TR: Casino Rama Deals Excitement - Big Time!

BlondeFish

Continued....

First Place Procedures
Having seen the first-place procedures at Fallsview when a friend from K-W won the final WPT event, the following is what happens at Rama. After we made the deal, a final hand is required where Duffy goes all-in then mucks his hand, probably so that there can be a video record of me officially winning the tournament. Just like at Brantford, they get confused on where the puck should be on the first hand of heads-up, but I don't bother correcting them. I end up with a full house so I have horseshoes up the wazoo even with a fake hand!

When the staff mentioned if I wanted the casino photographer to take pictures with the first-place final hand and other publicity stuff, Duffy got excited and asked if second place gets his picture taken too, but they said only first-place. I was thinking "Meh, I don't care. Just show me the money!" and I asked if they can take a photo of Duffy instead and put him in the casino newsletter, etc., but they said that Duffy will have to be officially recorded as the first place winner. I thought, "How can compuease or other skeptics believe that I won first place when the official record shows somebody else?" I asked if Duffy can be in the photo with me to make him happy and they said yes. Duffy was indeed very happy but now wanted to "freshen up" first and go to his hotel room to take a shower! I thought to myself that even if I freshened up and had an extreme makeover, I'll still look more like Mike Duffy than Patrik Antonius, so why bother?

I was asked if I wanted the $5,985 amount in cash or cheque, and I asked for a cheque as usual. The first time I made a decent cash in a casino tournament, I mistakenly asked for $500 or $1,000 bills but it seems that Canada has nothing larger than $100 bills so I had the nice problem of not being able to close my wallet. I met another player from Oakville who cashed higher, and I asked for Brantford security to escort us to our cars. When I got home, my wife looked at me and asked, "So did you get lucky at the casino or are you just happy to see me?"

Another reason is that with cash, my wife can ask if it was all withdrawn from the ATM, but with a cheque, I can prove my winnings and I can asthma wife if I can go out to play poker again. I was asked if I wanted a huge presentation cheque and I said sure. I love unfurling those to my family and it makes for a nice souvenir long after my wife has deposited the cheque "for a rainy day" (that will probably never come).

Rama has the weird procedure of giving you only cash in the poker room, then having to walk all the way to the other end of the casino just to convert the cash to a cheque. Imagine if Fallsview required the K-W winner to carry his $1.3 million in cash from the tournament area down in the ballroom all the way up the escalators to the VIP cashier just to get his cheque! I held on to the $5,985 cash in my pocket and felt like calling for Brantford security again, but a casino bigwig escorted me to the cheque room. The employees looked as the bigwig walked with me as if it was Donald Trump walking around his casino.

I was ready to leave with my two cheques, but Duffy was nowhere to be found and had not finished freshening up. I asked if he can have his photo taken by himself without needing the first-place person to be with him, and Rama was nice enough to do it for him. As I was leaving, I finally saw Duffy all freshened up with a new set of clothes and shook his hand goodbye.

Structure
By doubling the starting chips to 10,000, Rama's structure is much better compared to before. While Patience Factor is useful for showing how much play you get for your money before you get blinded off, it does not measure how the structure is at the late levels when the money matters most. Rama's blind structure is similar to OLG's normal blind structure ("A"), while OLG structure "B" used in the $330-$1,090 Deep Stacks is much better.

As Wetts1012 mentioned to me, Rama jumps too much in some levels (like OLG's "A" structure), e.g.,
- The CPR (cost per round) more than doubles (2.3x) :-[ from 300 in Level 4 to 700 in Level 5 (150/300 + 25)!
- CPR goes up 1.6x from Level 6 to 7 (200/400+25 to 300/600+50).
- CPR goes up 1.8x from Level 11 to 12 (1K/2K+200 to 2K/4K+300) so the remaining final table becomes a turbo.

While it took only 7 hours when I won the Rama tournament, it took 11 hours for the Brantford $300+$30 Deep Stack with the same ~60 players, and over 12 hours for the $550 Deep Stack. While bad players usually prefer quick crapshoots, skilled players usually think "the more play, the better."

Since 60 savvy players have been buying up all the seats every time, I have suggested to Rama that the buy-in be increased for at least some dates, e.g., $380+$20 or $475+$25 starting in October.

Hobbes

Very nice

pkrfce9

Congrats! How about some of the big hands or significant moves you made based on amazing soul reads?

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 4 Beta

compuease

Yeh, come on, give us the secrets!

Flopped_Nuts

Damn you Blondefish!

We played 3 hands against one another and both made final table and I didn't even know you were you. Worst part is you took me out of the final table!

Question 1- what did you have on our first hand that I folded to you on the flop within the first 30 mins I arrived at the table?
Question 2- which player was the one you refer to as Duffy?
Question 3- can we chop first since I helped you on your way to the top? Haha....

What are you playing next? Brantford has another deepstack sunday $230 buy-in. I am thinking about it but am also thinking of just doing the cottage thing after my horrible 4% outer river card bad beat at Brantford on sunday.

BlondeFish

Flopped_Nuts;356714 wroteQuestion 1- what did you have on our first hand that I folded to you on the flop within the first 30 mins I arrived at the table?

Your memory is better than mine now. Do you remember the flop or the other hand we played?

Question 2- which player was the one you refer to as Duffy?

Seat 5. He was the chipleader when final table started, & was willing to make a chop 10-way!

Question 3- can we chop first since I helped you on your way to the top? Haha....

wifey haz al teh moniez, i stil haz no goodiez!

What are you playing next? Brantford has another deepstack sunday $230 buy-in.

I'll be at the Forumers' Night Out At Woodbine II this Saturday. I may also play at Brantford and/or Fallsview.

Flopped_Nuts

BlondeFish;356779 wroteYour memory is better than mine now. Do you remember the flop or the other hand we played?

Seat 5. He was the chipleader when final table started, & was willing to make a chop 10-way!

wifey haz al teh moniez, i stil haz no goodiez!

I'll be at the Forumers' Night Out At Woodbine II this Saturday. I may also play at Brantford and/or Fallsview.

I don't recall the flop specifically, but it was heads up and I thought you might have been buying the pot on the first hand. It wasn't a big hand anyway....just wondered.

Keep wifey away from the poker winnings...haha

westside8

Congrats on the bink.

GTA Poker

westside8;356920 wroteCongrats on the bink.

It lives

Monoxide

Nice win, I just bought my ticket online for this exact tourney on the 12th in 5 days.

In poker I mostly play 2/5nl at fallsview and rama and PLO cash online but like i said before I havnt played a tourney at rama in ages so very im excited.

Id imagine the field is very soft and every though kind of a gamble structure I play a lot of turbos online so I think it wont be too bad for me. >:D

I really hope I dont have to pay bubble or do a deal unless its HU or 3 handed maybe, if its randoms I wont but ill probably have to cave in if its regs.

BlondeFish

Anybody else going to today's sold-out tourney besides forum newbies Monoxide and Flopped_Nuts? Hopefully, Rama will soon be part of the Forumers' Tour of Newly Renovated Casino Restaurants.

Monoxide

im not going to be playing this one today, instead im playing the one on Sept 9th. Already got 3 nights booked at Rama, 2 comped, 1 for $99 bucks, so its like a mini-poker vacation.

I play so much online that I enjoy not having to think and play at rama :P #excited

BlondeFish

Anybody else besides Monoxide and me going to Casino Rama or Woodbine's first-ever SNG today?

Monoxide;359015 wroteinstead im playing the one on Sept 9th. Already got 3 nights booked at Rama, 2 comped, 1 for $99 bucks, so its like a mini-poker vacation.

I play so much online that I enjoy not having to think and play at rama :P #excited

Monoxide

Was up so late playing 2/5 but ill be there haha zzzzz booked $1725 profit tho

D. Negreanu

Did not play the tournament but was at Rama. Did any of you here that announcement of 2/5 limit and 2/5 UNlimit? LOL. It's no limit you bimbo:D.

If you guys are ever there like maybe noonish we should grab a drink, (mind you I am planning a trip to Niagara Falls end of October so don't know how much more I will be playing at rama), it looked like I was going to be gone by then as the morning started off good but then went pretty meh and finished off crazy come afternoon. :)

Monoxide

First time ive met a forumer at a casino, was nice to meet blondefish. I had 2 super fish at my 2/5 table so i couldnt go grab some food but dont worry it was worth itttttt... Im drunk and up $900 lol yum yum

BlondeFish

D. Negreanu;359915 wroteDid any of you here that announcement of 2/5 limit and 2/5 UNlimit? LOL. It's no limit you bimbo:D.

LOL. I think she was inexperienced as a poker room supervisor. She would go to the tournament area to ask the other supervisors questions. I've read the Casino Rama house rules, so I think I know them more than her!

Speaking of the rules, the dealers at the tournament kept forgetting that in an all-in, ALL hands must be shown before the board is run or the pot awarded. Unlike a cash game, you have to show your all-in hand in a tournament, but the dealers kept letting the players improperly muck without turning over the hand.

If you guys are ever there like maybe noonish we should grab a drink, (mind you I am planning a trip to Niagara Falls end of October so don't know how much more I will be playing at rama)

Unfortunately for me, it's hard enough to make the long drive with unexpected traffic to make it to the first hand of the tourney. Unlike a lot of players, I never drink alcohol before or during a poker game.

By the way, Rama is the busiest place for cash games on tournament Mondays, busier than both Woodbine and Fallsview. Now that Woodbine's SNG cherry has been popped, it needs to copy Rama's tournament model and start preparing for MTTs.

piggypie123

BlondeFish;359948 wrote
Unfortunately for me, it's hard enough to make the long drive with unexpected traffic to make it to the first hand of the tourney. Unlike a lot of players, I never drink alcohol before or during a poker game.

Have a coffee then, :)

BlondeFish

The great news is that Casino Rama will increase the maximum players and prize pool by 1/3 more starting in October! There can be up to 80 players (from 60) and $22,800 prize pool. :cool:

piggypie123;359951 wroteHave a coffee then, :)

Good idea, I like to order energy drinks like at the Forumers' Night Out At Woodstock.