(quoted from website)
Available to Winner's Circle Rewards members, OLG Slots at Woodbine Racetrack is excited to offer Virtual Texas Hold'Em Poker - the revolutionary poker table games that combine the best of traditional and online poker, for the ultimate poker experience.

Games Available: Play $1/$2 no-limit Texas Hold'em, $2/$5 no-limit, and more depending on demand.

Take a seat in the new electronic table games room with 11 Virtual Poker tables, electronic Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat, Let it Ride, 3 Card Poker, Sic Bo, Craps and Mississippi Stud.

Virtual Poker hours of operation:
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week

Call 416-675-1101 or 1-888-345-7568 for more information.

They are spreading 1/2NL, 2/5NL, and 1/2 PLO regularly. Apparently the traffic has been steadily increasing since it opened 3 weeks ago. Wednesday they had 10 of their 11 tables running.

Also, other Ontario racetracks have Pokertek tables. Mohawk, London Fair, and Georgian Downs all use the same system.

Anyone know whether they are planning MTT yet?

I'm hearing the games are soft at Woodbine, but I've never played on these electronic tables before.

Think I'll check it out soon, would save me the sucky drive to Rama or Niagara.

Checked this out today. Was awesome ! Had a great table, players either limped or opened 8x the bb lol. The electronic thing makes for a fast game with no dealer **** ups. Also people can't bitch at the dealers for bad beats. Although one dude smashed the screen, he was kicked out lol.

Does Woodbine still have a PLO game going consistently?

I'll be there next week for sure. Just returned from Vegas and while I was waiting at LAS, I found out about Woodbine poker. This sounds great!

Going to play some 2-5 and 5-5 games there. How are the games at that level competition-wise? Also I could not find the comp system information (if there is any)

I pretty sure they comp you 50 cents an hour. You have to ask a supervisor for a comp slip.

Since PartyPoker has been attacking rake-paying regs such as segregating fish away from regs, I stopped paying rake there and thinking of returning to live play. Has Woodbine become the best B&M place in the GTA to play cash games, i.e., more +EV than Fallsview, Seneca and Brantford? What is the rake structure? I tried to phone the number in the OP, but only got voice mail.

So they do have supervisors around regulating table talk, collusion etc? Otherwise I couldn't see what would stop me & a friend just constantly texting each other what we have or something.

Tons of regulars at the table and no one will allow table talk regarding hands.. A regular will just call the supervisor to the table if there is any nonsense going on.. Players control the game until it gets out of line then supervisor will be called. And supervisors watch for phones.. Alot of them do.. some more relaxed about it then others!

Will poker players cross the picket line to play poker? Will there be a poker game at Woodbine during the strike? http://www.citynews.ca/2013/03/26/wo...strike-action/

I'll cross it. Unionized workers can suck it.

Is there such a thing as a live study group in the GTA just like there are a lot of online study groups? One of the important factors in increasing one's win rate is being able to chat with other good players in your games about hands and strategies.

Hey all,

Brand new to the site.

Have never played live in the GTA as I've been in Ottawa for school the last few years (played quite a bit for a year or two in Gatinaeu at Lac-Leamy). I've played mainly online at stars, but really want to get back into the live action and I've been much more successful playing live.

What are the games like at Woodbine and what casinos are best in the area in your opinions? I'm more of a 1-2 NL player, but will play 2-5 if the games are generally soft enough. Thoughts on Woodbine, as well as Fallsview, Niagara and Rama would be appreciated.

Look forward to getting to know the Southern Ontario poker crowd.

Cheers

I've checked out Woodbine a few times just to see what it's like. 1/2, 2/5 and 5/5 run regularly, but 5/5 just has one table going most of the time. The two times I played 5/5 there were 4 players I recognized from both sessions, so I suspect these games to be very 'reg heavy'.

However, each time there were about 2 or 3 completely terrible players just throwing money away - worse than I've seen live in a long time. Makes it worth it my opinion to play in the game.

I have also been checking out Woodbine and Fallsview to see which is better to play at for as long as PartyPoker continues to be terrible to use my online bankroll for. On busy days, there are usually two 2/5 and at least one 5/5 at Woodbine. In a couple of the times that I played 5/5, there were two 5/5 tables using the must-move system to the main table, which had many $1K-$4K stacks totalling $10K-$20K.

IMHO, the losing players at Woodbine 5/5 are nowhere as bad as other places, e.g., underground high-rake clubs and Fallsview when the WPT $10K and satellites ran there for three years in a row. The rare fish that chooses to sit in the 5/5 table don't last long with the electronic dealer and usually don't rebuy, muttering something as they leave to the reg who took their buy-in. There is much more chance of clueless fish sitting at Fallsview such as drunk guys partying with sexy girls in a mini-skirt than at Woodbine.

Like you, a friend thought it was worth playing at 5/5 regularly for a huge profit weekly. I strongly disagreed with him that it was EZ monies, and advised him that both he and I will have to improve our skills. Like many other "semi-pro" dreamers, he found out the hard way that he will lose many buy-ins and has already given up.

If any Woodbine/Fallsview reg disagrees with any of the above, please post.

Awesome, thanks for the replies guys.

I decided to go and check out Woodbine for myself yesterday. It was great. I'm only bankrolled for 1-2 NL and my style doesn't play well at most 2-5 NL tables (at least it didn't in Gatineau, where it was solely loose-aggressive players).

For starters, I have to say, it was a well-run room and everyone there yesterday was really nice and fun to play with.

I grinded out about 7.5 hours and was up to over $520 (buy-in was $150 out of the $300) before doubling up a fish (the guy was asking questions and table talking frequently, pretty clear "just for fun" kind of player) after slow-playing top set on a low board (he turned a gutshot straight on me with A4 after calling 7.5 BBs pre lol).

Ended up finishing up $200, but I feel content with my play and think the money is VERY soft there and should be a profitable place to play.

I don't play full-time as I work during the week and then in the fall have school, but I do like to grind out 20-30 hours on weekends.

I'll definitely be returning, most likely this weekend if any of yall are going to be around there. I also LOVE the $300 max buy-in. Puts more $$$ on the table.

Oh, and one more thing about Woodbine: most pots either reach the flop with calls or are open-raised to 5-6 BBs. Basically, in position, you can really play your marginal hands dirt cheap and suck people into pots while still building them when you hit. Or you can make your premium hands REALLY profitable by 3-betting big after an open-raise of $12 and 2-3 calls before it reaches you.

All-in-all it was a more than worthwhile place to play and was a really fun time to boot and there were no real problems at any point.

Contrary to rumours, they still have no plans for MTTs. They will start with only a one-table SNG.

The SNG structures used by the other OLG poker rooms such as Brantford, Mohawk and Western Fair were almost never played so hopefully, Woodbine will learn from their mistakes and make improvements. Just like online, an SNG should have a 50%/30%/20% payout structure, not a 50%/50% two-payout collusion fest. I think Georgian Downs was the only OLG location that was able to run $75+$5 SNGs (6.3% rake).

This place is amazing. 1-2 is so fast, such low variance. No reason to play any higher if bankroll is iffy

Was anybody at Woodbine on Saturday night when I heard that you could not put money on your PokerTek account, then everybody was kicked off the tables? How often does this happen?

I was there. It was first time I saw it happens in 3 months of playing there.

how long do you have to think about your decisions? the thing I hate about those tables are no time bank.

how come the rake hasn't been mentioned yet?

and plo!

If you truly need more time than everybody else's 45 seconds, then you can request help from the poker room staff.
Max $5, which is better than Rama, Niagara, Seneca & especially the illegal clubs. The 10% rake can make it difficult to win in 1/2 under certain table conditions, such as $60 shortstackers who waste their seats getting blinded down instead of topping up.
A PLO table sometimes runs on Friday or Saturday nights. The new SNGs are more popular, despite some silly rules such as only 8 AM - 12 PM, 70/30 payout instead of the standard 50/30/20 like online, and pulling a bait-and-switch on the advertised $75+$5 SNG with only 6% rake.

Seneca has a max of $4... As far as live poker goes, it's the lowest rake of all the major casinos in Ontario and the WNY area...