Whiskeytown in Missouri (St. Louie, actually)

[whiskeytown]

Whiskeytown has spent this week visiting a family member who happened to be in MO this week.

After one bad night, I happened to find a riverboat in St Louis that had poker...(1-4-4-8 holdem or 1-5 stud) - HOWEVER, he has heard of another club that is even better...Ameristar out in St. Charles (about 20 miles from St. Louis) -

If ANYONE is in that area on Fri. afternoon, (and maybe Sat/Sun if I win) and my pic. looks familiar or you see a guy wearing a MACKIE shirt...come by and say hi...I've heard this one is the only decent one in MO....

pax.
RB

[whiskeytown]

Allrighty...as I tried to let some of you know when I had I-net access - I was in MO this week visiting my Mom who was in town for her husband's elks convention... As a result, I finally got out of my super duper 40 table card room and online cocoon and got to find out what was so special about other places.

I found only two places to play poker in St. Louis Area - President's Casino downtown, and Ameristar 24 miles away.

1. - First 3 nights were at President's Casinos...

PROS:
- 4 dollar comps, which can be used to buy REAL good hot dogs...
- LL players will like the 1-4-4-8 HE and 1-5 Stud formats because you get a chance to get almost double the money in on the turn and river as you would in a 2-4 game. I played it a bit more like PL and played a few more small pairs and suited connectors, knowing if I hit with my 2 dollar BB, I could put in 4 bucks on the flop and 8 on turn and river.
- Easy shuttle access from downtown hotels, and some of the dealers were pretty friendly
- Face it...you're playing Poker on a riverboat in the Mississippi... that's cool enough
- rake is $3 for Holdem, $3.50 for stud, and the jackpot qualifiers are the easiest I've seen (when your A's full of 10's or better gets beat, you don't need to have an A in your hand...2 Q's with 3 A's on the board is great when someone else has the A and the highest kicker)

CONS:
- not nearly enough tables...as was mentioned in my previous thread...they're down to 4, although I saw 3 most of the time...having said that, I've heard their new manager is poker friendly
- No waitresses whatsoever - you go to the near bar (15 feet away from the furthest table) - to get your drinks, unless the bartender is on break.
- loud noisy corner on the front of the boat above the balcony, so when a lady hit the jackpot, we knew about it for 15 minutes of continuous beeping.
- Lots of "Out of Turn" action...although that's good if you're watching players and want to know who will muck or not...

2. One afternoon at Ameristar...

PROS:

- lot more tables, lot more limits, and all in all, bigger and better place...I think 14 tables, with everything from 2-5 stud to 20/40 Holdem. I also understand they have a Monday PL Omaha game that's killer.
- a really cute waitress named Dawn - (ok, I know that's not really of benefit to everyone....but dang...was she a cute looking angel - and she always brought drinks quickly - definately doable...LOL)
- Comp program of $.75 cents an hour that you play, and there are some NICE resturaunts there in that casino - if you leave your table for more then 3 blinds, you're removed, but they can put you back in at the top of the list if you're going to eat

CONS: -

Same as president....Demand far outexceeded supply. (I was told to get there by 1pm or forget it - I got there at 1:30 - put my name on 3 different lists and still didn't get a seat for an hour. All tables were booked when I left
- Rake is $4 - ($5 for that 2-5 stud game) - and Jackpots were tougher to hit, although someone hit the Stud Jackpot for $20000 when I was there...

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: -

clay chips in poker rooms are REALLY dirty...one player joked that they had a game where you took the dirtiest ones, pressed down, and saw how many stuck together..

Whiskey in these casinos is cheaper...but you can't buy drinks with chips, which means leave cash handy or make trips back to the cage to trade in for cash for beverages.

St. Louis has a $500 Loss limit - Basically, you buy $500, you're done (although I heard two stories on this - one being that it's for 24 hrs and one being $500 every two hrs after a mark. So you could buy $500 in chips at 11:59 am and another $500 at 12:01 pm - but then none till 2pm after that. I heard the general story is that the Hi Limit players at Ameristar just cash in for $100 chips and then leave the casino with them, so they can walk back in with $3000 later if they have that much saved up over 3-4 days.

Games were easy to beat with one or two really bad players in each one. I have to point out a redneck named John at Ameristar who apparently is a real dick...and when he's out for you, he announces to the table that if you bet, he's gonna raise and try to cut you down. (He did this with 3 or 4 players - and is apparently not a fun drunk to play around ) - I took a bit of a beating here because of variance on a couple brutal hands....but a good 2+2'er could probably take the room down for $100 a day on the 6-12 game.

most of the players are locals - everyone knew almost everyone, and I even recognized a couple guys from President's out at Ameristar that night...

If the room in KC is better, then I say go there...saw the casino on the river there on my way out....but all I wanted to do after 4 days in St Louis was get back to Minneapolis as fast as the wheels would spin. -

pax
RB