Trip Report from the first legal poker in NC in a loooong time

I am enjoying a refreshing pint of Asheville Brewing Company's Shiva IPA as a bask in the afterglow of what i assume was the first legal session of poker in the State of North Carolina in a long time. I mention the beer because Harrah's Cherokee is a dry casino. brutally dry. painfully dry. Okay onto my trip report.
Kenny, Steve and I arrive at 4:30. We shook hands with all the Pokerpro reps, got our cards, and sat down to play some 1-2NL HE. They were spreading 1-2NL, 3-6Limit, and 2-5NL(which never happened). The do have the power to play Omaha and Stud, but decided not to put those on the list for opening day. The cards were in the air shortly after 4:30! legal poker here we are!
First, let me say that i had never played on digital tables, and these Pokerpro tables are MUCH better than advertised. With Vegas straddles, blind chopping, call button for brush, hand history of last 2 hands, and your poker stats at your fingertips, it was really enjoyable. Although i did slid into the blackjack pit and buy a stack of $1 chips to riffle and give as tips.
Now for the action,pretty classic cardroom 1-2 action, with one big exception, the floor was herding slot players into the poker area to get a piece of the action. So video poker slot players kept sitting down, buying in, going broke and moving on. very nice, very nice indeed.
did I mention no alcohol, everytime one of the younger poker kids would sit down, the first thing he would say to the cocktail waitress was, "beer me." and the rest of us just shook our heads as the waitress has to explain the terrible history of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and Alcohol. oof.
Action was pretty standard and I worked my stack up to 36o without showing down much (although one of the fun pokerpro features allows the winner to flash a single or both cards if all fold to him). I then sat out to get a bite to eat (no fun eating in Harrah's, cept for a passable nathans hotdog). I come back and kenny had been torn apart by some new fellow seated to my left. Holy crap he has a $1000 stack and I was only gone for 15 minutes (and max buy in is $300). Kenny gets up to take a break and I immediately decide to jump in his seat (direct left of aggressive big stacker). For the next 3 hours Steve and I go head to head with Ronald the crazy gambler. He opened for $25 or $50 only. He called repops almost always (including all-ins with complete rags). If it got checked to him on the flop it was always $100 to go. After an hour he was up to $2000. this guy was fun. gambooool fun. I finally double up against him and I'm up t0 $1000! then I roller coaster down to $200 and up and down until my final tally of $870. not bad for 6 hours of play.
How is this for a sick statistic that you wouldn't know without a pokerpro machine. Average Pot for the 6 hour I played was: $400. 1-2 NL and the average pot was $400. with a max buy in of $300. wha? that was fun.
favorite hand was Ronald opens for $25, nice lady who plays slots goes all in for $85, old man who I thought was tight repops to $250 all in, and Ronald makes the call with 6-4 suited. Lady has A-5 suited, and old tight rock show 6-4 suited. mental note, old rock, is crazy gambler. and of course, the 6 comes and they chop that poor ladies money.
Overall, much more fun than I expected. Frankly, The digital tables were the best part. Even a grizzled old dude who never used a computer before, figured it out in five minutes. No tipping dealers. Oh Yeah, Rake...rake was 10% up to 5. which wasn't brutal. considering no tipping the dealer. and it also raked .25 and .50 on small hands instead of min of $1.
I will be back.

hey man... great feedback. i was thinking of going this sunday to check out the tables(i regrettably work nites in an asheville watering hole and was unable to attend this momentous occasion) but it sounds like even if you go there with the max buy-in you really need to jump in and hit the ground running. no leisure playing with a hundred bucks. let me know if you think this is because its the first time nc has had legal poker or thats just the supply and demand of only having 5 tables.

Does anyone have any updates on the tables and the casino in general?

Yes, it sucks. Lot's of locals and only 2-3 tables max of 1-2nl during the week. The Poker Pro tables are geared for action and more suckouts than online. For a player who generally sees 20% of flops, I saw over 50% during a 6+ hr session, and only played resonsible hands.
Bad play is often rewarded.
Hopefully the new expansion of casino will allow for live poker, pulling guests from 4 state region (GA, SC, NC, TN) and could be huge if done correctly.

I am glad that my experience on the PokerPro tables has been better than yours. I could list the advantages of the e-tables over the traditional "live" table but I don't think it will change your opinion. Do you think online poker is "rigged" too?

A mod should merge this thread with the other Cherokee thread.