I'm starting this thread to discuss the poker clubs in Kahnawake - Snakes, Four Aces, and Playground Poker.

Most of this discussion in the past has happened in the Casino de Montreal thread, but as I learned today, that's not really appropriate. I also have a sense that this coming winter there will be quite a bit of competition between these three rooms, which are located very close to one another, so this could be a space to discuss that and the health of the three locations.

Anyhow - here's my trip report for Playground.

---
Went to Playground Poker Club for the first time tonight for the $150 NLHE tourney - a deep stack, turbo format. The trip reports already posted cover the most important points...

--Lots of tables - not sure exactly how many, but it looked about 50% larger than Snakes or Four Aces.

--The tables are really badly organized and over-packed. I had to move to let people by every 4-5 minutes at one table I was at.

--Everything was shiny and new, and it looks like they plan to keep it shiny and new.

--Some of the tourney dealers were pretty new, and one in particular kept screwing up. There's definitely a contingent of newbie dealers. I also noticed a few dealers I've seen before, and with the supervision of a good floor manager everything was OK. They're really trying hard as well, and training during breaks, taking notes to help new dealers to improve.

--I checked out the menu - it was pretty extensive and the sandwich I ordered was very good (though it would be tough to screw up grilled cheese, right?).

--The cash tables were packed and for a while they had a 10-25 game going. Apparently there's a "big game" room as well, but it was closed tonight.

The tourney had about 60 runners to start - I busted out in 16th place or so and I think 6 or 7 places paid. So I wasn't that close, but still did reasonably well before a crippling hand when the blinds had risen to 1.5/3K.

The players that I saw in the tournament were pretty strong - it's a young crowd for the most part, and at one point 7/10 players at my table were quite good players.

I have a friend who lives across the St.Lawrence and he can actually see into Kahnawake (where they host the 400+ "off-shore" online gambling "licences").

Sometimes he sees blacked out SUVs driving around with Natives hanging out the windows/sun roofs with semi-automatic rifles(AK-47s and the american counter-part? M4A1s?).

RCMP has gone into Kahnawake for things like rapes/murders, but for things like "offshore" gambling I don't know if the Canadian Government has done anything about it.

Kahnawake is a Sovereign nation to some extent, mainly to keep the Natives happy and to keep them thinking they somehow won(we won).

I bet soon RCMP will make a notion towards Kahnawake to stop with the illegal offshore gambling licences, and Kahnawake will graciously decline and RCMP will have to use lethal force to get what they want.


Shouldn't be hard considering only like 8k ppl live in Kahnawake most of which are woman and children.

Funny how FTP has a Kahnawake Gaming Licence, but trust me, to America and Canada you might aswell have a UPC/Barcode to a package of Lucky Charms, thats about how much Merit a "Kahnawake Gaming Licence" has.

oh and I wouldn't go there to play poker LOL... Esp wit the whole AK-47s being brandished by men who can hardly read or write.

With that being said I went to all the sites and they look really professional... Maybe I need to stop paying my taxes to the Cad. Govt. and go live tax free in Kahnawake and eat Escargot with Jonny Duhamel

Way to ruin a perfectly legitimate thread, bud.

Can someone indicate the rake structures for the poker rooms.

I have heard the rake is really high - I think it was Timex that wrote about his trip to one of these rooms and if I remember correctly, it was more like RAPE and not Rake.

dunno if both threads should be combined and just call it "the official Montreal Poker thread"

Playground- Best place for big games. Best food, hot waitresses. Tables are too big and the dealers suck. Room is big and impressive but dark and impersonal.
Snakes- Best for daily tournaments. Good 5-5 games. Good dealers and staff. More of a lively bar feel to it.
Four Aces.- Best dealers and tables. Food is good but limited. Quiet personable atmosphere. Nice waitresses and top notch staff. Best looking room and a nice experience, however the action is very low and even a good 5-5 game is hard to find there. My favourite room when there is a game worth playing.

Rape is same at all three 1-2 is 10% max 8 plus 2 for the badbeat

Full Tilt is regulated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission now. Cereus Network is licensed by Kahnawake.

I'm a little more trusting of European based licensing authorities than those like Kahnawake, especially considering their response to the UB and AP scandals.

Four Aces looks like it's responding to the competition from Playground. At the end of January is the Poker Pro Canada Classic, a $1500+150 tourney and at the same time there's some kind of road show by Deepstacks University.

I was out at Four Aces on Friday night and it was very busy. I heard Playground and Snakes were also packed, so it may be that Montreal can support three very different rooms in addition to the Casino.

Here is the you tube video for Playground Poker Club, with Timex, Cajelais and Karam.
Might as well show people reading the thread what they get for their buck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cIGmjUQbKc

Can somebody do a comparison on Snakes vs Four Aces vs Playground on the basis of


How soft games are (1/2, 2/5)
Quality/How much food can get comped
Hours of operation
Length of wait lists


It would be really appreciated

I started this thread so I guess I should have answered this earlier... sorry about that.

Anyhow

1. Can't comment on how soft games are - in my experience it varies widely depending on the night, the ratio of regs/non-regs (the games seem to change when the tables are full of people that know each other). I have done well (limited sample size tho) at 1-2 at all three. I'm not that great a player, but not terrible either (most of the time lol).

2. At Snakes there's a lower-cost poker players menu, I'm pretty sure. I've played there the least - could someone confirm? At Four Aces now there is a poker players menu and you get some food chips when you buy in - about $15 worth, to be used only for food (no value otherwise) that night. Playground has plans with their player card - when you sit, it will be swiped and based on the number of points you have you will get comps. I don't think this has been implemented yet (please confirm?).

3. Four aces is 6-6 every day. Snakes is 6-6 on weekdays and noon to 6am on weekends. Playground is noon-6 every day. Not sure how busy it is on weekdays though.

4. I've never waited for more than about 20 minutes to half an hour to sit at a cash table.

Was out on Friday night and learned that Four Aces has been sold and is under new management, apparently as of today (or Sunday). I thought to myself "uh oh, sinking ship" but everyone seemed pretty upbeat about it. Time will tell, but it seems like the excellent crew of dealers (still the best, IMO) is all sticking around. New promotions, kitchen and stuff to be announced soon.

Quite frankly your friend is a liar and an ass. Even if it were true that the locals drove around in blacked out SUVs hanging out the windows with guns (which is not true) there would be no way for your "friend" to see that from across the damn river. Your "friend" sounds like almost as much of a racist jerk as you do in your other post referencing the Mohawks as gun-toting illiterates. Try going to a site that panders to other racists idiots instead of a poker site to spew your BS.

What kind of chips are these rooms using?? Are they using chinsy mass produced things or do they actually have real custom casino chips?
I ask because I collect casino chips from all over, especially Canada, and haven't seen or heard anything about chips from these rooms.
Thanks,
Jeff

I'm headed up to Montreal for the Montreal Open on Tuesday, looking to play some live Stud/8 or just plain Stud. Do any of the rooms spread it?

They all have nice custom chips.

Playground (newest place) is brand new and they're great. Four Aces are not as nice but they're OK. I hear Snakes just replaced their entire stock, and I haven't seen the new ones (assuming what I heard was true). Snakes' old ones were kind of ugly IMO, but not overly cheap/chintzy.

Thanks for the info on the chips.
Does anyone want to make some money/help a collector out? If anyone frequents all the rooms and could grab some $1's I would pay extra for them. It only costs about $2-$2.50 to ship in a bubble wrap envelope within Canada.
4 or 5 $1 from each place(or whatever someone can get) would be worth approx $40 bucks to me.
Montreal is just too far for me to go to enjoy the poker rooms and collect the chips!
Message me if interested.
Thanks,
Jeff

maybe you and your "friend" need to lay off said THC products...

Four Aces is a nice establishment but poorly ran, I've only played there a handful of times and it doesn't seem well ran at all, had to deal with terrible rulings and bad management giving me attitude.

Playground is very nice, brand new, and co-owned by 2 old school Montreal poker players - seems to draw good crowds and has good food imo.

BTW Four Aces is under new management as of April 1. It has been very quiet there recently but from what I've heard things should vastly improve very soon. It's still my preferred room - I like the fact that it's not as sombre and dark as Playground. And overall, the top tier of dealers at Four Aces are still the best, IMO.

most of the dealers probably wouldn't even know how to deal it tbh

Anybody hook you up on this one yet Jeff? If not I should be able to do so within the next week or so. Let me know.

This would be great! Let me know what you can do and I'll pa# Pa$ or whatever you prefer.
Thanks,
Jeff

If I remember I'll see what I can do as well...

I was out at Snakes for the tourney last night. They do have new tournament chips, but they're very poor. Extremely light, in a rainbow of garish neon colours. 25s are neon green, but 100s are not black, they're neon orange. 500s and 5000s are almost indistinguishable from one another, and 1000s are bright yellow. It looks like ski clothing circa 1987.

I've also been spending more time at Playground lately, and they're really poaching a lot of the regs from other rooms (incl the Casino) and doing a great job overall. Lots of cash game action every night including PLO almost every time I've been (don't play myself, though) and regularly spreading up to 5/10 NLHE.

I'm hoping to learn more about the new management at Four Aces tonight - I really hope it regains its popularity once things get ironed out.