Casino de Montreal : Trip Report
Casino de Montreal Trip Report
The Casino itself:
I haven't been to many different casinos so I don't have much to compare this to other than the Brantford Casino.
So I'll start by saying casinos really are built to keep people in. My goal when I entered was to find the poker room, which was easy. However my friend who doesn't play cards and isn't a fan of the casino decided he'd like to head home and it took us 20 minutes to find our way back to the entrance we came in at. If you wanted to go to the first floor you had to go down 3 times, up twice and then down twice.
The style of the overall casino was pretty typical, big flashing lights, the same game markers that they have in Brantford.
The poker room was in it's own area with a glowing escalator welcoming you upstairs. It was unique to the rest of the casino in terms of it's style, it was like you were being transported to a different world from the rest of the place which was bright and cheery. Once you got to the top, the lighting was very dim (they have only e-tables) with an information space at the top of the escalator. Like most places in Montreal, people are bi-lingual so communication wasn't too much of a hassle.
The Process:
Approaching the information desk, a service employee greeted me in both English and French and I asked how the process worked. You can tell he'd explained it 100 times before but I'll paraphrase.
1) You are given a card with your name on it (I used Zunni) and informed about the PIN number which is 9999 for all the cards (with no way to change it that I was able to scout out)
2) You go to the cashier and put money on the card (I talk about this in more detail in the next section)
3) You then go to a terminal where you swipe your card and select which games you would like to be on a list for.
4) You can then go to the bar upstairs to wait and watch several HUGE television sets
After you get called:
The tables are clearly numbered by hanging placards above each one. I saw at least 25 tables, most of which were always running games. The display on the machine shows your name so you can clearly see where you are to be seated. You change the language to english (if you want) and insert the card. It asks you how if you'd like to put the minimum into play, the suggested, or the entire amount. So what this means is, you can preload as much onto the card as you want but you'd have to fiddle with rebuying for combinations of the recommended and minimum to find an amount that's close to, or exactly how much you want to put into play. I didn't see a way to enter another amount.
The game itself:
Pretty much a giant video screen in the middle of the table with the chip counts, who has cards, the action currently, the board. You enter your action on your screen using a touch screen. To fold takes a double-selection, call, raise both require a single click (so you can't accidently muck those aces). I did accidently call a pre-flop once when I meant to muck (that was a lack of paying attention). The action is stated in french suit = call, voir = check etc.. but the cards that show up are english so JJ was possible. (the rest of the casino uses french decks, I bought a used BlackJack one, I'll scan them in and add them to this post) The machine is pretty 'neat' from a technological perspective. However, the longer I was there, the more stuttery the machine became, action took longer to register and things like the flop animation came out stuttery. On 2 occasions the game got 'paused' after what seemed to be a short reboot. We had to call the floor over to 'reset' things. No action was lost and things were exactly as they were left pre-glitch.
Things I didn't like:
The darkness, and lack of central figure talking combined for a very quiet table. Even though at one point I was the only native english speaker at the table, the rest stayed silent. So it very much looked like a bunch of hardcore gambling addicts getting their fix more than a social event. Now that didn't necessarily seem to be the case at all of the other tables. A couple had talkers (including one guy a couple of tables over who wouldn't shut up about every bad beat he'd taken since Trudeau was prime minister) but the majority were silent.
There were no chips, you needed a pocket full of change to tip the wait staff. I think this may hurt their tipping amounts because it's easy to toss a waitress a white chip for a drink, but digging through your pockets for 4 quarters is a pain.
Giant TV's right beside us, because there's no chips to concentrate on and you might be waiting a while to play a hand, they are likely provided to give the less observant players something to do. The issue wasn't that they were there, but rather the distraction from the flickering lights (in the darkness) constantly distracted your eyes and occasionally made it difficult to look at an opponent
Dance Music, I don't know WHO thought it would be a good idea to re-record many pop music tunes in dance form, but that's what I was treated to at a reasonably loud volume the entire time I was there. Talk about another distraction...
The machine made some skills obsolete. Gaining a feeling about how much is in a pot by either look or calculation is now provided for every player free of charge (as an example)
The min limits were bad. In fact 1 player bought in for the min 4 times on a pre-loaded card. They need to raise them because playing for max $30 from one player is not a good time.
Things I liked:
The quiet didn't scare off the fish, the players were exactly the same as I've come to know and love at the BCC, in fact I swear I saw several of the regulars dopplegangers at the table. They resembled the players and played almost identically to them. I felt like I was home
The game was fairly easy to understand, and drew new players in easily. There wasn't a lot of time spent teaching someone sitting down how to play.
---
So now that I've done the 'technical' look at the casino here's how I did. Well I chose 3/6 limit because that's the game I play in Brantford. (not the amount, the type of game)
Short version: bought in for $100, rebought for $60. Left at $165.75 profit = 5.75
Basically, I won a few large pots against people who would call any and all raises. I bluffed 2 pots against players I had scoped out as being able to know to lay down a hand. I had pocket pairs (2-9) about 7 times, didn't raise with any, and didn't hit any sets. I lost with A-Q 3x, A-K 2x, K's 1x, Q's 3x, J's 1x, and T's 1x. I won with AA's 2x, A-K 2x.
I couldn't hit a flush to save my life (4 hands I had 15 outs and didn't hit one of them). The typical player played ATC and would hit 2 pair on the flop or turn. So again, typical low-limit poker.
All in all, it's a nice room, the e-tables are less expensive with a few glitchy pieces of the puzzle but overall it's a good poker experience.
Oh the games they spread
Limit 3/6 was the only game running when I was there (rake was 10% up to $5)
No-Limit 1/2, 2/5, 5/10 several tables of each
S-N-G's: there were 3 a $115, a $150, and a $225. I think there may have been an interest list for a $550 as well but I may be mistaken about that.
I can't think of anything else to include right now, if you have any questions, please ask away!
The Casino itself:
I haven't been to many different casinos so I don't have much to compare this to other than the Brantford Casino.
So I'll start by saying casinos really are built to keep people in. My goal when I entered was to find the poker room, which was easy. However my friend who doesn't play cards and isn't a fan of the casino decided he'd like to head home and it took us 20 minutes to find our way back to the entrance we came in at. If you wanted to go to the first floor you had to go down 3 times, up twice and then down twice.
The style of the overall casino was pretty typical, big flashing lights, the same game markers that they have in Brantford.
The poker room was in it's own area with a glowing escalator welcoming you upstairs. It was unique to the rest of the casino in terms of it's style, it was like you were being transported to a different world from the rest of the place which was bright and cheery. Once you got to the top, the lighting was very dim (they have only e-tables) with an information space at the top of the escalator. Like most places in Montreal, people are bi-lingual so communication wasn't too much of a hassle.
The Process:
Approaching the information desk, a service employee greeted me in both English and French and I asked how the process worked. You can tell he'd explained it 100 times before but I'll paraphrase.
1) You are given a card with your name on it (I used Zunni) and informed about the PIN number which is 9999 for all the cards (with no way to change it that I was able to scout out)
2) You go to the cashier and put money on the card (I talk about this in more detail in the next section)
3) You then go to a terminal where you swipe your card and select which games you would like to be on a list for.
4) You can then go to the bar upstairs to wait and watch several HUGE television sets
After you get called:
The tables are clearly numbered by hanging placards above each one. I saw at least 25 tables, most of which were always running games. The display on the machine shows your name so you can clearly see where you are to be seated. You change the language to english (if you want) and insert the card. It asks you how if you'd like to put the minimum into play, the suggested, or the entire amount. So what this means is, you can preload as much onto the card as you want but you'd have to fiddle with rebuying for combinations of the recommended and minimum to find an amount that's close to, or exactly how much you want to put into play. I didn't see a way to enter another amount.
The game itself:
Pretty much a giant video screen in the middle of the table with the chip counts, who has cards, the action currently, the board. You enter your action on your screen using a touch screen. To fold takes a double-selection, call, raise both require a single click (so you can't accidently muck those aces). I did accidently call a pre-flop once when I meant to muck (that was a lack of paying attention). The action is stated in french suit = call, voir = check etc.. but the cards that show up are english so JJ was possible. (the rest of the casino uses french decks, I bought a used BlackJack one, I'll scan them in and add them to this post) The machine is pretty 'neat' from a technological perspective. However, the longer I was there, the more stuttery the machine became, action took longer to register and things like the flop animation came out stuttery. On 2 occasions the game got 'paused' after what seemed to be a short reboot. We had to call the floor over to 'reset' things. No action was lost and things were exactly as they were left pre-glitch.
Things I didn't like:
The darkness, and lack of central figure talking combined for a very quiet table. Even though at one point I was the only native english speaker at the table, the rest stayed silent. So it very much looked like a bunch of hardcore gambling addicts getting their fix more than a social event. Now that didn't necessarily seem to be the case at all of the other tables. A couple had talkers (including one guy a couple of tables over who wouldn't shut up about every bad beat he'd taken since Trudeau was prime minister) but the majority were silent.
There were no chips, you needed a pocket full of change to tip the wait staff. I think this may hurt their tipping amounts because it's easy to toss a waitress a white chip for a drink, but digging through your pockets for 4 quarters is a pain.
Giant TV's right beside us, because there's no chips to concentrate on and you might be waiting a while to play a hand, they are likely provided to give the less observant players something to do. The issue wasn't that they were there, but rather the distraction from the flickering lights (in the darkness) constantly distracted your eyes and occasionally made it difficult to look at an opponent
Dance Music, I don't know WHO thought it would be a good idea to re-record many pop music tunes in dance form, but that's what I was treated to at a reasonably loud volume the entire time I was there. Talk about another distraction...
The machine made some skills obsolete. Gaining a feeling about how much is in a pot by either look or calculation is now provided for every player free of charge (as an example)
The min limits were bad. In fact 1 player bought in for the min 4 times on a pre-loaded card. They need to raise them because playing for max $30 from one player is not a good time.
Things I liked:
The quiet didn't scare off the fish, the players were exactly the same as I've come to know and love at the BCC, in fact I swear I saw several of the regulars dopplegangers at the table. They resembled the players and played almost identically to them. I felt like I was home
The game was fairly easy to understand, and drew new players in easily. There wasn't a lot of time spent teaching someone sitting down how to play.
---
So now that I've done the 'technical' look at the casino here's how I did. Well I chose 3/6 limit because that's the game I play in Brantford. (not the amount, the type of game)
Short version: bought in for $100, rebought for $60. Left at $165.75 profit = 5.75
Basically, I won a few large pots against people who would call any and all raises. I bluffed 2 pots against players I had scoped out as being able to know to lay down a hand. I had pocket pairs (2-9) about 7 times, didn't raise with any, and didn't hit any sets. I lost with A-Q 3x, A-K 2x, K's 1x, Q's 3x, J's 1x, and T's 1x. I won with AA's 2x, A-K 2x.
I couldn't hit a flush to save my life (4 hands I had 15 outs and didn't hit one of them). The typical player played ATC and would hit 2 pair on the flop or turn. So again, typical low-limit poker.
All in all, it's a nice room, the e-tables are less expensive with a few glitchy pieces of the puzzle but overall it's a good poker experience.
Oh the games they spread
Limit 3/6 was the only game running when I was there (rake was 10% up to $5)
No-Limit 1/2, 2/5, 5/10 several tables of each
S-N-G's: there were 3 a $115, a $150, and a $225. I think there may have been an interest list for a $550 as well but I may be mistaken about that.
I can't think of anything else to include right now, if you have any questions, please ask away!
Comments
I don't think so. Link please?
Oh, one more thing I didn't mention and wanted to ensure I did. Phil Laak has his face everywhere around the poker room (on elevators, placards etc). Wonder if he's the official 'poker-rep' for the casino
Jan.25 entry - Lac Leamy Casino
I am pretty sure Laak has financial interest in Pokertek, the company that makes these electronic tables. I was at Lac Leamy on opening night and he was supposed to show but didn't make it.
Ahhh that would make sense then.
Yeah Lac Leamy is not the same casino as the Montreal one (different cities) but the experience would be very similar. Reading All_Aces report now.