Update from TurningStone
Well halfway thru day 1, here are the tourney results...
300+30 nolimit
Jermery 1st out
Eric 2nd
Rob 3rd
Jules still in....
211 players in tourney apx 65 players left..top 27 pay out..
-Rob
go jules go!!!!
300+30 nolimit
Jermery 1st out
Eric 2nd
Rob 3rd
Jules still in....
211 players in tourney apx 65 players left..top 27 pay out..
-Rob
go jules go!!!!
Comments
Scott just arrived he is playing cash games..
-Rob
I decided against playing the Saturday tournament partially because I heard there were a bunch of satellites to the Sunday tournament run on Saturday so I decided to give those a shot instead; and partially because there was no way I was going to be able to get to at 5 or 6 in the morning on Saturday to make it there on time.
I played 3-6 on Saturday, and ended up down about $30. No particularly memorable hands, although I did find it neat that on one hand I flopped top set with 66. :cool:
Also on Saturday I tried a 3-table satellite to Sunday's tourney (side note: *nobody* played the Sunday tourney, even though that was sort of one of the reasons reason to go there this weekend). I basically played only one hand, pushing all-in for 1,500 UTG with 88, blinds 100-200. Called all-in short for 1,100 from mid-position with AQo. River brings the Ace and I'm almost GHN. I'm pot committed form the BB with only 200 more behind, and I lose when the button's AKs holds up against my any two cards. (JTo)
I'm wondering if going all-in with the 88 was the right play here. At the time, I was thinking that the blinds are going to be *murder* since they double (instead of smoother levels) every 15 minutes, and are scheduled to double soon. I figured I'm happy to take a coin toss now from a loose player, or possibly get a tight player to release something like 99 or TT. I'm not sure I'm going to get a different outcome whatever I did, but that's not a good way to think about strategy.
What if I had raised smaller? Can I actually get away from the hand at this point if I hate the flop? (The actual flop was remarkably undercards to the 88.) How about only limping in? At the time, I considered, and decided against that, since there had been very few pre-flops without a raise.
Sunday was a short session because everybody else was leaving in the afternoon so I thought I might as well too. I played 5-10, and ended up around +$180. Dealt AA three times in an hour, and they held up twice. For the trip, I came back with $21 more than I brought, (don't spend it all at 21 Dollaramas!) including taking some non-poker losses like hotel, gas, food. (I know, not the proper was to compute the bankroll...)
Turning stone was pretty cool. The dealers were very highly skilled, and the room was very well run. I rarely had a long wait for a seat, even though it was insanely crowded there. I liked their method of calling people on the waiting lists... it was like "SG 3-6 holdem, SG" [pause 1.4 seconds] "Last Call" [pause 0.8 seconds] "YZ 3-6 holdem, YZ", etc. This really keeps the list moving, but the downside is that if you are on the list, you have to stay in the poker room while waiting and pay close very close attention to the list & announcements. This is in stark contrast to Brantford, where I once heard the same person called for 5-10 for *45 minutes*, including 3 last calls. You could also order food and have it belivered to the table, which is pretty sweet. Overall, a very well run room.
It seemed like they had a $3 rake (not $3 max, just $3 period) for every pot with a flop and over $10. This seems to make 1-3, and 2-4 pretty much unplayable, and 3-6 difficult. But it seems like a good deal for the higher limits. They also had 1-2 (blinds) NL, $100 max buy-in, which I didn't end up trying, but sounded quite juicy. Not sure what the collection was there, but if they used the $3 per hand system, that might be a little brutal.
Anyway, overall, it was a fun trip, and Turning Stone turned out to be not too far from Ottawa (about 3h 15 min with no border delay, or 5h 15 min with a 2 hour border delay). It was a fun time!
ScottyZ
Now that you mentioned it, I never got ID'ed once while there, nor did I ever see anyone get ID'ed while I was there. There seemed to be too many entry points to the casino floor to make ID on entry possible, so I assume they would just ID people at the tables if they were going to.
One other thing that was unique that I forgot to mention was that they seemed to be offering low-limit Omaha8, Stud, and Stud8. The Stud and Stud8 were going for sure at some points, but I can't remember for sure if the Omaha8 was actually being dealt. First time I've ever seen Omaha8 and Stud going outside of Vegas myself, and Stud8 anywhere including Vegas. I also saw at some points, 50-100 Holdem (only 3-handed at the time I saw it though), and $5-$10 (blinds) NL, $300 minimum buy-in. That is a pretty *huge* NL game. It seems like they are perfectly willing to deal any game at all if there's enough interest.
Sloth, I kept my eye open for you for PLO (or just any Omaha Hi), but no dice. :cool:
ScottyZ