I agree.

RA is about a 15-20 minute drive with almost no traffic for me, as compared with 35-40 through bad traffic to get to Canterbury. I just got back from RA a few minutes ago. I saw more deer (5) on my way home than cars (4). Very nice location for me too. We'll have to meet up there sometime soon.

I played some 2/10 spread limit. The play at my table was pretty bad.

I like the tables a lot. Theyre bigger than at Canterbury. The room and the chairs are very nice.

The dealers made tons of mistakes - exposing cards, not very good at working the shuffle machine, very slow, wrong button moves, not catching people shorting the pot (repeatedly), not know who is in what position during a hand (this one really pissed me off and almost cost me a medium sized pot - long story). They were obviously new.

The management is pretty bad too. There were several lists longer than 10 players and at the same time there were about 10 dealers standing around with nothing to do, and several empty tables. I stood there for an hour waiting to get in a game. They seemed confused and overwhelmed.

The drink service was pretty bad too. We had a one hour stretch where no waitress checked on us. The dealer finally stood up and yelled for service.

The place definitely has potential, but they need to work out a lot of kinks.

Well I arrived at RA for the first time on tuesday @ about 6pm. The building is very nice and quite spacious. The ceilings are very high, there is some nice artwork strewn over the walls, and I really like the physical layout of the room as it is very wide open.

Here is a TR for people who are interested (cliff notes on bottom):

When I arrived there was a variety of games going from 2-4 to 30-60. It was funny to see how many familiar faces I saw at the games as well as with the staff. It appears that the entire Turtle Lake staff defected over here.

First game I jumped into was a 6-12 game. It played very much like its CP counterpart as it was loose and passive. Next I played in a 4-20 spread game which is a pretty fun game. 2-10 and 4-20 spread games are the easiest games in the world to beat when they are loose and I was running good so I managed to rake in 15bbs in like 1.5 hours.

I moved next to the 2-60 spread game. The game was playing a bit small, most people bought in for like 1-200 dollars and the biggest stack was maybe like 4-500. It played very similar to a 1-2NL game as most of the bets ranged from 1/3-3/4 of the pot size. We had some big pots with max bets and raises but it was a lot of small ball. I was pretty card dead and there were only a few super bad players at the game so time at that game was uneventful.

I ended up jumping back into the 4-20 very early in the morning when the 2-60 broke. We ended up getting down to 3 handed and they let us change it to a 4-20 dealers choice game. They would let us choose between Holdem, Omaha Hi, Omaha8, Stud Hi, and Stud 8. We switched the game every 4 hands and this went on for something like 3 downs or so. Not sure if they will continue to allow stuff like this but they were very cool about letting us change the game. They wouldn't let us continue this 4 handed because it messes up their bad beat toke operation as they are supposed to drop at 4 but they have dif drops for the different games.

When it was 4 handed we changed it back to 4-20 Holdem but we added on a full kill. At running aces the kill for the holdem games involved you needing to win a pot gain the kill button then winning a second pot over a set amount for the kill to be initiated. For the 4-20 we needed a 40 dollar pot and then we had a 8-40 game initiated. We had some pretty big pots when the kill was on which made it pretty fun imo.

Two odd floor decisions came out of us having this kill game. At one point much later in the morning around 9 or 10 a floor person comes over and explains to us that he thinks the amount for the kill to be initiated for the second pot should be something like 5bbs (100) to be set off rather than 2. His rationale was that since LHE does 5bb spread should to. At this point we had a normal amount of kill pots and doing this would have essentially killed our kill. We all disagreed and he said he'd keep it for now and reconsider.

The second decision occured when the floor people comes over and tells us that we are no longer going to be able to have our 4-20 with a kill. His rationale was that only limit HE and omaha should have a kill and spread should not because it wouldn't be fair that 2-60 or 5-60 couldn't have a kill but 4-20 or 2-10 could. I found this to be the most ridiculous thing that the floor could decide since based on his rationale LHE shouldn't bc it wouldn't be fair to the 30-60 game not to be able to have a kill. This didn't make sense to him and we lost our kill. Since i had been playing for about 17 hours at this point I left about 20 mins after this crazy ruling. Made about 300 for the trip so not to bad.

Parting impressions: -There are a bunch of new dealers who are slow and looking at times like deer in the headlights.
-The drink and food service is slow. The food prices are nuts and some of the portions are super small (don't get the boneless wings!).
- The board is not efficient as there are massive lists and open seats
- The floor has made some goofy decisions
- The games are soft, the room is beautiful, and they seem to be willing to work with players to try to spread what players want

There are definitely kinks but this should be a nice room.

Cliff notes: Played a ton of different games including a dealers choice mixed game, a kill game, and a game which mirrored 1/2. I also ran into some odd floor decisions along the way.

Hello Players,

I just got back from RA's and I will give a brief trip report.

I arrived at around 12:30am and was suprised to see how busy it was.

My first impressions were quite favorable. The place was very nice and roomy, comfortable chairs etc. I was also pleased with the folks who worked there, they were very nice and I received no attitude from anyone.

That means a huge deal to me, the service industry has slipped so far it's pathetic. Most places I visit expect me to treat the biz like they are my customers.... ugh... Before checking in I signed up for my players card and the staff was very helpful. Overall the wait staff might need more help. They came to the table maybe three times I was there and mixing up drink orders...lol again no biggie and I expect that will improve as well.

I checked to get on a list and was immediately seated at my game of choice 2-10 spread limit. I was actually pretty nervous for the first hour or so, not sure why but it helped scooping up some decent pots in the first few hands.

The dealers need work, but that is expected from me at least. I had to remind the dealers about 6-7 times that I needed a buck back when I folded from the small blind; this happened to other players about the same. Overall they did a great job...I kinda got mildy erked when I was told to take my players card off the table...lol no biggie.


The players...wow. what can I say. I had about 3 solid players on the table and the rest were spewtards....I was quite happy with my table

I ended up a hundo in about 3 hours of play, it should've been 130-140, I missed a few bets which I could kick myself in the ass for considering my opponents.. I knew it was time to rack up and leave.

I heard BBQ's name announced over the PA, I was trying to put a face with a name, by the time I asked a dealer which guy was BBQ he said he left for the evening....I wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for the effort he's putting in at RA's.

If anyone was there tonight I was on table 14 with the boston hat and sweatshirt on.

See ya around.

Dave P and I played some 5-60 spread last night and man is that a brutally terrible game. I went in there thinking it was going to be better and even after a few minutes thought it was better, but after a few hours...figured it out.

It's wayyyyyyy slower. Probably 60% of the hands dealt of 30/60. People were playing a lot tighter and would think about the 60 dollar bet a lot more than at limit holdem. It was like a no-limit decision for 1 bet every time. As dave p put it...it's like playing no-limit without the no-limit. Super boring.

I haven't been to RA yet but I was at Canterbury last night

The place seemed like a ghost town. There was no list for anything. Every game was open. The didn't even have a 30-60 going at the end of the night.

I played in the tournament (donkament)... got 8th (yay me)... anyways the place was so empty and quite it was weird. I've never sat in a card room where it was literally dead silent. It was kind of nice actually.

The smaller crowd did lead to increased service. I sat in a 4-8 game for a little bit... service was around quickly... the checks runners were right on top of everything.

The tournament drew its average field of around 90 players. Servers were all around, the floor was prompt, the room was nice and silent.

I kind of like the new quite and no wait Canterbury.

TR:
Played at RA yesterday for a hour or so just to check the place out, time was around 1PM. Line was too long for me to wait for 8/16 so I sat at 4/8. Wow, I really get bored in lower limits than my usual 8/16 at CP! Super tighties at the table combined with slow dealing made for super boredom.
But like everyone else has said the place looks real nice, and has potential. Looking forward to playing in one of their tournaments to see how that goes.

My overall impression of the room mirrors everyone else's comments:
- dealers were inexperienced and slow
- drink/food service was terribly slow and got confused easily
- the chairs are fantastic
- tables are larger and from the ends it's noticeably further to see the flop
- the lists would get long and empty seats weren't getting filled. My table had 5 players for 2 downs and the list had 8-10 names on it.

It looks nice, it's comfortable and the dealers will get better as well as the list management and service as they gain experience.

I made it out last night and also agree with most of what others have said as far as the physical plant (room, tables, chairs) being very nice but the service from dealers, waitstaff and sign up people being uneven and somewhat slow. The place has potential and these problem areas should improve.

One thing that does concern me is that when the 2/10 and 4/20 spread limit are in the same room as the 6/12 and 8/16 fixed limit I don't know that both can thrive. Last night it seemed the spread limits were winning with 4 2/10 and 2 4/20 spread games and only 2 6/12 and 1 8/16 LHE games going.

It will be interesting to see how this develops and if both these spread limits and mid fixed limits can survive in the same room.

I couldn't agree more, I struggled almost every time I was in a hand to see the flop and the suits. Very annoying.

how far away is this place from canterbury, if im driving from mason city, northern iowa right by 35

It's on the north end of the cities. I'm 5 minutes from Running Aces, and it takes me 50 mins or so to get to Canterbury.

Which of the regular (good) dealers moved over from Canterbury?

i've been to RA 3 times now and have in about 15 hours at 15/30, 30/60, and some of the 60max spread games. i checked my players card point balance today and i have $6.34! from which i deduce that the biggest games get .50/hr comp and i was either taking breaks or forgot to swipe my card or whatever for 2 hrs. pretty cheap if you ask me. i also like how all the dealers and even one floor guy i asked said that they haven't been told how much comp we get per hour. and the "Aces Rewards" teller actually said "i don't know if there is a rate per hour. i think the computer just keeps track of it for you." huh?

but the worst thing about the place has to be that the dealer change trays stay at the tables (whereas at canterbury the dealers carry their trays with them as they switch tables.) at RA every dealer has to count the tray every time he sits down (while the players wait). and if the count is off, the dealer has to call the floor. and then the same tray is off the same amount for the next dealer and he has to call the floor again, and so on. i don't know how much time is wasted by this nonsense but it's a lot. i would take the over on 2 hands per hour per table. i just don't see what reason RA could possibly have for leaving the trays at the tables.

I have to strongly agree with the tray issue, that was somewhat annoying being 2 bucks off and having to wait 5-10 minutes for the hand to be dealt.

Then again, there is nothing wrong with constructive critisizm but I hate for this thread to keep heading down the path of negativity.

RA's...... bottom line is a great thing for us in the North side of Minneapolis (nordeast)and the north subs...

I can only imagine these issues will be taking care of.

Hurah for RA's

They actually do this at alot of places, and I agree it is extremely annoying.

I went out to RA Thursday evening for a few hours. Many, many dealer errors. In addition to the slowness of tray counting, they don't allow players to buy chips from the dealer (although I did see one dealer do it). They've got to call a chip runner every time even for people buying just 20 chips. And my table got down to five players twice and played that way for about ten minutes each time even though there was a waiting list. Many bugs to be worked out at RA.

Went out to CP yesterday and it was a fairly small 4th of July crowd. By around 10pm it seemed like at least 20% of the players were CP dealers, for a while there were three at my table.

What is most disappointing is this:

When our RA dealers found out that they were definitely hired in early June (1 whole month ago), they were strongly encouraged to come in over the weeks before opening to practice and get better for the opening. NOT required, merely encouraged. Virtually none of the dealers came in for any practice in June because they were "already hired".

I was out at CP last night, and yes it was a bit slow around sundown, but I assume that had to do with fireworks. I remember past years it being quiet on the night of the 4th. There was still plenty of action considering the holiday.

This morning I went to CP again, and their $150+$25 tournament now has a GUARANTEED $15,000 prize pool. With only 79 that showed up, this truly made it a free roll- err "No Entry Fee" tournament with some extra cash on the side. Very Nice! I hear tomorrows Mega Stax tournament also has a $18,000 guaranteed prize pool. As well as a guaranteed pool for their Wed tournaments.

Sounds familiar. I was at RA LATE Monday night after opening. About 4am Tuesday morning, about 30% of RA's players were ALSO CP dealers

So it's 15 hours of play to get 24 hours access to the players club? Is that a 24 hour period(friday8am-saturday8am) or 24 hours to use it in whatever chunks you want?

Has Turtle Lake curled up and died as a result of Running Aces?

I don't think the action at Turtle Lake will die as that is mostly a no limit room and since we don't have no limit in Minnesota all the people here have to go there or Iowa to play no limit so they should be fine.

The room I think RA will hurt the most is Hinckley's poker room because of it's closeness to RA. The only reason to drive up to Hinckley anymore would be to play in their good Sat NL tourneys.

what a disaster the service was yet again last night. had a male drink server and first off they were completely out of Coke and Mello Yello and some other kind. so i tell the guy i want Mr. Pibb and he forgets it when he arrives back with the drinks so he says hes going to go right back and then brings me back Diet Coke. How can they expect tips when they cant keep simple orders straight. And whats up with running out of all the soda?

I love the No Limit players crossing the border to play at RA , man they are horrible at limit. It's so obvious when they pull the shades down when they are involved in a hand and take 30-60 seconds on each decision .

i was very excited about RA - and i still think it's a good 2nd option - but i think i'll still be making a lot of long drives to canterbury

I hate limit... I will only play for cash at RA in the spread games... its not as bad as $4-8, $6-12 and $8-16...imo

I did well over the weekend...the players were sooooo bad did I say... I HATE LIMIT POKER.

I dont mind about the crappy service, I can get up and get my own drink (dont drink alcohol) what was irritating to me was the slow dealers and the delays counting chips in the dealers tray every 30 minutes.