Habman. R u my buddy habib? I'm nv area as well

Has everybody heard about the poker room opening up in Surrey (Cloverdale), at Fraser Downs next month?

http://www.fraserdowns.com/casino/poker_room/

I know a few people that work there - supposedly it is going to be a really nice room, with 12 tables and its own bar and lounge, etc. I think they are aiming to attract the poker players that feel like they are treated like afterthoughts at the other local casinos (which is usually true). Hopefully there are enough poker players to support this room, as well as Cascades. What do you guys think?

I worry that there isn't players to support both rooms, but I guess we'll see.

It'll be interesting what type of crowd they get at the new room; my guess is just the same old Cascades crowd, but hopefully they'll get more gambloor/degen/horsebettor/rookies in the game?

GcluelessnoobG

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for too. Hard to say if the degens will travel to Cloverdale, though. There's a pretty big older population there, and those guys like fixed limit, so might be why they want to run a 6/12 FL game. Will be interesting to see. They seem pretty confident there will be enough players, even though 12 tables is a pretty big room for this area. May steal a lot of Cascade players if the room is as nice as it's supposed to be.

Probably what will happen is everybody will play where the BBJ is highest.

Nope, no Habib here . . . just another fish in the pond!

Where do you play?

They tried 6/12 limit at Cascades once (when the room was temporarily in the showroom). It lasted all of about two months; I played it twice and it broke both times within an hour as soon as the NL players at the table got their NL seat. Doubt this game will fly; heck, Cascades can't even get a 4/8 or 3/6 limit game going.

In my experience best place for limit was Edgewater - always 2/4 and 4/8 games running, often with a table of 4/8 kill. I think boulevard had semi regular limit games too, plus they offered 3/6 NL... Good room that one

With the population base. The cloverdale room would be one where a steady 4/8 Omaha h/l limit game would survive...

Anyone know what the turn out has been like for various weekend tournaments? I noticed river rock made some changes to their structures but have no idea what kind of traffic they get. Also curious about the turn out for edge water's super saturdays.

The turnout for the saturday tournaments at the rock have been great. The tournaments have started to sell out and buying a ticket a day in advance is recommended in case your worried of it being sold out.

Really? Even the $550 deepstack w the 176 player cap?

Hi,
i'm planning on holidaying in Vancouver and am wondering where's the best place to play poker.

preferably 2/5, 5/5, 5/10 no limit holdem.
how often do these games run and if the games are any good.
also, what is the rake?

cheers

Mostly theboulvard(cause I used to live out there.) But now I'm back in nv so I usually play the edge water. How bout urself?

Well it all depends where ur at. Downtown u have the edge water that always 3-4 tables of 2/5. The river rock has just started a 5/10 game that I heard is pretty juicy. The boulvard has a 3/6 and cascades biggest is 2/4 I believe

Cascades runs 1/3 and sometimes 2/5 NL. 2/4 is their limit game.

2/5 at Edgewater and 3/6 at boulevard are the best and juiciest in my experience

Blvd 3/6 has some rly rly good games most of the time. Can count a very small number of regs that will ever play decently (Ash, Victor, Kyle, Jun, Matthew, and as much as I hate to admit it, Felix). Everyone else is either super nitty or fishy.

thanks for the replies guy

i was more looking for 5/5, 5/10 no limit hold em games though

just a heads up guys there has been a 5/5 PLO game running every couple of days at cascades casino min300 maxx1500! we have been trying to regularly get it going. come down and put your name on the interest list even if the game is not running it fills quick

I hate to admit it too but felix is good. With a very padded bankroll

I should correct this. He normally plays good. There's the occasional session where he'll go into super spew mode. Best one by far was when he lost at least 5k at baccarat, came back to the table, 3bet/called a 4bet w 32s and bet/called a 1200 jam on Q65r and won.

Also heard that blvd was switching from 3/6 to 2/5 and keeping the min-max BI the same. Doubt it'll make much of a difference except eliminate the hassle of using $1 chips.

Yes they r. And all bets post flop are to be in 5$ steps now.

Was plating there the other morning and buddy felix was there with just a little over 8k infront of himafter an all nite heater. As soon as he left that 2/5 table broke up. Lol

hey guys fraser downs poker room just opened up! one of the nicest rooms in town! come down for PLO and NL games are playing soft as butter in Jamaica mon!

FRASER DOWNS POKER ROOM REVIEW (as compared to nearby Cascades)

I played at the new Fraser Downs Poker Room yesterday. Here's my review, basically comparing it to nearby Cascades.

THE ROOM ITSELF

- this is obviously very subjective
- a nice spacious room with 12 poker tables that is right off the main parking lot at the front (just down from the main entrance) and is downstairs from the casino and away from the crowds / noisy machines
- 4 (or is it 6?) little tables with chairs for waiting / eating
- a private bar
- lowish ceilings, darker than Cascades
- TVs on the wall showing sports (although due to large size of room compared to Cascades, it is actually easier to watch the Cascades wall of TVs)
- I'm actually a fan of fun, noisier, lighter (Cascades "newish" room is a lot brighter, which I had a problem with originally, but have now come to like) poker rooms that are within the mix of the casino itself, also thinking that perhaps there is more chance of walk by gambool noob traffic sitting in the game (although, honestly, this rarely happens); however, I realize others like the quiet serenity of a separate room (which might be intimidating to poker noobs), but each to his own
- ADVANTAGE: totally subjective (although I would lean towards Cascades)

TABLES

- shallow arm rests so I could perhaps see cards flying off the table easier
- tables are very slick which makes it very easy to deal cards / muck cards (cards slide very well)
- card shufflers didn't break down (hello Cascades, this seems to happen far too often)
- might be my imagination, but the tables seemed slightly smaller than Cascades (I didn't seem to have as much elbow room on the outside of the table)
- ADVANTAGE: pretty much even

CHAIRS

- chairs are comfy enough (a sat in mine for 11 hours yesterday with no problems), although I prefer Cascades "newish" chairs that allow a bit more of a recline
- ADVANTAGE: slight advantage to Cascades for their slight recline

CHIPS

- look fairly standard / similar to Cascades as far as I can tell
- ADVANTAGE: pretty much even

GAME SELECTION

- yesterday they had a multi-table tournament, 1/3 NL ($300 max), 2/4 limit plus had a 4/8 limit game for a bit
- their board listed interest in PLO games and higher NL / limit games, although none of those games got going while I was there
- my guess is they'll probably be fairly responsive to customer requests for games, just like Cascades (which has recently had pineapple, mixed NL / Omaha games, etc.)
- my guess is the only reason the 4/8 limit game was going is because some Boulevard regs were at the room
- however, with 12 tables vs 8, Fraser Downs will simply have more of an option to run different games if the need arises
- ADVANTAGE: Fraser Downs

RAKE

- 1/3 NL had a $5 maximum rake
- I forgot to ask what the 2/4 limit and 4/8 limit game rakes were (noting that Cascades has recently increased their 2/4 limit rake to a maximum of $4, making the game unbeatable)
- ADVANTAGE: unknown (sorry, my bad)

POSTING

- new players have to post when they enter the game; wtf, everyone pretty much hated this
- unlike Cascades, Fraser Downs gives you the option of buying the button
- ADVANTAGE: Cascades

REWARDS

- like Cascades, as far as I could tell, there is only a Bad Beat Jackpot
- from the looks of things (I stand to be corrected), I don't believe there is any high hand of the night rewards or Royal Flush rewards (perhaps trinkets or whatever like at Cascades)
- the tables have a built in seat tracking system and it was some dealer's opinions (although not all) that eventually (possibly?) that some sorta player points / comps rewards system could be implemented
- not sure if they'll have any other promotions like Cascades sometimes does (i.e. the recent Wheel or even last time I went someone at a table was randomly selected to gather chips blind folded in 30 seconds, etc.)
- ADVANTAGE: tough to tell, but right now I think Cascades has a slight edge

FLOOR / ETC.

- seemed friendly / competent (although I will admit it took them longer than it should have to acknowledge me when I first approached their cage in the room, plus while standing there waiting they reacted to another person before me, but I'm just chalking that up to opening weekend jitters)
- ADVANTAGE: I'm guessing this will be pretty much even and both fine

DEALERS

- a mix of experienced and noobish, but all were pleasant and fine, and obviously the noobish dealers will get better in time
- ADVANTAGE: pretty much even

WASHROOMS

- sorta surprised that a self contained poker room doesn't have it's own built-in dedicated washroom
- the washroom itself is down a hall, then a mini-hall, so about the same walk as for Cascades although it is a lot less nice of a walk (sorta a dark alley feel to it instead of being right off the gaming floor / smoking room like Cascades)
- only 2 stalls (one reg, on handi), which is far too few (think tournament break or when all 12 tables are going strong), whereas Cascades has 4 stalls (3 reg, 1 handi, if I remember)
- water from taps is crazy high pressure, and I got it all over my shirt both times plus you can tell others did the same thanks to the very wet floor
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Cascades

WAITRESS STAFF

- like Cascades, waitress staff is friendly, nice and competent
- however, Fraser Downs has a dedicated waitress staff just for the room itself, plus you can order right away from the private bar
- at Cascades you can wait for what seems an hour before a waitress is able to come by, and if you happen to miss her due to concentrating on a big hand, you could go hours
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Fraser Downs

FOOD

- for some reason Cascades has really scaled back their menu over the years whereas Fraser Downs has a large selection (although fairly pricey whereas Cascades limited selection is cheapish)
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Fraser Downs

GAME BOARD

- the Cascades game board has always annoyed me when it spits up the BBJ total on the whole board and you have to wait 30 seconds for that to disappear before the game board comes up; plus it lags horribly when lists are long (WTF, this is simply a list of names on a screen, what, does this have a Vic 20 backend?)
- the Fraser Downs board is simple, always displays the BBJ and games at the same time, also lists the table the games are played on, plus totals the number of players; the only thing it doesn't seem to do (unless I'm reading it wrong) is distinguish phone ins / players playing at another table
- Fraser Downs also enables players to phone in 2 hours ahead instead of 1
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Fraser Downs

CASHIER CAGE

- the Cashier Cage within the room has a poorly designed cage that makes viewing the chip counting / money counting very difficult; you literally have to stand 3 feet back from the counter to see what is going on
- it has two cage windows, although like Cascades, my guess is that only one will ever be in service at one time
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Cascades

CELL PHONE RECEPTION:

- the cell phone reception in Fraser Downs is dicey at best, and I usually had to go outside to send/recieve messages / etc.; I've heard they will be working on this
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Cascades

PARKING

- like Cascades, parking is free and I had no trouble getting a spot (although I have no idea what this is like at the horsetrack on racing days)
- the walk to the Fraser Downs poker room is shorter as it is pretty much right off the parking lot, whereas Cascades you have to walk thru the whole Casino
- ADVANTAGE: for those who don't like walking, Fraser Downs


OVERALL CONCLUSION: HUGE DISADVANTAGE TO PLAYERS IN LOCAL AREA

Ok, so here's the deal. Cascades is 5 minutes down the road and has what, like, a 500 (?) person player pool or something like that? Can two casinos within such short distance really support this crowd? In the early afternoon on Sunday Fraser Downs had a single 1/3 NL table going with only about 5 players on the list. That means a long wait time for players. I mean, would we rather have two casinos that only have a single game going and a wait list that can't even threaten another game to get going, or have a single casino which has a solid 2 or 3 games going with a wait list that threatens another going at any point? Sure, later in the evening they had three 1/3 tables going, but still, I'm sure some of those players had to wait a long time. This was also opening weekend, and a lot of players at the table were River Rock / Edgewater / Boulevard regs who simply aren't going to make the trek way out here again, despite how much they may like the room (especially when the poker room eventually gets into the Burnaby casino, although it sounds like that might be farther off than thought).

In the end, both Cascades and Fraser Downs are fine poker rooms (each have their strong points and weak points, and some of this is subjective). I just worry that two rooms in such a short distance can't support this smallish crowd. My guess is that I'll put my names on both casino lists and simply end up in the place where I'm most likely to get a seat as soon as possible.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Can't seem to edit my post above, but one thing I forgot:

ALL-IN ETIQUETTE

- Cascades has a rule that as soon as all remaining players involved are all-in that everyone must table their hands before any other streets are dealt; Fraser Downs doesn't have this rule; now I know why Cascades has this rule; just table your fricken hands already so we can get the next hand going for crying out land ("no, you bet and I called, so you have to show", "but there was not betting on the river and you're closest to the button, so you show first", etc., gimme a break)
- BIG ADVANTAGE: Cascades