directly connected property).

Duplicate Poker is toast

Duplicate Poker has shut down its
online operations, effective yesterday.

A message was sent to all Duplicate Poker
customers which cited the credit crunch
in the current global financial market
as the reason for the site's demise.

Duplicate Poker had recently entered a
second phase in its fundraising and
development efforts, as the site attempted
to cement its market presence.

The site was originally created as a
direct response to the October 2008
signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act (UIGEA) law.

It offered US players a new, legal format
of poker specifically designed to remove
elements of chance, by have players at the
same seat at each table receive the same cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_poker

If you have money deposited on DP, visit
the homepage for instructions. It shouldnt
be too difficult to get a refund.

JUANDA Wins WSOP Europe

John Juanda beat out a field of 362 players
to become the 08 WSOP Europe Champion
in the £10,000 GBP Main Event. It was a tough
field consisting of many of the top names
from around the world. Total prize pool
was £3.62 million.

The nine player final table was a mix of
WSOP veterans and up and comers like
Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman and
John Juanda (with nine prior WSOP
bracelets combined), and newcomers
Chris Elliott, Toni Hiltunen and Stanislav
Alekhin making their first WSOP final tables.

The star-studded final table ground on for
an exhausting 22 hours and 484 hands.
The top eight finalists were rewarded with
a minimum of £100,000+ Pounds each.

Almost as big of a story as Juanda's long
overdue bracelet victory is Ivan Demidov.
The Russian finished third for a payday of
£334,850. Even more notably than
his finish here, Demidov is second in chips
among the 'November 9' WSOP finalists.
Final tabling at both WSOP main events
is a huge accomplishment.

Another Casino Windsor Trip Report

Last night at Caesars Windsor I stumbled upon
one of the softest, weakest group of poker players
I've ever encountered anywhere. They werent
'new', bad players who didnt know how to play
the game (ie: not knowing about posting blinds
or that they can check or bet), these were just
plain awful players. Calling raises all the way
to the river with a small pocket pair, giving off
the most painfully obvious tells and trying to
bluff, etc.

Soft players are a bonus, but one of the main
reasons for me to play there was to earn
comps on my Harrah's card. I'm heading to
Vegas again in November and want to eat at
the RIO buffet for free. Harrahs also keeps
offering me free tickets to shows like
Englebert Humperdink and Regis Philbin.
I'm hoping someone who's less than
70 years old will perform at Caesars Windsor
one of these days and they'll give me
some free tix for that ... lol

But now there's a big reason not to go back to
Windsor to take advantageof the comps and
those juicey cash games. It's because of this
poker rooms totally abhorrent treatment of
rules and etiquette.

Until now, I'd never been at a casino where
talking about hands while play was still
going on was condoned. It was really bad.
Players not even in the hand, calling out
potential straights and flushes, talking about
what hands they think players have.
This went on for about a half hour (during
2 different dealers) before I said something.
Dealer didnt seem concerned at all, but the
new dealer coming in who was standing behind
him (shaking her head) took better control of
the table and kept the table talk to a
minimum, although not eliminating it.

You may remember a previous blog post about
a visit to this casino where I witnessed a guy
lose his entire $300 stack, (+ a $700 pot)
because of the Caesars poker room rule that
if you expose your hand with action pending,
your hand is ruled dead and sent to the muck.
This rule is not posted anywhere.
Well, it happened to me.
(I had a slightly better outcome)

I'm playing a short stack, $150 or so.
I'm in late position (cutoff) with QT.

EP raises to $6. This seems like a weak raise
for this player. He has a tendancy to call raises
preflop, but fold postflop unless he hits
atleast top pair.

Its folded around to me, I make it $16.

Button and BigBlind both call.
(they're both loose $2/5 players, so I wasnt
surprised to have them follow with any2cards).


Pot is $60.

Flop is J 9 4 rainbow.

BB bets $25 (he likes to lead out,
out of position for some reason,
he likes to be "aggressive" I guess?).

EP raiser folds.

I shove for $110.
(A good argument could be made that I
played this hand poorly, but I was trying to
outplay these $2/5 donks on this hand to
set something up for later)

Button is still in hand but has his cards hidden.

Big Blind says "All-In" and rolls over QT.
I hesitate and turn over my cards.
Dealer burns a card and is about to run
the last two cards from the deck so we can
chop it up, and the button says
"Wait, I havent called your all-in yet".

Fuckin great, I know where this is going.

Dealer calls floor, who is the guy who killed
dude's hand the last time i was at this casino,
so not looking good. He comes over and says
"I think I know what will happen and you're
not going to be happy". He goes and gets the
shift supervisor to confirm. I state to the table
that if my hand is ruled dead, they should
cover their ears.

Guy to my left says "Your hand is probably dead,
but it totally depends which supervisor is on duty".
Soup arrives and he reviews what happened.
Suprisingly, he rules that my hand is not dead
and explains that the BB who acted out of turn,
his hand will be ruled dead. I acted based on his
mistake, so my action is void. I'm thinking in the
back of my head, BB said "ALL-IN" (for about $600).
So all Button has to do is Call, and he automatically
wins BB's stack, minus the $110 that goes into
my main pot. (Which he could still win if he has
a better hand than me).

Button player, finally breaks his silence and says
"I'm just going to muck, you 2 can play it out".
Floor says if everyone's aggreable, BB and I
can chop it up. Not wanting to be a dick,
I dont bring up the fact that the BB's hand is
ruled dead and I should scoop the entire pot.
I'm happy to chop it rather than be broke by
a stupid interpretation of a house rule.

Dealer runs out the turn and river. K , Q.

Button has a total FIT and starts ranting,
he folded A T and would have made broadway.

What a clusterfuck.

I understand and agree with the intent of their
"No exposing your cards with action pending"
rule. It has some merit, but it is more trouble
than its worth. The easiest, and probably smartest
thing for me, is to just head the other direction
to Niagara and avoid Caesars Windsor.

F$cking Erick Lindgren

Watch F*cking Erick Lindgren on RawVegas.tv

Poker After Dark this week

Poker After Dark kicks off

'Mission Impossible' week

September 22, 2008 by Haley Hintze

It's another theme week for NBC's popular

late-night poker program, "Poker After Dark,"

and this week's series of episodes pokes

a bit of "light-hearted" fun at series regular

Mike Matusow.

Titled "Mission Impossible," the week's

six-player shootout is named as a lefthanded

nod to the "The Mouth," who despite his

formidable poker talents has lodged a perfectly

imperfect 0-8 career record on the show to date.

It's not only that Matusow hasn't won yet on PAD,

but that each of his five opponents this week has

triumphed on the show at least once.

Matusow's opponents this coming week are

Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, David Williams,

Clonie Gowen and Gavin Smith.

Hellmuth, another frequent series player,
has lodged three wins in ten appearances,

while Gowen has triumphed twice and the

others have one victory each.

The seating lineup for the week:

Seat 1: Mike Matusow

Seat 2: Phil Laak

Seat 3: Phil Hellmuth

Seat 4: David Williams

Seat 5: Clonie Gowen

Seat 6: Gavin Smith

Good reason to play at Harrah's LV

Harrah's is offering an interesting bonus
for morning poker players that amounts to
much more than rakeback or $1/hour comps.

Daily beginning Monday September 15th,
play in the Harrah's poker room for at least
one hour between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m and
you'll then receive a 10 percent buy-in
bonus for your next visit to the poker room.

A voucher will be given for 10 percent of
your buy-in, up to $30, which you can cash in
on your next visit to the Harrah's poker room.

CardRunners - Free 24hr Pass

Online poker training site CardRunners
is currently offering free limited passes.

For those unfamiliar, CardRunners.com
is an online poker training site. It conducts
the majority of training via video lessons
where subscribers can view the hole cards
of pros in real games/tournies & listen to
their real-time thought process as they
play a 20-60 minute session.

Its been a long time since I was on there,
but CardRunners videos helped me a lot
with online sng and tourny strategy.
Taylor Caby on cash games, and Jackal69
& Action Jeff's tourny vids were the best
back then, but the online game has evolved
since then and I'm sure the information on
their site has advanced too.

CardRunners used to be highly focused on
Limit & NL Cash games (PokerXfactor was
the best tourny training site), but they have
expanded to have a thick library of sng and
tourny vids now too.

To pick up your pass which gives you full
access to the site for 24 hrs, Send an e-mail
to: support@cardrunners.com with subject line
"CR Daypass: Non-USA" and they will email
you back with a code and website link that will
give you 24 hours of access to the entire
CardRunners site.

Offer expires Sept. 30.

Harrah's LV Hotel Deals

Harrah's Las Vegas hotel, which is
located between the Venetian &
Flamingo and across from Caesars
& the Mirage, has some great prices
for a centre strip location.
$45-65 during the week throughout
most of October-Dec31 (some exceptions)

Use Code: PKGHLT1 if you're not seeing
these low rates.

Caesars Windsor Trip Report

For a change of scenery, I decided to
head west to Caesars Windsor casino.
It had been quite a while, maybe a year and
a half ? since my last visit. The change over
from Casino Windsor and the $400 million
in renovations are complete. Everything is
very clean, modern looking.

The usually long and boring drive down
the 401 to Windsor is even longer and
more boring since the province of Ontario,
showing great wisdom and forethought, has
closed the service centre/rest stops (which it owns)
between London and Windsor to "prepare the
sites for redevelopment". Makes me chuckle
when I see the provincial highway signs saying
"Fatigue Kills, Take a Break" but they've
closed the only places in a 200km stretch
for you to do that.

I wasn't really sure what to expect as far as
how busy Caesars would be. I had
forgotten to get the poker room's phone #
at home, so I had to look it up the on my
blackberry on my way down. I called ahead
and got my name on the list, just to be safe.

I arrived in Windsor around 3:30pm and
made my way to Caesars. Everything is well
marked, including street signs directing you
towards the casino and to the valet & self-parking.
I took a quick wander through the casino to
check out what was new and then headed
upstairs to the poker room.

The poker room has been redone.
Looks much more modern and fresh.
It has a WSOP theme with large hardboard
posters of scenes from the WSOP and
poker superstars. The tables are all new
and the chairs, while not my favourites,
are the WSOP branded chairs that you see in
most of the Harrahs casino's in Las Vegas.
Brand new chips (photo above), nice design,
and still clean with crisp edges.

There were 4 tables in progress, all $1/2NL
(200max). I had a seat in the waiting area and
chatted with a couple others waiting for a spot.
One regular said the $2/5 game rarely gets going,
and that quite a few of the players in the $1/2 are
just waiting until there's enough of them to get
a Limit game going. Not so good news about
the $2/5 game, but limit players in a NL game
is usually free money.

It couldnt have been more than 10 minutes
and my name was called. Got my chips
from the cage, which is located right inside
the poker room, and wandered over to my seat.

There was quite a bit of action at my table
and the others as well, more than I expected.
A lot of uncontrolled aggression and all-ins.
That can be really profitable, but it is also volatile
and leads to variance and swings.

In the first hour I built up my $200 buy-in
to about $500. Then disaster. I called a $15 raise
with 99. I flopped top set on a board of 2-6-9.
Raise, reraise, call, all-in, then to me.
I push for about $475. Get one caller who
turns over AA. Turn is a J. River is an...... ACE.
Back to square one, time to start over.

There was a $2/5 game started around 5:30pm.
It appeared to be an action game, similar to
when I sat down to my $1/2 table, so I got
my name on that list and kept an eye on it
in between hands. (It was right behind my table).
My timing wasn't too good, when my name
finally came up, the people who had gotten
most of the chips on the table had turned
super tight (they cashed out shortly after),
and the majority of the players were playing
on short stacks. Didnt feel it was worthing
moving from where I was.

Unfortunately, around 6pm back at my table,
the one big stack decided to hit the road with
his $700. Shortly after, the other big stack
cashed out for a little over $900, leaving no one
at the table with more than $300 and the
average stack about $175. Harder to make
lost money back when all that money leaves.

Wasn't catching many cards, but was
patiently waiting for my shot. The guy
sitting to my immediate right was raising
every pot. Didnt really make much difference
to me since I wasnt playing any hands,
but on my right is a good place for him to be.

Around 7pm, one hand I got some chips back.
I limp UTG with Q-Q knowing that the guy
to my right will raise if no one else does.
2 UTG makes it $5 and there's 6 callers (pot $30).
Not the ideal result, but I get to see cheap flop
with a well consealed hand. Flop is 3-5-J.
The "always raiser" to my right is first to act
and leads out making it $15. I raise to $45.
2UTG and initial raiser both call.
Turn is offsuit 8. I push my last $100 all-in.
I can see out of the corner of my eye,
by the way he's holding his cards that the
initial raiser is going to fold, but 2UTG goes
into the tank. Probably good news, means it's
unlikely he has a set or two pair. I'm hoping
he has AJ or a flush draw and will make
the call because of the size of the pot.
He calls and sheepishly turns over AJ.
River's no help, my Q-Q wins.

Took a dinner break around 8pm.
There's a little cafe right outside the back
of the poker room that has snacks, beverages
and fresh made sandwiches. Nice that it's
not a total gouge either. Had a chicken BLT,
large size with real sliced chicken breast &
a grilled mediteranian veggy wrap.
Both were $4.75ea. Not bad for real food.
I think i paid $9.00 for an egg salad sandwich
one time at Niagara Fallsview.

Made my way back to the tables.
Felt much better after having something
to eat, but I'm always cautious as that's
often the kiss of death for people.
In tournaments, a rash of bustouts usually
happen right after dinner breaks. I've
noticed the same thing in cash games,
guy comes back from dinner break and
gets involved in too many hands and
gets crippled or goes broke. Didn't really
matter though, was totally card dead from
8:30pm to 1am. And when I say card dead,
I mean card DEAD. J2, 93, 84.
No suited or connected cards.
Even the ugly rags I was folding weren't hitting
any of the flops that come out. Which I guess
is a good thing, then I'm not tempted to be
calling raises with useless trash.

Over the course of the evening, I saw two
scetchy rulings made by the floor staff.
First one, was just wrong in my opinion.
It involved a player exposing his cards.
Player in question moved all in, player
behind called. There was a third player
involved who had yet to act.
The all-in player thought the 3rd player said
"I'm out". (I was at the other end of the table,
heard her mumble something, but not
100% sure what).
All-in player, figuring action is complete
rolls over his T-T. 3rd player says wait,
I havent folded yet. Dealer calls floor.
Floor says All-in players hand is DEAD
for exposing his hand with action pending.
3rd player ends up calling, I think just because
she didnt want to give the pot to the other guy
without a showdown. She only had AJ, no pair
no draw. As it turns out, All-in guy's mucked
T-T made a flush on the river and he would
have won the pot if the correct ruling had
been made. I checked the posted rules that are
over by the cage, but there's no mention of
any 'exposing your cards' rules. I asked the
brush if there was a copy of the poker rooms
complete rules, he said No and referred me to
the rules poster by the cage.

The other situation was involving a boxed card
(a card exposed facing up in the deck).
It was the King of Hearts dealt out on the flop.
Again floor called over. He rules because it's on
the flop, it doesnt make any difference, it was
going to be turned up anyways. I'm not in the
hand, but I know this is incorrect. I told him,
sir, the rules state a boxed card is to be treated
like a scrap piece of blank paper and must be
totally disregarded. He calls over 2 other suits
who confir in the huddle and agree with me.
The king is eventually put in the muck and a
new card is dealt out. The pot gets checked down
and 2 of the 3 people in the pot turn over a King...lol.

Two of the regulars said that "how rules are
enforced depends on the day and who's on duty".
I guess thats pretty common in Ontario casinos ?

I kept plugging away for the rest of the evening.
I was starting to feel a bit tired, but really wanted
to get myself to even (atleast take a small profit
to cover my gas). I set a quit time of 1am.
Stretched it out to 1:15am and cashed out $345.
Two buyins ($400), so a - $55 for the evening.

Notes:
- Air conditioning in the poker room wasn't
working, everyone complaining about the heat.

- Beach Boys were the feature entertainment
in the 5000 seat colliseum. Probably accounted
for the older crowd in the poker room.
Most reports from concert goers, Beach Boys
weren't very good. I say give them a break
they've got to be in their 70's.

- Use your Harrah's Total Rewards Card,
you'll earn $.50/hour on a $3/$6 Limit game,
$0.75/hour on the $1/$2 and $2/$5 NL games,
and $1/hour on the $5/$10 No Limit game.
Comps can be earned and used here
or in LasVegas, fully transferable.
(Most of Harrahs LV casino's pay you
$1/hr in the poker rooms).
I don't trust their "no swipe" system.
The staffer often just looks at your card
and says ok, he enters the info manually.
I've gotten screwed by this at Casino Niagara
before. They said right to my face that its my fault,
"you I must have forgotten to swipe in/out".
I wish all casinos that give poker room comps
would use the 'at the table' system that the
MGM Grand employs. The dealer swipes your
card into the computer buillt into each table
which logs you in/out, and is connected to
the desk. This also allows the person in charge
of seating new players to immediately know
when a seat is open.

- Total of 11 tables going by end of the night.
One $3/6 Limit, Two $2/5, and Eight $1/2NL.

- At one point there were 26 people on the
waiting list for the $1/2 game. There were
2 empty tables with dealers parked, but they
never opened those tables up. The one was
likely designated for Sit'N'go tournaments.
They ran 3 sng's during my 9 hour session.

- Caesars runs MTT's 7 days a week at 10am.
Tues/Wed/Thurs $50+5
Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon $100 +10
2000 chips, max 60 players.
20 min blinds for first 3 rounds
30 min blinds for remaiing rounds.

- They have a Bad Beat Jackpot,
it was at $7898. If your Full House
Aces over Tens (or better) gets beaten,
you take half, winner takes a 1/4 and the
table splits 1/4. A week ago it was $27,000.

- Great drink service early. Slowed down later
in the evening. Never too bad though. If you are
really thirsty, there is a drink service bar with
bartender right inside the poker room.


Caesars Poker Room Contact Numbers:
1-800-991-8888
1-800-991-7777 ext 22967 (or press 7 on Menu)

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.