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#1
03-05-2007, 12:23 PM
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Gila River (AZ) 15/30 Game
Was talking to a player in my 8/16 game at Casino AZ, and he says Gila River has a 15/30 game that goes on Fri/Sat evenings, and occasionally on Sunday. Any fellow AZers know about this game. I am definately going to check it out at least once, but don't know if it is worth my time, since smoke really really bothers me.
It sounded like it was a very good game, but people like to exaggerate. Anyone had experience in this game, and if so, will I have to leave after 2 hours because I am breathing smoke? 
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#5
03-10-2007, 07:14 AM
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Re: Gila River (AZ) 15/30 Game
[ QUOTE ]
Was talking to a player in my 8/16 game at Casino AZ, and he says Gila River has a 15/30 game that goes on Fri/Sat evenings, and occasionally on Sunday. Any fellow AZers know about this game. I am definately going to check it out at least once, but don't know if it is worth my time, since smoke really really bothers me. It sounded like it was a very good game, but people like to exaggerate. Anyone had experience in this game, and if so, will I have to leave after 2 hours because I am breathing smoke? [/ QUOTE ] If smoke bothers you...then, I wouldn't go. If you think you can make money and sacrifice a few hours of clean air, then check it out. I just got back from playing only three hours. It's all I could take because the smoke really became embedded into my clothes, and tonight the atmosphere was clearer than it usually is. I'm considering the trek northward to CAZ. Good game is +EV. To me, smoke is -EV. Is it a coin flip?
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#6
03-11-2007, 04:18 AM
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Re: Gila River (AZ) 15/30 Game
I went to Gila River tonight to play in this game. Here are some thoughts and observations.
First, I got lost. I hadn't been to Gila Rivers' Wild Horse Pass location in ~4 years because the limits didn't interest me and it's a half hours' extra drive. They have 2 other locations (I think) w/ even lower limits. They've since added a nice resort and changed the roads so I ended up at the resort. As an aside I'll mention that the resort houses the Kai Restaurantwhich the Arizona Republics' food critic rates as the best in Arizona. When I make it to the casino the valet was luckily not full which I was glad of on a Saturday night. The Wild Horse Pass location used to have a very nice poker room w/ ~40 tables and a section devoted to very popular tournaments. They cut it down to 17 tables to make room for slots and BJ. It's not even really a room. It's more of a poker 'area' and since it's in the same room w/ the BJ and the slots it gets pretty noisy what with all of the ding, ding, ding and the occasional yell from some woman who just hit BJ on her $10 bet. When you add in the chatter from the somewhat closely grouped tables and the constant PA system it can get pretty loud. The table I was at happened to have a loud group also and, for the piece de resistance a band started up in the lounge around 9pm and they had the nerve to be banging on bongo drums. I bought some really good earplugs a while back and wished I'd brought them. I've also been considering getting those Bose headphones but I've recently read that wearing earphones for just 1 hour increases the bacteria level in your ears by 700%. Of course, I've always been a great fan of bacteria (having hosted so much of it for my entire life) but 700% seems a bit much. Anyhoo, the place is loud. Oh, another thing. There was often a crowd around the table. 15-30 is big action for Gila (I guess) and the curious were railbirding w/o the benefit of a rail. Also, a lot of the players' friends were dropping by for extended chats, hand in progress or not. Let me take a moment to mention the 8-16 which is Gila's main high limit game. For years I've told people to just go to CAZ but I played at the 8-16 while waiting for the 15-30 to start and I'll say that action wise it's just as good (if not better) than CAZ's and the total drop of $5 is just about the same so it's a good alternative esp. if you happen to be closer to Gila in the first place. As to the 15-30 which started at 6pm: It uses an odd 5-15 blind structure which I'd thought would cut down on the 'funkiness' coming out of the SB but it didn't. It is a jackpot game (yech) and $1 is taken out pre-deal. Here is the absolute worst part of the game: When the pot reaches $30 (which means when anybody calls) an additional $3/house and $1/jackpot comes out of the pot flop or no flop. That is just awful, plain and simple and makes blind stealing pretty sketchy. I REALLY don't like that AT ALL. If you are a stickler for poker etiquette you'll have to grit your teeth. There is plenty of coffee-housing, commenting on play and hands by players not in the hand and chip passing. These people seem to know each other and they are having fun and are ok w/ all of that so I kept my mouth shut. Smoking is permitted. There is so much smoking that it appears to be almost required. I'll admit to being a smoker and if I say there's a lot of smoking then there is a lot of smoking. They have a pretty good ventilation system that kept the air fresh as far as I was concerned but, still, if you can't stand smoke I think you'd better stay away. Tonight a second game started up at around 9pm which I was told was a must-move for just an hour. There is a decent enough menu and the table service is adequate. I had an acceptable steak dinner for $5. I realize that some of the above doesn't sound so good but my sample size of 1 may not reflect what it's always like and even though I was greatly disturbed by the noise it was not a bad experience at all. And any and all inconvinience was offset by the good part: The 15-30 at Gila is ACTION CENTRAL! The gambeleros are to be found there. The gambeleros like to smoke, drink tequila, yell and shout, pass chips and goad each other but most of all they LOVE to gamboooool and gamboooool they did. I dropped a quick $250 at the 8-16 because it was 'AK NO GOOD!'night and when it's 'AK NO GOOD!' night I'm going to have a bad session. At the 15-30 I bought in for $800 which quickly turned into $400 because it was still 'AK NO GOOD' and for added fun it was 'SET NO GOOD' also. However, things turned around and after 5 hours I cased out for $1,995. To summarize I'll say this: If you want action Gilas 10-30 (did I mention that it usually only goes on Fri and Sat nights?) is a very good alternative to CAZ's 20-40 if you can put up w/ the smoke, mostly. We players who want the action will put up with the noise and the shenanigans of certain players but some of you just won't be able to handle the smoke. I plan on going back to Gila for the next few weeks to see if the action is constantly good and, if it is, it will be my steady game on the weekends. One last thing: On the way out I told the person who was apparently running the room tonight that I was going to make a post about the poker room and offered to send her a link. I suppose she is looking in on this thread. In my email to her I said that here on the b&m forum poker room personnel were welcome to answer questions about their rooms and could make non-spam announcements but that she should check w/ a mod to make sure. I hope that is correct. Almost lastly, when I asked if there was anything she'd like me to mention she told me that they have plans to enclose the poker area which will be a huge improvement in cutting down the noise. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention: It seems that because the poker room is sort of buried under steel and concrete only Verizon works there. If you don't have Verizon your cell won't work and you'll have to go outside. They do have a courtesy phone for local calls. I always think of things at the last minute: Staff good. Board good. Seating good. Tables a bit small but ok. Service decent. Dealers very good. Friendly lady running to room tonight very nice. Poker room has the 'friendly' feel. And the heck w/ it. 2 proof reads and corrections still left typos. Put up w/ them.
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#7
03-11-2007, 03:53 PM
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Re: Gila River (AZ) 15/30 Game
Thank you very much for your great assessment. A few nights ago I had basically given up on this thread and learning any info about this game on here, and then BAM, you come back and surprise me!
Everything you said fits with the assumptions I have made. I only played poker there once, about 2 years ago with friends who live nearby, and instantly removed it from my thoughts because of the smoke, but the 15/30 game interests me. If all goes well, I will be trying it out next weekend, so stay out of my way!
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#8
03-11-2007, 04:13 PM
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Re: Gila River (AZ) 15/30 Game
[ QUOTE ]
Thank you very much for your great assessment. A few nights ago I had basically given up on this thread and learning any info about this game on here, and then BAM, you come back and surprise me! Everything you said fits with the assumptions I have made. I only played poker there once, about 2 years ago with friends who live nearby, and instantly removed it from my thoughts because of the smoke, but the 15/30 game interests me. If all goes well, I will be trying it out next weekend, so stay out of my way! [/ QUOTE ] Stay out of your way, young man? Ha! YOU stay out of mine! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] In actuality I should thank you for the HU about the game. If it stays juicy that's where I'll be on the weekends. I think I know who you are but haven't approached you to say hi. If you want you can look for me in the 20 or 40. I've been wearing my Dodger's cap and will keep doing so until it gets unlucky. Then I've got to switch to my Mohegan Sun cap which is next in line.
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#10
03-12-2007, 12:30 PM
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Re: Gila River (AZ) 15/30 Game
[ QUOTE ]
I went to Gila River tonight to play in this game. Here are some thoughts and observations. [/ QUOTE ] Howard - Your review is dead on! Of course, with no experience in the 15-30 game, I didn't know just how good it was. I currently have no business playing in that game, but it's nice to know that it compares well to other places. The noise was difficult to deal with on Friday night. I sat in the 7 seat and I barely could hear the dealer and the players that sat in the 2-3 seats. However, the game was very good. I almost pulled an all-nighter (my job has me waking up at 5am and I left that place at 3). Gila River is 15 minutes for me door-to-door and I have been struggling lately with the smoke issue. I'm fine when I'm playing (because almost every game is very good), but when I come home it's just brutal. Do you think the no-smoking ban that the voters passed will affect the smoke, or would it just make the games worse?
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