My Casino Trip

[RPI-Fan]

This is my first opportunity to go to Turning Stone casino since turning 18, so I jumped at the chance.

Woke up at 7:30am Saturday, headed over to my buddy's house. Got there at quarter of 8, and waited for our other friend to show. He got there right about 8, and we hit the road right away. We left so early so we'd be able to sign up for the $25+$5rebuy tourney at 11am. All is well for the first hour of the two hour drive.

And then the snow came. Instead of burning along at our 90mph pace, we slowed to about 45mph at some points. Considering we had wanted to get there by 9:30, it was quite disappointing. Nevertheless, we made our way through the snow-covered road and arrived at the casino (Turning Stone in Verona, NY) at about 10:10am.

We walk in and head straight for the poker room to sign up for the tournament, and after that we plan to go immediately to the bathroom. As we walk around the non-casino part of the hotel en route to the poker room, as soon as we step onto the casino floor a guy in a suit RUNS towards us and cards us. He checks each of our ID's for about 20 or 30 seconds, and then reluctantly lets us carry on our way. It was the only time we were carded all day. (???)

So we walk into the poker room, and don't see any sort of place to sign up for the tourney. One of us asks, and it turns out they filled up (110 people) at 9:35am! Looks like it'll be a ring game all day for us, then...

So anyways, the time being almost 10:30am by now, I buy in for $100 in chips, and get my name on a wait list for a 3-6 table. Turns out my and my two friends made enough people for a new table to start, so we sat down with 7 others at a tight table (designed for stud). I'm quite nervous at first - I fumbled a couple of times just taking my chips out of the rack. I even spilled some on the floor at one point, which was really stupid. Fortunately, the guy next to me helped me out in picking them up before someone could snatch some (it was only 3 or 4 dollars).

The table looks pretty standard - two seats to my right is a friend of mine, to his right is a kid, maybe 20 years old, who is by far the most talkative person at the table. Then the dealer, and to the dealer's right is someone, and then somebody from Long Island who immediately notices my Islanders at and comments. To his right is our other friend, at the opposite end of the table from us (not coincidentally). Two seats to my left is an older guy who plays strong on the first hand and looks like a pretty solid player. Fortunately, he gets up and goes to play higher limits as soon as they open a 5-10 table.

So I grind it out for a couple of hours, winning a pot here or there, but my stack is slowly dwindling. I get up at about 12:30pm to take a walk around. At this time I have ~$70 in my rack. I picked up my chips, so I'll have to wait if I want to sit back down.

After wandering for about 15 minutes, I come back and get on a $3-6 list. I was going to grab lunch, but realized I could do that any day, but couldn't play poker in a cardroom any day. So I get back on a 3-6 list, and end up at the same table as I started at (there were 3 $3-6 tables going most of the day). Most of the table except my friends has turned over at this point, but people in general aren't constantly sitting down and then leaving.

My stack slowly increases, and at one point I get it up to $105 or so. From there, it dwindles over an hour, until about 3:30, when I'm at $75 or so. Then my two friends leave to play some blackjack, and I decide to stick around for another 20 minutes or so. I win a couple of big pots (one of them I get KQs and hit my flush for a pretty nice pot).

In the end I finished with $163, and decided to get up after winning another sizable pot. I was actually on the small blind, so I fucked up the button and got some people irrated. I was pretty happy with myself, though, so I apologized and went to the cashier.

I should mention that I played 1-3 spread limit for about half an hour, absolutely hated it after winning $2, and got up. Think that was when I came back from my pseudo-lunch.

Cashed out, and did what any true gambler would do. Hit the blackjack tables.

I buy in for $100 (so I've got $40 less cash than I walked into the casino with), and play at a $5 minimum table. I just fuck around getting used to the procedure, and lose $20 after the dealer gets some incredible draws. Then a new dealer comes in, and it all changes. I got up to around $150 in chips at one point, but then the first dealer comes back. Predictably, I drop back down. I actually do make some more back, and have $90 or so in chips when we're almost ready to leave. If I were to cash out now, I would be +$50 for the day. I decide to throw $40 on this hand, my last no matter the result. This would let me win $10 on the day if I lose the hand, or win almost $100 on the day if I win it. Unfortunately, I get dealt 14 and the dealer shows a 9. I just stay, and she turns over a face card. What a shame.

Nevertheless, I'm very happy. I did pretty well at poker, and blew a lot on blackjack but still ended up on the day.

Fortunately it wasn't snowing when we left at almost 5:00, and we were able to stop at a rest-stop complex for dinner. One of my friends won $220, so he had to buy the pizza of course. I was up $10, and my other friend lost $115. So as a group we were actually up on the day.

If anyone has any questions about the general casino experience, or Turning Stone in particularl, feel free to ask.

Thanks for reading!
~kyle

[Craptacular]

I lost some dough yesterday afternoon, then watched tonight's news and saw that some lady won $1.5 million playing nickel slots at the same casino yesterday. Damn!

[JeeberD]

Since when are 18 year olds allowed to gamble?

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by Craptacular
I lost some dough yesterday afternoon, then watched tonight's news and saw that some lady won $1.5 million playing nickel slots at the same casino yesterday. Damn!

Dola-

I love nickle slots. Texas Tea is my favorite...

[Craptacular]

They could gamble here until they allowed the casinos to serve alcohol a couple of years ago.

[MrBug708]

I think the best mentality going into a casino is whatever you lose, it was the cost of entertainment

Me, I like the race track

[RPI-Fan]

Yip - Turning Stone is on the Oneida Indian Reservation which doesn't have any alcohol on it at all. That's why 18 year olds are allowed to gamble.

Fortunately for punks like me, it doesn't look like they'll be successful in getting the reservation wet anytime soon anyways.

[Chief Rum]

Next time, hit on that 14. You have to assume the guy has a 19. You might as well go down swinging.

CR

[sooner333]

Is it true that in California, not only are the Indian Casinos allowed to have 18 year olds gamble, they can serve alcohol to 18 year olds because the tribal government is separate from state government (and there, of course, is no Federal Law banning 18 year olds from drinking)?

[MrBug708]

I believe they changed the Federal drinking age to 21 now

[sooner333]

I thought that each state was encouraged to make their state law 21 years old by taking away federal highway money if they did not.

[Samdari]

True Sooner333, that is how the federal govt has forced all states to set their drinking age to 21.

As for Indian casinos and drinking, the tribes do actually need to negotiate what's called a gambling compact with their state before opening a casino. The states cannot out and out refuse to do so, but they can get the Indians to agree to certain restrictions. In the case of Turning Stone, New York State's highest priority was to prevent alcohol from being served in the casino. They also had a provision that there would be no slot machines, but they Oneida's sidestepped that nicely by installing machines which used debit cards and had video rollers, rather than physical rotating drums. I have not been there in years, so I don't know if those machines are still there or not. Heck, I did not even know they had a poker room.

[RPI-Fan]

Samdari: They're still there, in a MAJOR way.

[Chubby]

kyle - glad you had a good time. i told you to call ahead turning stone is fun, the sucks about the weather. we really haven't gotten much snow up here this winter so far so OF COURSE when you go it decides to dump some lake effect.

[RPI-Fan]

Chubby: Would I have been able to get on the tournament list just by calling ahead? (FWIW, I was going to after I remembered what you said about an hour into the drive, but didn't really want to call information for the number.)

Seems like with the rate that they fill they'd require you to be there in person to sign up for the tourney.

[Chubby]

RPI - I think you have to be there to sign up for the tourny (at least most casinos make yo do that) but I'm not 100% sure. The time I was there they didn't have any going on until later at night.

[MrIllini]

book says hit 14 with 7 or larger showing... :P