Has anyone ever played here?

Number of tables?
Commission structure?
Game variety?
Quality of players?


Any info much appreciated. (having a 2 week holiday up there over Xmas)

Hey, pretty much the same question for me. Any info on the games there? structure/players/rake/whatever. as kalaru said, any info appreciated

Thanks heaps
shorshi

They play NL only, 7pm till late (4am max) Weds-Sun.

2 tables, $2.5/$5. 10% capped @ $15. $50-500 buyin.

Both tables usually start Friday, maybe Sat, sometimes Thurs. Can collapse really fast and its all over (the last table) by 1/2am even on weekends.

Usually plenty of visitors over the winter months, June-July-Aug, to keep it ticking over. Like as in so many casinos, the locals are nowhere near as good as what they think they are. Thank goodness!

Dealers can be pathetic, but it's jovial. But slow......really slow.

Hey Revolio, when was the last time you played there?

I have played there a couple of times. It can be fairly large action. Big pots with marginal hands.

I played there at the end of winter Sabo.
Interesting experience; hope it doesn't fold too quickly.

Have played there a few times recently and this post pretty much sums it up.

The Reef poker pit at this time of year is such a long way away from what is happening down south at the Aussie Millions. Not only geographically, but player skill level, game organisation, dealer knowledge and speed of the game.

Do they still play poker in Cairns?

Bumpety bump.....I heard from this big dude in Crown that a local game is booming in Cairns. Anyone heard this?

Are you still active Revolio? Have you played in Cairns recently? I have heard in winter it is really soft? Is this true?

G'day Trumps. Still play at the Reef sometimes. Best game ,- plenty of tourists around and not a table full of regulars that know each other's game inside out.
If you are in town send me a pm and I'll buy you a drink/coffee and fill you in with some of the dealers personality flaws (and it can be an issue up here).

Thanks Revolio. Just might take you up on that.

Sounds interesting, but that game better be real good to be beatable at all with with these rake levels. Especially if many peeps buyin in for 100 or even 50.

Well I'm finding out next week FWWM. Can't be any worse than playing in the cold weather down in southern Australia- players coughing and sneezing all over the place. You should pay Cairns a visit too.

I'll be in Cairns in June, staying at a hotel that appears to be across the street from the Reef Casino. Poker still alive and well? Was hoping to play a hand or two on the Friday or Saturday night during my stay.

Nobody?

R.I.P. poker in Cairns, I guess?

I haven't been yet, but not all places where games are being played are well reported on this forum, for various reasons. Just try your luck and ideally report back, thanks

report back mate also keen to hear how its going up north

Can confirm there is poker at the Reef. I played the last few days, Thursday to Saturday from around 7pm until late. (Only) one full table until about midnight all three nights, down to 4-5 players until 3am or so. Dropped by on Sunday but no poker as of about 9pm. Apparently they don’t normally have poker available at all Mon-Wed. Some good points: no sign in, no registration, didn’t even need to show ID, any random tourist etc could rock up to the table and sit down.

The player pool was 60% random ‘in town for the week’ etc tourists who were largely standard bad. The other clear ‘regs’ were beyond atrocious - seriously, this might be the worst player pool of 2/5 that I’ve ever seen. The game would be unbelievably tilting for a variety of reasons but the saving grace was the donkeys sitting down; I literally paid for my trip in about 17 hours over the three days.

Every hand would be limp-called with about 5 players to every flop, regardless of preflop bet size. A standard opening to 20-25 would get called by the entire table. I started bumping up my bet size to 30-40 even 50-60 and would still get a couple of callers. No matter how big people started raising, some people would still constantly limp fold or limp call.

Three-bets pre were rare. Some villains would shove flop and then happily show the flopped top set or flush - I can’t tell you how much money I saved by folding my TPTK after villain would shove for 400+ into a 150 pot and then show the monster. Bunch of call-happy stations that would call down with draws regardless of pot odds. Every now and again they would hit, which was annoying but otherwise it was just printing money. Couple of villains that would randomly spaz out and shove for 75bb with bottom pair. I’ve never seen donkeys that could be both loose/passive calling stations and maniacal spaztards. And there was also one or two OMCs that would check call if they had any part of the board and would only bet or raise if they had a near nut hand, including one memorable have when I snap-folded top two pair to a min-raise and got shown top set LOL.

The game itself is tilting. 2/5 with a 500 cap, no match the stack etc. Rake 10% up to 15, which is criminally high for 2/5. No straddles allowed, although almost irrelevant since people were calling any raise size anyway. They have a rule where bets must be put in stacks and placed over the line - tossing in a couple of chips or tossing in a stack of chips in a forward motion such that the stack would lay out forward was loudly rebuked every single time as ‘splashing the pot’, every out of town player complained about this every time the dealer would yell at any person - Every. Single. Time - about how this way of betting was muscle memory and standard most other places but was ignored. Dealers use a shoe to deal which was fine except if you sat on the dealers left, the shoe blocked the board and the pot, which was on the right of the dealer and would block players on either side of the dealer the view of cards / stacks on the other side of the table. Most dealers were oblivious to split pots and side pots caused mass confusion every time, including one time when there was a 25 minute delay - I’m not even exaggerating- waiting for a video review of initial starting stacks.

Not sure the game is beatable over the long run despite the atrocious play, tables have an automatic shuffler which speeds things up but because so many callers pre flop despite opens to $30+, with the high rake the max $15 is being taken out of a lot of hands, so upwards of $350 is being take off the table every hour.

It appears to be the only game in town for live poker, but not sure I’d go back. The players are terribad, but you’re stuck playing uber-straightforward value poker, you can’t really bluff so have to go for straight value and ignore the inevitable pots when they hit their draw.

Forgot to mention another tilting policy, no phone at the table. Take your phone out for even a second and the dealer or one of the floor guys standing behind the dealer will yell at you. They make you literally get up from the table to use it. I can see banning people talking on the phone at the table, but only place I've been where you couldn't even look at your phone.

Thanks for the detailed review. I'll be a tourist there soon and will check out the room. If the play is as atrocious as you say, 15 rake (3bb) is definitely beatable. Hopefully most players buy in 300+ and with loose play and tebuys some stacks can build up. I've been backpacking Australia and playing online app poker, as well as live games wherever I've been. 15 was also the rake in Perth, Gold Coast, and Brisbane. All seemed beatable.