My review of Grand Victoria poker room in Rising Sun, IN (detailed)

[coolhandkuhn]

Hi all.
Took a day trip down to play some poker at Rising Sun, IN from Columbus, OH. (Trip itself was a little over two hours each way for those Columbusites interested in the closests legal poker to them.) Got to the poker room around 11 am (Room opens at 9 am M-Friday and closes at 5 am; and is open 24 hours on the weekends). When I arrived, they had two 5-10 hold em games going (both full) and had a wait list of 6. They quickly had 3 or so more people sign up, and a third 5-10 game was started. I get seated in the third game (it was made into a must move for the first hour) and looked around to see who I would be playing against: most were retirees (6 of 9 opponents), with three 40-50ish types. I was the youngest person at my table (27) and probably the second youngest in the room.
This being a new room (I was told it opened at the beginning of October), the floor and dealers were quite green. It took five minutes to get a decision from the floor on whether to deal for the button (high card = button), or put the button at the 10 hole (all hold 'em tables held 10 players). Once that was resolved, we were under way. Within one hand, it was obvious the dealer had never played poker before, and was quite new at dealing poker. She was very nice, but nonetheless slow...and I estimate that we saw 10 hands on her 40 minute shift.
The play was overall bad, with 2 specific opponents not folding once pre-flop in the hour and a half I was at the table. Most pots were unraised before the flop, with the only notable exceptions being a big blind raise with kings, and another big blind raise with AK.
Flop betting was equally as passive, with one notable exception --- a donator in the 10 hole kept raising when he hit any pair, or any draw (especially gutshots). Everyone else froze upon his raises, and would check/call him down regardless of their holdings.
Nothing else too noteworthy about the table -- bad hands were being shown down at a very regular rate, with no surprise or questioning from any of the players (aside: it was nice to play without a table captain, for once).
About two hours into my session I was down $80...hadn't had too many playable hands (got a free look from the blind with a 7-5; flopped top pair w/gutter draw [7-4-3] and was raised by pocket kings...called and hit my two pair on the turn, where I check raised him and one hanger-on [maniac in ten-hole], board paired fours on the river and it went check-check-check and the kings took it down). Stole one pot on a busted flush draw, but other than that, hadn't drug anything my way.
Anyway, two hours in and they open a 10-20 game. I take my seat over there, and we begin playing about 20 minutes later (not b/c of house inefficiency, just took a while to corral everyone on the list). This game was a step up in terms of opponents starting requirements, but started off almost as passively. I stole two quick pots with pre-flop raises when I was only called by the blinds and each time they folded to my flop bets (I whiffed on the flop both times). Action soon got aggressive when Aces, Kings, and Queens all took a pre-flop raise on a board that ended up 9 high, with raising throughout the hand. From then on, a pre-flop raise and two callers (and a blind) seemed pretty much the norm. I got limp re-raised twice, once by Aces (duh) and the other time by AK (or so he said...he folded to my turn bet [after checking to me on the turn] when the board was K-8-5-2?!?!). Overall, there were two very tight opponents (regulars, so far as I could tell), one mildly aggressive man who hit three big pots and quickly vanished, and the rest were loose-passive types. I was happy that the maniac from the first game joined in the game, and donated $700 before finally giving up.
Overall, I was very unimpressed with the dealers (even considering how new the room was). The only good thing was that the main dealer in the 10-20 game (they had a schedule that went 40 on for the main man, followed by 20 off for a back-up [the back-up then spells another table before taking a 20 minute break himself]) was competent and fairly quick getting hands out. The floor was equally bad ---- lack of communication left a seat open in our game from when it started for 2 hours, even though the list was 11 deep to get into the game.
But, as that is the closest legal poker to me, I won't bitch (too much). The players for the most part were very nice, especially the regulars (whom I usually find to be the grumpiest SOBs alive). My only advice would be to go early, as the room seemed to fill up quickly, and not much movement was seen in the hours I was there (left at 4:30 pm). Sorry, I don't have any info on the night-time games, though I expect they are even juicier, what with people showing up after work and all.
The room currently only has four tables, though I understand they will quickly be adding two more, and that they also have another 2 on order (bringing the grand total to 8, eventually). 10-20 was the highest they had spread as of yet, I was informed by the 10-20 dealer at my table. They say they offer 7 stud as well, but no games were going while I was there. Hope this helps anyone who's been contemplating going.