Mountaineer Trip Report- WV

[frommagio]

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there was a 10/25nl game going yesterday afternoon, too...took a little doing, but it was going.

as a smoker, i love the fact that i had to take literally 7 steps from my table to smoke, but i completely understand non-smokers at a table along the rail...you can smoke literally in an entire circle around the tables, just not at the tables. my brother (nonsmoker, usually) was happy being 'it could've gotten ridiculous if everyone could smoke at the tables', but again, i see the point. there has to be room somewhere in that big room for us to go...

again, to me, i loved it. i could leave and be back for the next hand. but if you despise smoke, it's a little strange...

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Yes, it is pretty good for smokers. But for nonsmokers, there's unfortunately nowhere to hide at Mountaineer. It would be good if they could throw up glass around the rail, so that smokers could still grab a quick smoke, and the rest of us could have a smoke-free environment.

Right now, the smoke is the most intense along the rail, of course. But realistically, playing a session anywhere in that Poker Room means that you'll be immersed in smoke. When I visit, I dress in really old clothes, and I dump them in the basement as soon I get home so that my house doesn't smell. And a quick shower is mandatory.

[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.

[ThunderEagle]

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Right now, the smoke is the most intense along the rail, of course. But realistically, playing a session anywhere in that Poker Room means that you'll be immersed in smoke. When I visit, I dress in really old clothes, and I dump them in the basement as soon I get home so that my house doesn't smell. And a quick shower is mandatory.

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Wheeling Island's Poker room is in the middle of their non-smoking slot machine section. Not much chance of any filtering into the room. Smaller room with 20 instead of Mountaineer's 37 tables, but you might like it better.

[AaronO]

I live in Columbus and would love to make the trip. I play very little live and always in Indiana. Anyone played Mountaineer and also played Argosy or Caesar's? Any comparison between the 1-2(3) NL games? Never found the tables in Indy to be too hard, but sounds like the tables at Mountaineer are even better.

[Budget Boy]

I just have a quick question for you guys. I'm from Akron and will be home for a few weeks around the holidays and was thinking of checking this place out. Do they get any bigger LHE games going? It seems like the only game mentioned was 3-6, do they ever have any 10-20 or 20-40 games or anything? Thanks in advance.

[sem25]

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I just have a quick question for you guys. I'm from Akron and will be home for a few weeks around the holidays and was thinking of checking this place out. Do they get any bigger LHE games going? It seems like the only game mentioned was 3-6, do they ever have any 10-20 or 20-40 games or anything? Thanks in advance.

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Maybe we can get a game going this weekend? I'm willing to make a 3.5 hr drive for a 10/20 game.

[wiper]

evagaba...i'm glad to see i'm not the only one to notice literally every one of your points.

saturday was literally my first time playing live in a casino...70,000ish hands online (nothing), and 4.5 years' worth of homegames and local tournies...

i played for 4 hours (got bored and went to donk off on keno) and ended up down $50...within an hour and a half, i was down $250, but won 2-3 medium pots and then stacked someone with AA vs. AK on an KT2 board...

so yeah, lost money.

however..

the only thing i could talk about on the way home was how short-term my results were. there were literally 4 people that sat at my table at at one time or another over 4 hours that lost an entire $150 buyin in 30 minutes then left..my only problem was that i never had a hand..

card-dead for probably 2 hours...

the level of play shocked me. i always considered my regular homegame to be sub-par...8/10 of those regular players would be winners long-term at mountaineer.

there was a slight hesitation on my part, partly based on nerves and the whole 'scene', to play anything but snug, abc poker over my time there..the stakes were higher than i've ever played, and it just took some getting used to raising to $12 pf and getting 4 callers...$60 pot, which is about an entire buyin for me online or at a homegame...

anyway, off topic.

i definitely will be back regularly. i took my last cashout of $500 in $100 chips, to make sure i go back soon. the level of play was below what i'm used to even at $25 online, but it took me a minute to get used to the stakes. to a casino newbie, every new player looks like a shark in his own way, but it only takes one round to realize otherwise.

i will stay properly rolled to play 1-2nl there (and all it's beautiful variance) for the short-term, and probably look to move to 2-5nl eventually, after railbirding a couple 2-5 games...

tl;dr

[wiper]

sorry, not done ranting... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

there were straight HICKS sitting down. guys buying in for $100 wearing a flannel shirt, calling down 3 hands in a row, losing, and getting up.

a young kid with tattoos on his neck sitting down, losing a $100 buyin, saying, as he called an allin with 55 on a AKJ board, GETTING ALMOST EVEN MONEY, calling $75 into a $100 pot, 'pot odds man, pot odds...'

there was an older gentleman that sat down, and was calling down literally 6 hands a round. at one point he called another players huge bet on the turn with nothing but an inside straight draw. i'd been dying to play with him..

he pushes into a Q83 pot, $88 into a $60ish pot. that was to me, and i had a big stack behind me...wanting to isolate the fine man who had been dying to give me his money, i reraised all in for about $200...

big stack hems and haws for several minutes, announces, 'i came to gamble', calls my allin, and flips over KQ.

older gentlemen flips over TT.

i flip AQ...seeing how this is somewhat ranty, i'll let you determine whether one of the 2 remaining kings came or not..

ugh.

calls for $60 on the flop with 2nd pair low kicker were not uncommon. i probably raised 5 times preflop in 4 hours, and was called each time by at least 2-3 people. i've read enough to know how to beat that game, but short-term, the results can be brutal, especially psychologically for someone trying to get used to live stakes...

my brother, who i consider to be just as good as me, and also a long-term winner at 25nl online, lost an entire buyin, $250, in about 5.5 hours...i wasn't at the table, but listening to him, he felt the same way i did...that 1/2nl at mountaineer is imminetly beatable, though there'd be days where we'd make the hour drive home bitching about bad beats and calling stations.. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

again, and i don't feel bad stating this, as most of the players there couldn't add 2+2 let alone read it, the level of play at mountaineer's lower nl games is probably at the level of nl10 online. bodog's 25nl plays much tougher, but live's higher buyins are something i'll have to get used to.

this coming saturday, there'll be no nervousness about how to get into a game, no being worried that i'm overmatched, no overanalyzing every player as they sat down...just tight-aggressive poker, with no fear of losing big pots. i got the 'lose a big live pot' thing out of the way, and i got the 'win a big live pot' thing out of the way...

again, i lost $50 in 4 hours, but mountaineer gets a big [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] from me...