Mountaineer Trip Report- WV

[wiper]

haha..being a smoker, i didn't really notice it in the poker room NEARLY as much as i did in the slots area...

but yeah, i got a chuckle out of my brother saying...'so what, you stand here, on the carpet, you can't smoke, but move 2 feet over, you can??'it got to a point where i was literally taking a quick, 2 minute smoke break just about every 2 rounds of so..folding, quickly getting up, hotboxing a marlboro, and sitting down with time to spare before the next hand, especially because i was along the rail, and could still watch the hand in play...

and there really is no barrier between the areas...i played on a table right along the rail all afternoon, and people were literally hanging over the rail, smoking, about a foot behind the players..

i smoked cigarette after cigarette at the bar there, paying WAAY too much to get drunk and watch football while my brother finished...

again, i'm a smoker, but i understand the strangeness of it all...

i'm thinking that [censored] cafeteria they have could be halved, one half being tables to eat, and the other could be some sort of enclosed area, maybe with glass most of the way up to the ceiling, and lots of ventilation??

edit: also, the tv's SUCK. hard. get some bigger [censored] tv's please, so i don't have to have railbirds checking scores on the teeny tv's all the way across the room...a 50+ incher on the wall in front of the men's room is needed, for sure..

[evagaba]

I made my first trip to Mountaineer on Saturday. I sat at 1/2NL table 28 from 2-6PM and wore a Red Ohio St t-shirt.

Anyways, the play was god awful. I have played many hours of live casino poker, mostly at Seneca Niagara, and this was BY FAR the worst play I have ever seen. I never really got any cards to play, but I did win $165 in my 4 hours there. I bought in for $300 and left with $465. Most of my profit was one pot in the SB with T2 when I flopped 2 pair and rivered a boat.

Here is a list of mistakes I saw players make.

-Guy buys in for $75. First hand he is dealt, calls $15 Pre Flop Raise, calls $15 flop bet and folds on the turn. Very next hand, he takes the SAME EXACT LINE. He then puts his remaining $10 in on his BB, calling a PFR and loses it. 3 hands, GG him. Thanks for adding $75 to the table.

-Another than myself, only 1 other person at the table of 10, bought in for the MAX $300. Most bought in for around the $100-$150 range with probably at least HALF the players buying in for the min $75. Unreal.

-A guy sits down with $75 and is now in his 2nd orbit. He doubled up quickly by calling a $25 bet, where the pot was $30, with a gutshot. He caught his gutshot on the turn and of course another bad player paid him off.

The gutshot kid then raises another hand preflop to $15 and gets one caller. "Gutshot" is first to act and goes ALL-IN for $125 into a $30 pot. The board is T24 rainbow. Gutshot's all-in is called by AT. Gutshot turns over AdQd and is currently crushed. Turn 3, River 5, split pot. Gutshot stands up and flexs his muscles yelling "YEEEAAAAHH".

As I was leaving I passed "gutshot" who was on his cell-phone. He is talking to his friend and says: "Yeah dude, this is a great place as long as you know how to play". That amused the hell out of me.

-I saw a player I will call "Station" call a PFR of $15. Flop comes JT4r. A players bets $20 and Station is the only caller. Turn is 3, goes check/check. River is another T. Station checks, Player bets $50, Station calls $50 and shows down with A7 off (Board is JT43T). The other player had pocket Jacks.

-This is not a particular player, but MANY of the players would bet or call with Top Pair Tiny Kicker (K7 was the nuts on a KT5 board). Even middle pair was being bet and called by several of the players.

80% of the players had NO concept of Position, Bet Sizes, Stack Sizes or any of the other "basics" learned here at 2+2 or Cardrunners.

There was only one person at the table who was even close to being a semi-decent player and he was on my immediate right. He was also extremely loose and if the situation came up, Im sure I could exploit him.

-I also wanted to point out the dealers. While I hear they have gotten better, most of them still needed tons of practice.

In one pot, Player A goes all in on the turn. He pushes all of his chips past the white bet line. Player B calls the All-In and IS COVERED by Player A by about $60. Player B does not move his chips, he just calls the all-in. Players B wins the pot. The dealer then proceeds to push Player A's entire stack into the pot. He is just about to push the pot to Player B and I stopped him and explained that Player A has more chips than Player B and should not get all those chips. He did not understand what I meant. I had to explain it to him and then replay the betting lines on each street to figure the pot and figure how many more chips Player A had than Player B. 2 hands later the dealer thanked me for helping him.

[Spiffysean]

That sounds about right...

Now, the smoking thing - I totally agree that it's silly, and frankly I'm sure it will be addressed. Having a non smoking room where people can literally stand a foot away and blow smoke into the room is baffling to me. I'm sure that once things smooth out a bit they will either install some glass to block off the smoke, better filters to suck it out of there, or make it so that the smokers are otherwise isolated from the room.

The TV's are useless, and that's a shame with such a nice room otherwise. Plenty of room between tables, and good spacing. What they need to do is get some TV's on the pillars through the room - especially if they are going to skimp and use small 20 inchers.

See, for someone as solid as I am (Very TAG) it's a tougher room because people will often call with TPWK, and either spike two pair, or otherwise suck-out. I'm just not used to thinking that on a board of K-T-4 rainbow when I have A-K that a 7 coming off on the turn is a bad card for me (when the villian has K-7)

All in all, there is money to be made there. Like you said - Most people have NO concept of stack sizes, pot-odds, proper buy-ins, or position. There are a lot of internet players that think you have to raise every time you have the button, and even when you play back at them, they don't know how to release their hands.

I'm going to check out Wheeling sometime this week, I believe.