Lakeside Casino trip report

[tek]

Lakeside Casino trip report 11/8/04

While on a weekend car trip, I stopped at the Lakeside Casino outside of Osceola, Iowa right off Interstate 35. The front of the casino left much to be desired. It did not beckon players with glitz and excitement. The building looked much like the architect’s message was “We’re just a ho-hum Indian casino. Step inside and give us your money”.

The inside was surprisingly nice, clean and casino-like. I was however, very unimpressed with the “riverboat”. It looked cool on the outside, but was just another slot and gaming warehouse on the inside. A surprisingly nice, clean and casino-like warehouse.

Every employee I had contact with were very friendly, as people from Iowa always are.

My main purpose for going to Lakeside was to check out the poker room. Or should I say poker “area”. Yes, just an area for the four poker tables. Four poker tables crammed right next to each other. The craps table and slots were spitting distance from the poker tables. I didn’t enjoy listening to slot noises and craps player cheers and jeers while calculating outs, pot odds, etc.

Actually, I didn’t need to calculate any of that because I was at the 3/6 table. Only two tables were running last night. A $5/10 blind $500 minimum Pot Limit table (which was full all night) and the 3/6 Limit.

This was your typical 3/6 table. Nobody met a starting hand they didn’t like. No fold em. Stealth Aces…stealth 3 flush cards on the board…all sorts of stealth cards that did nothing to dissuade continued betting and raising by garbage men hauling their trash to the river.

I played 12 hours straight at the 3/6 table until it closed Tuesday morning at 4AM. When I started playing hold em, I began at 6/12. I had never played anything lower until last night, so this was a real treat…

I alternated between tight/aggressive and loose/maniac. When in Rome…During one of my loose periods one guy said to another “I can’t put that guy on anything!” I thought to myself “Pot-Kettle-Black…”

It was a great education in learning how no fold em works (while engaged in a 12 hour session with no breaks and no dinner). I succeeded in breaking even. (I mean it—I bought in for 200 and left with 200, but was down to 100 a few times).

Anyway, since there were only two tables running, we experienced each dealer on duty many times that night. They had two break-in dealers. Steve and Tan they tried hard. Management and players were very patient with them. Of the veteran dealers, three made a memorable impact on me.

Shane, while competent, was very very slow. Not in the actual mechanics of dealing, but in getting to the dealing. He would preface every deal with a commentary about a pot he won or lost several C’s last week after the previous board cards stimulated the memory. THEN he would deal the next round. He also didn’t thank anyone for his tips. All the other dealers did so every time…

Karen was your typical jack-of-all games dealer. She dealt a great game and was very friendly, as well as able to converse while dealing.

Lance was clearly the best dealer on duty that night. He was friendly and speedy & proficient in the mechanics of dealing.

[Avatar of Wine]

Lance is easily the best dealer in the house . . .


Lakeside is a solid place to play if you're stuck in the area - lots of older folks come down from des moines and like to piss away money. The 3/6 and 2/4 games are always soft on the weekends (thurs-sun), especially as they get going later at night and the drunks file in.

Be wary, though, there are a good number of regulars for as small as the room is - the other night we sat down, and 8 of us at 3/6 knew each other.

The staff is extremely open to playing different games - often w/ table consent you can alternate HE and Omaha, and they'll open up a 1-1 NL50 table on most weekend nights late - that game gets crazy, lots of reloading, often ending up with well over 5g on the table at night's end.

Glad the experience was good for you - it's not a great casino, but overall a nice little room, smaller than Meskwaki but perhaps a little softer.

the Meadows opens in a month . . . should be the best room in the area by far.