Easter Weekend in Niagara Falls (long)
Left work around 1:30pm on Thursday the 23rd and drove down to Niagara Falls, ON, about two hours away, with a quick detour in Costco to get a passport photo taken.
I had the good sense to call ahead to the Fallsview Casino poker room around 4:00. I checked into my hotel room at the Hilton across the street (thank you, Priceline.com!), arrived at the poker room at 4:55, and got seated at a $2/$5 game around 6:00 when a new table opened.
Two hands of note:
On the third hand dealt, I picked up red queens in the big blind. Five limpers to me, and I popped it to $30. Two limpers tagged along, bringing the pot to a tidy $105. It being early in the session, I had no reads on either Villain. V1 was in MP and had started the hand with $200.00 in chips. V2 was on the button and started with about $500.00. I had exactly $400.00.
The queen of clubs in the window was pretty ... the Kc and Jc that came along for the ride were not. I checked, figuring that I'd be ready to play for stacks at this point. The only hand I was worried about was Ac10c, and that was a longshot. I didn't see KK as a viable holding for either V.
MP bet $50, eliciting a fold from OTB and bringing the action to me. I bet $150.00, and V1 quickly shoved for $20.00 more. I called, and he rolled over Kd10c, giving him straight and flush outs. However, two low red cards blanked for him, and I improved my stack by about $250.
On the second hand, I limped Ac10c in EP, and picked up three callers, including V in the SB who was probably the only guy there to have me covered (he had doubled up in the first hand after the table was formed with 67>26 on a 345Q2 board).
The flop was 5810r. The blinds checked to me, and I fired out $15 into the $20 pot. All but SB folded. The turn was a jack, putting two hearts on the board. V check-called my $30 bet, and I was prepared to check behind on just about any river.
The river was the As, giving me two pair and leaving no flush possible. SB checked to me. I considered my options for about 10 seconds, and bet $75. V snap-raised to $250. I went into the tank, and kept coming back to the possibility that either he was raising with air, or that we might be chopping. I ended up calling, and he rolled up Q9 for the turned straight.
In retrospect, his float on the flop was a good play given the stacks involved, and his check-call on the turn disguised it well. He was especially ballsy for checking the ace on the river, a card that could very well have killed his action.
After dinner and a short blackjack session, I returned to the tables and ended up booking a $75 loss on the night.
Saturday, I checked out of my hotel and crossed the border to the US side, and signed up for the 10am $100 tourney at Seneca Niagara. I found myself at the same table as a bunch of regulars. One regular in particular, an older guy in a fishing cap, was particular grouchy. When I check raised him on an AA85 board when holding AQ, he mucked disgustedly and told me that I was "too obvious". OK, then.
I would gain a measure of revenge when I busted him later when holding JQ on an 8s9s10d flop. Another regular and I got into a raising war with Grouchy Fisherman in the middle. By the time we were done, all of the chips were in the middle with me having both of them covered. Other Regular had 6h7h, Grouchy had JsKh, and they were drawing dead to a queen for Grouchy (which never came).
Thereafter, I went card dead and couldn't win a race as I doubled up a couple of shortys on my way to 21st place (no cash).
As this is getting long, I will summarize the balance of the trip in point form:
- afternoon cash session at $1/$2 resulted in a $250.00 loss. No highlights at all, except for getting to meet AVPer jkinsey435. She arrived just as I was leaving.
- returned for 7:00pm step one satellite for a $1500 event taking place next Saturday, featuring Grinder and Matusow, sponsored by DeepStacks University. I failed to last through the first level, getting all my chips in with top set on a J107 board, finding myself up against 8d9d who had called my 4x raise preflop. Since we only started with 2000 chips, all the chips going into the middle was academic. I failed to catch any full house outs.
- moved over to a $1/$2 cash game, where 6 hours of play resulted in a $405 profit. No huge hands, just a lot of grinding.
- Sunday: did some power shopping at the outlets from 10:00 to 10;40, got back in the car to return for the 11am $200 deepstack event. Was card dead early, then changed tables, where I managed to chip up until we reached the final table. With 61 runners, the top 7 were scheduled to get paid. We agreed to take $100 from each of 1st-6th, so that 8-10 could get their buy-ins back. I ended up busting in 9th with KK
I'm a highlight! Yay!
Let me know next time you're in town and we'll see if we can get a table together. Funny, I know exactly who you're talking about when you mention "Grouchy".
I was pretty card dead myself that night though I only took a $35 loss after all was said and done. I also didn't make it through the first level of that tourney, card dead there too and when I finally got some decent cards (A J suited) I met up with the pocket queens of the table chip leader. I think I saw 7-4 off 5 or 6 times and 8-2 off about the same number of times in that tourney. Oh well, it was fun.
3.5 weeks 'til Vegas.
wow the topset to the flopped str was brutal...and 4 bet you said
...on the A10 when u 2 paired river im torn between checking behind on the river and betting, if hes floating to make a play hes always betting this scare river so his check confuses me a little, also i dont think hes paying us off here after the ace hits other than posssibly a smaller 2 pair and he likely bets that on river ace too so check might be appropriate.
Someone recommend me to visit your website, I ran across the informations I sought out . Thanx
Yay, I got my own spammer!
as a canadian who plays both sides of the niagara falls border, my recommendation is not to play tournaments at seneca because of the 30% tax hold. in fact, even when in vegas (my residence most of the year) i wouldn't play tournaments on a visit because your small win could end up being confiscated by the government - at least temporarily. there is a slick move however. anyone can apply for a U.S. social security card. there is no designation of your citizenship on the physical card, and so when you win big you just present it to the tournament officials, presuming you are not bragging on being a canadian or wearing your team canada hockey jacket!
Can any of the people that play at these casinos provide some general information? I'm primarily a $1/$2 NL player and don't want to play $2/$5 or $2/$3 or some other variant.
What's the min and max buy-ins? What's the rake, is it 10% up to a certain amount or is a time raked? How are the players on both sides of the border, say compared to your typical Friday night Vegas strip NL game? How big does the game play as in standard preflop raise, typical stacks, etc?
My family lives in Western NY and I come home to visit for 1-2 weeks every year. Every once in a while I'll make the trip to Buffalo/Niagara Falls. I like to hit up the Ontario strip clubs
, and enjoy the bars and food in Buffalo, (Ulrich's Tavern, Charlie The Butcher, Ted's Hot Dogs).
Any advice anyone can give in the Niagara games would be appreciated and thanks in advance.
@nittastic
Couldn't tell you anything about the poker on the Canada side. I try to avoid Canada. lol (I don't have a passport or enhanced license) $1/$2 you can buy in for a max of $100 or $200. $100 max can go either tight or loose. Profitable if you are patient, usually. Typical pre-flop raises are $7. Typical stacks can range from $50 to $300 or $400. Friday nights are good because there is usually a good mix of locals and tourists. Tourists seem more willing to keep throwing money on the table. Compared to a typical Friday night strip game in Vegas it's probably a similar mix.
Next time you come up this way, let me know if you're going to the Seneca.
@jkinsey435
Couldn't tell you anything about the poker on the Canada side. I try to avoid Canada. lol (I don't have a passport or enhanced license) $1/$2 you can buy in for a max of $100 or $200. $100 max can go either tight or loose. Profitable if you are patient, usually. Typical pre-flop raises are $7. Typical stacks can range from $50 to $300 or $400. Friday nights are good because there is usually a good mix of locals and tourists. Tourists seem more willing to keep throwing money on the table. Compared to a typical Friday night strip game in Vegas it's probably a similar mix.
Next time you come up this way, let me know if you're going to the Seneca.[/quote]
Thanks for the info. I probably won't be back home until the earliest Thanksgiving. If I'm going to play I'll definitely post here. Also do you know what the rake is? I think it's 10% up to $5 + $1 for a jackpot drop but wanted to check.
@nittastic
Sadly, I don't. But the numbers you posted sound about right.
There are two casinos in Niagara Falls, ON.
The first is Casino Niagara, which spreads exclusively $1/$2 NLHE, and can get up to 12 tables running at a time. They also have the occasional SUPER HYPER MEGATURBO sit'n'goes which are nothing but luckfest crapshoots. Pretty sure that their rake is $5+$1. I believe that it's either $40/$200 or $40/$300 for the min/max buyins.
The second is Fallsview Casino, which spreads $2/$5NLHE or higher, ONLY. They don't rake, except for a $1 jackpot drop. Instead, they take session fees of $6/player every half hour. The good news there is that the $2/$5 plays a lot like a $1/$2 game, although I believe that there is a minimum buyin of $200.
If you're coming in, CALL AHEAD AND GET ON THE LIST. I cannot emphasize this enough, as you'll likely have about an hour's wait otherwise. Or come in, put your name on the list as a call-in, then go for dinner and come back.
Thanks Cashewz. I thought one of the Ontario casinos had a time rake. Not suprisgnly I'm a bit of a nit so time rake is a no go for me. Also factoring in that the conversion rate sucks right now for us back in the States I'll stick to the Seneca casino when I'm in town.