daryljobe777
05-26-2005, 03:07 AM
First one of these, so bear with me.
After going to the Target Center for WWE’s Judgment Day this past Sunday, my friend Jim and I decided to embark on a new frontier of poker: playing a B&M game somewhere other than Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN. I had not been to Canterbury in some time due to school, but we decided to try something different and make the just-over one hour trip up to Hinckley to visit Grand Casino’s poker room.
We arrived shortly after Midnight, and noticed the parking lot was nearly empty. Living 10 miles from Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, it is a culture shock when going to other casinos, I guess. We entered and looked, and looked, and looked for a poker room. We ended up asking the fella at the information desk, and he directed us to the rear of the casino, back by the hotel, where we would find a six table poker room.
On the wall was a sign saying “Live Poker: Official Rules.” I later responded with the distasteful comment “Where can I play Dead Poker? I’d love to take on Stu Unger’s corpse.”
Yes, I know I’m going to hell.
Anyway, while I had no notions of this facility being near the size of Canterbury, it was again a culture shock to see three active tables: two with 3/6 hold ‘em, and one with 2/4. Jim didn’t bring a lot of money to play with, so we acquired the two open seats at the 2/4 table.
It was apparent that nearly everyone at the table was loose and passive. One hand an individual to my left was showing me his 37o at the river with something like 57KTA on the board and reluctantly made a crying call. Later on, I saw a different individual just CALL with the nut straight. Behavior like this was common place all night long.
There were a few changes from normal procedure that I have become accustomed to, however. When buying chips (I bought in for $80), they will give you both $1 chips and $2 chips. I feel that with multiple denominations, the game gets slowed down significantly when the dealer has to make change on nearly every round of betting. They do, however, have real poker chips now, as opposed to the slot tokens I heard they had when they initially opened.
In addition, once the betting is capped, unlimited raising heads-up is only allowed at 5/10 or higher, which is a set of limits I doubt gets going very much. This was a change, and with my jacks full, not a change I liked.
The floorman in charge and a couple of the dealers made a couple of questionable rulings. First off, it was one bet to a player in middle position on the turn in the 2/4 game, and he throws out 6 chips. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I was always under the impression that if you throw out a half of a raise or more, you must make the full raise. The ruling was made that he “didn’t mean to raise,” and was allowed to take the additional chips back.
Later on, a player was down to about $15, and before the next hand was dealt, threw down a $100 bill, in an effort to get checks. The hand begins, and he never is given checks. He is down to his last few chips, and makes an effort to raise, but is ruled all in, and told the $100 does not play. Even his opponent in the hand clearly noticed him put the money down as did everyone else at the table. The dealer may or may not have, but did not call for checks. A ruling was made that you must have the chips on the table, or you are not allowed to play behind. Certainly different from what I was accustomed to.
I was hot for a while, then we began playing 3 and 4 handed on the 2/4 table and I dropped a considerable amount before it broke, and we played 3/6 where I was able to regain some of my funds, until leaving at about 7:30 am. Traffic getting into Minneapolis on a Monday morning is not fun on 35W.
There were a couple of other differences, including a video wait list, and a refrigerator with soft drinks in cans that is self service. No waitress was seen, so I am not sure if alcohol is served. I will find out Friday when we return to hopefully take some money of people on there way up north to fish on the memorial weekend.
After going to the Target Center for WWE’s Judgment Day this past Sunday, my friend Jim and I decided to embark on a new frontier of poker: playing a B&M game somewhere other than Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN. I had not been to Canterbury in some time due to school, but we decided to try something different and make the just-over one hour trip up to Hinckley to visit Grand Casino’s poker room.
We arrived shortly after Midnight, and noticed the parking lot was nearly empty. Living 10 miles from Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, it is a culture shock when going to other casinos, I guess. We entered and looked, and looked, and looked for a poker room. We ended up asking the fella at the information desk, and he directed us to the rear of the casino, back by the hotel, where we would find a six table poker room.
On the wall was a sign saying “Live Poker: Official Rules.” I later responded with the distasteful comment “Where can I play Dead Poker? I’d love to take on Stu Unger’s corpse.”
Yes, I know I’m going to hell.
Anyway, while I had no notions of this facility being near the size of Canterbury, it was again a culture shock to see three active tables: two with 3/6 hold ‘em, and one with 2/4. Jim didn’t bring a lot of money to play with, so we acquired the two open seats at the 2/4 table.
It was apparent that nearly everyone at the table was loose and passive. One hand an individual to my left was showing me his 37o at the river with something like 57KTA on the board and reluctantly made a crying call. Later on, I saw a different individual just CALL with the nut straight. Behavior like this was common place all night long.
There were a few changes from normal procedure that I have become accustomed to, however. When buying chips (I bought in for $80), they will give you both $1 chips and $2 chips. I feel that with multiple denominations, the game gets slowed down significantly when the dealer has to make change on nearly every round of betting. They do, however, have real poker chips now, as opposed to the slot tokens I heard they had when they initially opened.
In addition, once the betting is capped, unlimited raising heads-up is only allowed at 5/10 or higher, which is a set of limits I doubt gets going very much. This was a change, and with my jacks full, not a change I liked.
The floorman in charge and a couple of the dealers made a couple of questionable rulings. First off, it was one bet to a player in middle position on the turn in the 2/4 game, and he throws out 6 chips. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I was always under the impression that if you throw out a half of a raise or more, you must make the full raise. The ruling was made that he “didn’t mean to raise,” and was allowed to take the additional chips back.
Later on, a player was down to about $15, and before the next hand was dealt, threw down a $100 bill, in an effort to get checks. The hand begins, and he never is given checks. He is down to his last few chips, and makes an effort to raise, but is ruled all in, and told the $100 does not play. Even his opponent in the hand clearly noticed him put the money down as did everyone else at the table. The dealer may or may not have, but did not call for checks. A ruling was made that you must have the chips on the table, or you are not allowed to play behind. Certainly different from what I was accustomed to.
I was hot for a while, then we began playing 3 and 4 handed on the 2/4 table and I dropped a considerable amount before it broke, and we played 3/6 where I was able to regain some of my funds, until leaving at about 7:30 am. Traffic getting into Minneapolis on a Monday morning is not fun on 35W.
There were a couple of other differences, including a video wait list, and a refrigerator with soft drinks in cans that is self service. No waitress was seen, so I am not sure if alcohol is served. I will find out Friday when we return to hopefully take some money of people on there way up north to fish on the memorial weekend.