Played Tuesday night and there were three/four players wearing masks (myself included) but no dealers I could see.

Anyone know what games they are spreading?

1/2 Holdem, 2/5 Holdem, 5/10 Holdem, a couple PLO games I think. Also their dumb tournament with a horrible structure and a prize pool maximum size.

All the games have a $100 bet limit per street. Therefore, the max any one player can put into the pot in a given hand is $400. The buyins are uncapped for that reason.

Despite the awful structure it is VERY soft. I played 1/2 for 3 hours when I was there a couple weekends ago, and I saw only one "reg" as people rotated through my table. The longer I played with the guy, the more it became clear that he wasn't a reg despite raising preflop. It is just fish city.

Thank you.
I will be playing Sunday night.
So it’s almost a limit game max bet 100.

Think of it as spread limit, as that's how it's described in most places.

Can confirm games are soft.

Edit on the note above: the 5/10 and 10/20 games are limit. Not even spread limit, straight up LHE games.

https://www.theex.com/attractions/casino/

It opens July 19th this year.

I imagine Woodbine will open after it.

How is the traffic there before the CNE?

traffic is fine...until the CNE starts

+1

I was surprised last year how quiet the poker room becomes once the fair starts in earnest. So many poker players avoid the place at the tail end because of parking cost, finding a spot and traffic.

well a lot of people go broke by then too.

Finding a spot is a pain in the butt when the casino is busy but taping out is probably more of a problem than the first scenario. I do remember circling for 10 minutes to find one cramped spot in the corner of the lot.

Last year I would have received by post a voucher for a free parking pass by now. Has anyone received one yet? I can't recall, but is parking free before the Ex itself opens?

Yes it's free or at least was, I can't say if it is on Argo or FC game nights but on other nights it was. I haven't played in years but it was years ago.

yes it's free on all nights if you have a parking pass. But the parking pass only works for the Ontario street parking location.

The game itself, is rake 10% up to 14. Be careful and watch that the dealers are taking the correct rake. The dealers are new and make a lot of mistakes. I doubt you see even 20 h/hr there.
Bets are capped at 100 per street.

I don't think the 1-2 game is even remotely beatable in the long run with rake so high. Combine high rake with 100 cap per street, giving fish better pot odds to catch.

Hamburgers cost 15 dollars, beer is about 15 as well. Total rip off.

They adjusted the beer price down to 13 dollars on Sunday onward, I kid you not (taxes included). Suffice it to say, there wasn't a whole lot of drinking going on.

On a scale of 1-10, dealers are -3. Not an exaggeration. With Woodbine bringing online a 30 table room, this may spell the end of many private clubs and even a lot of the CNE action going forward, as long as the Woodbine rake doesn't explode beyond the current $14/hand max at CNE (as extortionist as that is).

That said, if you're a limit omaha player, the CNE is ground zero. They had six tables (nine-handed) on two of the last four days I was there. Insane amount of action at the 20-40 half kill. One just needs a heavy dose of patience as the majority of dealers are new at and have no clue, other than perhaps doing a decent card shuffle. I don't even think they fit 20 hands per hour.

CNE Casino has 16 cash game tables running with $14 max rake, compared to 12 tables at Woodbine with $20 rake. I was able to use my CNE Casino season passes for free parking and admission. In case any of the 40 semi-finalists wants to sell their ticket for August 23, please PM me.

August 30 at 1 pm is the last semi-final. More than one satellite has been running at a time since yesterday, so it's possible CNE will have no more $1,680 tickets to sell tomorrow. It is possible to play if you buy somebody's ticket.