mikelbyl
Whatever. The rake is the rake, it's a fixed variable that you have to work around. Keep banging that drum all you like, but the rooms are all active, lots of action, great service, fun safe environments with all kinds of players, from total newbs up to full-time live pros and all kinds of hobbyists and degens.
jontm
Is the PokerMansion opened up yet in Kahnawake? Curious to see how they compare. Four Aces is closed, so wondering if they will do anything differently.
Pretty big names endorsing it. We'll see I guess. Competition is always good for the players.
mikelbyl
I have heard there's a date for Stardust: Dec 16. We'll see if that comes to pass.
There's a chance Four Aces will open again as well - there are very credible rumours floating about. I don't want to speed rumours like that on a public forum (they may not be true after all) but stay tuned.
On any weekday night in Montreal we already have (in total) about 30+ cash tables running plus another 25 tournament tables with more on weekends, and it's not 100% clear that the player pool can expand quickly enough to meet the additional capacity that is slated to be added - Stardust will have 16 tables total and Four Aces has 15 (or so).
mikelbyl
Oh if anyone's interested in making the trip there is another $1100 tourney on Dec 10 at noon. It's a two-day event with hour-long blind levels and a good structure. Top prize in the same tournament last month was $42K. This one should sell out at 170 players.
GTA Poker
mikelbyl;288461 wroteWhatever. The rake is the rake, it's a fixed variable that you have to work around. Keep banging that drum all you like, but the rooms are all active, lots of action, great service, fun safe environments with all kinds of players, from total newbs up to full-time live pros and all kinds of hobbyists and degens.
fixed variables ftw
JimmyHo
I ended up at the Casino du Montreal. Was able to squeak out a $200/hr profit. Very tame 2/5 game and lot of players calling down with nothing. Think max rake is $10 plus BBJ.
BlondeFish
mikelbyl;288450 wroteIf anyone has any real questions about Playground, I'm a pretty regular player there and elsewhere around Montreal.
Is Playground or any of the other poker clubs legally licensed by the government? I would have thought that Casino du Montreal and Loto-Quebec would be pressuring the authorities to enforce the Criminal Code of Canada, just like the FBI shut down PokerStars & FTP in the US.
jontm
BlondeFish;288553 wroteIs Playground or any of the other poker clubs legally licensed by the government? I would have thought that Casino du Montreal and Loto-Quebec would be pressuring the authorities to enforce the Criminal Code of Canada, just like the FBI shut down PokerStars & FTP in the US.
Two words. Mohawk Standoff
Aka OKA.
No, they are licensed by the KGC, and considered as part of a soviern territory. There is a Montreal reporter that is constantly stirring the pot on this issue.
Is it worth a massive political mess, possibly bloodshed to enforce the issue?
Milo
One Nation . . . One Law. If it's good enough for our First Nations, it ought to be good enough for the rest of us. And as long as they are taking the Queen's gold, you can blow "sovereign territory" out your wazoo. At least these cardrooms are showing the government up for the hypocrites that they are.
jontm
Cardrooms are just the tip of the iceberg of course, it's like 40-60% of online gambling site servers in the world are run out of there. Government must have their reasons to back off. I agree with the one nation one law, but on the other hand treaties left very little, so if they capitalize on what they have, good on them
mikelbyl
I don't want to get in to the politics of it, but 90% of Canadian-based Indian Nations have never signed (nor been asked to sign) a treaty ceding their sovereignty. In fact in a very real way Canada wouldn't exist at all if not for the Mohawks saving the British bacon time and time again. Canada has routinely broken most of the treaties is has signed with natives as well. There is no moral or legal high ground for Canada related to natives anywhere in Canada.
The government doesn't test any of this in law because the best legal opinion is that they'd lose (I studied all of this stuff pretty extensively back in my studying days).
Anyhow these are legally licensed live poker rooms under the authority of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and I can tell you from personal observation that the KGC takes their regulatory authority very seriously as do the rooms. It's a very tight ship as far as I can tell.
jontm
They do better regulating than AGLC, give them that for sure.
What was up with this HHPT event though? Heard nothing about it till a few days before?
Only 49 ladies, at that low of a buy-in, pretty poor turnout. Given that they also had Valerie Ross and Jennicide attend, and I'm betting at a cost, it seems that the house would have taken a shit kicking on this event. The Legends Banquet and event looks like it didnt do nearly as well as the NLH; maybe just too much so close together, costing some "flair"?
Wondering if next weeks 1k will see a significant drop as well? It's getting very close to christmas/holiday spending season and with so many "major" events they hopefully won't get into the Alberta trap of "might as well wait for the next one next week", and start seeing just "average" fields.
mikelbyl
The HHPT tourney didn't get a ton of promo - but I think 49 women (minus some who travelled to the event) may be the entire "regular" roster of women players in Montreal. Thing about a series like that is that you never know how the promo responsibilities break down between the host and the series organizers.
The Legends banquet had 123 players for the tournament (Jon are/were you one of the Canada Poker guys there? I'm the guy in the photo gallery looking at his cards scowling with a shockingly high forehead) but few that I talked to were interested in the banquet part of it - I'm sure there are many who love that kind of thing, but isn't one of the hallmarks of poker players that we prefer to square off against people across the table as equals? I'm not sure how often then can go to the "hockey legends" well, though, and you're right that going there twice in three months might have been a bit much. Many of the players that I spoke with were mostly interested in the fact that they hoped it would be a slightly softer tourney than many others at that price lol.
As of today I understand that next week's 1K has 123 registered players, so I expect it will be close to a sell out.
jontm
Good to hear about 1k, was starting to think things were cooling down over there.
Nope, I was not there, I freelance for them, great guys and I love the site, but I live and am in Calgary.
I did go check out the club earlier in the year though, but was just a quick eat and crash as we drove to Foxwoods next day. Thought food was fantastic!
Also checked out Four Aces and Snakes, Montreal scene is pretty damn sweet!
jontm
mikelbyl;288463 wrote.
There's a chance Four Aces will open again as well - there are very credible rumours floating about. I don't want to speed rumours like that on a public forum (they may not be true after all) but stay tuned.
I'm ok with rumours, seeing how a few of my investor friends were already approached about this...
On a side note...I see a certain Tour group polling players to see what name a "new" cardroom should have. I also the same people where trying to help close a deal and that some Toronto players had bought it, but then KGC pulled thier license....
As a matter of fact if you google Four Aces Poker, there is a search result looking to bring in inestors/sell.
Unless someone has truckloads of cash to try to be competivitve, they dont have a hope in hell. JK has been running the poker scene long before Montreal even got onboard so it's going to be hard to convert players.
mikelbyl
Well Snakes has reduced their rake to $5 max for all games, all limits. They're billing it as the lowest rake in Canada.
Snakes has maintained a very strong tournament footprint but their cash games dropped for a while - and then seemed to rally in the early fall.
I have a pretty good idea of what went on with Four Aces last spring as well (I was there for certain events) - but the interesting thing is that there seems to be an entirely new local investor in the mix, and according to the KGC their license has been reinstated though they will still require approval to reopen. And their sign, which has been dark for months, is now lit up at night - if that means anything.
Playground's 1st anniversary is Dec 17 and Stardust is slated to open on the 16th with a VIP opening a few days earlier.
Whatever happens, we're facing a future here that is good for players (competition is good) but not necessarily sustainable. Added to the Casino's 15+ tables open every night there are right now between 10-20+ tables distributed between Snakes and PG. It's possible that in two months you'll add capacity for at LEAST 10 more cash tables (ignoring tournaments entirely for the moment)... it's clear something has to give.
How many places in the world could support a top capacity of over 60+ cash tables spread over 5 rooms? And with almost NO poker-destination business in the mix? How many tables are open nightly in Edmonton or Calgary - both with what I think is a much longer history of organized legal poker? What is the top capacity in Vancouver?
ReefAquarium
mikelbyl;289527 wroteWell Snakes has reduced their rake to $5 max for all games, all limits. They're billing it as the lowest rake in Canada.
Snakes has maintained a very strong tournament footprint but their cash games dropped for a while - and then seemed to rally in the early fall.
Does that $5 max also include a hated BBJ?
Reduced rake is great news. How do they drop/structure their rake?
I hear they have a hated bad beat jackpot with a mandatory 5% gratuity?
mikelbyl
No it's +1 for the BBJ for every hand with a flop iirc. Pretty sure rake is 10% max $5 for hands with a flop. Pretty sure chop pot = no rake but not 100% sure. I don't know about the gratuity on the BBJ.
There are probably 400+ regular-ish players in Mtl who love the BBJ. Some cause they want to hit it, others because it brings out non-regs who want to hit it (and who play relatively softly lol).
cardsrusa
Mikelbyl though the GBH does not offer no limit I am surprised to here that some one is claiming to have the lowest rake in Canada without doing their homework. The GBH had its rake at 5% to a max of $5 for several months and yes +$1 for the Bad Beat on all of its games (except Omaha).
ReefAquarium
Is the rake still $25 for the 10/25 and $100 for the $50/100.
Isn't that bad for Playground since they kill their games far too quickly?
It makes the $8 at Fallsview 10/25 ok like a bargain!