Canadian Bacon

I know, I know, I haven't written for a while. I was away in Niagara Falls last weekend with Momx2, thebmorekid, and his wife. And before that I didn't feel like writing another bad beat/whining blog about how bad I'm running. So, this blog is dedicated to a review of poker in the Niagara Falls area. I'll write another one soon on how I'm doing.

There are three poker rooms in the Niagara Falls area. On the American side you have Seneca Niagara and on the Canadian side there's Casino Niagara and the Fallsview Casino. All three casinos are within sight of each other. I played at Seneca and Casino Niagara, but didn't have a chance to play at Fallsview. Of the three, Fallsview looks the nicest and it should, it's the newest.

The Canadian casinos are affiliated with each other and it's readily apparent that Fallsview caters to the higher stakes players and Casino Niagara caters to the average person. In both of those rooms the wait times were frequently over an hour and a half. They do allow you to call ahead and put your name on the list, and I'd highly recommend doing it. At 11 am on a Sunday morning during a holiday weekend we had to wait an hour until the afternoon shift came on because they didn't have enough dealers to open any more than the three tables they had running. On Sunday night the wait at Fallsview was over an hour and a half as well and the room was full.

At Casino Niagara all they spread was $1-$2 no limit with a $100 max buy in. It seemed that later in the day they would open a game with a $200 max, but that was as high as they played. The dealers and floor people were very friendly and the locals who played there regularly were of the opinion that this was one advantage that Casino Niagara had over Fallsview. The rake was also pretty hefty as it seemed that nearly $5 was taken out of every pot.

Fallsview was definitely the nicer of the two casinos and it was packed on a Sunday night (again, it was a holiday weekend for both Canadians and Americans). The lowest limit game they spread was $2-5 NL with a $300 max buy in. They had no limit games going all the way up to $10-$20 with a $3k max buy in. While I didn't play at Fallsview, the observation of thebmorekid and I was that there were quite a few players at the $2-$5 tables who had no business playing these stakes, but had to because it was the lowest limit game in the room. Next time I'm up there, I hope to be rolled for that game and be able to take advantage of this phenomenon. According to the players I talked to, all of the games at Fallsview are time games and they don't take a rake.

We did play at Seneca and it was more on par with what you'd expect from an Indian casino poker room in the states. It had more tables than either Fallsview or Casino Niagara. I noted at least one $3-$6 limit Omaha game on the board and there might have been some limit hold'em as well. I sat in the $1-$2 NL game with a $200 max buy-in. They also have $2-$5 NL.

The other big difference between Seneca and the Canadian casinos was the free drinks. Apparently in Canada it is illegal to give away free booze, so you have to pay for any alcohol. However, the states remains committed to intoxicating it's gamblers and most of the booze is free (minus the obligatory tip to the waitress). Also, in Canada, you have to step outside to smoke, not a problem for me, but thebmorekid and his wife spent a lot of time in the cold. At Seneca you can smoke in certain INDOOR areas.

Overall the player mix was a combination of regulars and tourists. I didn't encounter anyone who was particularly tricky. But if you play in the low max games in Canada, be prepared to take some beats because players will feel pot committed pretty quickly. Essentially ABC poker is the order of the day because alot of the deep stack moves are taken away by the short buy in. That being said, it was a fun weekend filled with lots of interesting folks at the poker table. You'll have to read the next blog to hear about how I was 7 outs from being a winner for the weekend...