Degree Poker / Niagra Vacation Report - Day 0
I assume some day, I'll be in Vegas, so I'd thought I'd warm up to the trip by giving a detailed report of my time in Niagra Falls. The plan is to head down on the Thursday evening (Day 0), then live out a vacation of vices. Just like Vegas!! My Degree time is actually on the Sunday (Day 3), so we got a ways to go before that. The journal will have some poker content, some beer content drinking and some other activites.
Day 0 - Thursday, May 4
Why Day 0 and not Day 1?  Day 0 sounds much cooler. Woke up in the morning did some stuff around the house, then headed off to Thorold to my friend's Paul, where I'd be spending the majority of the trip.  I got in before he got home from work, so I tooled around on the boards and read some of the fine poker reports being filed for Degree. Good job all!!
Paul eventually arrived and my plan was to head to dinner at the Merchant Ale House in St. Catherine's then relax as his place for the evening.  I also post on bartowel.ca and asked for recommendations for places to go and this was foremost on people's list.  So, we popped in, had a seat and took a look over the menu.  "The Merch", as al the cool kids call it, is a small brew pub, with a good number of self made beers. They also have a fine number of local micro's on tap. No Molbatt to be found, which is a very good thing.
We ordered the wings and pitcher combo, settling in on the ESB (Extra Special Bitter).  Of the choices, I knew that my less beer-savy friend would enjoy it and it would be less palette wrecking than the others.
The ESB was quite tasty, if a little light. It had a nice malt start and finished with a very subtle hop finish, most likely Fuggle as there were boxes of it lying around. There was definate carmel flavours coming through.  The wings were simply mediocre, which is pretty standard when you come from Waterloo; the mecca of wings in North America.
Moving on from the EBS, I grabbed a pint of their IPA and was plesently surprised. It had a bitter start and finished with a generous helping of hop flavour, a bit grassy and floral.  It actually really reminded me a ton of the Scotch Irish Sgt. Major's IPA, and was enjoyable.
For desert I ended with the Drunken Monkey Oatmeal Stout. Not quite as full bodied as the St Ambroise Oatmeal (IMHO, the defining beer of that style), but it was quite impressive with a noticeable oatmeal flavour.
In all, the Merch gets a enthusiatic thumbs up from me and I'll definately be making a return trip in the future.
Once dinner was done, we were ABOUT to head home, when we decided it would be a good idea to making a scouting trip to the Downer (one of the highest rated SC's in the world) We pop in for a beer, oogle the eye-candy, then head back and play some Guitar Hero.  That was the plan, at least.
I'm just going to say that the Downer is BIG TIME negative EV. We kept telling ourselves that it was only going to be a scouting trip, and we almost believed ourselves. What happens in Niagra stays in Niagra... or gets posted on my trip report, one of the two.
Anyway, it turned out to be a good night to go. According to Paul, the place is netoriously packed on the weekend, but there was plenty of room that night. The girls were easily 8-10's with a few 6's and some that were just... wow. My favorite part of the whole thing, (since it's 100% fantasy) is to practice the art of bluffing and work on a fun persona. So, to a couple of the girls, I'm a successful actor currently starting up my own indie film company. We've got a grant from the government of Canada and are currently working on a documentary involving several well to do businessmen who are making the leap to professional poker. We're currently filming their journey through the Degree Poker Tournament, because that's the kind of tournament most professionals would play *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*.
We slipped out of there FAR too late, and headed back to Paul's where we finished the evening with head to head Guitar Hero battles.  Paul has the edge over me, but I was able to earn a victory or two here or there.
Eventually crashed at 3:30am, ready for the first "offical" day of the vacation, where the plan is to play some 6/12 at Fallsview, mill around the Degree Tournament, then head off to Hooters for dinner and see what kind of debauchery we get ourselves in.
Day 0 - Thursday, May 4
Why Day 0 and not Day 1?  Day 0 sounds much cooler. Woke up in the morning did some stuff around the house, then headed off to Thorold to my friend's Paul, where I'd be spending the majority of the trip.  I got in before he got home from work, so I tooled around on the boards and read some of the fine poker reports being filed for Degree. Good job all!!
Paul eventually arrived and my plan was to head to dinner at the Merchant Ale House in St. Catherine's then relax as his place for the evening.  I also post on bartowel.ca and asked for recommendations for places to go and this was foremost on people's list.  So, we popped in, had a seat and took a look over the menu.  "The Merch", as al the cool kids call it, is a small brew pub, with a good number of self made beers. They also have a fine number of local micro's on tap. No Molbatt to be found, which is a very good thing.
We ordered the wings and pitcher combo, settling in on the ESB (Extra Special Bitter).  Of the choices, I knew that my less beer-savy friend would enjoy it and it would be less palette wrecking than the others.
The ESB was quite tasty, if a little light. It had a nice malt start and finished with a very subtle hop finish, most likely Fuggle as there were boxes of it lying around. There was definate carmel flavours coming through.  The wings were simply mediocre, which is pretty standard when you come from Waterloo; the mecca of wings in North America.
Moving on from the EBS, I grabbed a pint of their IPA and was plesently surprised. It had a bitter start and finished with a generous helping of hop flavour, a bit grassy and floral.  It actually really reminded me a ton of the Scotch Irish Sgt. Major's IPA, and was enjoyable.
For desert I ended with the Drunken Monkey Oatmeal Stout. Not quite as full bodied as the St Ambroise Oatmeal (IMHO, the defining beer of that style), but it was quite impressive with a noticeable oatmeal flavour.
In all, the Merch gets a enthusiatic thumbs up from me and I'll definately be making a return trip in the future.
Once dinner was done, we were ABOUT to head home, when we decided it would be a good idea to making a scouting trip to the Downer (one of the highest rated SC's in the world) We pop in for a beer, oogle the eye-candy, then head back and play some Guitar Hero.  That was the plan, at least.
I'm just going to say that the Downer is BIG TIME negative EV. We kept telling ourselves that it was only going to be a scouting trip, and we almost believed ourselves. What happens in Niagra stays in Niagra... or gets posted on my trip report, one of the two.
Anyway, it turned out to be a good night to go. According to Paul, the place is netoriously packed on the weekend, but there was plenty of room that night. The girls were easily 8-10's with a few 6's and some that were just... wow. My favorite part of the whole thing, (since it's 100% fantasy) is to practice the art of bluffing and work on a fun persona. So, to a couple of the girls, I'm a successful actor currently starting up my own indie film company. We've got a grant from the government of Canada and are currently working on a documentary involving several well to do businessmen who are making the leap to professional poker. We're currently filming their journey through the Degree Poker Tournament, because that's the kind of tournament most professionals would play *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*.
We slipped out of there FAR too late, and headed back to Paul's where we finished the evening with head to head Guitar Hero battles.  Paul has the edge over me, but I was able to earn a victory or two here or there.
Eventually crashed at 3:30am, ready for the first "offical" day of the vacation, where the plan is to play some 6/12 at Fallsview, mill around the Degree Tournament, then head off to Hooters for dinner and see what kind of debauchery we get ourselves in.