First trip to Delaware Park

This past Sunday I made my first trip to DE Park Casino to play a bit of poker. My wife and I had taken our kids to Statue of Liberty and then she and the kids went on to Long Island while I headed south. I had heard a lot of good things about this new poker room so I figured I would check it out.

Basically on or about June 1 DE table games were added to the existing slots and horse race betting. A few casinos have added poker including DE Park and Harrington Park (closer to the beach). I arrived about 7 or so and found the poker room on the 2nd floor in the back. The room itself is fine. A little dark but spacious with big TVs and about 25-30 tables from what I could gather. On Sunday night there were not a ton of tables running. I got there to find 12 1-2 NLHE tables, 3 2-5 NLHE tables and 1 1-2 PLO tables. There were other very low stake Limit tables that I had no interest in obviously. But there was no 5-10 NLHE or any HORSE or Omaha Hi-Low running at all.

So I put my name on the lists for 2-5 and 1-2 PLO and found a seat in one of the 1-2 NLHE. I haven't played 1-2 in a casino since god knows when (other than when Steve Dannenmann and I play blind 1-2 for shitz and giggles at Borgata). The play was as bad as usual at this level but, of course I was coolered in 3 hands inside of the first 2 hours. The first hand I flopped a 8 hi flush holding 78spades only to see a shortish stack with only ~$120 had flopped a Q high flush. Little later I flopped a 9 high club flush holding 89clubs. I bet 25 into a 30ish pot and found 1 caller. Turn was another club and I check folded to a 50ish bet. Turns out I was lucky to see the turn club since the other dude had flopped a flush as well holding KJcc. The final cooler occurred when I opened KK to 11 and guy shoved 75. I called obv and he had AA and held.

In spite of all of these gross spots I was hanging around even for the session just due to the incompetency of these people and their clear discomfort playing with an aggressive player. I basically raised or reraised 75ish% of my buttons and forced them to play their hands out of position. Most times I was able to take down the pots on the flop with simple continuation betting. This is a common theme in low stakes live games with a lot of limping and calling and very little aggressive play. In these games, it is hugely +EV to play fast and loose particularly if you are a pretty good player post flop. These players essentially play their own cards and have very little concept of determining what hands their opponents may hold and even less clue as to how their table image affects how good players react to them.

In any event, they finally called my name for both the 2-5 and 1-2 PLO after about 2 hours or so but I had 2 good sized stacks on my right and both were relatively clueless. Also, I had pretty good control of the table so I figured I would just stay there since I was going to be leaving in an hour or so. Finally I won a big pot holding QTdd. Flop was 963 with 2 diamonds. The pot had been min-raised pre-flop and had gotten 5 players so there was $20 in the pot. The BB led for $15 and I called in middle position as did the player 2 to my left. A rather poor player on the button then min-raised to $30. This prompted the BB to now re-raise to $90 with only $50 or so more behind. The button had about $125 behind. So after a few minutes the play became rather clear. Both the BB and BTN were willing to put their stacks in the middle which would generate a pot of approx $350. I would need to put $140 in the pot to cover all of the players. I figure I need to win this hand about 1/3 of the time to make it a profitable play and figure I am more than than 33% to hit my diamond. My only real concern is that they are both holding a diamond (or perhaps 2 if button has like AJdd). But I think it is +EV to ship and do to see 66 and 93. Turns out I am not getting the right price against those exact hands but I bink a diamond on the turn and hold for a nice pot. Little later I pack it in for a pretty decent $325ish profit. Not a bad 4 hours.

Pros

1) It is closer to Baltimore than AC as I can get there in ~1hr 10 mins.
2) Play is as bad as any other poker room at the lower levels.
3) Room is comfortable and spacious.

Cons

1) Dealers are pretty rough still and the general service is mediocre.
2) Games are never going to be very big. I think they will rarely get 5-10 NLHE going and the thought of a 20-40 limit O8 or HORSE seems unrealistic.
3) The food choices and other extraneous stuff is lacking compared to an AC casino.

Bottom line is it will never be confused with the poker room at the Borgata or The Venetian but it will be fine for night trip up there. I do think that AC will suffer from these casinos opening in DE and PA. Ultimately it will probably shrink the poker rooms in AC with the likely exception of Borgata, Taj and maybe Showboat or Tropicana. Borgata will still rule tournament poker and higher end cash games but these additional casinos will mean they need to cater a bit more to the more casual players.