Fallsview Trip Report
Ok, this was my first extended visit in the Fallsview poker room. Played Friday afternoon, saturday and sunday morning to afternoon. While Friday and Sunday were profitable Saturday was a complete write off.
Waiting times: A+ With fallsview allowing you to call in advance, I never waited more than 10 minutes to get into a game. When I arrived on Friday I was told get some chips your in. Rama are you listening?????
Dealers: C While I did have on dealer who I thought was exceptional, for the most part they are average at best. Some dealers seemed to be interested in anything but the game. Had 2 dealers who were nothing less than horrible. In a session fee game do NOT stop the action to colour up a players chips to the tune of $800. One dealer we had dealt no more than 5 hands in 20 minutes and had no control of the game. I asked for a dinner button because I couldn't take her any longer. Several times the dealers did interfer with someone trying to table their cards, but all tabled cards got tabled and nothing got fished from the muck.
Session fee: D Despite all arguments I don't see a compelling reason for the session fee over a rake. Paying $12/hr to play poker if you see a lot of hands would probably cause me to alter that opinion but with the staff I saw, I'd prefer a 2/5 NL game that was raked.
Players B- I expected more fish on the weekend, however my table on Saturday had one fish 6 very LAGGY players and a couple of older nits. On average the LAGS have the game down pat. I watched as I checked my AKo after missing the flop, next guy bets, next guy re raises, I get out, to watch them both get all in with AKo as well. No wonder we didn't hit anything.
Atmosphere B+ While I like the layout of the poker room and the casino in general, Saturday and Sunday was freezing there. I know it's nice out but it was a little too chilly especially for those of us in short sleeves and shorts.
Cards C- While not the fault of fallsview, I was card dead for a day and a half. Over 3 days did not see AA or QQ or JJ and never hit a set with a small pocket. Did see KK 5 times and I lost to a straight when I flopped top set and 10 10 at least 3 times. That in a nutshell explains my very bad Saturday.
Over all Will repeat, if I'm in the neighbourhood, but I'd still rather hit up Rama due to driving distance, raking the pot and player quality. If Rama allowed a phone in it would be decision. Never saw Kristy so I didn't have to deal with her PDA but there were a few there that probably rivalled what she is capable of...
Waiting times: A+ With fallsview allowing you to call in advance, I never waited more than 10 minutes to get into a game. When I arrived on Friday I was told get some chips your in. Rama are you listening?????
Dealers: C While I did have on dealer who I thought was exceptional, for the most part they are average at best. Some dealers seemed to be interested in anything but the game. Had 2 dealers who were nothing less than horrible. In a session fee game do NOT stop the action to colour up a players chips to the tune of $800. One dealer we had dealt no more than 5 hands in 20 minutes and had no control of the game. I asked for a dinner button because I couldn't take her any longer. Several times the dealers did interfer with someone trying to table their cards, but all tabled cards got tabled and nothing got fished from the muck.
Session fee: D Despite all arguments I don't see a compelling reason for the session fee over a rake. Paying $12/hr to play poker if you see a lot of hands would probably cause me to alter that opinion but with the staff I saw, I'd prefer a 2/5 NL game that was raked.
Players B- I expected more fish on the weekend, however my table on Saturday had one fish 6 very LAGGY players and a couple of older nits. On average the LAGS have the game down pat. I watched as I checked my AKo after missing the flop, next guy bets, next guy re raises, I get out, to watch them both get all in with AKo as well. No wonder we didn't hit anything.
Atmosphere B+ While I like the layout of the poker room and the casino in general, Saturday and Sunday was freezing there. I know it's nice out but it was a little too chilly especially for those of us in short sleeves and shorts.
Cards C- While not the fault of fallsview, I was card dead for a day and a half. Over 3 days did not see AA or QQ or JJ and never hit a set with a small pocket. Did see KK 5 times and I lost to a straight when I flopped top set and 10 10 at least 3 times. That in a nutshell explains my very bad Saturday.
Over all Will repeat, if I'm in the neighbourhood, but I'd still rather hit up Rama due to driving distance, raking the pot and player quality. If Rama allowed a phone in it would be decision. Never saw Kristy so I didn't have to deal with her PDA but there were a few there that probably rivalled what she is capable of...
Comments
Also a player in seat 2 while attempting to table his cards had one card hit by the dealer as the dealer was moving chips into the pot and it flipped upside down. FLOOR! - MUCK! - NOT! The dealer simply asked the player to flip the card over please because he was not allowed to touch it and we moved on. Shocking!
DrTyore and I explained that at Fallsview they would muck the hand and the entire table stared at us in amazement, not sure if we were joking.
<Minor Brag> The few times I actually had chips in front of me in a game, I asked the dealers if I can colour up and was told flat out that it was not allowed, not even when I had to leave with 6-7 racks in reds
This is the beauty of Brantford though, the poker room has it's own cage. So, even if you had to make 2 trips, you don't have far to go, unlike Fallsview.
"Sigh", if only Brantford would get NL...
Awesome. Mr. rulebook now wants to say that every situation is different.
Originally Posted by moose
Awesome. Mr. rulebook now wants to say that every situation is different.
avoid avoid
I have played at seneca and usually stay at the Hampton inn right across the street. Seneca wasn't an option since I drove down after work with my work truck and it would be too much of a hastle to get a commericial vehicle loaded with tools across to play poker.
Thanks for the trip report, sorry I missed you!
+1 on The Hampton Inn reference. Also the Rodeway inn, 5553 Ferry (I think) will give deals to poker players once you've stayed there a few times, the afternoon guy Tim is pretty cool.
I've learned a long time ago that's poker. Hopefully the dealer caliber goes up as I believe on session that goes a long way.
One thing that is frustrating though is the amount of time lost when there is a dealer change as they must count all the cash and take the session. Yesterday because there was no supervisor for quite a while, the the amount of cash in the tray was quite thick. (It is especially tedious when some players buy in with $20's). Perhaps only $100s should be allowed on the table?
Ideally, I'd prefer to see a rake and then we wouldn't be so frustrated with all the official, time-consuming business eating into the 1/2 hour session.
I thought only 100s plays on the table? Unless you are talking about buying from the dealer.
it's called having chip runners
i recall that when i moved back to ontario from wa state that i was shocked that the larger rooms didn't use chip runners -- all the roome (even the 1 table rooms) in wa state used them, i think vegas uses them, etc
Play behind and having runners works in other casino's so why not yours? It can't cut into the $12/hr your charging everyone to play 2/5. It would certainly require that the runner have priority at the cage.
Think Venetian, Wynn and Bellagio at higher limits. There may be one or two others but not many. Some of the brushes fill in at times if they are not busy...
I haven't been to Seneca yet, but keep hearing how great their poker room is. Perhaps it would be worth it for the Fallsview management to take a field trip and see what it is the players like and try to implement some of those things? It seems that the Fallsview room isn't as busy (from my observation) as it used to be so why not do what it takes to keep our people here?
Yesterday players did make their initial buy-ins at the cage and re-bought at the table with cash of all denominations including $5 bills. The cash gets counted every half hour at session and then again when there needs to be a chip run. Why can't the chip run counting coincide with the session counting - at least it would be one less wait for counting?
I know you said 'don't hold your breath' for a cage in the poker room but that would be a great idea.
How do other players feel about a rake instead of session? Failing that, how about every 5 hours giving the players a free session to make up for the lost time for procedure?