Update from Last Weekend's Poker sessions

I went up to the suburban Chicago area last weekend to get in a few casino visits with my brother, thundering36. The plan on Saturday was to visit a casino we had not been in for a long time: Hollywood Aurora. This would be my first time playing poker there. I had already been informed of the $8 rake!

This is the report I posted on the Two Plus Two forums:

 

Hollywood Aurora

I decided to give this room a try for $1/2 NL when I was in the area despite the warning of the high rake. $200 maximum buy-in.

Unfortunately, as previously reported, the $8 rake is still in effect, including immediately taking the small blind away when cards are dealt. It looks strange to see the naked big blind out there by itself.

I was quite surprised that I initially found the players in the feeder table to be quite tight. Nobody raised above $8 pre-flop. Once I got the main table, the raises and play were a little more standard.

I don't like the concept of the feeder table, but it worked decently for this room. There were never more than two $1/2 tables going at once on a Saturday night, although there were several higher limit tables.

I found the players to be friendly and polite, the dealers to be okay (except that one or more really seemed to take a long time to look at the cards at the end of the hand before pushing the pot to the proper player) and the management friendly. I particularly liked the dealer named Fay.

I had a fun time playing this room. Even the room itself was pretty nice. And there were opportunities to order food in the room. However ... the one huge "however" is the rake. It is difficult not to think about how much one loses from every decent pot. If management were to make a more reasonable rake structure (including not snatching a buck pre-flop), this room might get a lot more love ... and business.


I played a little over four hours and ended up -$31. I would play there again if travels took me to Aurora, but the killer rake would certainly have me going to other area poker rooms instead if I had the time.

On Saturday, we went to Harrah's Joliet. Overall, I have had success at this room over the past few years. It was time to add to the profits.

My original feeder table had some very weak players. One guy flopped the nut flush but chose to slow play it. Unfortunately for him, I flopped a set of 3's and boated up on the river. I am positive he in no way saw that coming.

I was up about $170 when I was moved to the main table. The players were a little better here, but the big stack left soon after I came. I was able to switch seats and ended up sitting in seat one. The poker gods must have been pleased, as they fed me some cards which I played quite well. I had a good vibe running and was having fun. A couple of poor players kept rebuying for $100, and I was able to stack one of the decent players when he pushed all in over my raise. The look on his face when I called was classic! His eyes nearly popped out of his head as he got ready to see my set of Jacks felt him and his top two pair.

The domination at the table was so bad that a few players were jokingly urging the dealers to quickly start dealing when I was away from the table to check text messages. Illinois poker rooms are very strict about no phones at the table, and I hated to keep popping up and moving away from the table.

Eventually thundering36 and I had to leave, and I was happy to visit the main cage to cash out after coloring up.

 

There isn't anything quite like a successful poker session!