Well, I do, but I play mostly in CC, not BH.

Is Ameristar always insane, or was it just because of the HPT being in town, or the bbj?

Last Thursday, they had 1 4/8 lhe game going with a 15 person list. I sign up, wait 1 and 1/2 hours, come back and somehow find I'm third on the list. Fair enough, so I hang out at the bar. 1/2 hour later I check the list again, there is another name that jumped ahead of me.

Does the floor put people higher on the list if you give them a tip or something? Or was this some valuable regular that gets special treatment?

The next night, Friday, there are more tables going, but several tables in the room that are empty and huge lists for every game. (Only 3 tables for 4/8 lhe). I know these long lists means they are a popular room, but it seems odd they have all these empty tables when willing, rake-paying customers like me are starving for action.

Ameristar will survive without me and my business, but I made sure not to put a single quarter in their machidnes, or buy anything from them. Between the 1 table for 4/8 and the line jumper, I guess I'm a Lady Luck or Lodge guy when in town.

End of rant.

How are the games there?

I think it's a bit of both. BBJ has been driving extra traffic lately, plus HPT brings extra action and kills tables at GG.

Speaking of the BBJ: it appears that the primary got hit recently. Anybody know the details?

The details: A whole bunch of $ was withheld from CO poker players paying insane $5+$2 rake over time. Then some of that $2 was distributed back to a few guys who effectively hit a slot bonus. Fun fun!

How much longer until you change your 2p2 name?

Not too good. Reserve is rarely gets anything other than 2-10 spread limit going, and Century has only 2-5 spread limit. That's right, just like the bad old days pre-$100-max-bet. Even though the play is usually donkerifically craptastic for these games, the 5+2 rake and jackpot drop makes them just about impossible to beat.

Ameristar is usually busy on weekends, but was completely insane while the HPT tour was in town
While either of these is possible. There are a couple of other possibilities. Ameristar allows you to go on the list by phone, with the requirement that you have to show up at the podium and let them know you've arrived within an hour of your call. Sometimes these names are hidden until the person reports in. I highly recommend making use of this option. If you're coming from Denver, call in when you leave for Blackhawk, and your wait will be much shorter (no wait if you're lucky when you get there. ETA: Last weekend, I saw that the phoned-in names were displayed on the list with a phone icon to the left. I'm not sure whether this is a new feature of the Bravo software or just one that they weren't using in the past, but it's an improvement.

Also, I believe people who are picked up from a game get put at the top of the list when they return.
Possibly they didn't have enough dealers on duty, but one of my pet peeves with Ameristar is that they are far too slow to open new tables. Typically they will not start a new table until the list is 20 players long or more. I can understand why they do this for 1/2, for which they usually have a bunch of tables running and which turns over quickly, but for the other games or interest lists it is moronic, and probably costs them a lot of business when players give up and go somewhere else (unfortunately, there aren't any other options for 2/5-100 or structured limit holdem, but I'm sure a lot of folks decide that they'd rather play 1/2 at The Lodge or The Gates than wait 3 hours ).
Slot machines are for suckers, and the video poker at Ameristar sucks (lousy pay tables). Good move, whether you were unhappy with their poker room management or not.

Be careful with these. Any tourney without 30 minute blinds (or more) will turn into a crapshoot well before you make the money, and even then, be careful of how much the casino takes, because it is A LOT. The main event is probably the only event worth playing with the fee being 10% of the buyin (pretty standard). But a lot of have fees that range from 20-25% which is absurd. I'd be surprised if anybody can keep a decent roi over a large sample considering the above. I loved playing tournaments before BF, but I won't put up with their awful structures/entry fees. IIRC, they also skip a couple of more common blind levels (pretty sure they go from 200-400 to 400-800,etc)


AFAIK no casinos in Colorado offer stud. Golden Gates (where CPC is held) is the only game you can find Omaha/Omaha8. If you are looking for Hold'em though, Ameristar is your best option. More tables, more limits, better dealer etc.

Sorry, I meant to say that the ME is really the only event worth playing due to it being the only event with a reasonable fee.

Yes, I played a few of the events not long after BF and quickly realized how awful they were. One event I played, there were 100 entrants (10 tables to start, and they have dead stacks) with 15k in chips. That's 1,500,000 in play. When I busted in 14th (9 cash). The blinds were 5k/10k. That's an average of 107k(10.7bbs) per player, and this tourney had 30 minute levels.

I'm not sure how much the POS race makes it better. There are a lot of regulars that chase after that title. So even playing every event doesn't guarantee that you'll have a great chance.

Sorry. Stud = no.

Anyone know what the BBJ @ Ameristar is now? Was in about two weeks ago and it was 650k. Checked online and it doesn't look like they've updated the $ amount since 5/8.

As of last weekend, two were at ~660k and the third was at ~200k.

Ameristar keeps three jackpots going. When one gets hit, all the money goes to rebuilding that one until it catches up with the other two, which accounts for the amount of the primary jackpot not changint.

Ah, makes sense. Thanks for the info.

The Max bet in Colorado is $100, not $500. The three poker rooms are withing the same block of each other. Ameristar has the best cash games.

Games in Central City/Blackhawk:

Holdem:
5/10-100 spread limit A* (rarely)
2/5-100 spread limit A*
1/2-100 spread limit: A*, The Lodge, Gates, Isle.
1/3-100 spread limit (The Lodge) saw this about a month ago a for couple of days, but it doesn't seem to be going any more.
1/2-10 spread limit: Lady Luck, Reserve.
2-5 spread limit (shudder) Century
4/8 structured limit A*
30/60 structured limit A*
10/20 structured limit A* (once in a blue moon)
Other structured limit (6/12, 20/40, 50/100) A* (one every third blue moon)
Omaha 8
2/5-50 spread limit Gates
5/10 structured limit Gates.

This pretty well covers it. If I've missed anything or gotten anything wrong, feel free to correct me. I haven't been to Cripple Creek since the $5 limit days, so I have no idea what happens there. If you're looking for stud, draw, triple draw lowball, badugi, etc. you're SOL.

Good report. Can't think of anything else for cash games.

Guess I should have spelled it out. I meant Cripple Creek, not Central City. I wouldn't play in Cent City.

Cripple Creek has good games, but very little table selection. I play there because it's a shorter drive, not because I like it more or think it's more profitable.

2-10 spread limit (one blind) Gold Creek (always), Wildwood (weekends only)
1-2/100 Midnight Rose (always), Gold Creek (most weekends but only from ~8pm-12am)
2-5/100 Midnight Rose (weekend eves only)
2-5 spread limit (another shudder) Midnight Rose (always)
4-8 FL Omaha Gold Creek (about every other weekend)

Played at the Isle last night and Matt is no longer the poker room manager there, they wouldn't say what happened.

He resigned last month. He got hired to open a new poker room in Ohio.

Played at The Lodge for the first time last Friday. I'm a big fan of the room.

While the Isle setup is better, I was quite comfortable there. The dealers were decent (2 were pretty poor, but otherwise, the majority were quite good), the drink service was prompt and the game was fantastic.

I'll be giving them my LLNL action for the foreseeable future. :thumbup:

Wait, wait, wait... the guy who kept making new accounts to shill for his unsuccessful room on here got hired for Columbus (only Ohio room hiring right now)?

That's... sad.

Ha... wondered to myself if it was the same guy who was posting on here quite a bit about a year ago.

Looks like regional WPT is gonna be a go again which is pretty sweet. Not sure if anyone has mentioned it here yet? Will HPT be returning as they usually do in the fall as well? Hopefully the Isle will hold the wpt tournaments in their actual poker room this time...

http://black-hawk.isleofcapricasinos...urnaments.aspx

Isle changed BI to $1990 this time. A bit high?