With the new private operators Great Canadian Gaming (GCG) and Gateway Gaming killing off poker in Ontario, the one good news is Casino Niagara. After meeting with a couple of Casino Shift Managers last year, they promised daily tournaments. They have now started $535, $165 and $120 tournaments. The next tournament is the $485 + $50 on Sunday at 12:30 pm. Unlike Seneca which taxes 30% of Canadians' winnings including a min-cash, Casino Niagara has no withholding.

GCG had closed the 11-table poker room at Woodbine, and will be closing the Great Blue Heron room (used to have 10 tables) on June 25. Gateway-operated Rama has increased its cash game rake to $10 max (from $6), which is the highest of all the casinos I have played in North America for 1/2.

Can you buy into the Casino Niagara tourney with a credit card? Also, please post turnout for this initial 535.

That's disgusting. How have Rama regs reacted? I'd imagine outrage.

As some of you may know, Great Canadian Gaming has chosen to remove poker permanently from the Great Blue Heron Casino in Port Perry, effective Monday June 26th. This is in addition to them having removed poker from Woodbine the day they took over 6 months back.

Today a friend of mine heard back from the General Manager at Woodbine, where he stated poker is not in the plans for any of GCG's Toronto area properties. I believe GCG hates poker, and they will not be spreading it at any of their casinos. Land in Port Perry costs nothing. For them to remove it from that casino is a very, very, very bad sign.

Accordingly, I've come to the conclusion that it's now time to launch a PR campaign against GCG, with the intended effect of making them adhere to their commitments to the OLG when they were granted the license for the GTA casinos, which includes, among other things, diversifying the offerings, and lowering their customer age demographic (ie more poker, less slots).

So I put a petition up here --
https://www.change.org/p/doug-ford-l...ker-in-the-gta

Any comments you make will be emailed to the following people:
Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario
Michael Ford, Councillor Ward 2, which contains Woodbine Casino
John Tory, Mayor of Toronto
and last but definitely not least...
Stephen Rigby, President OLG

Please sign it, send it to all your friends, post it on social media, etc. I want to force GCG to honour their commitments, and bring a big live poker room to Toronto!

After the petition has sufficient numbers if I don't see a satisfactory response I'll be taking the campaign to the media.

I think it's been a long time since you could really call anyone a Rama reg, what with games never opening and the room closing every night. Tournament regs? Don't think the rake increase will bother them too much.

Credit Card buy-ins available, played this past Sunday and there were 58 entries $10k+ up top 8 places paid. Pretty top heavy payout structure


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Does the tournament run every Sunday?

Anyone know if they have consistently been getting numbers close to those mentioned above?

What time does it usually end?

Thanks

In Salamanca for a few days ... what’s the action like at Seneca Allegany these days? What gsmes ans stakes run on a typical Saturday night? Splashy or nitty?

That room is soft soft soft, i go there every other month for a few nights usually for their 5k guaranteed tourney then play cash for a few days. Action is way better when they run either the mixed game (thursdays) or straight plo (sundays).

I worked there when it just opened in ‘96. Casinos Austria hated poker, Sonco tolerated it, Great Canadian despises it. The petition is nice and all but they have no obligation to keep or run poker of any sort and, quite frankly, any forcing them to results in subpar offerings.

Now, if Niagara would only put the cage in the room instead of at the Guest Services desk (when the third floor one closes)....

Yes or no. The RFP from OLG specifically said they needed a provider to reduce their age demographic, that slots were bad for their future growth potential, and that poker was good for their future growth potential.

The OLG said that. Right in the RFP.

So GCG is not meeting their obligations under the terms of their license. The only question is will the OLG be bothered to enforce it, which is an open question.

I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding you but it seems like you think it’s a rule that they have to, yes?

If that’s the case, why was Port Perry allowed to close their pit? They’re a GCG property. Unless it’s written somewhere “must, “shall”, or something of that ilk, they’re not under an obligation to. Plus, do you really think you’re getting their best if you make an operator do something they losthe? Trust me, I’ve worked for GCG: they loathe poker.

Great Canadian Gaming may have closed Port Perry, but they are coming through for the former OLG Brantford Poker Room. Starting tomorrow September 3rd, they will be offering the following games in addition to their current limit hold'em and limit Omaha games:

1/3 NL - $100 min - $300 max buy-in*
2/5 NL - $200 min - $500 max buy-in*
5/10 NL - $500 min - $1500 max buy-in*
10/20 NL - $1000 min - $2500 max buy-in*

5/5 PLO - $200 min - $500 max buy-in*
10/10 PLO - $500 - $1500 max buy-in*
25/25 PLO - $1000 - $2500 max buy-in

Poker room # 519-757-3306

That $8 rake for 1/3 though...

8 for all NL games.

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I'm too used to $5 Vegas rake. Definitely way better action in Vegas than Brantford anyways. Good thing we got online poker.

If people want live Poker north of Niagara, they're going to have to pay more for it. Consider it cost of living. However Brantford is not close to GTA so it is somewhat overpriced. The manager of room spoke of different things he will be bringing in. If they get approved, the 8 bucks will be worth it over the 12 per hour Niagara session fee.

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If I wanted to play like a nit instead of LAGing it up, then Brantford would be the place to go. But it's not fun playing like a nit.

Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment*
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...300709513.html
New operators of Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino.

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Casino Niagara's All In Poker Texas Hold'em Poker Tournaments

June 10 - December 30
Every Sunday & Tuesday, 12:30PM - Midnight

Sunday Buy In:

$535 - No Limit Hold'Em

Tuesday Buy In:

$165 - No Limit Hold'Em

Buy-in today by calling*1-877-37-MY-PAC*(1-877-376-9722) or visit the Cage Cashier.

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Is Casino Niagara charging $12/hr in time take + charging for parking at an incredibly high rate? I’d like to check it out but not unless they are still validating parking?

Thanks

6 per half on 1/3. 7 on 2/5. Parking is covered after 3-4 hours of play.

Ok thanks it was last time but I saw a somewhat recent review on poker atlas where a guy paid over $30 for parking after playing around three hours, guess he didn’t check on validation.

People don't know when new

Even if you don't get validation if you look around you can get cheap parking fees during the week at lots down the road from the old casino. You just have to use your head, shoot they have vacant lots down there too.