Great News!
I never did make it out to see the temporary room but I will be there later this week to check out the new room.

Now I have to decide if I want to try the Survival NL thing.

Well...what did we all think?

-HF

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME

Care to elaborate?

-HF

this whole post, especially the bolded, is just silly. Hard to believe but cardrooms don't like online poker, bookstores don't like amazon.com, video stores don't like netfix, etc.

someone tell me how nice the new room is . I really can't wait till friday.

I need to hear to. I can't go for a couple weeks :-(

Went last night for the opening at 7 and the place was packed. The comments I kept hearing from people was "I feel like I'm in Vegas". They did do a nice job on the remodel and best of all they got new chairs(which took me like all night figure out cause they have like 3 different adjusters).

They also had a wide variety of games going. 2-4 to 30-60 LHE, the 200 survivor, and they also had the 6-12 Mix/08 game going.

With the refurbishing and the new variety of games, as well as the same great dealers and floor service make for a very nice room.

I heard that there is going to be a new promotion in the new room, play for 3 hours and get a sirloin steak dinner for $.10 (yes, ten cents).

Can anyone confirm if this is on?

OK, taking the afternoon off work, gotta check it out.

The remodel sounds great, will definitely check it out when I get back to the states.

Can't confirm... I heard something about this, but thought it was just on Mondays or something like that. Will be making my first trip to the new room tomorrow!

I do understand your point, however what netflix did for video stores IMO is open new doors for them. Blockbuster and Hollywood Video now offer the same services as netflix, Bookstores now offer the same services as amazon. Sure maybe they fought it for a hot tick, but they have adapted and become more in tune with the market. Canterbury should do the same IMO. Instead of trying to make it illegal in this state, they should back it and open a online site to play as well. Thats all I am saying. I mean if there was a canterbury online poker site, I would most definately be grinding on there.
on a side note
I went to the new cardroom yesterday just to see what it looked like, and I was absolutely blown away. They did an amazing job and would not be surprised if there was a major tournament stop here in MN very soon.

Major tournaments dont come to cby because of the $60 max bet. The big players wouldnt want to come if there could be no significant cash side games.

The only thing that might help them (more than the new room) is if they can run $1000-$10,000 survivor tournaments with high blinds.

TANGENT: I remember people were developing tables with computer interfaces to play poker in casinos.
If they went a step further and made each position able to play 4 tables against the others seated at the table they would have something to compete with online in terms of hands per hour and the advantage/disadvantage of being face to face with your opponent
This would be an example of how Canterbury could use the online poker model in their own interests and wouldn't even have to back online gaming to do so. 1 table would be enough to draw a crowd.

Good Point My Bad

Went to the new room yesterday... was very happy with what they did with the room.

If you get a chance to check it out, do so. It's worth it!

Quick TR-
Wow, freaking awesome.
Chairs A++++ Need training there are so many adjustments (what does the screw knob do?)
Hi Def TVs
Close bathrooms
Stayed with the real green felt tables, just re-covered the tables. (I hate that synthetic fabric crap in weird colors and texture)
Way more open feeling

Nits--
poker desk needs a sign, probably not obvious to an outsider
same goes for the supplemental cashier station which adjacent to the poker desk-its just got a little divider.

self-serve drink stations would be nice, too.

I didnt look around enough to see if there was anything like a lounge.

I didnt get a chance to go out there on thursday but I might be stopping by on Tuesday for the Aces Bonus!

The room sounds incredible!

I don't know if you're old enough to remember but 15 years ago there were video stores everywhere, in every single mini-mall, on every corner. Now they're almost completely gone.

That said, a DVD in the mail or a VOD movie at home are the same experience as renting from Blockbuster. Live poker and online poker have nothing in common terms of atmosphere, type of play. Both offer different things (multi-tabling and huge MTTs vs live donks and "atmosphere").

Hopefully there is room for both for a long time.

I dunno, it was kinda fun to go to the store with my parents and look at all the movies. Not worth paying 5x more for but still fun.

Checked out the new room on Friday and it is great.
Much more open and party (GAMBOL) atmosphere than the old room.
I also enjoyed the chairs and the T.V. set up.
Definitely check it out when you can.

Played a 4-hour session there yesterday. Anecdotally, lots of gambooling at my table. The chairs are indeed very nice but I do wish that they had gone with larger tables, it still feels quite cramped. Oh well, can't have everything.

Maybe I'm just a hick, but I thought that the sinks in the men's room were cool.

What do you guys think of the new 200 survival game? Personally, $30 is in my opinion, way to high an entry fee for two hours of play. A good player may average $20/hr playing 1-2 NL over the long run, so a $30 fee out of $40 total winnings would totally discourage grinders and regulars from playing this game. Something like $15 for two hours or $20 for three would be much more sustainable. The game as it is doesn't seem like it will last.