What about the blinds?

Sounds like a std Mississippi straddle? If you were the BTN why wouldn't you straddle every time?

Mississippi straddle I believe action starts at the blinds. Diamond Jo straddle action starts UTG, and if there is no raise in front of the button it skips the button and goes to the blinds and then from BB to the button for last action.

Right, so if one of the blinds is the first player to raise, then it goes around the table another time before the button has to act in turn.

The 2-5NL on Fridays have a new buy-in. $200 min. with a max of $1,000. Last week the game went until 5:30 am. Saturday night they actually had 6 1-2 games this last weekend.

Bad Beat has gone out a bunch of times lately... Its around $20k now. New tourney is a deep stack on Saturday. Its a $60 buy-in and you get 25,000 in chips. Still get 5 tables going on friday and saturday nights. 2-5 every friday and some saturdays. Still an easy room to make money in!!

2-5 last night was a sick game with two semi-legitimate whales.

Came down for the weekend for the first time from MSP/STP and am having fun. Pretty good action at 1-2 but tables broke real quick and went from 3:1 fish/reg to 1:3 by 1AM. 1-2 broke totally at 2am.

The floor and dealers have gotten better. If you now ask they will combine tables when they get short and even create a 10 seat table if asked. When games get short handed though you have to ask for a reduced rake, it is not automatic. The reduced rake starts at 6 players I believe. I play probably 400-500 hours there a year and it is pretty soft game. Very seldom to you see 3-bets. A lot of limp calls in the 1/2 game and you can get good value for premium hands.

The rake reduction is semi-automatic. When it hits 5 handed or less the dealers are to take a $2 rake. Anything other than that the players have to ask.

Was down there on Friday night. 2 2-5 games and 4-12 games going with a list for both at midnight. I left around 3:30a.m. and still had 2 2-5 games going and was down to 2 1-2 games. the effect of cp and ra closing is showing. Hope to see you guys down there this weekend.

I drove down on Saturday about midday with a hotel reservation in hand (Holiday Inn Express, casino rate $95.20 including tax). They had games still going from 7/16 play as of about 8:30 this morning (short-handed 1-2 and 2-5 games); the 1-2 game had one player who was straddling UTG and on the button seemingly every time. This was fed largely by the deep stack tournament, which started at 3pm on Saturday and was sold out at about 2:30. After I busted out of the tournament, I waited about an hour or so; they opened up a new game, and I immediately called dibs on seat 5. I played for about 2-3 hours in the 1-2 game (not counting time away from the table for dinner).

It seems that the shutdown has helped DJ's numbers thus far, especially with players who live in the Owatonna, Faribault, Waseca, and Northfield areas. It would be nice if the legislators would just finish up on the bills to match the deal Dayton, Koch, and Zellers made.

Haven't made my way into the Poker Room at Diamond Jo's quite yet but I'm tempted to swing by for their "Poker Bash". Tourneys look very solid and I'm interested in the team tourney. Gonna start looking for my teammate now and try to make plans for the whole weekend.

http://www.diamondjoworth.com/files/...poker_bash.pdf

To the previous poster how was the deepstack tournament? That one has been on my list for a bit just have not been able to make it work with my schedule..

I think I'm going to drive down and play in these 3 tournies. The 1/2 games were pretty tight last time I was down, but the 2/5 was pretty crazy. Lots of older regs down there, one reg dusted $400 off to me in 20 mins in the 1/2 game lol.


Ace™

I drove down to Diamond Jo's from the Twin Cities a couple of times during the gov't shutdown to play some 1/2 NL and play the Saturday deep stack tournament. I'm curious to know how the games have been on Saturdays since the MN rooms opened back up. During the shutdown, every table (on those Saturdays, anyway) was filled by mid-late afternoon & into the evening with either cash or tournament tables. I was thinking of driving back down this Saturday (8/20) to play (cash and DS tourney), but if there isn't enough of a turnout, I'll just head up to Aces instead. I'm more curious about traffic/action than anything else. I liked the room, but I'd rather not drive 90 minutes if I'm going to end up waiting another 90 minutes for a full cash table.

Thanks in advance,
jj

Wish I had seen your post sooner. 2 weeks ago we had 47 in the Saturday SuperStack tournament and 2 cash games at 3pm and yesterday we had 2 cash games going at 3pm and the tournament was 4 tables.

I appreciate the response. I did end up driving down to DJs to play last Saturday. I was one of the final 3 who chopped the pot in the tournament, and I was able to get on full 1/2 cash tables before and after the tournament. I'll definitely be heading back when I have a free day.

Will you be updating the website soon with Labor Day (and other Sept) tournament info?

Thanks,
jj

Superstack is a very nice tourney. Coming in for the Poker Bash this weekend and was just wondering if you knew of any sort of hotel deals for Diamond Club members (think I'm Double Diamond) or players for this poker series.

For sure doing the team tourney and likely the satty to the main Friday night.

what is this team tourney? i didn't see anything on the DJ website about it...

Well it looks like I'm an idiot... No surprise there. The last Saturday I was there they ran a team tourney where one person played Hold'em and one played Omaha. They switched off each level. When I saw the NLHE/PLO tourney on the Poker Bash schedule (http://www.diamondjoworth.com/files/...poker_bash.pdf) I thought it was this format.

There is not a discounted rate for players. Since the hotel is not owned by the casino they are reluctant to offer discounts. Sorry.

Not a problem. I didn't want to make it a team tournament since I just did one. Maybe next year.

I played the $60 Saturday Superstack tourney yesterday. My BR doesn't allow me to play the higher buy-in tourneys, but this one actually wasn't too bad. 500bb to start, 20 minute levels, only downside was the blinds double every level for the first 3 hours. Looks like the structure smooths out a bit at level 10 or so (I busted level 8, TT<AA, AJ<AK ).

The Stud8/Omaha8 tourney coming up in November looks interesting, as does the 6-game tourney...

There were hotel specials for the Country Inn and Suites adjacent to the casino and also for the Holiday inn Express across S28 from the gas station

Other than that, the nearest lodging is a small motel in Northwood, several miles east of I-35; the shorter route to this one if coming from the Twin Cities is to get off at Highway 65 (exit 8) and go south on 65 into Iowa. Otherwise, you are looking in Clear Lake, Mason City, or Albert Lea.

Usually you can get discounts during the week and once in awhile on the weekends. Those are for anyone to use. There is no further discount for playing poker.

Is the website info still accurate? I'm thinking of driving down for the big stack game this Saturday, and also to play some 1/2. Is the Saturday 3pm still running every week? The other info on the DJ poker page is for August promotions, so I wasn't sure if the tourney schedule is still accurate.

Thanks,
jj