Grand Victoria in Rising Sun, IN trip report

[coolhandkuhn]

Made my second trip down to the boat from Columbus, OH (bought a new GTO and wanted to drive it around, and poker seemed like the perfect excuse to do so) on Saturday --- the trip each way is about 2 - 2.5 hours, depending on your risk aversion to speeding.

I arrived at the boat around 3 PM, and immediately headed to the poker room (located on the bottom floor of the boat, tucked in the back) and signed up for both of the games they offered --- $10/$20 & $5/$10 Hold 'Em. The room has six tables, and all were in use, and the list was 15+ deep for both games (there were 5 5/10 games and only 1 10/20 game, much to my chagrin). After waiting 90+ minutes, I was finally seated in a 5/10 game, with (although extremely nice & quite attractive) the worst dealer I've ever encountered. The girl (22ish) couldn't read the board to determine the high hand half of the time, much less keep track of the action. I estimate her half hour downs we got out around 12 hands on average. The floor was worse than the dealers, running around like chickens w/their heads cut off...I was told there was an open seat "somewhere" and to go "find it myself" (not that it was a problem, this room only having six tables) in a tone that suggested they could care less. Ineptness I can deal with, rudeness in a service industry is quite another thing, though. Ted (older gentleman) was the man in question here, and it seems that the juggling of list was more than he could handle.

The games themself were GREAT! (assuming you don't mind slow play from half of the table, who seemed to be new [as in first time ever playing in a structured game]). Flops were constantly being seen 8-9 handed for one bet. Pre-flop raises were rare, pre-flop three betting was non-existent (save for me). Every hand saw a showdown of 2-4 people, sometimes more, and 8-3o, J-5o, and the like were common holdings at the river. Even with the dream line-up, I still managed to lose $20 in 6 or so hours of play (hey, I'm very skilled, what can I say?) --- though most of that was the result of flopping a boat and having the misfortune of running into flopped quads (ouch).

Eventually I did get moved to the 10/20, which saw five people quit w/in a 15 minute span, leaving us shorthanded for an hour as the floor tried to fill the game (why does it take an hour? b/c the room is so small that it can't hold anyone who's waiting for the game. So they page throughout the boat, giving each name 10-15 minutes. Obviously with a list 90+ minutes long, people are going to put their name down and leave, causing the filling of the games to take forever, as they go from name to name).

The 10/20 was little better in skill level (at least at midnight on a Saturday, I can't speak for non-weekend games) --- saw many of my 5/10 compatriots there, still playing there J-5o proudly. I did much better in this game (mostly due to getting a high amount of premium pocket pairs, and having them hold up around 50% of the time [which is great considering all the swimmers in the hands]) -- +$300 in 3 hours. I finally had my fill of agonozingly slow play at around 3 AM, and called it a night, up a little under $300 for the trip.

Overall, I was frustrated with the dealers ineptness and the floors rudeness. Even given the attrocious opponents, I doubt that I'll be back...to drive 2 hours to sit in those games seems like self-inflicted punishment to me. I'll drive the extra hour to Caeser's in New Albany, IN (outside of Louisville, KY) when I want to make a run to a casino.

Other tidbits about the room:

Smoking is permitted, and 60% of those playing seemed to be smoking. If you're not a fan of smoke, this place isn't for you.

Three raise max on all streets EXCEPT when a street starts w/ only two people, and at that point, betting/raising is unlimited.

A live straddle causes the limit to jump for that round (WTF?). For example, in a 10/20 game...if UTG straddles to $20, a raise has to be to $40, a re-raise to $60, and a cap to $80. The next street then goes back to bet, raise, re-raise, and cap of $10,$20,$30,$40, respectively....I thought that was very odd.

No high hand jackpots.

Didn't check out the comp system, though it appeared that you got a players club card that they kept track of your time on, and from that, some sort of comp system was in place.

40 minutes was the max you were given to be away from the table, and after that, you would be picked up, though I didn't see that rule put into effect.

Nothing else memorable comes to mind...my overall opinion of the room is poor, especially since they've been open for close to six months now, and they are as green (or worse) now as they were when they opened.

Belle Terra (another boat, about 20 minutes away) is scheduled to open a room May 1st that will have 12 tables, but all of this is unconfirmed talk between (seemingly) regulars and dealers.

Hope this helps.