The best-kept secret in the Canadian capital of Ottawa as its only legal poker room with rake <= $5!

4837 Albion Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1X 1A3.
Phone: 1-877-870-7586 or (613) 822-8668.
Poker room opened in November 2012, but even 2+2 members in the area had no idea they could play poker in RCR!
Rake: 10% up to $5, NLHE.
"Reduced rake from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and $1/$2 Limit Hold’Em feature game on Sundays."
No Bad Beat Jackpot.

This huge OLG Slots location has over 1,200 slot machines and a 600-seat restaurant, but has failed to properly promote its electronic poker, so it currently only has two PokerTek tables. Another OLG Slots location at Woodbine Racetrack has eleven PokerTek tables and is very busy every night.

Since there will be a lot of poker players driving near the area for the WSOP/WPT/CPT/FTP big events between September to December 2013, here are a few ideas:

1) Go to this poker room for its <= $5 rake before or after the tournament at Casino du Lac-Leamy, Playground Poker Club or VIP Poker Room. Lac-Leamy rakes up to $11 and both Playground and VIP rakes up to $15!

2) RCR has a rake of as low as 4% for its on-demand one-table SNGs or MTTs, so we can have a makeshift satellite for a Main Event that has lower fees than the ones being run by the WSOP/WPT/CPT rooms! If we can get at least six players, we can run an SNG satellite where first place gets enough money to buy into a WSOP/WPT/CPT event. For example, if ten of us agree to play a $220+$10 SNG with only 4.3% rake, then first place can get up $1,320 (enough to buy into FTP & almost the CPT/WSOP ME) and second place can get up to $880 (or we can agree to modify the payouts from 60/40 to 50/30/20). For another example, if ten of us agree to play a $540+$20 SNG with only 3.6% rake, then first place can get up to $3,240 (almost enough for WPT ME) and second place can get up to $2,160.

3) Have a 2+2 Meetup in its 600-seat restaurant, e.g., $3.99 breakfast or $19.99 for an "all-you-can-eat buffet featuring over 100 fine food items."

Ive played here before and if they spent some time advertising a PLO game then the room might get a bit of traction

Thanks for starting the thread. Anxious to check it out. When I get some time I will, and will report back. Might convince the wife a buffet 'scouting trip' is needed.

Do their tables support PLO?

Yes they support but they've never had the demand for PLO

I was always under the impression that Omaha was an add-on feature for the PP tables. If they have it, it's kind of annoying the control isn't agile enough to spin up an omaha game at the last minute. I guess they have to go through the whole interest list process.

Anyone with any experience on when games are running and/or worthwhile?

You're welcome. I'm hoping that with the many 2+2 players heading to the CPT/FTP events in Quebec this month, they will post alternatives to paying $11-$15 in rake. Otherwise, I'll have to bring my laptop to play online poker instead when I go there.
Yes, the PokerTek tables offer Omaha, Stud and Limit HE. I've seen the Omaha games run at Woodbine, and automated Omaha has a lot of advantages over the slow dealer-dealt Omaha games I used to see at Fallsview.

I agree. Omaha on an electronic table has a lot of advantages, particularly in a market with dealers that don't have a lot of experience dealing it. I reckon it's even more so for stud.

What I meant those, was do the RCR tables have the Omaha module? iirc, this is an extra feature that must be purchased. If they have trouble getting HE games going, would they bother buying the Omaha license?

... then again this would be typical OLG burning money...

Hoping to get out for some buffet reconnaissance soon-ish. Checked the website, and kids are allowed on Thursday evenings.

I believe OLG has a huge contract with PokerTek for electronic blackjack, roulette, baccarat, etc. so skimping on the Omaha/Stud options would not make sense. RCR's huge challenge is to promote to poker players in the area like you to keep the poker room going. If its managent mistakenly think that they have done all they can to market it, then the room is doomed to close, and the only options would be to pay $11-$15 max rake in Quebec.

After the 11-table room in Woodbine Toronto opened, one poker table was replaced with a different game at Mohawk Racetrack. The same thing happened recently in the dead Georgian Downs poker room, where one poker table was replaced with a PokerTek baccarat machine.

Ah, didn't realize they also had electronic tables games as well, or an OLG wide scale. That makes sense.

I know nothing about marketing and advertising but I feel I could do a 500% better job. It took me forever to find info on the RCR site. Like I've said before, I had heard a news story years ago about the potential for tables at RCR, but never any follow up. I don't know why they aren't even making the slightest possible effort.

This is no longer available. Lack of interest finally made it close.

I this ^^^ confirmed? I haven't been able to make it out there yet, but was planning on going... They still advertise it on the OLG Poker website ...

Sad if this is true...

Cheers,
Mr.Bl4ck

I was also planning on stopping by on my way to and from WSOP-C Lac-Leamy and WPT Montreal, but maybe instead of trying to beat the high-rake cash games in Quebec during my off-tournament time, I'll just sightsee more such as The Senate (before Mike Duffy gets it abolished) and the Quebec strip joints!

There is no longer any mention of poker in the Rideau Carleton Raceway page.