I just spent the weekend in southern Illinois visiting family. I had done an internet search when I got there to see if there was close poker room and BAM Harrah's had a casino about 45 minutes away in Metropolis Illinois (about 15 minutes away from Paducah Kentucky ).

I made the stroll there through a lovely two lane highway and practically got lost. When I got there at 5 p.m. I was pleasantly suprised . The facility looked very nice.

The Poker room was located on the third floor and only had 4 tables .
Two tables were going. The floor manager said she would open up a table at 6pm . I put my name on that list. It was a 2/5 game and I was a bit intimidated by that since I HAD NEVER PLAYED 2/5 before but figured I would give it a shot. She also said that the game really had NO LIMIT. A person could buy in for whatever they wanted to.

ouch ouch --- I thought about it again , but did decide to do it even though I would buy in for only $150. I got seated at the new table at six o five.
Ten of us were participating. The most a person bought in for was 500 and the lowest was 50. I did not feel so bad then with my short stack of
150.

I played for 2 hours and I doubled up.
I wanted to get back before dark because I was scared of driving on the two lane highway in the dark.

I do not consider myself the BEST player in the world , but there I FELT
like I was a REALLY GOOD PLAYER. The players I felt were weak. I could have probably done better than what I did if I did not have to leave. Most were just calling stations. Most people did not even raise. I am used to playing 1-2 and the game seemed to not even have the flow of a 1-2 game.

other notes ---
the 10% rake was yucky --

the dealers were sloooooow ... sooo slow -- I swear I only saw about 25 flops in the two hours I was there ....

Illinois law stinks --- I so did not like waiting for an HOUR for a game to open up -- the dealer said she had to WAIT for permission from a higher authority than her to get a game started

If I am in that area again visiting family I would visit again , but
no special trip out there is necessary

What does that have to do with Illinois law? I can't imagine there is any place that allows a dealer to just open a game without a supervisor of some kind to count the chips that are there are open the table properly...