Poker is dying a slow death
At least in Brantford....
Popped in there last Thursday and they had a massive 4 tables going. Bad beat was under 20k, which may help explain the emptiness of the place. Spoke with a long time dealer and he said that the room has been struggling for players. I asked him about their tournies and he said they can be a hit or a miss.
Popped in there last Thursday and they had a massive 4 tables going. Bad beat was under 20k, which may help explain the emptiness of the place. Spoke with a long time dealer and he said that the room has been struggling for players. I asked him about their tournies and he said they can be a hit or a miss.
Comments
Woodbine is thriving.
Was it a long swim for you Al?:D
It needs to re-run the "Tournament of Champions" promotion if it has any hope of finding a niche to avoid getting swallowed up by the black hole called Woodbine. If it doesn't, it will become even more empty for both tournaments & cash games when Woodbine gets around to starting up its supposedly approved tournaments. Just like Mohawk, OLG might as well transfer the unused electronic tables over to Woodbine, which will need more room to accommodate the increased demand once the tournaments start.
As for Brantford, I remember that just about every $2K & $1K tournament I played there used to be sold out, but now there are so many unsold tables for all the $130-$330 tournaments I have played there this year. If it fails to gain the support of forumers and the rest of the local poker community, then some of those rarely-used poker tables may eventually be replaced by even more slots machines.
For tournaments, I have actually been pleasantly surprised that there are now more playable tournaments in Ontario than ever. :cool2: Unfortunately, it seems that forumers & other players have less poker bankroll now and the tournament players in Brantford, GBH, Fallsview and Point Edward keep going down. With the exception of the 2-table Mohawk, the excellent electronic tournaments have not yet gained support, especially in empty Georgian Downs.
Woodbine will again be the game changer, as many of the players there understand that an automated system have even more advantages for a tournament than their cash game. It can become the #1 tournament site if/when it runs the OLG $220+$10 and $530+$20 Deep Stack :h: events.
Read "OLG financial records raise red flag" for some interesting trends about gambling in Ontario (the part about the resort casinos losing money is inaccurate).
Local interest has just waned, that's all. I've noticed a big drop off in home game attendance, but that happens.
It's also summer now. Hard for the casinos to compete with the garden centres and patios this time of year. It will pick up soon, I'm sure.
I agree that Brantford is a well run room. The "poker is dying" statement came from the long time poker dealer I spoke with while at Brantford. Every year Brantford and other poker rooms suffer when the CNE opens, but the CNE wasn't/isn't open.
I like Brantford and some of the tournaments they offer, but I won't be making trips out there if all that is there is only 4-5 tables of regulars or half full tournaments.