Niagra Trip Report (Long)

[PokerFink]

10/13 - 10/17. I went with five of my college buddies, two of which played poker. We hit Fallsview Casino, Casino Niagra and some bars.

Fallsview Casino: Poker

The room is a decent size but there are only about a dozen tables. They could easily fit five more, and probably ten more if they packed them in. It's geared towards no limit, with 5/5, 5/10, 10/20 and 25/50 no limit games as well as 3/6 and 6/12 limit games. Most of the tables are 5/5nl.

I played 5/5nl, which has a $6/half fee and a 100-500 buy-in. A lot of players only buy in for 100 or 200, so the game plays shortstacked at times. Cash plays, but only hundreds. The action was decent. There were plenty of donkeys to go around, especially the tourists. The regulars were better than the tourists for the most part. The games were generally loose/passive. I didn't play all that well, ran poorly, and finished up a meager $20 over three sessions totaling about 18 hours of play. I posted a couple hands in SSNL if anyone cares. The pace is slow due to the dealers, and with the short stacks and session fee it becomes difficult to beat the game unless you are considerbly better than the opposition, which the three of us were.

I was VERY disapointed with the floor and the dealers. The dealers were SLOW and bad. There were a ton of mistakes by the dealers, mainly with misreading the board. At one point during a turn all-in, a dealer tried to give my buddy change (he had is opponent covered) and gave him about an extra hundred dollars from the pot; opponent was drawing dead though so it didn't matter. The same dealer also told me "You think too much. Don't think about the hand anymore, just move on" after I took a bad beat. I saw another dealer get into a verbal fight with one player who had complained about a bad beat, and a floor manager just stood there and did nothing.

The main problem with the dealers was the slowness. They take forever to count the session fees, they replace and count the deck at the beginning of each half, and they do mandatory setup changes every 2-3 hours. It seemed like every half was being slowed down due to some B.S. which is annoying when you're paying time.

The floor was terrible. Not nice to the players, completely unaccomadating, and unreasonable. No ruling mistakes, but they were never called to my table for one. They coulden't even put the PSU-Michigan game on one of the TVs even though there were 3 PSU students begging them to do so. God forbid one of the four TVs doesn't show the USC game. They also kicked my buddies off their table since they missed two blinds. The table was shorthanded; they were gone five minutes.

There is a really goofy rectangle shaped 11-handed table at the back of the room. Um..... 11-handed no limit?

There was no atmosphere either. The poker room is off in a corner of the casino surrounded by three solid walls and one rail, and the tables are pushed back from the rail so that you can't watch the games. No one is allowed in the room that is not playing, not even if you are on the waiting list. They woulden't even allow a pregnant woman sweat her husband! He (rightly so IMO) got very pissed with the floor manager and stormed out. As such, there is no noise or atmosphere.

There is also no food in the poker room and the waitress service was slow and bad.

I guess this just sounds like I'm whining, but oh well. I wasn't happy with their service and I won't go back. I now realize how good turning stone is. Perhaps in a few months I'll realize turning stone sucks and realize how good Vegas is.

Fallsview Casino: Non-Poker

The casino is quite nice. It's an upscale resort with some high-end shops. Buffet was cheap ($18 canadian) and very good. There was also a diner type place called "The Famous" that was solid enough and a food court with cheap fast food, but the buffet is the best bet. The layout of the casino was a bit confusing; it's just sort of a big multi-angled room with splotches of table games mixed in with the slots, I got lost a few times but I guess they want you to get lost. There is a non-smoking section and the poker room was non-smoking. We stayed at an inn, so I have no idea about the rooms.

By law they cannot serve alcohol for free. Drinks were around $6 canadian, which was similar to the bars in the area. Cocktail waitresses left a lot to be desired.

The casino is easy to get to, and there is a free parking garage attached to it.

There is also a small bar/club in the casino, actually right next to the poker room, with live music at night which was pretty good.

EDIT: Let me also mention that they were super anal about carding. You cannot enter the casino without presenting ID, and they scanned the IDs liberally. I was also carded at the bar and at the poker room even though I had a stamp on my hand from entering the casino.

Drinking and gambling age is 19. If you are underage, don't bother.

Casino Niagra: Poker

They have a small poker room with 1/2nl and small limit games, I think 2/4 and 4/8. Obviously they are trying to take the low-end poker market. The 1/2 game had a pathetic 40-100 buyin to go along with its $5/half session fee. As you might guess, there was no way in hell I was going to play it. I was only there for two minutes, so thats all I have on that.

Casino Niagra: Non-Poker

It's a much lower-scale casino than Fallsview, which is easy to tell as soon as you walk in the door. It's on two levels, with mostly slots on the upper level and table games, poker and a sportsbook on the lower level. Fallsview did not have a sportsbook to my knowledge.

The buffet was cheaper ($13ish canadian) and fine, but not as good as Fallsview. Fallsview buffet was worth the extra few bucks.

There is a parking garage attached with "FREE PARKING" signs everywhere, but it's only free if you have a club card, which we found out after it was too late. Otherwise it's twelve bucks. Talk about lame.

Other Stuff

The two bars we went to were not all that busy, but we saw a couple of clubs with long lines. The town is a strange mix of family attractions, adult attractions and college student attractions. There are obviously a lot of families that go to see the waterfalls, but college kids go because the drinking/gambling age is 19, and there are plenty of adult tourists too. There are a lot of hokey places like haunted houses and a 4-D movie theater for the kids mixed in with the bars and clubs.

It's a tourist town, so expect high prices at restaurants and bars. Although when you adjust for the currency it's not as bad as it seems. The Dennys is the highest priced one in north america, for example.

Strip clubs and cheap and excellent. We found one with a 5 dollar cover that had several very hot girls.

There are lots of hotels in all price ranges. You have the upper end chain hotels and Fallsview, some mid-range chains like Best Western, and plenty of cheap inns for the college students. I suggest the Holiday Inn which we stayed in the last night. It's very close to Fallsview (<5 minute walk) and at $75 a night only about ten more bucks than the crappy inns. Easily worth the extra few bucks. It also had an indoor and outdoor pool.

Overall we all had a good time even though PSU lost a heartbreaker to Michigan. If you're a college student under 21 who wants to have a vacation where you can drink and go to bars as well as gamble, it's a good spot. If you just want to go for poker, Turning Stone is a much better option for those who are not 21.

[gadflier]

Fink, I think trip reports are great and yours was of a superior quality - great post.

[calmasahinducow]

That Denny's pisses me off.

[PokerFink]

[ QUOTE ]
Fink, I think trip reports are great and yours was of a superior quality - great post.

[/ QUOTE ]

Much thanks.

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That Denny's pisses me off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it pissed us off too. We still managed to go twice in three nights though... when you're drunk and there is nothing else avaliable, what are you going to do?

[Simplistic]

they replace and count the deck at the beginning of each half, and they do mandatory setup changes every 2-3 hours. It seemed like every half was being slowed down due to some B.S. which is annoying when you're paying time.

above is pretty standard i thought.

[prk]

When you turn 21 make sure you check out the Seneca Niagara Casino on our side. WAY better poker room. Free drinks, and they got rid of the lame $5 session fee per half hour.

[calmasahinducow]

[ QUOTE ]
When you turn 21 make sure you check out the Seneca Niagara Casino on our side. WAY better poker room. Free drinks, and they got rid of the lame $5 session fee per half hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm only 19 and I play at Fallsview all the time because of age reasons but what limits and buy-ins does Seneca Niagara have? I heard it's like 2/4 or 4/8 and 5/5 max 300 NL. This doesn't sound too appealing, or do they have higher stuff?

[prk]

I mostly play the 1/2NL, but they do run, by request, a 5/10 and 10/20 NL game with no max buyin (I believe this is correct).

Im not sure on their limit stakes though.

I play there about 3-6 times per month depending on if I have the time.