vancouver area

darkcore · #1 04-01-2006, 07:53 PM

i am visiting vancouver this month and hope to get my first "live" poker-experience.

if i googled it right i have two options:

edgewater casino downtown, but there i'll find only limit action (and i suck at limit).

riverrock a little bit outside. they have ssnl starting at $200 (my favourite choice) there.

i plan to take a look at edgewater, but i am not sure if i am going to play there. i hope i can make a time schedule that allows to me visit riverrock a day or two.

my questions are:

is the information i gathered right so far?
any other tips for a b&m newbie?
how are the riverrock games during the week?

thanks in advance,

darkcore

Bubba O'Reilly · #2 04-01-2006, 09:44 PM

Your info's pretty good. The edgewater's mostly useless, they have 4 (i think) tables, and all of them spread $4/$8 limit, a couple with a full kill. They do have expansion plans, but I don't think they'll come about any time soon.

Riverrock, on the other hand, is a much better room. At roughly two dozen tables, it's apparently the biggest in Canada. Not too crowded, decent floor staff and (mostly) competent dealers. Mix of low limit/no-limit and usually a table or two of Omaha. I've only been a couple times, I'm sure there's some regulars who can give more deatils. The low limit tables are wicked soft. If you're going during weekend/peak hours, phone ahead and reserve your spot in line.

Never played during the week, so I can't comment there.

yellowjack · #3 04-02-2006, 06:51 AM

I cannot stress calling in ahead of time enough. This is extremely necessary. Call them (604.247.8983 for River Rock) and ask how long they think it will take for a seat to open up for you.

smbruin22 · #4 04-02-2006, 01:03 PM

i've been to river rock and a very good experience.

sorry for being vague, but it was excellent expect for a few poor dealers and a lack of hard rules (settle a dispute over a hand with rock/paper/scissors, i kid you not)

the 4/8 limit (6/12??) was very soft, but that was a year ago... next time i go, i will throw in some no-limit. if the limit was that soft, no-limit should be gold (but like i said, that was a long time ago in "poker time"

i think there are other casinos around vancouver (one near GM place, one on broadway and another in burnaby), but from the sounds of it riverrock has the most tables and is near the airport if you care)

darkcore · #5 04-02-2006, 02:55 PM

thanks for all the input.

my friend (where i stay) is not into poker and won't have much time for me during the week. so i most probably will be at river rock on a weekday and i hope getting a seat won't be that much of a problem then. i rather hope i can play there through the night and make my way back to vancouver the next morning. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

or would it be smarter if i stay two days and book a room for a night (or maybe two)?

smbruin22 · #6 04-02-2006, 04:05 PM

not totally sure what you're asking.... but richmond basically is a very close suberb of vancouver (in fact river rock is between vancouver's airport and downtown)..... there won't be much travelling involved in the morning.... but maybe i misunderstood.

MikeRice · #7 04-02-2006, 04:35 PM

Everything has pretty much been covered in the replies. Call ahead 1-2 NL lists can get 40-50 deep on Friday and Saturday nights. The floor sucks there are no rules enforced. People speak non english at the table dealers and floor never seem to step in until someone complains. People will often guess other people's hands while someone is pondering a big all in call nothing happens of course until I finally complained that these 2 ladies were killing people's action. Floor told them not to and that lasted for about 5 hands.

AllVegasPoker · #8 04-02-2006, 04:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]

I cannot stress calling in ahead of time enough. This is extremely necessary. Call them (604.247.8983 for River Rock) and ask how long they think it will take for a seat to open up for you.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you do decide to play at Edgewater, then make sure to call ahead also. I was there a few months ago and the list was several hours long. Fortunately, the poker room will allow you to call in and add your name to the list in advance, so I recommend doing it.

darkcore · #9 04-02-2006, 04:48 PM

my question was rather if games are going on 24h/day, but from all your replies i think they do. and i am gonna call ahead.

i'm looking forward to play live for the first time.

talentdeficit · #10 04-02-2006, 05:33 PM

where in vancouver are you staying? river rock is only 25 minutes from downtown and there's a bus every five minutes from burrard skytrain station that stops a 5 minute walk from the casino (98 b-line).

there's almost always at least two 1-2nl games running, and usually 5 or 6. 3-6nl and 5-10nl run almost always too. 10-20nl usually runs on the weekends. the mid limit action sucks lately, but there's lots of low limit action. plo8 with 1-2 blinds and no max seems to run most of the time now too.