Has anybody played at Meskwaki since they started allowing 18-20 year olds to start playing poker there? I'm wondering if the youngsters have loosened up the games and if they are better or worse players than you would have expected.

I played there the first day (a Sunday) they allowed the youngins in, and it did loosen the games up a bit. They're the typical aggressive internet-bred players. Also, it produced the largest Sunday tourney field they've ever had (103 runners, I think?). I haven't been there since, so I don't know if it's still that way. I keep meaning to go, but my bankroll has been decimated lately by a run of bad cards. Plus, it requires some planning ahead on my part and frankly I've been lazy lately.

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I was there the day after they opened things up to 18 y.o. and then again about a month later.

I don't know how much it loosened things up because the kids were tending to buy in short. What it did do though was actually create multiple tables and a good mix of players. Previously, you could count on one 3/6 game and one 1/2 NL game going after the tournament and that was about it for every night but Saturday. Now, you've got as many as five games going and lasting for quite awhile. It helps that it's summer time, but just the additional players have given the room a lift.

If you are a tournament player, it's also worth mentioning that the younger crowd definitely favors tournaments a lot more than cash games. Their tournaments have been running between 50-100 players depending upon the night. Before, you only saw big turnouts for their Thursday nighters.

The next big event will be to see how the addition booze affects the numbers. I'm guessing that once the folks who like to drink are able to get a beer at Meskwaki, that will hurt the Isle and Riverside even more.

I played a session at Riverside two weekends ago with AVPers Santa Claus and Jugweed. Riverside is now spreading a 1/2 NLHE game, with a max. $150 buy-in (not sure re the min., but it appears to be $50). The 1/2 NLHE is VERY soft, lots of people overplaying top pair, etc. The 2/5 NLHE game seems less busy (only 1 table on a weekend afternoon), but still plays pretty big (and fairly soft, based on the 1/2 players that moved up to that game).

Riverside still does NOT have auto-shufflers, and the dealers share tips with the other pit dealers, so they are rather .... amotivated.

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I played $3/$6 limit this past Saturday evening at Riverside Casino south of Iowa City. As Grange reported earlier, they are now spreading $1/$2 NL as well. The $3/$6 limit game was very, very soft. Of course, that could be because most of the table was a part of my fraternity reunion and played very infrequently or it was their first B&M experience. Oh, and for the most part, we had all been having a drink or two....or three (and cigars on the balcony) at a cocktail party hosted by a brother in the casino hotel in a beautiful 1200 square foot suite overlooking the championship golf course. We had a blast and the poker room manager was good about letting us all play together. The dealers did have to deal with a brother or two getting a little out of hand...and handled it pretty well. Nice room, fun place to play. I recommend you stop by when you are in the neighborhood!

I've been delinquent in posting this for the other Iowa folks, so here goes:

Made my first stop at this place on my way back from a meeting in Wisconsin. Currently, the poker room (4 tables) is situated in a glass room just behind the seating area for the dog races. I kind of liked it because it was quiet, yet you could see what was going on around you on three sides. It also had the convenience of its own bar, which was strange for a four table room with only a few slots just outside.

They spread daily donkaments, most starting in the afternoon with weekends starting a second tournament in the evening. According to their room manager, their "house game" is 1/2 NL with a $200 cap, which is what I played. The room is almost exclusively locals from Dubuque, surrounding small Iowa towns and Wisconsin as well. The table I played at had some of the worst players I have ever seen, but they were pretty nittish too so there aren't many big pots.

It appeared that they run a different daily game like stud or Omaha, etc for regulars that sign up in advance, not unlike some of the other smaller rooms around the state, so it isn't always just hold 'em, but you have to know when to go.

They also have a gaming area with the usual craps/blackjack/slots that is on the other side of the facility. Supposedly they are temporarily moving the room over there while some remodeling happens after the racing season, so that should be interesting considering that it will be in the middle of the smoky casino.

As a little warm up for my trip to Vegas in February, I stopped by the Argosy in Sioux City last night (visiting for Turkey Day as that's my parents' home). The poker room has been reduced to 4 tables. It was reasonably busy with 3 tables of 1/3 NL. I've played 1/2 NL and this was my first try at 1/3. Minimum buy-in was $100 and max buy-in was $300. I bought in for the max, played a couple of hours and left up $167 after tips (Ok, $147 after tips and slots....I hate slots but had to kill time to wait for a seat...the lady next to me pulled in $1,400 in about two spins). Frankly, the competition wasn't all that great and my pocket aces and pocket queens did well. I can't say the Argosy is a nice casino but it was available and I was pleased to find poker still offered, even if with fewer tables than in the past.

Fun fact. Saw a car with Alaska plates as I drove back to Des Moines/Urbandale, Iowa. I wondered if AlaskaGal had already given up on Vegas!?

Drove my parents back to Sioux City from Des Moines yesterday and stayed at their place overnight. Decided to hit up the Argosy Casino and Riverboat again. Only one table of 1/3 NL was going with only two dealers working. Thus, I had to wait over an hour to get seated. Played for about 3 hours and ended up down $10 for the session. My make or break hand was when I called a $50 dollar bet on the turn (the bet was a little short of pot sized) when I had an OESD to the nuts and a nut flush draw. I suspect the size of the villian's bet made my call a negative EV play and I lost roughly $75 on that hand. I think I lost about a total of $120 chasing the nut flush or OESD after the turn when the size of the villian's bets made it a bad play. I'll need to review the odds and plug this leak before my trip to Vegas in February.

Played in a best shot golf outing at Blue Top (I think that was the name...in any event, it's the new course owned by Riverside Casino just south of Iowa City). Beautiful day. Great people. Excellent golf course. Afterwards, I went into the casino to play poker but they only had one table going at 4 p.m. 2/5 NL is still outside my comfort zone so I didn't play. The floor manager indicated they were having a $30 buy-in tourney at 6 p.m. and they average 100 participants. She said there should be other cash games (i.e. 1/2 NL) going by 7 p.m. I declined to wait that long and instead drove up to Iowa City and had dinner on the patio of Bob's Your Uncle (dining establishment) with my daughter, my sister-in-law, and our friend, Jo. So dinner with 3 beautiful women and great conversation ended up being +EV. Hopefully I'll make it to Prairie Meadows this weekend. I'll have to work that in around golf with my son who is coming down from Minneapolis and going to Night at the Museum 2 with my son and daughter who is coming in from Iowa City (I've already seen Star Trek....excellent and Angels and Demons....pretty good and faithful to the book). Does the new Terminator flick start this weekend? We might have to see that as well.

Good pizza at Bob's Your Uncle. The wife and I seem to end up eating at Mickey's every time we're in IA City, so now I want pizza.

I've never played Riverside when the University wasn't in session. I imagine the $1/2 nl games slow down quite a bit from late May to late August, especially when the weather is nice.

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