Poker/hiking in Canada
06-14-2019
, 02:10 AM
06-14-2019
, 04:16 AM
06-24-2019
, 05:58 AM
Quote:
I'm probably doing a hiking (and hopefully poker) trip in Canada. Mostly to do backcountry hiking in Jasper and Banff, but I'll be right near Calgary and Edmonton and eventually swing down west to the Vancouver/Seattle area. So I just thought I'd ask you guys for tips about the poker and/or the hiking stuff around there. Any replies are appreciated! Is it even worth playing poker in Calgary/Edmonton? Thanks
Poker : Calgary actually has the most steady and highest stake game in Canada, a 5-10-25 (mandatory straddle) PLO game at Pure Casino. Holdem is pretty dead, but the 1-2 game plays deep (500$ BI) if you play lowstakes... It was really hard to get 2-5 NLHE games started (it has been a PLO town for a while now).
As far as Edmonton, you want to play at Yellowhead. I have not been in a few years, but there was some decent 2-5 and PLO games.
Poker has unfortunately died off in Van (most players have moved to Calgary) as the rake has increased radically (think 13+2$ in the 1-2-5 PLO game
at Parqs Casino downtown. There is a 2-5 NLHE game there as well). Riverrock only has 3 tables nowadays and only spreads 1-3NLHE. You can get some 5-10 NLHE if you go to Burnaby which runs (apparently) every night. GL
10-10-2019
, 02:15 AM
Well I thought I'd update this thread for the few readers that are interested! I was in Glacier Nat'l park with the family and after that rented a car and headed up to Calgary. I originally rented a little crap car, but they asked if I wanted a free upgrade to a Chevy Silverado truck, soooo sure, why not? God knows how much extra I paid in gas!
So I ****ed up right away crossing the border, I had 8k in cash on me and when I was at immigration I didn't declare it because it was under 10k USD, but when converted to CAD it was over 10k, which you have to declare. Anyway they ended up having me pull over, searching everything in my car and discovered I had not declared my 10k+ CAD. The immigration guy believed my story that it was for poker, as I had lots of poker stuff on my phone and he didn't confiscate it, but I did get charged a $250 CAD fine and will now be flagged everytime I go to Canada for the next 6 years! So I'm an idiot.
The drive into Calgary was nice, lots of very scenic rural/farmland/wind turbines type of stuff, I had to pull off the highway a few times to take photos.
Calgary was a pretty cool city, I liked the free museum across from Calgary Tower (although it was a bummer Calgary Tower was closed for renovations), it's got a very walkable downtown, lots of nice bars and restaurants, especially on 17th ave, and lots of nice parks and greenery. I played once at Cowboys casino, it was two tables of 1/2 and pretty boring so I didn't stay long. The rest of the time I played at Pure Casino, which also was 1/2 NL (which is even smaller given the CAD exchange rate) but there were usually 4-5 tables going and you could buy in for 400 and the games were very soft! Given how many tables were going I thought maybe we could get 2/5 going on the weekend, but no dice. The real action was at the 2/5/10 PLO game, which I didn't hop into until the last night, losing my $700 BI with double suited aces in a 5 way all in preflop my very first orbit lol. I hate PLO! But it really was a great game.
Some shots from downtown Calgary:
Next I drove to Edmonton, which felt a bit more run down compared to Calgary, but the bars on Whyte street were hopping. There were two Pure casinos that had poker action, one on Argyle Street and another at Yellowhead. I played 2/5 NL at Argyle which was good, but the PLO action was 5/10/20 and it looked insane. At Yellowhead I played 2/5/10 PLO and it was also very action game, I lost of course. **** PLO. But damn, Alberta is definitely a PLO province, the PLO games were super juicy compared to NL.
The bridge into downtown Edmonton and the capital building:
Next I drove to Jasper National Park to do some hiking. Jasper was pretty sick, I was originally going to do a multiday hike but got lazy and I ended up doing a bunch of day hikes and mostly slept in the back of my pickup truck. It was great!
The drive from Jasper to Banff was also great, as you go past the Columbia Icefield. Unfortunately it was raining almost every single day I was in Banff, so I didn't get in as much hiking as I'd hoped, but I still got some nice photos.
After Banff I returned my car in Kalispell MT and flew to Montreal, where they had a poker series going on at the Playground card club, which is a really cool place to play. I crushed the cash games and blanked on the tournaments, so super standard. Winning 20k CAD is only 15k USD, so sad. Montreal was a great city though, smoked meat sandwiches and poutine, mmm. Traffic could be brutal at times, but whatever.
So all in all it was a pretty cool trip, no limit games in Calgary and Edmonton were a bit of a let down, but action was really good in Montreal. Then it was off to Boston to check out their new casino, the Encore!
So I ****ed up right away crossing the border, I had 8k in cash on me and when I was at immigration I didn't declare it because it was under 10k USD, but when converted to CAD it was over 10k, which you have to declare. Anyway they ended up having me pull over, searching everything in my car and discovered I had not declared my 10k+ CAD. The immigration guy believed my story that it was for poker, as I had lots of poker stuff on my phone and he didn't confiscate it, but I did get charged a $250 CAD fine and will now be flagged everytime I go to Canada for the next 6 years! So I'm an idiot.
The drive into Calgary was nice, lots of very scenic rural/farmland/wind turbines type of stuff, I had to pull off the highway a few times to take photos.
Calgary was a pretty cool city, I liked the free museum across from Calgary Tower (although it was a bummer Calgary Tower was closed for renovations), it's got a very walkable downtown, lots of nice bars and restaurants, especially on 17th ave, and lots of nice parks and greenery. I played once at Cowboys casino, it was two tables of 1/2 and pretty boring so I didn't stay long. The rest of the time I played at Pure Casino, which also was 1/2 NL (which is even smaller given the CAD exchange rate) but there were usually 4-5 tables going and you could buy in for 400 and the games were very soft! Given how many tables were going I thought maybe we could get 2/5 going on the weekend, but no dice. The real action was at the 2/5/10 PLO game, which I didn't hop into until the last night, losing my $700 BI with double suited aces in a 5 way all in preflop my very first orbit lol. I hate PLO! But it really was a great game.
Some shots from downtown Calgary:
Next I drove to Edmonton, which felt a bit more run down compared to Calgary, but the bars on Whyte street were hopping. There were two Pure casinos that had poker action, one on Argyle Street and another at Yellowhead. I played 2/5 NL at Argyle which was good, but the PLO action was 5/10/20 and it looked insane. At Yellowhead I played 2/5/10 PLO and it was also very action game, I lost of course. **** PLO. But damn, Alberta is definitely a PLO province, the PLO games were super juicy compared to NL.
The bridge into downtown Edmonton and the capital building:
Next I drove to Jasper National Park to do some hiking. Jasper was pretty sick, I was originally going to do a multiday hike but got lazy and I ended up doing a bunch of day hikes and mostly slept in the back of my pickup truck. It was great!
The drive from Jasper to Banff was also great, as you go past the Columbia Icefield. Unfortunately it was raining almost every single day I was in Banff, so I didn't get in as much hiking as I'd hoped, but I still got some nice photos.
After Banff I returned my car in Kalispell MT and flew to Montreal, where they had a poker series going on at the Playground card club, which is a really cool place to play. I crushed the cash games and blanked on the tournaments, so super standard. Winning 20k CAD is only 15k USD, so sad. Montreal was a great city though, smoked meat sandwiches and poutine, mmm. Traffic could be brutal at times, but whatever.
So all in all it was a pretty cool trip, no limit games in Calgary and Edmonton were a bit of a let down, but action was really good in Montreal. Then it was off to Boston to check out their new casino, the Encore!
Last edited by cardsharkk04; 10-10-2019 at 02:24 AM.
11-28-2019
, 12:02 AM
They are all great pics (as always) but I especially like this one. Those clouds are amazing. When I first saw it I figured you were hiking a bit before you saw this, then I noticed the cars at the bottom. I can't believe how good the views are from road there.
15k sounds like a great score to me, good job!
15k sounds like a great score to me, good job!