Once a douche always a douche. Im sure its not the first time or probably the last...you just werent around last time he was a douche.

I'm thinking about stepping up and trying out live at the 2/5 game here. Are there a lot of tough regs? Any insight into the game? Thanks

I just played there last weekend for the the first time. I might as well do a review. FWIW I played ~25 hours over 2 session on a Thursday and Saturday.

The room itself is fairly nice. Mostly because it is on a separate floor from the main casino so there are not many people down there other than poker players, and there is no smoke.

The bravo app says they provide food for poker players, from what I could tell this was just cheap subs cut up on paper plates. Better than nothing but less than I expected.

The rake is terrible at $7/hand.

The dealers and staff were overall very good. The tables, cards, chips, and chairs were all good as well.

They have a "no phone out at the tables" policy which they strictly enforce. To use your phone, you have to stand up behind your chair. I found this to be a good rule that made for a very social/friendly game, but of course some players will hate the rule.

The 2/5 game was fairly soft. I did table switch a few times but I was always able to end up at a table that I liked.

Overall I give it a B+, but it would easily be an A if the rake was not so ridiculous.

At 1-2 if you buy in the for the max, you likely wont be put all-in for many many hours even if you play all 4 streets.

At 2-5 if you buy in for anything less than $500 you'll be lucky to last one hour without a hand taking you into "all-in territory" decisions. Your whole stack is at risk all the time.

At 1-2, a $20 preflop bet is rare and even rarer if you get a caller. (maybe not on Friday night, table-dependent) Given a $200 buy-in, it's tough to get a pot over $100. 80%, if not more, of "all-ins" are the nuts.

If you play 2-5, a $20 preflop bet is a pot-sweetener and you get 3 to 5 callers easily. And with a pot of $80 to $120 you know the flop bet is going to be $80ish.

So you're now up to 25% of a typical $400 buy-in on the flop, (very few, maybe 1 or 2 per table buy in for more than $500 even with the higher buy in limit)

You bet $80 on the flop, get a caller, and the pot is now over $250 and you must play the turn and river! Again, this is the norm at 2-5.

That is by far the biggest difference. I've played 1-2 and 2-5 there for years. If you hit a few hands at 2-5 you WILL get paid, at 1-2, maybe 1 in 3 of your big hands will get paid. So, if you play 2-5 and you only bring 1 buy-in, you better get off to a good start or it will be a short session.

If you define "tough reg" as someone who challenges your stack frequently, then yes, there are a lot of tough regs at 2-5, and if you define it as someone who is tough to beat since they play TAG, then not nearly as many tough regs as 2-5 vs 1-2.

On the good side, all the action-players tend to move to the same table, and you can find one table where you're not constantly at risk every orbit or two.

GVC has a problem in that within the 2-5 group you have people for whom 1-2 is just too slow and small, and others for whom simply wont whip out $3K to sit at the 5-10 table but want to play bigger than 2-5. So the disparity between playing styles at 2-5 is so wide it makes for awkward tables. You'll have a nice "normal" table and an action guy sits in and it's so obvious the table style is not for him and within 20 minutes he's looking for a new table.

GVC really needs to create a 1-2 $300 max buy in and bring back the "5-10 $1500 max no straddle" back. As it is now with just two choices (that 5-10 thing they have caters to like the same 20 guys, I dont know why those guy dont make it a home game, they all know each other) you have too many people stuck at a level and style that is "in between 1-2 and 2-5 and others stuck between 2-5 and the 5-10 game they have now where it's really 5-10-20 $3K buyin.

TL/DR Variance is multitudes bigger at the 2-5 than 1-2

I'd love to play a bit bigger than the 1-2 they have now, but the 2-5 is just too fast and almost every hand you play you gotta ask yourself, "am I really ready to go all the way with this if I hit the flop? or call my big draw since it'll be about half my stack?" the 2-5 becomes almost binary if you dont have $1500 with you to reload a few times.

Nice write-up, thanks for sharing.

How would you compare GVC 1/2 with the RCG 1/2 400 cap?

I havent played the RCG 1/2 but I know a guy who does play those more than at GVC and he says they are wild and loose. He loves it and only goes to GVC when the RCG location doesnt work for him

Heck, just thinking about it, I should check out that 1/2 $400 cap!

Hadn't played here in 5ish years. Nice to see some upgrades, more tables and more space. And a little bit less annoying ambient noise from the surrounding slot machines.

1/2 can still be a bit ghastly. Multiple nit shortstackers preventing complex deepstack play from occurring is common. They peddle the nuts or near nuts all night, and by the time they've doubled up they're just back to where they started because of the rake and because they suck. At other points there was decent action and straddling. Extremely poor play all around. An old man didn't play a hand for hours, it was patently obvious he was a nut peddling nit and people couldn't wait to pay him off because they couldn't bear to fold AQ or something. The 1/2 is very simplistic play, often you just sit around waiting for cards. Outplaying people with position is sometimes not even possible because of the nit shortstackers and the fact that if you raise it goes multiway quite often which reduces it to a game of who-hit-the-flop. There's very little bluffing, at a random 1/2 table someone will be caught bluffing roughly once every 3-4 hours. People are often too scared and uncreative to even bother attempting it.

He is not wrong.
GVC needs a 1-3 $300 max so the people described can all sit and wait for AK+ all day

You won't find that "rule" written anywhere in the statute or administrative rules. I've looked.

It exacerbates the problem of moving from 1/2 to 2/5 at this place, that the play in 1/2 amounts to sitting around waiting for KK and stacking someone for 60BB who has AQ (and sometimes losing), dealing with nit shortstackers, nit deepstacks, calling stations etc. The skill set for winning at 1/2 here is almost completely different than the skill set for winning at 2/5. In 1/2 youre basically grinding small amounts out of people, $50 at a time maybe. Then you sit down at 2/5 and youre playing a $1K pot in the first 30 minutes.

Anyone recognize an indian middle aged man goes by vinny who plays here? He owes me about $3.2k... Trying to see if i can try to catch him. Any info about him will help

LOL

Yes unfortunately he did.

I'm basically right right in the middle of GVC and Hammond (live in northwest chicago), and am curious as to how the games play vs Hammond?

Generally play 2/5 at Hammond, mostly want to know how the 2-5 1k max compares vs over there.

Well since you like to gamble I will take any cash you can put up, It is a Gaming Board Decision not to allow phones in the poker rooms.Im not claiming it is written anywhere but I am telling you the Gaming board will not allow it.If you want the bet under those premises we can do it. You wont find a single IGB agent to back up that ridiculous claim.

Right. Entire state.

Are they building a sports betting area in Grand Victoria casino, Elgin Illinois?

GVC 2-5 has long been known to have some of the wildest tables you'll find. Often times at least one of the 2-5 tables is a "everyone straddles" So, you'll find enough action to keep you from getting bored.

At Hammond, the place smells so bad I wont go just for that reason alone. It's disgusting. The poker room isnt too bad, but heaven help you if you need to do that 30 yard walk to the bathroom. Hope you can hold your breath for 10 seconds and then hope the dude next to you at the other stall doesnt have two smokes in his mouth at the same time.

GVC >>> Hammond for 2-5 games based on my 2 times playing at each location.

GrandVicPoker:I do not know who the f you are, I am the "Alpha" you were referring below, you better correct this fake news immediately, otherwise I would have to take legal actions! You have no right to initiate and post unverified rumor about me, especially for "committed suicide", this is a real insult to me and my family! I love to play poker but I have much more important things to do other than poker.

"Take legal action?"

The rake at GVC is insane - so I'm guessing the quality of the games outweighs the ~3 dollar/pot difference?

16 tables at GVC now and all going tonight when I was there. 1/2,1/3,2/5,and 5/10. Nice variety of games. BB at 350k and new promotion to get into 200k in freerolls. I must say this room is turning out to be a very good room. The only thing they need to do now is drop the rake to 5 bucks. Never happen as long as the place is packed.

BBJP has been hit TTTT & 6666

Should be no issues getting seats here for a while

They are one of the three applicants for sports wagering licenses right now (along with Alton and Rivers).