Day 0: Vancouver to Niagara Falls
Woke up this morning with one errand to run -- go to the electronics store and pick up the cheapest camera they have. Even though -- as evwhore mentioned -- a nice camera only costs a few big blinds, it's always so dangerous to rationalize in such a way. Almost every non-major purchase is "just a few blinds", but that can go down the slippery slope to busto that has befallen so many otherwise successful high-limit pros. Crazy-expensive meals and alcohol, strippers, furniture, even cars become much cheaper in big blinds. So I stuck to my guns and got a crappy $80 camera. Even that was painful because I know once I find my camera (where ever it's hiding in my apartment), this one is going into the trash. Oh well.
Adam subconsciously must not have wanted to go on this trip because he tried his very best to make us miss our flight. He showed up at the airport at 1:25 for a 2:00 PM flight -- another five minutes, and they wouldn't have let him check in. As we start racing towards the security line, he ponders out loud, "think there's enough time for Starbucks?" I laughed, because I didn't think he could possibly be serious. When he saw the "I'm going to murder you" look in my eyes, he decided he didn't need Starbucks after all. Next, we get to the security lineup where he pronounces that he has left all his cash in the car, and has to turn around to get it. We get through security and ate the gate at 1:45, where he sees a bunch of people at the gate and no one lining up to board, which of course must mean that boarding hasn't even started (in fact, it had started at 1:25). He announces that he's going to go back and get some food. He has barely left the gate when the man on the PA announces all rows and all passengers aboard. The reason why no one was lining up at the gate was, in fact, because everyone was already aboard the plane. I am officially on tilt and completely convinced we are going to miss this flight. Five more minutes go by and the PA announcer dude announces last call for Passengers Chan and Schwartz.
"Uhh, I'm Chan. Schwartz is uh, going to be right back."
The lady at the desk responds, "oh, good, you're here! We thought we were going to have to leave without you."
"Yeah, sorry...I'm travelling with an idiot."
Five more minutes go by. The other guy at the desk looks at me and says, "your friend has two seconds to show up before we're closing the doors." I frantically dial my phone, which starts ringing just as Adam strolls in with his salad and sandwich in hand. We are the last people on board the plane and I put my carry-on something like 20 rows away from our seating. Adam gets very very lucky, because I know if that were me, I'd be drawing so dead.
The pilot must have had a date in Toronto though, because we made amazing time into Toronto, touching down some 40 minutes early. The new Air Canada 767-300 has pretty sweet economy class: in-seat entertainment system, computer power, and decent seats. The aisle pathway lighting is by far the coolest thing though, as instead of the typical bright white light, it has these much softer lights that only point up and reflect off the ceiling. They also change colours (for no reason I can figure out) across purple, blue, green and red. The red makes you feel like you're on the bridge of the Enterprise with a Romulan warbird off the port bow. I wish I'd taken a picture (good thing I bought a camera).
Got in and had poor food and worse service at a Milestone's outside the airport. Adam is a speed freak so we made it into Niagara Falls on great time. Niagara seems to be pretty dead at night, but looking around the restaurant options seem plentiful.
We walk into the Fallsview Casino. The poker room is pretty small -- 20 tables at most, and packed together really close to one another. The gaming floor itself is very large, but the poker space is very small and packed into a corner, reminiscent of the early 2000s when casinos thought of poker rooms as more of a hassle than a profit centre. Guess news is late arriving to Niagara.
One thing we noticed was that there was no game being spread other than no-limit hold'em. No limit hold'em, no Omaha, nothing. Adam asked the brush if they ever spread something like PLO. He said no, never pot limit, "but sometimes if there's a demand, we will have no-limit Omaha."
Double-take. "No-limit Omaha?"
"Yes."
Adam mutters to me, "...god, what an awful game that must be."
The floor supervisor answers, "yes, well it's because we are not licensed for pot-limit."
Ahh. Regulation. Any time a casino makes a completely nonsensical decision in Canada, you can usually blame the lottery corporation.
There were a number of 1-2 and 2-4 NL tables, three 5-10 tables, and two 10-25 tables. Adam had intended on playing some live poker, but didn't want to play 10-25, and the list for everything else was at least fifteen people deep. So we just had a drink at the bar and headed back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before hitting the 10am morning breakfast. The problem? It's 3am here, which means it's still only midnight in Vancouver. How the hell is a poker player supposed to get to sleep at midnight??
Adam subconsciously must not have wanted to go on this trip because he tried his very best to make us miss our flight. He showed up at the airport at 1:25 for a 2:00 PM flight -- another five minutes, and they wouldn't have let him check in. As we start racing towards the security line, he ponders out loud, "think there's enough time for Starbucks?" I laughed, because I didn't think he could possibly be serious. When he saw the "I'm going to murder you" look in my eyes, he decided he didn't need Starbucks after all. Next, we get to the security lineup where he pronounces that he has left all his cash in the car, and has to turn around to get it. We get through security and ate the gate at 1:45, where he sees a bunch of people at the gate and no one lining up to board, which of course must mean that boarding hasn't even started (in fact, it had started at 1:25). He announces that he's going to go back and get some food. He has barely left the gate when the man on the PA announces all rows and all passengers aboard. The reason why no one was lining up at the gate was, in fact, because everyone was already aboard the plane. I am officially on tilt and completely convinced we are going to miss this flight. Five more minutes go by and the PA announcer dude announces last call for Passengers Chan and Schwartz.
"Uhh, I'm Chan. Schwartz is uh, going to be right back."
The lady at the desk responds, "oh, good, you're here! We thought we were going to have to leave without you."
"Yeah, sorry...I'm travelling with an idiot."
Five more minutes go by. The other guy at the desk looks at me and says, "your friend has two seconds to show up before we're closing the doors." I frantically dial my phone, which starts ringing just as Adam strolls in with his salad and sandwich in hand. We are the last people on board the plane and I put my carry-on something like 20 rows away from our seating. Adam gets very very lucky, because I know if that were me, I'd be drawing so dead.
The pilot must have had a date in Toronto though, because we made amazing time into Toronto, touching down some 40 minutes early. The new Air Canada 767-300 has pretty sweet economy class: in-seat entertainment system, computer power, and decent seats. The aisle pathway lighting is by far the coolest thing though, as instead of the typical bright white light, it has these much softer lights that only point up and reflect off the ceiling. They also change colours (for no reason I can figure out) across purple, blue, green and red. The red makes you feel like you're on the bridge of the Enterprise with a Romulan warbird off the port bow. I wish I'd taken a picture (good thing I bought a camera).
Got in and had poor food and worse service at a Milestone's outside the airport. Adam is a speed freak so we made it into Niagara Falls on great time. Niagara seems to be pretty dead at night, but looking around the restaurant options seem plentiful.
We walk into the Fallsview Casino. The poker room is pretty small -- 20 tables at most, and packed together really close to one another. The gaming floor itself is very large, but the poker space is very small and packed into a corner, reminiscent of the early 2000s when casinos thought of poker rooms as more of a hassle than a profit centre. Guess news is late arriving to Niagara.
One thing we noticed was that there was no game being spread other than no-limit hold'em. No limit hold'em, no Omaha, nothing. Adam asked the brush if they ever spread something like PLO. He said no, never pot limit, "but sometimes if there's a demand, we will have no-limit Omaha."
Double-take. "No-limit Omaha?"
"Yes."
Adam mutters to me, "...god, what an awful game that must be."
The floor supervisor answers, "yes, well it's because we are not licensed for pot-limit."
Ahh. Regulation. Any time a casino makes a completely nonsensical decision in Canada, you can usually blame the lottery corporation.
There were a number of 1-2 and 2-4 NL tables, three 5-10 tables, and two 10-25 tables. Adam had intended on playing some live poker, but didn't want to play 10-25, and the list for everything else was at least fifteen people deep. So we just had a drink at the bar and headed back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before hitting the 10am morning breakfast. The problem? It's 3am here, which means it's still only midnight in Vancouver. How the hell is a poker player supposed to get to sleep at midnight??