Seeing as how my TR and several posts discussing Playground Poker in the Casino de Montreal thread was deleted, I figured we may as well start a new thread for Playground. For those who don't know, Playground is a new poker club that opened in Montreal. It's located on the Kahnawake reserve, meaning it is not limited by Quebec's gaming laws which in practice means they can serve food and alcoholic beverages on the tables and spread PLO.

Side note: For non-Canadians and Canadians who may need some refreshing of high school social studies, aboriginal reserves are self governing; they do not fall into the Canadian provincial or federal system. Which means if the governing body on the reserve allows PLO to be spread and alcohol to be drunk on the tables, any club on the reserve can spread PLO and serve alcohol on the tables without any legal repercussions from the provincial or federal government.

Now, off to the TR.

I was at Playground on their second day. Some dealers and servers told me missing opening day was a blessing in disguise as it was much more packed and much more hectic. I made the trip over to play in their freebuy ($0 to enter, $50 to rebuy) tournament and their $100 NLHE freeze out. We will come to my performances at the tournaments shortly.

Playground is very comfortable and enjoyable room to play in. They have huge adjustable swivel chairs for the players. The decor is modern and simple with almost a nightclub-ish vibe. It appeals to a younger crowd but at the same time, doesn't keep old school card players away. The dealers and floor men were all friendly, welcoming and accommodating. Before the tournament started, the dealers didn't mind - and rather enjoyed - chatting with players about the club, the house rules, the weather, etc. The cocktail waitresses are HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT. To avoid being a misogynist pig, let me just leave it at this: they are all 8.5 or above. Food wise, I hadn't eaten much from their menu but what I had, I really liked. They make a mean burger. A lot of fellow players agreed that the food is very good.

If you really wanted me to be nit picky, I suppose I could say some of the dealers could use a bit more experience and training. However, all the dealers that dealt with me (pun fully intended) were friendly and professional and they all tried their hardest. Hiring new and younger dealers is expected from a new club and they could only get better with time. Also, the wait time for food and drink was a bit long but then again, the club was packed.

The club also arranged for Mike McDonald (Timex), Eric Cajelias, and some other pros to make appearances during the opening weekend; they sat at 1/2 tables. They made an announcement over the PA system that anyone who bluffs out a pro on the river gets $500 prize. It's a shame I didn't have a chance to play with them as I was busy grinding away at the tourneys. For those who care to see how I performed, read on. For those who do not, feel free to post your own questions, comments, etc.

So, registered for the free buy tournament. Started off running pretty meh. Getting dealt a lot of unplayable or marginal hands. Atleast I wasn't getting dealt strong hands that turn into second best on the river. I managed to make it almost to the second break. By that point, my stack was around 10bb so I decided to bluff shove suited connectors/1 gappers in position. 34ss got called by AQ and AQ held so I'm out. Went and got some food, chilled out, watched some sports on TV, and rebooted for the second tournament, the $100 NLHE freeze out.

Again, started off running pretty meh. I did set over set somebody and hit a flush draw vs a short stacker but I did not see a single flop voluntarily until level 4. During the middle stages, I was perpetually short stacked. I would repeatedly bluff shove or double up then find myself back down to 10-15bb as the blinds doubled the next hand. However, my tight image paid off as I got away with a couple quick ones. I shipped KQ on the button, short stacked and BB tank folds AQ, shows it to me, and says he's convinced I had AA, KK, or AK. Phew, that was close. After continuous short stacking play, I find myself at the final table. Whoohoo! First hand of the FT and last hand before a break, I'm UTG and look down at 2 beautiful aces. With 10 BBs left, there can be nothing more beautiful, not even that really cute chick I was about to knock out. I decided to stop 'n go as there's a LAG and a couple short stackers to my left. I limped the AA, LAG raises, cute chick/short stacker shoves, I shove on top and the LAG folds AJ face up. The other short stacker flips over 88 and I hold. However, it turns out she covers me by 2K chips which was less than a small blind at the time. When it became 7 or 8 handed, there were discussions of a chop. I would consistently refuse to chop and it really pissed off the guy on my left. He kept pestering me to chop until I yelled at him.

Whirlwind of flying cards and chips later, we find ourselves 4 handed. It was a bloody grueling game. There were a couple levels where we just exchanged blinds and antes. Then one guy was knocked out and the 3 of us exchanged blinds and antes. Then I knocked out the third guy and find myself heads up with the guy who kept pestering me to chop. I think he was still pissed I wouldn't chop so he said he'd shove every hand and call all my shoves. I totally didn't mind as I shipped 88 against his K6 and hold (actually, door card was an 8). Boom $2250 (yeah that doesn't seem like much but I'm a student/micro stakes grinder. It meant a bit to me) and a bag of free schwag with Playground Poker logos on them like caps and pens and stuff.

I'd like to give a shout out to Brent. He's a cool guy in general and a competent and friendly floor man in particular.

Yep, that's about what I have to say about Playground. I'd urge any Montrealer who hasn't yet to make a trip over and any card playing tourists should give it a spin as well.

This is what Timex had to say about Playground.

Too bad they rake you up the a55!

I play 1-2 so it's only a dollar on top compared to the casino. For small stakes players like me, it would be worth it for the free food and drinks. But yeah, I've heard it's kind of ridiculous at the higher stakes.

Lots of photos and some video of the room popping up on the web now.

The lower stakes rake is a just little higher than casino for sure, but "Club" is the operative word here.

Free food and booze while you play, and the menu has some high end items. They are also guarnteeing prize pools for a ton of tourneys, so some dollars will definetly be returned there.

The PLO/high stakes rake is what seems most under fire, but it is essentially a private game, private room, own security, own waitress, all sorts of comps, massage girl on hand. I talked to 25/50 players on this, and none so far from Calgary think it's unreasonable as this atmosphere is good for the game. One compared it to the Commerce saying, free food didn't do anything, but anytime the booze is comped, the game gets juicy, like in Vegas or Playground in this case. Even their max rake on a 30-100k pot is a non issue, if the table is loose enough to get there.

They also have valet and arrange shuttle service for groups of a few players or more.

Timex has a review on his Cardrunners blog, was worth checking out (although is pasted in thread), Roy Winston also reviewed the room on his Cardplayer Social blog.

On one last note, in my opinion, online rooms also seem to have an easier time taking on sats for clubs, with provinicial gaming ad regs some what more relaxed or indifferent.

Can't wait to check it our myself, March looks good in Montreal.

Was checking out their tournament schedule. Came.

Reason: They are hosting 6 max tournaments and it looks like it'll be a regular event.

Anyone been here recently for cash games? I was up yesterday but decided to go to Casino since I know it'll be many tables. What are they spreading Fri/Sat nights recently?

Here is Playground Poker Clubs new YouTube video shot at the Montreal venue, for anyone that wants to see the room and girls. Timex, Myst and Erick Cajelais all speak in the short clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cIGm...e_gdata_player

Can anyone list the cash games they spread? I can't seem to find anything on this on their website.

Obv it varies, but when I've been there I've seen NLHE at 1-2, 2-5, 5-5 and once 10-25. I suppose they also spread a 5-10 but I haven't paid attention to that lol. Also there seems to usually be a PLO table or two - I think I've seen 1-2 and 2-5.

I haven't seen other games but I haven't been there that often.

How much food do they comp for 1/2?

During opening weekend, everything on the menu is free for all cash games including steak or shrimp cocktail and stuff like that. I'm not completely sure about 1-2 but I think alot of food on the menu like pasta, burgers, or pizza is still free.

Went to playground this weekend. Place is AMAZING. The games are tougher than the casino games, but I think the same winrate is roughly attainable, just gotta get used to it. The players even at 1/2 seem very aggressive, lots of reraises postflop. Lots of young guys, and the older and/or gambling people are actually fun to be around, unlike lots at the casino.

The people saying the waitresses are hot are understating it..its honestly ridiculous. Also, the food is really good, and free. So are drinks, which makes the drunk tourists/gamblers more drunk faster. In addition to this, the atmosphere is just awesome. Slightly dimmed lights, everything new and shiny(and it seems like they wanna keep it that way), black and crimson color theme.

Also, the customer service is nothing short of amazing. You would think in a room with 250 poker players constantly waving the waitresses over that they would be slow, or bitchy, but they are all fast and very relaxed/nice. Also, the floor manager had no problems discussing various things about the club with me, and seemed completely interested, even though I'm just a 1/2 player and theoretically don't matter much at all to their bottom line.

Overall, I love this place. Being completely honest, without money, I would not play online poker. I do enjoy it, but I enjoy it because of the potential to win money. However, with this club, I can honestly say that even if money was removed from the equation, I would still come here a couple times a week.

The only things I would like them to change from what I've seen are stay open 24 hours instead of 18, update the website to say they are open 18 hours instead of 12, and possibly lower the amount of people required to shuttle(currently 5). It would also be good if they allowed you to top up whenever you want, but according to one of the dealers you are only allowed one top up of over the minimum buyin(20bb). So you have to wait until your stack drops to 160 in order to rebuy. I didn't remember to ask the floor manager if this was true, but I'll be bringing it up to him next time I go. I think if you have chips and just add them on, it should definitely be allowed, as it doesn't even take up the dealers time. The one other thing, although this is just based on my logic which may or may not be flawed, is they should have bigger tournaments on friday and saturday, or at least try to. I'm thinking having 300-1000$ buyin tournaments might attract more rich fish to come and lose there then sit in the higher stakes games? Doesn't affect me, but its just a thought.

The tournaments are primarily a way to feed players to the cash tables as they bust, I think, and a way to help people get more familiar with live poker in a controlled $$ format, so I think it's in their interest to keep them relatively accessible to people who may not be comfortable spending $$ on poker.

Playground: Fri $125 Bounty - Sat 1pm $50 1r and Sat 7:30pm $120 (freezeout)
Snakes: Fri $120 freezeout - Sat 1pm $60 1r and Sat 8pm freezeout
Four Aces: Fri 8:30pm $65 1r - Sat 8:30pm $75 1r

I've been to a few of these in the past few weeks and they're all going at 100+ players each week. At least 40%-50% (rough estimate) of these players play cash - and not only 1/2 - if/when they bust from the tourney.

Hey CxF, about the top up just do like me, I keep 25$ chips in my pocket and just top up all the ****ing time until my stack gets big....

Like when I join a 1-2 table, I have 200$ in 25$ chips in my pocket and 200 on the table. this way I top up if I bust my whole stack I just rebuy with cash.

also its not 24hours open cause its a law by the kanahwake gaming commission to close at 6am.

Yeah, that's what I do with top ups too. I keep some quarters in my pocket and when I need to, I announce I'm adding on chips and pull out the green birds.

Dealer told me that wasnt allowed...he said you can only add on an amount under 20bbs once.

really? I've been doing this at playground since I got there... I never mention when I add chips tho.

I do make sure I stay at 100bb or less also so if a player sees me do it he cant really complain...

maybe the dealer thought you meant rebuy for under 20bb? I can see you asking the dealer 20$ in chips every few hands slowing down the game, but pulling a quarter out of your pocket how does that effect the game?...

something doesnt add up.

About my add on habits. I do it at the casino. I haven't had the chance to play cash at Playground yet and I haven't learned about their add on rules.

I bought in for 200, then lost 35 and added on for that. About half hour later I lost another 20 and tried to add on that, he said he can't do that because I'm only allowed one rebuy under 40. I then asked if I could go buy chips at the cage, and he said yes I could, but I can't add them to my stack.

I would have to say that the dealer in question was misquoting/misinterpreting the rule, and if he or any other dealer does so again you should flag down a floor manager for clarification.

The "under 20bb" rule is that you are allowed one short buy for 10bb IF YOU BUST out - it has nothing to do with top-ups.

As has been said here already though, your best bet is to keep some extra chips on you so that you don't slow the game down while topping up.

BBJ 40K+

Far as I know, BBJ is still growing at over 40k. $500 Deep Stack coming up on Feb 19th, for any tourney players interested. 25k chips, 30 minute levels. They just had their first $200 Deep Stack, sold out over a week in advance, was set for two hundred players and ended up at 232 with alternates. $12k went to winner.

Heading there on 6th to check it out.

Hey I'm heading down to Montreal in a few weeks so I'll definitely check this out. What are the wait times like for 1/2 on Friday nights/weekends? Also when you are on the wait list, is there anything to do there to kill time? thanks.

I was there yesterday (Friday) at 8pm...there were 4 tables of 1-2 going and not 10 mins after I got on the list, a 5th table opened...I've been there 4 or 5 times now and the only long wait I had was 30 mins on a Monday night with 1 table going, I was 4th on the list...Still by 7:30 the place was packed and another table opened.

If you smoke, there's a smoking lounge you can go kill time in while waiting. You could also of course sit at the bar, but you have to pay when you're not playing. There are like 30+ plasmas with various sports playing, so that's prolly your best bet for killing time.