Belterra Casino Poker Room

After taking a short break from cards (and I mean short. It was less than a week, but we skipped our usual home game, which felt kinda long), my husband and I decided to head down to Belterra for a change of scenery from our usual Argosy game. A friend of ours who apparently started playing cash games emailed me early last week saying he and his girlfriend were heading down there for a Memorial Day weekend getaway and that he was sure she'd be asleep by 9 pm and that he could hang out with us in the poker room. He had played there with a couple buddies the previous Saturday night, won about $300, and then went back Sunday and won around $375. Those were his first times playing cash games. I thought that was pretty good and told him so. Obviously, he was very excited. So excited that they booked the room for this past Sunday. His excitement was contagious. It took little convincing and my husband and I were off to meet up with him and play some cards Sunday evening.
We hadn't played there for probably 4 months. The last time we were there we both got chewed up and spit out. I was hoping that we'd waited it out long enough and that our luck there would change. I can't remember the last time I actually walked out ahead at Belterra, so I was wanting to give it a shot. We both really enjoy playing there, but Argosy is a 20 minute drive as opposed to an hour or so, so we don't get down there as much as we used to before Argosy's room opened in May of 2006.
Well, for me things started out alright. There were no seats open yet at the $1/2 NLHE tables, so reluctantly I sat down at a $3/6 FL game. I hate that game there. It's pitiful, but I only had a short wait, so I decided to give it a shot. Well, I missed the bad beat jackpot hand by one card! I flopped an open ended straight flush draw, and since it was a $3/6 limit game I hung in there until the bitter end, where the guy turned over QJ for quad queens. His J kicker would have played and we would have chopped up around $70k, but my hand just couldn't get there. It was the most exciting limit hand I think I've ever played.
Not long after, I got my NL seat. Things went alright. I had a few decent hands. I flopped a boat with pocket AA. The pot was around $60. That could have been much lower I suppose. The table was a bit tight, even by my standards and it started to get thinned out and boring. It finally broke up at around 1:00 am, so I moved to the open seat at my husband's table, where our buddy was also playing. Over there I flopped 2 straights, got action on one and doubled up. The same guy was in the hand with me on the second one. I guess he wised up because he folded that one muttering something about me flopping the straight again. :-) My poor husband was getting his teeth kicked in over there all night and ended up rebuying 2 times. He was getting his money in good, but seeing some unlucky river cards.
I was amazed at how much different the $1/2 game was there than the $1/3 game at Argosy. Up there, you play with people who do that for a living. I don't feel like I ran into any of those people at Belterra on this particular night. It was getting towards 3 am and I finally convinced my husband that we should hit the road for the long drive home. He ended up getting short stacked and busted out by none other than our buddy, and I ended up down about $20 for the night. Maybe I should have checked out after my straight flush draw hand. It should have been a sign. I know I could have lost considerably more money, but it was just a frustrating night. I imagine we'll be sticking with our home game and Argosy for a while until we can get some good energy kicking at Belterra.

Impressions: I really like Belterra Casino as a whole. They have a really nice card room, in a good spot on the boat. It's a bit more of a drive for us, but is an easy one. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone on a weekend who might not want to wait as long for a table as someone going to Argosy.
Most of the times I've been there have been Saturdays. Lately they have been offering $1/2 NL, $2/4 FL and are also known to spread a $2/5 NL game when requested. Their max rake is 10%, up to $4, which is lower than that of their competitors.
Atmosphere: The room itself is comfortable. There is plenty of space between the tables and they are in great shape. The chairs fairly comfy as well. There is plenty of room to wait inside the poker room for your seat and they generally have a couple different poker magazines available that are free of charge. The restrooms are located directly outside the poker room doors, so no trek across the boat! Temperature is the only issue I've ever had with Belterra's poker room – it tends to be chilly, so I always take a sweater or jacket just in case.
Dealers: Everyone I've encountered there has been very friendly. They keep the games moving without being pushy.
Food: Cocktail servers always seem to be around, so it's not usually a problem to get drinks. Usually a couple times a night the servers will also take food orders for their snack shop on the lower levels. You are permitted to eat at the table and they'll usually bring a wheeled table over to you for your food while you're playing.
Service: They have their lists displayed on a screen above the front desk. It's easy to keep track of where you are on it. Their poker room attendance kind of took a hit when Argosy opened up their room in May of 2006. They used to have a much longer wait and $2/5 NL was their big game with a couple must-move tables feeding a main table. Now most people seem to show up for the $1/2 NL, which now has a must-move and main table. It's still a good game, you just don't have to wait as long now. Usually not more than a 1/2 hour on a Friday or Saturday night depending on how many tables they have running.
Comps: Their comps are $1 per hour of play, but I believe they max you out a 7 consecutive hours per session. (It may be slightly more than 7 hours, but they have a max comp per session.) You can get a comp at the poker desk or at the general comp desk.