AliasMrJones
11-05-2003, 12:52 AM
Played my first ever B&M poker at the Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL last night. I'd read about the $5 entry fee and $2 parking and bad rake, but I was in town on business and only about 20 minutes away so decided to check it out. Figured I'd watch for a while at the least.
I really don't get the entry fee...years ago when they first started the riverboats had to be moving on the river before the gaming could start and some people just went for the boat ride so I can see an entry fee then. Now the "boats" are barges that never move so I don't understand why they would charge people to enter and make the casino money. But, they do and people pay...
The poker room at Hollywood is near the entrance and easy to find. Unlike the rest of the casino, the poker room is non-smoking /images/graemlins/smile.gif There are 6 tables and they supposedly spread hold 'em, omaha and one night a week hose. I arrived at about 9 PM on Monday night and only hold 'em was running. They had 1 table of $10/20 and a main and a feeder table of $5/10. There was no wait for the feeder table.
I watched the main and then the feeder table for about half an hour. I decided the game looked soft enough for me so I took a seat at the feeder table. There were 7-8 at the feeder table while I was there, probably 2 to 2 1/2 hours. 4-6 seeing the flop. My good hands got killed all night. In the first hour and a half I got pocket jacks 3 times with no scare cards on the board. I got shot down all 3 times -- once by pocket aces and twice by pocket kings. I should have folded to the aces as the signals were there, but it was only a few hands in and I wasn't used to playing in person yet as I'll get into later. As people got called to the main table, others joined so we were never below 7 people at the feeder. We had one or two people play at the feeder who were waiting for $10/20 and left pretty quickly as soon as a seat opened up over there. I really didn't watch the $10/20 so can't say anything about the action over there.
The main table played pretty much like the feeder but even looser pre-flop. Usually 5-8 of 10 seeing the flop with "only" 4 seeing the flop when raised pre-flop. People playing some unbelievable stuff so lots of rivered straights 2 pair, etc. I got beat with top pair once by a Q5o two pair and once by 85o flopped full house and slowplayed me. These were not played from the blinds, they paid to play these hands.
With so many limping pre-flop my strategy to to play very tight pre-flop and when I flopped something raise. Unfortunately, the cards didn't fall my way and I made some mistakes. I found it difficult to keep everything together as I'm used to $2/4 Party Poker where the computer handles everything and it is all right there on the screen in an easy-to-digest display. I was just to the left of the dealer and found it difficult to see and keep track of the action. With so many in each pot I also found it difficult to try to get a read on others hands. Near the end of the night it started to come together and I was feeling comfortable, but I should have been able to pick off the 2 pair and the pocket aces I described earlier and fold, but I wasn't really paying attention to others at that point and was just playing my cards rather than trying to figure out what others had. Ah well, as I said, by the end of the night things came together and I'll be well prepared next time. At each of the two tables there were one or two good players a bunch of so-so, play any ace type and at least 2 play almost any 2 cards calling stations. Pretty much like the $2/4 Party games I'm used to so I'm sure there's money to be made there, though you also have to beat the parking/entry fees and what I've read is 10% rake to $6.
The dealers range from very good to pretty bad in about even numbers. Two different dealers each missed a raise during the course of the night. One of the dealers barely seemed to be paying attention to the game and missed a raise, but luckily players alerted the dealer before he dealt a card. The other the dealer dealt the turn card and then scooped the chips before the players could stop her. She had to call the floor person over who had her burn the card and then reshuffle the remaining cards and then go back to the betting and then deal a different turn card. Often the players sorted out who won a hand when it was close.
I had a good time and think I'll be comfortable from the get-go next time I visit a B&M so I'm glad I went. Even though it was higher limits the game wasn't any tougher than $2/4 Party so I'm sure I could make money there given time. I'll be in Kansas City in a couple of weeks and plan to visit the Ameristar, then will be in Albuquerque around Thanksgiving and hope to hit the Sandia.
I really don't get the entry fee...years ago when they first started the riverboats had to be moving on the river before the gaming could start and some people just went for the boat ride so I can see an entry fee then. Now the "boats" are barges that never move so I don't understand why they would charge people to enter and make the casino money. But, they do and people pay...
The poker room at Hollywood is near the entrance and easy to find. Unlike the rest of the casino, the poker room is non-smoking /images/graemlins/smile.gif There are 6 tables and they supposedly spread hold 'em, omaha and one night a week hose. I arrived at about 9 PM on Monday night and only hold 'em was running. They had 1 table of $10/20 and a main and a feeder table of $5/10. There was no wait for the feeder table.
I watched the main and then the feeder table for about half an hour. I decided the game looked soft enough for me so I took a seat at the feeder table. There were 7-8 at the feeder table while I was there, probably 2 to 2 1/2 hours. 4-6 seeing the flop. My good hands got killed all night. In the first hour and a half I got pocket jacks 3 times with no scare cards on the board. I got shot down all 3 times -- once by pocket aces and twice by pocket kings. I should have folded to the aces as the signals were there, but it was only a few hands in and I wasn't used to playing in person yet as I'll get into later. As people got called to the main table, others joined so we were never below 7 people at the feeder. We had one or two people play at the feeder who were waiting for $10/20 and left pretty quickly as soon as a seat opened up over there. I really didn't watch the $10/20 so can't say anything about the action over there.
The main table played pretty much like the feeder but even looser pre-flop. Usually 5-8 of 10 seeing the flop with "only" 4 seeing the flop when raised pre-flop. People playing some unbelievable stuff so lots of rivered straights 2 pair, etc. I got beat with top pair once by a Q5o two pair and once by 85o flopped full house and slowplayed me. These were not played from the blinds, they paid to play these hands.
With so many limping pre-flop my strategy to to play very tight pre-flop and when I flopped something raise. Unfortunately, the cards didn't fall my way and I made some mistakes. I found it difficult to keep everything together as I'm used to $2/4 Party Poker where the computer handles everything and it is all right there on the screen in an easy-to-digest display. I was just to the left of the dealer and found it difficult to see and keep track of the action. With so many in each pot I also found it difficult to try to get a read on others hands. Near the end of the night it started to come together and I was feeling comfortable, but I should have been able to pick off the 2 pair and the pocket aces I described earlier and fold, but I wasn't really paying attention to others at that point and was just playing my cards rather than trying to figure out what others had. Ah well, as I said, by the end of the night things came together and I'll be well prepared next time. At each of the two tables there were one or two good players a bunch of so-so, play any ace type and at least 2 play almost any 2 cards calling stations. Pretty much like the $2/4 Party games I'm used to so I'm sure there's money to be made there, though you also have to beat the parking/entry fees and what I've read is 10% rake to $6.
The dealers range from very good to pretty bad in about even numbers. Two different dealers each missed a raise during the course of the night. One of the dealers barely seemed to be paying attention to the game and missed a raise, but luckily players alerted the dealer before he dealt a card. The other the dealer dealt the turn card and then scooped the chips before the players could stop her. She had to call the floor person over who had her burn the card and then reshuffle the remaining cards and then go back to the betting and then deal a different turn card. Often the players sorted out who won a hand when it was close.
I had a good time and think I'll be comfortable from the get-go next time I visit a B&M so I'm glad I went. Even though it was higher limits the game wasn't any tougher than $2/4 Party so I'm sure I could make money there given time. I'll be in Kansas City in a couple of weeks and plan to visit the Ameristar, then will be in Albuquerque around Thanksgiving and hope to hit the Sandia.