The Canadian Ex casino has opened, as it does every year, and if you are nearby here's the advance report. First, the stats:

TABLES: 25-30 (approx., I didn't count.)
TYPES: Limit only
LIMITS: From 5/10 up to at least 25/50, and there may be 50/100
BAD BEAT JACKPOT? None
RAKE: 10% to $6 max at 5/10 and 10/20; not sure about higher limits

The CNE casino runs only from late July through the run of the Exhibition, so this year it's July 29 to September 2 (not including today, August 3, when it closes, inexplicably, during Caribana.) The casino is in the Better Living Centre on the Exhibition grounds, a convention building to the southwest of BMO Field, the stadium where Toronto's horrific soccer team, Toront FC, plays. Getting there is easy if you take a GO train; it's maybe 300 yards, at most, from where you step off the train.

The casino offer house table games on one side, and on the other the poker room, which is separated by glass. The table games side has blackjack (which, stunningly, pays 2 to 1 on a blackjack and no I'm not kidding) War, roulette, and a few other games. I didn't look carefully, really, but there's no craps, no slot machines, and I don't think they offer more exotic table games like Mississippi Stud or Pai Gow.

The poker room at the CNE is infamous for its shoddiness; I'd never played there but every player and dealer at every other cardroom in the province chortled at the CNE. I had to try it, though, because aside from the players there being infamously terrible, it also drains the action from the other casinos, so I figured I might as well try it.

The casino runs from non to 6 AM, and I arrived at about 11:45. People were already waiting outside, but not many of them, perhaps 30-40. I started getting worried I wasn't going to see much action and might be up against regulars who would not be such easy marks. But what the heck. Once it opened up, though, people poured in at a truly astounding rate; by 1 PM, 20 tables were running, and this on a Friday.

In terms of the quality of the room, it was bad, but not as bad as I'd been led to believe. You cannot phone in to get on the list; that'd be a huge, huge strike against the place at prime time, though it didn't matter at opening. To their credit, they do a reasonably good job of getting tables open as quickly as demand allows, and use a projector rather than monitors to display the waiting list in 20'x30' glory on a wall of the poker room, an innovation I'm surprised I don't see more often. Even when the place was really busy the lists appeared to be kept to a reasonable length - that's on a weekday, though, so please don't assume it'd be like that Saturday night. The tables are cheap, with lousy felt and no drink holders (rolling drink stands are provided) and the chairs equally cheap. The chips are standard casino chips embossed with CNE logos but are - even by the dismal standards of casino chips - astoundingly gross, just dirty beyond belief. I may come down with smallpox; I'm pretty sure smallpox was not yet eradicated when they last cleaned those chips. I mean... it's a temporary casino and it shows. I mean, it's in a convention center that was built in the 70s; it's like playing in a high school gym. You don't go there for atmosphere (though as to that there is no smoking, which pleases me.)

The other major strike against the place is that you pay for everything - even soda and coffee. Coffee is an outrageous $2.25. The waitresses, while overworked, are friendly and cooperative.

Dealer quality ranged from poor to good. Nobody was great, but I didn't see anyone pitch a card onto the floor or seriously screw up a pot. Some of the younger dealers needed help with some more unusual rules; one dealer wanted to make a player post for changing seats into INFERIOR position. Another did not grasp the concept of buying the puck (I actually had to pick the man's chips up, explain the surrender of the small blind, and demonstrate how to do it and why it wouldn't mess anyone's blind up.) The hands/hour ratio was not sensational but, again, it was not as bad as I'd been led to believe.

The quality of player, though, was every bit as bad as I'd been led to believe.

I first sat down at $10/$20 because that's what was available and was swiftly up despite a truly horrifying beat (a set of kings defeated by runner-runner quad aces. Ouch, bro. Okay, so technically I lost on the turn.) But I really wanted to play $5/$10, as I assumed that's where the really terrible players would be and I wanted to see if I could take their money.

I was not disappointed. The quality of play was abysmal. It was worse than Great Blue Heron, which is saying a lot. Everyone loved to call and nobody wanted to raise; they were easily bullied, and it was painfully apparent that many of the players had no concept of the idea of position, and so would call in early position and then be visibly crestfallen when they were raised. The amount of chasing, given the ineptitude of the preflop play, wasn't as bad as you might expect, which was a perfect combination; you could get the money in early and then push people out when the bets got big.

I had poor cards most of the session and still made $400 in just three hours of play, which is a hell of a rate for $5/$10. I don't even think I played well, to be honest; I adapted well to the table, but I still identified a number of errors I made. More discipline and watching overconfidence is key there.

Player behaviour was generally okay. I saw nobody flip out or throw a punch, which the CNE has a reputation for. Etiquette was not super fantastic - one guy pulled a just-barely slow roll with quads, and the older gentleman to my right seemed to love to act before his turn, which drove me crazy and I finally asked him to top. (He was a doofus and busted out three times, finally giving up after the third, so that problem went away.)

Overall, I wouldn't want this place to be my regular cardroom, but for a temporary experience and incredibly easy money, if you know how to play limit poker, for God's sake go. Well, don't sit at my table.


NOTE ON THE BLACKJACK GAMES: I'm going to ask tomorrow when I go back, but I double checked and CNE blackjack tables absolutely so say 2-1 on a blackjack. I looked at three of them to make sure. It wasn't Spanish 21. The house must also stand on a soft 17. This strikes me as being flatly insane; unless there is another house rule that tilts towards the house that MUST give the player an edge. I'll look into it further. The house must win a push, or something.

about the blackjack youre prob looking at the charity tables in which case the house wins on a push... also the toronto thread has all the deets on the cne room and stuff you may have missed in your post (no 50/100 game)

cheers

Nice post -- though, as noted already, the CNE discussion this year has gravitated to the Toronto thread.

I'm not sure exactly why but dealer quality AND player behaviour have both been much better in the last three years than in the decade before that, where I saw truly awful dealers, several times witnessed fights, and often had to put up with really unpleasant players. (I haven't even seen Goldie around this year. I almost miss him.) But the doofus factor isn't worth complaining about I think, as that's to be expected among players that don't understand the game.

The one thing you're wrong about is thinking that the worst players are at the 5-10 came.

How interesting - where do you think the worst ones are?

(Usually the worst players are at the lowest limit, so it was a fair assumption.)

You'd think so, but even online that presumption can surprise you ...

So far this year I've only played at one 5/10 table and that for just a couple of hours. But it was much tighter and less crazy than the 10/20 I moved to, where players seemed more intent on making moves, overbetting, and calling down possible bluffs.

On Friday, the 2 10/20 tables I played were pretty loose until around 9 pm when things seemed to get serious (and for about an hour or so, wait lists were short) -- so I took a move to 20/40 and found that the action there was ... wonderful. (Paradoxically there being some very sound players at 20/49 helped, because I could put them on a hand. At the first 10/20 table I played there were players I couldn't even put on a thought.)

I didn't bother playing at the CNE Casino this year due to the increase to 10% rake. The good news for next summer is that it will finally have NL tournaments! The final tournament may have a $120,000 prize pool, and there will be daily satellites.

I'll go back to starting the CNE Casino thread next summer to confirm the good news.

I was talking to a friend and he said the max rake was 10 percent to 7 now. Is this true? Thanks!

yes max 7 at 5/10 8 at 10/20 and 9 at 15/30+

The CNE casino is crappy overall. There are a few redeeming qualities. Oncethe food building opens, you will have a good selection of food choices, especially with the BBQ. The players are pretty bad to terrible bad. They have reduce the rake from previous years, I believe it was $12.50 or $15 at 20/40 and now it is capped at $9. 10/20 is now capped at $8.

Otherwise I agree with most of what was said in the OP. Not being able to call in sucks, they charge for everything. No outside drinks unless they are sealed.

The tournament structure is a complete crap shoot in the first shootout. But the play is so bad. People start with 1,000 tournament chips and blinds of 25/50. I've seen UTG open to 300, get 1 caller, and then the BB shoves, and both players fold. These guys have no concept of stack size.

I have seen the room to remain busy some of the time.

I am hoping to buy a seat into the next round of the tournament. If anyone is selling seats please PM. Me and a few friends are looking to buy seats to tomorrow's event.

The power went out at CNE Casino! While waiting for the 20/40 Limit Omaha Hi and $100+$20 crapshoot SNG, I was playing LHE when everything went black just before 9:30 pm.

There's Limit Omaha this year?!

Oh, and about the power: whoa! What happened next?

confirmed there is 20/40 limit omaha, list was hardly moving last night though

I got my best hand of the night with JJ and raised, then suddenly, it became pitch black. I instinctively protected my hundreds of dollars of chips. I think the backup generator kicked in as a few lights came on. Each table's hand was finished, including me winning, then play did not resume for a long time.

There was a long line-up of players who wanted to cash out our chips and leave, but there was an announcement that we can only get our money when play resumed. There was eventually another announcement that Toronto Hydro would not have power back for another hour, and the cashier area finally opened.

Info about these SnGs? Do they run daily? Only at certain times?

I'm not running that good at the CNE, so if anybody wants to play in today's SOLD-OUT semi-final, I would be tempted to sell my entry card at face value.

I went to the CNE yesterday to play a qualifier, but all forty semi-final seats had already been sold out. I heard about somebody being so desperate to get the entry card in one of the last qualifiers with $1K prize pool and 3 even stacks, that he gave the other two players cash so that each got $400 cash and he ended up worst off with only $200 value.

CNE does not seem to be running any cash SNGs unlike last year.

It's that time again: the Ex opens July 31: http://theex.com/main/entertainment/casino.

I haven’t been in a couple of years and am not sure about this year. But maybe … I do like the fact that opening day is on a Sunday instead of a Monday.

I presume the tournament will remain terminally stupid and I fear that the rake will remain criminally high. And the attractions of the venue certainly don't compensate ... But it is a more convenient location than any other limit game (which is what I prefer), and the nofoldem play is always entertaining, so maybe I'll kill a day or two there.

Wonder if they'll have NLH yet. The donkament and limit is not worthwhile imo

No NLHE. Limit cash game rake is 10%, max $7 for 5/10, $8 for 10/20, and $9 for 20/40. 26 cash game tables, including 20/40 Limit Omaha.

Stupid rule of having to stand up away from the table just to use your cellphone or other electronics, even when the table had already broken! In another instance when a security guard told me no electronics on the table, I offered to put it aside on the food table behind me and he claimed I had to put it away in my bag! Possibly the silliest rule is that security claimed that taking a photo OUTSIDE the casino is forbidden.

ugh, I wonder why they don't run NLH...i'm guessing because the dealers are generally incompetent and NLH is more difficult to deal

Antiquated gambling rules in Ontario. CNE Casino, Brantford and Great Blue Heron Casino have Limit cash games only. Charity casinos had a $100 max bet limitation.

Anyone sit in the 20/40 Omaha Hi this year and can give a report?

I played two hands before moving to 20/40 holdem on Wed night.

The average age is > 50 and saw some 7-8 way limped PF hands.

Anybody else here playing the semi-final tournament on Wednesday?

hi! so on their website it says NLH, I am guessing it is only applied to the tournaments? The cash games as you stated are only LH? Just want to double check before I go check it out today .

Thanks!