Trip Report: Montreal
When I went to the Montreal Beer Fest several years ago, I heard that the casino was not offering Hold'em, so we avoided that part of the trip. Since I was returning to the Beer Fest with "Easy" and her man, "Highfly" it was made a mandatory stop on the weekend.
The first thing to note is that the casino is extremely vertical. There are something like 20 levels of different gaming that require all sort of elevators, escalator and manual stairs to get to. Luckily, the signs correctly point you towards the poker room.
The entrance to the poker room is an escalator which "magically" changes colours as you ride up it. It's kinda cool. The decor of the poker room is a really sleek red/black overly simple design that completely kicks ass. It's probably the best looking poker room I've been to yet.
The room has it's over (over-priced) bar and it's divided into two sections; live and electronic tables.
Live spreads 1/2, 2/5, 5/5, 5/10, 10/20 and 25/50 with only 3 tables max running 1/2. They have interest lists for limits for which I never saw a name. Electronic is mostly 1/2NL and 3/6 LE with interest in $56, $78 and $150 STTs, of which a number we played over the course of the night.
Although I didn't play electronic, (and I likely will next time to kill time while seats at the live tables become available.. plus the action looked MUCH looser), the way it works is this...
You sign up for a "Hold'em card" and go to the cage to add money to it. You then use a panel to sign up for the tables you want to play at, and a display tells you which table/seat you've been assigned to when your turn comes up. You sit down, swipe your card, and then feed off the balance you put on the card earlier. You can cash out at anytime, then head back to the cage to get real money (or just leave it on the card for next time).
All in all, it was pretty slick and had I know, when we showed up at 8pm to sign up for 1/2NL that we'd be waiting 3.5 hours for a seat, I likely would have played some.
Eventually (close to midnight) I got my seating assignment, Dan got his, and we went to our table. The only other odd rule to know here is that beer is not allowed at the table, but straddling is.
I sat at the table, and noticed something very odd. The standard raise was to $6, and sometimes $7 or $8 bucks. Where was the usual $12 pre-flop raise that I'm used to at Niagra?? As time went on I noticed that the players at the table started talking (correct) poker strategy, and I was scared that I was at a table full of good players.
Third hand in, I check my hole cards, and find that I've been dealt R9. Wait.. what??? I have either a King or a Jack, I think, and let it go. Dan pops over a few moments later and asked, "Do you know what the cards are??" I eventually figure out than D is Queen and I'm fairly sure that R is King and V is Jack, though they do look quite similar, and wasn't until I found "the man with the Axe" that I was able to say for sure. To show how fun it was, (ie. not at all) I'll use that notation for the rest of the report.
Most of the talking at the table was also in French, so I found it hard to banter, couldn't follow along to what people were asking me, and stayed quiet for most of the night.
Second roation in I get dealt ADo and make it $7 in MP with two callers, including the BB. Flop comes R high, all diamonds (I have none). BB checks, I bet $15 thinking, "This is an awful continuation bet. I would so raise me right here." It's folded to the BB who makes it $35 and I give up.
He shows the D-high, no diamond bluff, and I hate my table already.
Next roation, I pick up AVo, from LP and make it $7 again, getting the BB calling me.
The flop comes RR5 rainbow, and the BB checks to be. I purposefully start breathing heavy and also check. Turn is a blank and it's checked to me again. I bet out a far too small bet of $6 and the BB makes it $21. I put on my best acting facing and make it look like I have a difficult decision to make, "reluctantly" re-raising to $55 and he lets it go.
I'm glad my read was correct, and I'm both glad and scared that he bought into my virtual king. He, and most of the table, are paying attention and not just playing their cards. Making money is going to take some work here. I was pretty sure that at least 5 other players were better at poker than I was. Any fish that arrived at the table was devoured in only a few orbits.
===========
Today, I heard from Dan, that he's at a table full of horrible players and that he has moved his stack from $140 to just under $400 in a few orbits. FML.
===========
I play a few more pot with minor losses and then get a really nice 94o BB special that eventually rivers a boat for a nice pot and then the last big hand comes my way.
I have AD in LP and make it $7 to go. Button (one of the few fish calls), and the BB (a solid agressive player, like 5 other people at the table), makes it's $20 to go.
Reading (hoping) for a squeeze play , I make it $55, leaving $150 back, button folds and the BB thinks, asks for a count, then moves all-in, with about the same size stack as me.
Relying on the "4th bet means AA/RR" rule, I make a big show of agonizing folding my hand, and eventually let it go. The guys says, "If you just laid down DD, it was a good fold." He may have been lying, but it felt like RR to me. So this is where a good chunk of my loss came from.
I donked around a few more pots with some suited-connected stuff, but never got close and ended the session down $80. Dan ended at just over $500.
So, the casino itself was a joy to visit and the poker room is off on it's own and sexy as hell, despite the strip club-level drink prices, so I highly recommend making it a stop on your next trip out that way.
If you have some extra funds, I'd also consider giving the electronic tables a try (even though I was quite against it when I first arrived).
The first thing to note is that the casino is extremely vertical. There are something like 20 levels of different gaming that require all sort of elevators, escalator and manual stairs to get to. Luckily, the signs correctly point you towards the poker room.
The entrance to the poker room is an escalator which "magically" changes colours as you ride up it. It's kinda cool. The decor of the poker room is a really sleek red/black overly simple design that completely kicks ass. It's probably the best looking poker room I've been to yet.
The room has it's over (over-priced) bar and it's divided into two sections; live and electronic tables.
Live spreads 1/2, 2/5, 5/5, 5/10, 10/20 and 25/50 with only 3 tables max running 1/2. They have interest lists for limits for which I never saw a name. Electronic is mostly 1/2NL and 3/6 LE with interest in $56, $78 and $150 STTs, of which a number we played over the course of the night.
Although I didn't play electronic, (and I likely will next time to kill time while seats at the live tables become available.. plus the action looked MUCH looser), the way it works is this...
You sign up for a "Hold'em card" and go to the cage to add money to it. You then use a panel to sign up for the tables you want to play at, and a display tells you which table/seat you've been assigned to when your turn comes up. You sit down, swipe your card, and then feed off the balance you put on the card earlier. You can cash out at anytime, then head back to the cage to get real money (or just leave it on the card for next time).
All in all, it was pretty slick and had I know, when we showed up at 8pm to sign up for 1/2NL that we'd be waiting 3.5 hours for a seat, I likely would have played some.
Eventually (close to midnight) I got my seating assignment, Dan got his, and we went to our table. The only other odd rule to know here is that beer is not allowed at the table, but straddling is.
I sat at the table, and noticed something very odd. The standard raise was to $6, and sometimes $7 or $8 bucks. Where was the usual $12 pre-flop raise that I'm used to at Niagra?? As time went on I noticed that the players at the table started talking (correct) poker strategy, and I was scared that I was at a table full of good players.
Third hand in, I check my hole cards, and find that I've been dealt R9. Wait.. what??? I have either a King or a Jack, I think, and let it go. Dan pops over a few moments later and asked, "Do you know what the cards are??" I eventually figure out than D is Queen and I'm fairly sure that R is King and V is Jack, though they do look quite similar, and wasn't until I found "the man with the Axe" that I was able to say for sure. To show how fun it was, (ie. not at all) I'll use that notation for the rest of the report.
Most of the talking at the table was also in French, so I found it hard to banter, couldn't follow along to what people were asking me, and stayed quiet for most of the night.
Second roation in I get dealt ADo and make it $7 in MP with two callers, including the BB. Flop comes R high, all diamonds (I have none). BB checks, I bet $15 thinking, "This is an awful continuation bet. I would so raise me right here." It's folded to the BB who makes it $35 and I give up.
He shows the D-high, no diamond bluff, and I hate my table already.
Next roation, I pick up AVo, from LP and make it $7 again, getting the BB calling me.
The flop comes RR5 rainbow, and the BB checks to be. I purposefully start breathing heavy and also check. Turn is a blank and it's checked to me again. I bet out a far too small bet of $6 and the BB makes it $21. I put on my best acting facing and make it look like I have a difficult decision to make, "reluctantly" re-raising to $55 and he lets it go.
I'm glad my read was correct, and I'm both glad and scared that he bought into my virtual king. He, and most of the table, are paying attention and not just playing their cards. Making money is going to take some work here. I was pretty sure that at least 5 other players were better at poker than I was. Any fish that arrived at the table was devoured in only a few orbits.
===========
Today, I heard from Dan, that he's at a table full of horrible players and that he has moved his stack from $140 to just under $400 in a few orbits. FML.
===========
I play a few more pot with minor losses and then get a really nice 94o BB special that eventually rivers a boat for a nice pot and then the last big hand comes my way.
I have AD in LP and make it $7 to go. Button (one of the few fish calls), and the BB (a solid agressive player, like 5 other people at the table), makes it's $20 to go.
Reading (hoping) for a squeeze play , I make it $55, leaving $150 back, button folds and the BB thinks, asks for a count, then moves all-in, with about the same size stack as me.
Relying on the "4th bet means AA/RR" rule, I make a big show of agonizing folding my hand, and eventually let it go. The guys says, "If you just laid down DD, it was a good fold." He may have been lying, but it felt like RR to me. So this is where a good chunk of my loss came from.
I donked around a few more pots with some suited-connected stuff, but never got close and ended the session down $80. Dan ended at just over $500.
So, the casino itself was a joy to visit and the poker room is off on it's own and sexy as hell, despite the strip club-level drink prices, so I highly recommend making it a stop on your next trip out that way.
If you have some extra funds, I'd also consider giving the electronic tables a try (even though I was quite against it when I first arrived).
Comments
Glad to see you're still Alive
Next Bristol is???
I heard the rake there was pretty bad at the 1/2?
Were most tables mainly French speaking? Any sign of a PLO game?
Another reason to visit Montreal.
^this....