So Walleye talked me in to driving the 45 mins to check out the $45 MTT, figured it is close enough to the border to write a trip report.
The room itself is enclosed and smoke free, the tournament and room are extremely well run and have an excellent floor person. There are no automatically shufflers, but the dealers were competent and quick.
The tournament field was very soft, and I say this coming from the tourist-infested waters of Niagara... It felt like home game, most of the players knew each other well and were there to socialize primarily. The patrons were the epitome of opponents, loose-passive with a smile, a handshake and a promise of a beer and a tall hunting or fishing tail later.
The tournament itself had a lot of play with an odd structure where, as best I can remember, the first four levels (25/50-200/400) were 30 mins, the next four (300/600-600/1200) 20 mins and the rest until 3000/6000 cap were 15 mins. It played like a reasonable/slow moving home game.
I'm told they duplicate this structure for their bigger games, and will bump this thread when I play them with updates.
The specifics
These players were astonishingly easy to read, if you've read and understood Caro's ancient book you will know what 90% of the players are up to at all times in this game. There were very few surprises, if they had a premium they raised outrageously, if they disliked them they called to see a flop.
My favourite hand of the night was immediately after losing a monster flip...
Left with only 2200chips in the 800/1600, I post the SB..1 limper, crazy old guy who called all in previously with a-4o looks at one card and shoves his 2500. Another loose guy in lp mumbles something about being "outkicked" and calls, BB has the call in his hand as does the limper..I look down ..out of curiosity, as I call and see k4o, sick life!
Obv I turn trip 4's and the original shover (Who had a-6ss) LOSES his damn mind, and it catches on..they're all shocked and appalled that I'd play k-4o TO A RAISE..GOD DAMN BINGO PLAYERS!
I came back and won it.
