Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 324
Ended up cashing in event two. Just missed the money in event three but won a cpl of bounties. Back home now. Overall I'd say I have mixed impressions of the experience. On one hand, it was what I hoped it would be: reasonable buy-in's with large fields, making it worth the trip.
That said, I guess my biggest issue was the lack of enforcement when it comes to masks and COVID protocol. I'll preface this by saying they make an announcement about masks, and about eating and drinking away from the table. AND I heard them call people out a couple of times.
And most importantly, if I'm not prepared to accept a level of risk, I shouldn't go to an event like this. I know this.
However.
There were multiple instances where the loudest guy in the room would have his mask under his chin, standing up and yelling at friends across the room for ridiculously extended periods of time, almost daring staff to tell him to mask up, and it never happened. And I don't mean one guy once. I mean multiple guys, and multiple times.
In one case it was a very large, very loud, very jovial man. He was getting a massage at his table, mask below his chin for hours. Drinking red wine at the table, nobody asked him not to. The most gregarious guy in the room, buying drinks for his whole table. Everyone laughing loudly.... It was impossible not to see this guy. I was across the room and I saw it. And he was like that for hours. Staff never said a word to him.
I don't think it should be on the dealer (who has to sit next to him) or on fully masked players to ask him to mask up. It should be on the floor staff. And repeatedly, they never did, in situations where it was impossible for them not to notice.
Also, many people were just leaning away from the table to drink, instead of standing up and walking away. Sooooo many people with masks below noses. 10 handed tables, everyone crammed together for long periods of time, breathing the same air. It's a COVID nightmare lol, literally worst case scenario. Yes, I put myself in it. Yes, I expected covidiots to go unmasked with a "come at me bro" attitude. No, I did not expect staff to do nothing about it.
The registration process was terrible.... I spent hours in line despite preregistering. Pre-registering gets you absolutely nothing, you still have to line up with everyone to get a seat card anyway. I was going to give them a pass on the first day, but here's how event four went: go to register two hours before the tournament. Still a big line (did I mention pre registration has no benefit). Go to the tournament at 4pm. Sit down. Get your chips. Told to leave and come back at 430. Go to the hotel room. Go all the way back down at 430. Told to leave and go away til 5. Repeat.
And finally, the food at the Mojave grill gave me the immediate runs, three out of three times, despite ordering different things. Once I switched to getting ubereats delivered to my room, things improved immediately.
So that's about it. It did feel good to play poker again. The dealers were fine. There were some brand new ones but you see that at every big event where they have to call in call-up's. My experience with the cash game poker room was that it was chaos to try and actually get a seat. Just a giant blob of people standing in the entryway, and no order. Additionally if you play a bounty tournament, for some reason they give you black poker chips as bounty tokens that cannot be cashed at the casino cage. They can only be cashed at the poker room cage, which is single cashier, and which every cash game player has to go through, as well as every player eliminated from the bounty event, as well as the chip runners in the cash game room itself. It took... A long time.
The hotel room was fine. Quiet and clean. I was hoping for better from the poker admin side.... It seemed like it was never the same person in charge twice, so as soon as one person started to "get it", you'd never see them again, and it would be someone completely different the next day.
Honestly I had the best time of the trip playing the crappy little $70 tourney at Cash Casino. My Hendon Mob is mid six figs.... I know that isn't **** to some people and doesn't account for all the swings and misses. I only mention it to say I've been around a while... Flown to many tournament events so I do have some means of comparison. There is room for improvement at Deerfoot Casino.
Cheers and best of luck to you.