Road Trip Part II

I spent a couple of hours touring Pittsburgh, where my wife and I lived and worked for about six years when we were first married. It was 16 years since I had last visited -- and 23 years since I had lived in Pittsburgh. It was disappointing to me that I could recall so little. I expected instant recognition and the old road map of my brain to immediately flash back on. But honestly, it was like driving to an all-but-brand new city. I don't know if I would ever regain my old sense of Pittsburgh -- and how it felt to drive through the streets in my neighborhood, or in the places I organized. But the two hours or so left me feeling very much like an outsider. I was surprised and unsettled.

I drove down to Canonsburg, PA where the Meadows Racetrack and Casino is located. Back in the day, this was a routine trip -- one I made at least a couple of times a week as the union representative for the hospital workers at Canonsburg General Hospital. But I made this trip as if I had never been to Canonsburg. I had no idea how to find my way onto the highway, or where the turnoffs and merges and exits were. Nothing looked familiar.

That all changed as I entered the Meadows poker room. Now THAT looked familiar -- though I had never set foot in it before. But the entrance and the brush and the cashier and the tables and the chatter at the tables and the play of the hands -- that was all routine. This was very familiar territory.

The room is a very nice place to play. The 26 tables are very well spaced. The table lighting is bright and nearly shadowless (though the lighting for the room in general is a little too dim for my taste). Though the room is only a couple of years old, it seems more worn than that -- with the felt less than new looking and the reddish-brown chairs and carpet suffering somewhat from wear and tear. There's table-side food and beverage service -- with attentive wait staff regularly approaching the table and bustling around. Poker room management seemed a bit harried -- as they ran a major two-day tournament and a dozen or so cash games. They had just discharged their poker room manager -- so that may have added to their workload.

They were spreading $1/3 and $2/5 no limit hold'em and $2-4 limit hold'em. That was usually all they got during the week, the acting poker room manager told me, though they get a $5/10 no limit game with a maximum $5K buy-in on Friday and Saturday nights. They hadn't had a stud game in a long while -- and they didn't spread a higher limit hold'em since most folks who wanted that tended to go to the other poker room in the area, the Rivers up in Pittsburgh.

They have daily tournaments including occasional freerolls for frequent players. I'd suggest checking them out directly to find out what tournaments they have going.

The Meadows Racetrack and Casino
210 Racetrack Road
Washington, Pennsylvania 15301
724-503-1200
www.meadowsgaming.com

The players at my table were timid, loose, passive, and generally inexperienced. I found them manipulatable -- though some were so loose that fancy play was a mistake -- the better hand usually won at showdown. They were all generally good-humored, friendly, and welcoming to their game. There was one solid player, sitting immediately to my left -- and another guy who came late into my session. But other than that, for the two hours or so that I played, I saw no one who seemed to play the game well.

Players earn $1 an hour in comps ($2/5 and higher earn $1.50). Motel rooms in the area are not especially cheap -- at about $100/night. I think it would be a profitable room for the good $1/2 player -- even with their 10% $5 maximum rake.

I left the room with my buddy Blaine, who is from Western Pennsyvania. Normally, we meet up at Foxwoods. I thought I'd return the favor and meet him here. He is a stud fancier -- and is always trying to find a stud game. Unfortunately, though I started a list for $5/10 stud with both of our names on it -- no one else signed up and Blaine was forced to play $2-4 limit hold'em. Even so, we both had a good time and mananaged a nice meal up in the food court out by the race track. My grilled chicken was excellent and well priced at under $7 for two large breasts and two side orders.

We drove up to The Rivers Casino -- which sits on the northside of Pittsburgh, right next to what has been described to me as the nicest baseball stadium in the United States. There was a lot of traffic getting over the bridges and eventually into the parking area of the casino. This may have been made more difficult by some event that was going on in the nearby stadium.

The room was well worth the drive. At 30 tables, it wasn't much larger than the Meadows -- but to me it seemed much bigger. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was because the ambiant lighting in the room and the general color of the place makes it appear much darker and deeper. Maybe it was because the place was noticably busier (of course the hour of my visit could have had much to do with that -- it was 6PM Saturday night by the time I got to the Rivers -- I had been at the Meadows at 1PM until about 4). Maybe it was just in reaction to having been cooped up in a car for over an hour waiting in traffic to get in -- so the expanse of the large room seemed even larger when compared to the narrow confines of my little car. But no matter. It was a large bustling room -- 'nuff said.

The room also has nicer amenities than the Meadows. The tables have cup holders; the seats are adjustable; the tables, carpeting, chips, felt, and cards appear newer and fresher than those at the Meadows. In general, the place felt more alive, more modern, and hipper. Perhaps this was because there was a more urban mix of players than in the Canonsburg room.

The mix of the players was younger than those of the Meadows. While the Meadows only had about 10% of the customers in their 20s, at the Rivers it was more like 30%. That's still relatively low by Las Vegas or California standards -- and even by AC or CT standards. But the room seemed younger, hipper, and more action-oriented. That was certainly true at my table -- where a couple of young guns, with their head sets, sun glasses, and baseball caps, tried to at least look intimidating. Fortunately, though the play at my table was more aggressive, on the whole it was not much better than that of the Meadows. There was one excellent player at my table, seated to my right. But other than he, the players did not appear to be very skilled or experienced. There was one young woman, for example, who seemed to have learned the game from TV. She three bet pre-flop, got called by the initial raiser who had her outstacked, faced her cards -- the Kd Jd, and was disappointed and surprised to see that she she lost to QQ. "Bad beat" she said to console herself when the hand was over and she rebought eagerly. No one corrected her. Perhaps they were more skilled than I gave them credit for.

The session was profitable - though brief. I wanted to drive to Toledo that night -- a good four or five hours away. I left at about 7:30, said good bye to my friend Blaine, and left at about 7:30 PM. It took me about 20 minutes to finally find my way to the highway north and then west. I managed to check into my motel at a little past midnight. It had been a very long and profitable day. For more information you can check out the following:

Rivers Casino
777 Casino Drive
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15212
412-231-7777
www.theriverscasino.com/gaming/table-games