I was passing through the casino today(literally in and out of the poker part) and it seemed slow and the one table that I passed by a player begged me to play. I don't know whether it was because it was short handed or because people are walking away from this horrific ra(p)ke.

I know this won't happen but the benefits for playing should be huge ie a free meal for 4 hours of play or table start up bonuses. I know in a few underground games I have seen posted on other message boards they offer this plus a small transportation fee and free small bonus tournaments and the rake is no worse than this place. Granted you have higher safety in the casino but besides that there is nothing about this place better than the typical greedy underground game.

I tried it out last Saturday.

1) The wait times are huge. On weekends you are looking at least 2 hour wait. Maybe 3-4 hours! Even though there were 7-8 tables running so a decent amount of tables. Of course people just walked around and snuck on to the first empty seat. a few people at the table were bragging about this. Place is horribly unorganized. They have an excel spreadsheet list of players. Players on multiple wait lists have to be manually removed from other wait lists but they keep forgetting to do it.

2) rake is horrible 10 per cent up to 20 and I believe there's a minimum 2 dollar rake if you see a flop and the pot is 10 or above or something like that. So the rake is even higher.

3) players were tight, lots of regulars. People that really should know better than play here. But I left around 11pm so the drunk crowd hadn't come in yet, maybe that's better.

4) Drink service horribly slow. Non alcoholic is free and beers were around 8 dollars not including tip which isn't too bad.

5) Dealers are mostly new and misdeal constantly. You are probably seeing an avg of 20 hands per hour if that.

$20 a hand is worse than a home game. I mean, if you’re actively trying to get poker out of the casinos and into basements, this would do it.

Heron didn’t have a game make 11pm tonight.

I used to say tgat if I was single and rounding again, I would move to Niagara for the options and locations within an 8 hour drive. Now, Ontario is just about the worst place in Canada to play.

That sounds even worse than I imagined it to be. I can't believe the floor lets people sneak onto the tables when it's already an atrocious wait. I also can't believe people are willing to drive and wait hours to play in this horrible room.

Haven't been to this room yet and won't ever go if it stays like this. Such a shame as it's only 20 minutes from my house. GCG is a terrible company.

It will never change unless they get rid of poker. Theres a reason this place stopped getting updates on 2p2 and thats because most here have boycotted it.

The floor doesnt care. The casino doesnt care. Less work the better for these people.

I havent heard of a single thing changing about Niagra lately. I hear its a mixed bag there but decently priced time rake is always best for the players. Prob the second best place to play in Canada besides Montreal.

Hey does anyone regularly play the 5\10 game at Woodbine? Looking to come down to Toronto for a week and grind out some hours. Are the regs any good? What is the wait like for 5/10? How deep do the stacks usually get? Do they ever run any bigger games by request ?

Me neither but my point was that you used to be able to play Rama, Heron, Niagara as an Ontarian plus all the American joints within an 8 hour drive. Now it's Niagara only for Canadian games in Ontario.

As far as the best Canadian places, Alberta is where it's at. Soft play, cheap rake ($7 or less), multiple rooms in Calgary and Edmonton.

Alberta sounds amazing compared to Ontario. I was actually considering moving to Calgary...too bad the rent skyrocketed in the last two years cause so did everyone else.

I went back there on Wednesday night...

Wait was much less, only 45 minutes. Not great but not bad compared to weekend.

Table was way looser, in fact it was super loose. I heard people say they don't care about rake (which sounds ridiculous to us) because they were winning so much money. I won 300 in 3 hours but I estimate I paid a good 60 dollars in rake (some pots were won uncontested pre flop). Making the rake around 20 bucks an hours. It was like a bingo night though, people calling 20 dollar raises pre flop with any 2 suited cards, small unsuited aces etc.

Sounds like a great game, was this 1/3 or 2/5

1-3

Same bs when Ultimate Bet had their super user scandal. "Games are so easy guys who cares if the site cheats Im making millions!"

Over the long term supporting companies with garbage business practices hurts everyone. Eventually the games dry up and you're sitting there with 3 euro pros and a 25+3 rake. Dont give GCC your money.

It will be a long time before they drain Toronto out of all it's money. Take a cut along the way.

I went back again Friday night.

I was card dead for 2 hours. Nothing happening.

Finally I get dealt Ace-3 spades on the button. There's a straddle and like 4 limpers. I was thinking about raising but the blinds were aggressive players and I didn't want to see a big reraise. I call.

Flop comes 8s-7s-5s. Nice!! I flopped basically the nuts.

UTG +1, a young guy bets out 40 dollars. I call hoping the blinds call and a big raise would be alarming.

Blinds fold.

Turn card is 2 of spades. SHOOT! I figure the jig is up and I wont be making any more money.

Young villain bets 80. It's most of his stack of about 120 left so I just shove all in. I expect to see K-J of spades or something like that. Maybe a set he won't fold.

River is an 8. i get a bit nervous.

Villain shows 6-9 of hearts for the straight.

Poker is alive and well so far.

Poker wont be alive and well if you keep trying to promote the most garbage casino operator in North America. You can give the same types of hand histories in any massively raked game because only morons who drool all over themselves are dumb enough to play in this environment to begin with. Canada live poker will be unplayable like it is in the most of EU pretty soon but "take a cut along the way" as we go from allowing online poker companies to take the majority of the profits to b&m casinos taking most of the profit.

BTW You probably lost more from rake in the time you played then the total you won in that pot.

So what's your point? Should I stay home and play 1-2 online which is like a million times harder to win money because the rake is lower?

Have you ever got a bank account in Canada, got a credit card, paid for internet? All of these things have higher fees because it's Canada and it's Toronto. But all are basically necessary for convenience and security and we pay what we pay.

There's a time and place to abandon a poker room and that time is when it is no longer profitable. It really is as simple as that.

Pay no heed to AAJ, less pros like him at the table will make you more profitable... If you think 1/3 is good, play some 2/5 on weekends nights - there is definitely some fishing to be done! ; )

There’s almost no wait list on a Saturday evening. 12 tables going. They just hired a bunch of new dealers.

On the bad side, they charge for soda now and limes too.

Only 12 tables on a Saturday night with no wait list? With the population of GTA. Isn't this a 30 table poker room? How is this possible for a self proclaimed world class poker room to only have 12 tables going with no wait list? The CNE which is a dive fills their 25 table poker room on a Saturday night.

50% higher rake, that's how. (max $20 vs max $14)

There were at least 20 tables going on Sunday evening.

Is Toronto infested by euro regs now too or is that just a Montreal thing for now?

Bad beat is up.

https://x.com/gctorontopoker/status/...Rgdg1CSPJiSUGQ

Nope.

Been to Woodbine twice since launch, played 2/5 both times and the games were soft. If you're winning online at low stakes+ you shouldn't have any problem beating the game, rake or no rake. If you're a bad live "reg", the rake is probably an issue.