St Louis area casino info request

Quote: TwoFeathersATL

Drawing Dead had an Annual HOA Mtg last weekend too? Small world.

No, don't have one, but DD did recently make his every other year visit to a big-box-store-mountain-range and chain-store-forest of a suburban shopping center while out there to make a hands on comparison before ordering some new gadgets and gizmos and on his way out DD had a moment of forgetting whether he was in California or Kansas, Nevada or New Jersey, Washington or Wisconsin, Minnesota or Missouri, Atlanta or Albuquerque. Though the driving round and about and to and fro was indeed okay enough with no grounds for complaint, if you don't mind the tradeoff of feeling homogenized and pasteurized and franchised and the sameness of being generally-ized.

EDIT to add: If my earlier remarks sounded like I think StL ranks way down in the very lowest depth of motoring Hell, that isn't true, I don't. Even in the most central areas it isn't close to being one of the very worst places in the US in that way, in my opinion. It just isn't one of the easiest either, that I'd enjoy casually motoring around in just for leisurely sightseeing fun, especially in the most heavily trafficked and oldest parts with some narrow rather eccentric routes that apparently were laid out when people & goods moved around by horse & wagon, and where folks tend to get most "unconventional" in their behavior behind the wheel and on foot (as locals were quick to say the same by way of warning me when giving directions). That's all. No more than that. So I preferred hopping on the train within the inner eight miles or so.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

Was there just a couple weeks ago. I don't live close. We go there for other reasons but stop in the casinos and check out the situations. And not just machines.

Right on, I mention that because they've recently fixed and started having issues on a number of the machines again lol.

Quote: Wizardofnothing

I honestly think after reading this thread I'm going to send a crew to kc

I welcome the competition, I just wouldn't advise. The costs you'll incur for having to stay here will likely cut your profits to pennies when you face the challenge of already having two crews working the casinos. I mean, you could send a crew down to the Isle, but you'll be making about 15 dollars a day there lol.

Quote: DrawingDead

In my visits I was there twice during the season apparently known to locals as: "The Steam Bath." A little more so in StL than KC, at least when I was there. But I'll be returning for two weeks in mid to late October, and this will include spending about 4 hours at a stretch seated outdoors mostly during evening to nightime hours on at least several and perhaps as many as half a dozen or more nights. For someone whose home is in the Mojave Desert, I'm thinking that packing a light to medium jacket for that would be about right. Am I thinking sensibly?

I'm sure everybody complains about traffic anywhere there are at least two cars and one stop sign, and personal standards on that will vary depending on where you come from. I've spent a lot of time all over Los Angeles, including central LA & "The Hood" among other places, so I'm not exactly virginal about it. I came in to StL from the west (and left that way) and during my time there was shacked up at a hotel in the area known as Maryland Heights or Westport, and came into the city daily from there. From that direction my take on it is driving starts to become a bit annoying (and a little weird) once you get to about Pagedale which is well before the technical city limit of St. Louis and about eight miles from downtown proper and the river, and gets downright "arggh!" and "eeek!" and "OMFG duck!" when you get east of Kingshighway about four to five miles or so from the river. And that the farther suburbs, at least what I saw of them to the west, are exactly the same identical suburb as all suburbs everywhere and it would be impossible to tell the difference from suburban Portland or Denver or Phoenix or Las Vegas or St. Louis or for that matter probably a gated cul-de-sac development on Neptune which would no doubt be named "Whispering Pines" or somesuch drivel, and have an equally annoying Nazi-wannabe homeowner's association to dictate the exact permissible height of every blade of grass allowed to exist within it and to immediately strangle any barking dog or stray cat. But that's just IMO & YMMV & yadda, yadda, yadda.

Going to the Cardinals and/or Royals games for the AL/NL playoffs and world series I take it?

If so, absolutely pack yourself a medium jacket. Expect(obnoxious laugh) the highs to be in the upper 50's and lows in the low 30's throughout October in both places. STL is pretty reasonable, but just a few hundred miles over in KC, the weather is completely random. It might be 85/55 one day, 55/35 the next, snow, then have a heat wave, then rain for 12 days straight, and yeah, its a mess. It "should" be in the mid/high 60's and lows in the 40's for the first couple weeks here, but if you're headed to Busch Stadium, expect for it to feel realllllly chilly next to that river and slight breeze.

Well fine. Last minute addendum to packing list: the red polka dot beach/poolside shorts, and snowshoes. Any number with a "four" in front of it gets into parka and mitten territory for Drawing Dead.

Quote: DrawingDead

Well fine. Last minute addendum to packing list: the red polka dot beach/poolside shorts, and snowshoes. Any number with a "four" in front of it gets into parka and mitten territory for Drawing Dead.

Perfect, you're ready for a trip to the midwest right before winter Pack sunscreen, hand warmers, an umbrella, and a scarf just in case.

Yee-haw. You know why.

With a weekday afternoon start time to deal with I had to weasel through two crash scenes within one mile and one police operation of some sort to get to my choo-choo stop, but still got my assets planted in my precious seat for first pitch.

Quote: Exoter175

Perfect, you're ready for a trip to the midwest right before winter Pack sunscreen, hand warmers, an umbrella, and a scarf just in case.

And tonight I found this is absolutely totally true, and is no joke at all. Brrr. But blue people from Chicago seek, embrace, and savor pain, so everybody got what they came for:

Quote: DrawingDead

Yee-haw. You know why.

With a weekday afternoon start time to deal with I had to weasel through two crash scenes within one mile and one police operation of some sort to get to my choo-choo stop, but still got my assets planted in my precious seat for first pitch.

And tonight I found this is absolutely totally true, and is no joke at all. Brrr. But blue people from Chicago seek, embrace, and savor pain, so everybody got what they came for:

I'm telling you, that big river right over there can make for one chilly night if the wind's blowing just right haha. I'm assuming you're having a good time then? :P

Yes there seems to be enough fun to be had, with or without a parka and mittens on any given evening (though coming from the middle of the Mojave Desert I kind of miss the steam bath season here already). There better be, because after getting me into house money by winning the division it seems my remaining open betting tickets on March future wagers for StL to win the NL pennant and the World Series have caught a cold and aren't feeling so well. If they blow this thing to the Cubs I'll have a lot of extra time and money from refunds on expensive game tickets on my hands to look for trouble in old River City for the next few weeks, and may even have to end up doing something that would be on-topic for this thread.

From somewhere or other I've got the vague notion that the east side of the river is mostly scruffy and not very interesting, but I don't even know where I ever picked up that idea. Is it so, or worth exploring East St. Loo & the Illinois side at all? I noticed that the Metrolink choo-choo lines continue over there after running through the downtown area, so I guess there must be some substantial population on that side for them to fetch and move around.

Quote: DrawingDead

From somewhere or other I've got the vague notion that the east side of the river is mostly scruffy and not very interesting, but I don't even know where I ever picked up that idea. Is it so, or worth exploring East St. Loo & the Illinois side at all? I noticed that the Metrolink choo-choo lines continue over there after running through the downtown area, so I guess there must be some substantial population on that side for them to fetch and move around.

If you want to go to strip clubs in East STL maybe, but I dunno if any of those are within walking distance of MetroLink. But I wouldn't recommend walking much in East STL proper. As Clark Griswold would say while in his car, "Roll 'Em Up!".

Also if you would like to have a non-smoking casino, Casino Queen has a stop. I've never utilized it though.

Thanks for the reply & info.

I noted Metrolink goes there just as a possible clue that maybe there could be something to go to. I have no intention of taking it or any form of public transit over there or for any other "aimless wandering" type expeditions in uncharted territory with natives of unknown customs. I have my car for that, so I can push "Eject!" whenever I feel like it.

Strip joints prolly won't lure me over. My near-home village of Las Vegas has a few brass poles around, and I'm inclined to doubt if theirs would be any more brassy.

I'll give you East St Louis (illinois) in a nutshell.

We were lost, driving in that area trying to find the racetrack (gateway intl) and we pulled into a "division" of homes where there were legitimately weight benches outside next to bbq grills in the front yard, with groups (10-15) individuals hanging out at one house or another. When we turned on their street, they all walked up to us and knocked on our windows asking what we were there for, and being solicited many times for many things. After getting directions we turned onto an adjacent street where a patrol car pulled up to us and suggested that we leave the area immediately as we didn't "belong".

Not really worth exploring IMO.

If I closely watch every remaining pitch, swing, and catch of this thing in Chicago that my itinerary depends on I think it may kill me, so for a less stressful diversion I decided to let my fingers do the walking to see if the east side of the Mississippi would be a likely candidate to kill me instead.

Quote: Exoter175

I'll give you East St Louis (illinois) in a nutshell.

We were lost, driving in that area trying to find the racetrack (gateway intl) and we pulled into a "division" of homes where there were legitimately weight benches outside next to bbq grills in the front yard, with groups (10-15) individuals hanging out at one house or another. When we turned on their street, they all walked up to us and knocked on our windows asking what we were there for, and being solicited many times for many things. After getting directions we turned onto an adjacent street where a patrol car pulled up to us and suggested that we leave the area immediately as we didn't "belong".

Not really worth exploring IMO.

Hokey-dokey. That breeze thing (like an ice-pick in the eyeball Friday, comfy Saturday, same official temp) was spot-on, so thanks for the description. I see E. StL mostly has an elevation of less than 500ft. above sea level. I can't imagine the river is much less than that in the middle of the continent, and on a satellite map it seems to look like what would politely be described as river "bottom-land" or in current politically correct terms as "wetlands" or less politely what we use to call a "swamp."

And...

Quote: Wikepedia

...Middle-class citizens continued to leave the city. People who could get jobs simply left for places with work and a decent quality of life. Lacking sufficient tax revenues, the city cut back on maintenance, sewers failed and garbage pickup ceased. Police cars and radios stopped working. The East St. Louis Fire Department went on strike in the 1970s.

Structure fires had destroyed such a significant number of consecutive blocks that the director of the post-Armageddon film Escape from New York chose this city as a shooting location for his film about a society that had been destroyed.

In the 1980s, the state imposed a financial advisory board to manage the city in exchange for a financial bailout. State legislative approval in 1990 of riverboat gambling and the installation of the Casino Queen riverboat casino provided the first new source of income for the city in nearly 30 years...

So I'll just let the Cubs and/or the ladies of St. Louis (on this side) do me in, instead.

This doesn't have much relevance to the thread topic of local casinos, but I got special permission from the guy who put up the thread.... Since we have at least one KC native and maybe others who know about getting around, I thought I'd mention my local itinerary in case anyone who knows better might find it foolish and want to warn me off it.

So I'll be over in KC the next couple of days to see some guys about a thing at a joint named Kauffman Stadium. I've been there several times, but those were relatively obscure early games in August, and not the standing room only madhouse I'm expecting this evening. Combine that with a start time that's probably overlapping within the back end of rush hour for locals on a Friday (6:30pm CDT first pitch) and I'm guessing it could be a little more challenging to get there than when I was on the east side and it was 1pm on something like a Saturday & Sunday or later at night on a Monday & Tuesday.

In general my impression has been that the town seems somewhat more relaxed and easy going with a bit slower pace to some things than StL, but, I wonder if there's a lot of eastbound commuter traffic from the center city area? My limited experience with the KC metro area leads me to think most of the get home & getaway flow of local commuters would be more in other directions. I have some stuff planned near the west edge of KCMO earlier and will be coming out from Main near downtown, and am thinking I'll use surface streets like the US40 to pick up either Stadium Dr. or Blue Ridge Cutoff, rather than going out there on I-70.

For any with some pixels in this thread I'll give you a wave on the tee-vee. I'll be the guy bundled up like a polar bear wearing the only red Cardinals cap within 200 miles.

And for a lame reference to something relevant, I see KC is actually a slight dog at home tonight with a line of +105 vs. -115 for TOR from both William Hill and Cantor Gaming in Las Vegas.

Quote: DrawingDead

This doesn't have much relevance to the thread topic of local casinos, but I got special permission from the guy who put up the thread.... Since we have at least one KC native and maybe others who know about getting around, I thought I'd mention my local itinerary in case anyone who knows better might find it foolish and want to warn me off it.

So I'll be over in KC the next couple of days so see some guys about a thing at a joint named Kauffman Stadium. I've been there several times, but those were relatively obscure early games in August, and not the standing room only madhouse I'm expecting this evening. Combine that with a start time that's probably overlapping within the back end of rush hour for locals on a Friday (6:30pm CDT first pitch) and I'm guessing it could be a little more challenging to get there than when I was on the east side and it was 1pm on something like a Saturday & Sunday or later at night on a Monday & Tuesday.

In general my impression has been that the town seems somewhat more relaxed and easy going with a bit slower pace to some things than StL, but, I wonder if there's a lot of eastbound commuter traffic from the center city area? My limited experience with the KC metro area leads me to think most of the get home & getaway flow of local commuters would be more in other directions. I have some stuff planned near the west edge of KCMO earlier and will be coming out from Main near downtown, and am thinking I'll use surface streets like the US40 to pick up either Stadium Dr. or Blue Ridge Cutoff, rather than going out there on I-70.

For any with some pixels in this thread I'll give you a wave on the tee-vee. I'll be the guy bundled up like a polar bear wearing the only red Cardinals cap within 200 miles.

And for a lame reference to something relevant, I see KC is actually a slight dog at home tonight with a line of +105 vs. -115 for TOR from both William Hill and Cantor Gaming in Las Vegas.

That all sounds great in theory, until you experience KC Fandom. If the game is at, say 7PM, you want to plan to leave by 4:30-5:00 or you'll be stuck in traffic FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. The KC native PACK those parking lots full for some epic tailgating and pre-gaming like not many other places do. That whole corridor around stadium drive is a nightmare, and in many cases, it can take you an hour or more to go from exit to parking. There is no real "solid" way of going about things down there, except for maybe taking the back way in from the southeast side of the stadium drive area, but sometimes that will be blocked off for "big event" situations like the ALCS. Obviously my response now isn't going to help as you've watched the Royals win their second game at home and they've gone on to Toronoto to play for 3 games up there. Hopefully we can take care of business up there, but if we find ourselves coming back to KC for a dramatic finish, expect traffic to get 15 times worse, and I'm not even kidding. Traffic was backed up for hours after game 7 last year, it was an absolute mess. My advice would be to arrive early and stay late, otherwise you'll be in bumper to bumper traffic for at least 90 minutes whichever direction you decide to go.

I went the way I had planned, using local surface streets (cutting across town through the ghetto on 31st Street until it becomes the 40), and was either lucky between wave one & wave two, or else this is yet another one of the things that's relatively easier in KC than STL. I suspect a little of both. Friday afternoon I left central KC more than two and a half hours before the scheduled start, got there in about 20 minutes, and there were at least several thousand tailgaters already there grilling & guzzling up a storm who looked like they'd been partying all week.

But I was still obviously well ahead of the later wave of the after work crowd as I was directed way to the front of the vast expanse of stadium parking. Since Kauffman Stadium is in a huge bowl dug out below ground level next to the freeway I could see the exit lane of the I-70 traffic coming in, and that looked like it was barely moving at all by 5:30. I imagine it is a lot more of an adventure for football Sundays, since of course Arrowhead next door in the same complex is built much bigger for only eight regular home games vs. eighty-one during a baseball season. I'm also coming at it after Busch in SaintLoo, which of course holds about 50% more people than Kauffman and is right downtown instead of way out on the eastern edge of not very much.

Leaving took a lot longer. Many of the joyful hometeam folk reopened the coolers in their trucks and were clearly in no hurry to go anywhere else for their massive block party.

The people in my section were a great bunch to be around and I think it was probably the most fun I've had at a sporting event. Even though in my opinion Kauffman is not quite as spiffy and impressive as some other baseball venues I think the design is easier to get in and out of and the sightlines for watching a game seem great from any seat in the house. I recommend it as a fine place for any tourist thinking of catching a ball game, even if I wouldn't make it a must do "bucket list" site like some. Though it did have the most epic awesomely long line to take a whiz in a porcelain plumbing fixture of any I have ever seen on Earth, including a fevered capacity crowd at Busch with standing room only vs. the Cubs.

On Friday the betting line in the Las Vegas books had KC as third among the four remaining MLB franchises at 7/2 to win the World Series, behind Chicago (?!?!) and Toronto. I thought that was a great value bet at that price on Kc, and that in the other league Chicago was being ludicrously overbet with the lack of depth in their pitching rotation for getting through playoff series of seven games. I'm sure the line has moved a lot since then, but what I saw from KC was impressive. Nursing a lead in the 7th inning the first out of bullpen threw nine pitches, nine strikes, never did wood touch ball, three down and stick a fork in it, all at 98-99mph that I felt in my gut from my seat, except for two that are unknown because Kauffman's board can only display two digits of pitch velocity from the radar. The middle of the order from the most feared offensive team in baseball was visibly demoralized by what was coming at them. I wondered why this fire breathing closer was being sent out for the 7th, and knowledgeable season ticket holders nearby informed me he usually had the 7th inning because he's their third best reliever.

I think KC was not taken as seriously as it should be for this, and has been undervalued in the betting market, and CHC has been massively overvalued. And of course you should back up the truck at the betting window to put your grandma's savings on that, because you just got the official word from Some Guy On The Internet.

But, they need to lay not just one but two eggs in Canada for me to use my game six ticket, eh?

Quote: DrawingDead

I went the way I had planned, using local surface streets (cutting across town through the ghetto on 31st Street until it becomes the 40), and was either lucky between wave one & wave two, or else this is yet another one of the things that's relatively easier in KC than STL. I suspect a little of both. Friday afternoon I left central KC more than two and a half hours before the scheduled start, got there in about 20 minutes, and there were at least several thousand tailgaters already there grilling & guzzling up a storm who looked like they'd been partying all week.

But I was still obviously well ahead of the later wave of the after work crowd as I was directed way to the front of the vast expanse of stadium parking. Since Kauffman Stadium is in a huge bowl dug out below ground level next to the freeway I could see the exit lane of the I-70 traffic coming in, and that looked like it was barely moving at all by 5:30. I imagine it is a lot more of an adventure for football Sundays, since of course Arrowhead next door in the same complex is built much bigger for only eight regular home games vs. eighty-one during a baseball season. I'm also coming at it after Busch in SaintLoo, which of course holds about 50% more people than Kauffman and is right downtown instead of way out on the eastern edge of not very much.

Leaving took a lot longer. Many of the joyful hometeam folk reopened the coolers in their trucks and were clearly in no hurry to go anywhere else for their massive block party.

The people in my section were a great bunch to be around and I think it was probably the most fun I've had at a sporting event. Even though in my opinion Kauffman is not quite as spiffy and impressive as some other baseball venues I think the design is easier to get in and out of and the sightlines for watching a game seem great from any seat in the house. I recommend it as a fine place for any tourist thinking of catching a ball game, even if I wouldn't make it a must do "bucket list" site like some. Though it did have the most epic awesomely long line to take a whiz in a porcelain plumbing fixture of any I have ever seen on Earth, including a fevered capacity crowd at Busch with standing room only vs. the Cubs.

On Friday the betting line in the Las Vegas books had KC as third among the four remaining MLB franchises at 7/2 to win the World Series, behind Chicago (?!?!) and Toronto. I thought that was a great value bet at that price on Kc, and that in the other league Chicago was being ludicrously overbet with the lack of depth in their pitching rotation for getting through playoff series of seven games. I'm sure the line has moved a lot since then, but what I saw from KC was impressive. Nursing a lead in the 7th inning the first out of bullpen threw nine pitches, nine strikes, never did wood touch ball, three down and stick a fork in it, all at 98-99mph that I felt in my gut from my seat, except for two that are unknown because Kauffman's board can only display two digits of pitch velocity from the radar. The middle of the order from the most feared offensive team in baseball was visibly demoralized by what was coming at them. I wondered why this fire breathing closer was being sent out for the 7th, and knowledgeable season ticket holders nearby informed me he usually had the 7th inning because he's their third best reliever.

I think KC was not taken as seriously as it should be for this, and has been undervalued in the betting market, and CHC has been massively overvalued. And of course you should back up the truck at the betting window to put your grandma's savings on that, because you just got the official word from Some Guy On The Internet.

But, they need to lay not just one but two eggs in Canada for me to use my game six ticket, eh?

Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to even lay one last night before Cueto completely unraveled in the 2nd and 3rd innings. Though we tried to make the comeback, it was far too late. I'm expecting to drop another one today with Young starting, as he generally unravels around the 4th/5th inning. But if we scrape it by, I believe you might have a shot at coming back to KC with a 3-2 series for game 6 with price coming back around for game 5 in the series (I believe). Though as I speak, the game is 4-0 Royals in the first.

Expect a game 6 in KC to be about 300000000% more packed than what you have previously experienced.

Hot diggity. I likey where I sit. Aisle seat, two steps from concourse for bathroom sprint, great view, and one measly win from guaranteeing a cash on a wager. Not the most spendy seat in the joint, but sure not a cheap one either.



This batting practice best not be in vain, because I saw many charcoal briquettes giving their lives for the event, there's that bet thing, and I don't have a ticket for a Game 7.

Local KC poker players & assorted casino degenerates... excuse me make that 'APs' should expect the tidal wave of drunken joyful fans donking off chips, or the drunken despondent fans puking chips, about 5 hours hence.

Go Royals!

I stand corrected on the board digits at the K. Or maybe the board was. Just saw Herrera fire several > 100mph when he prolly needed every last one of em.

Edit: Tied in 8th rain tarp comes out expect surge in coronary & psych emergencies in River City tonight.

Looks like all this happened right in front of you: great video dissecting the last score.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/155393450/royals-beat-blue-jays-to-head-to-world-series?game_pk=446269

That went well.

Quote: DrawingDead

I think KC was not taken as seriously as it should be for this, and has been undervalued in the betting market, and CHC has been massively overvalued.

So with CHC croaking as they should, and KC getting through the favored Canucks, now I will get to cash future book wagers on whichever of the two remaining franchises wins the Series, at prices that provide a significant net profit for either outcome. But I make out with a better profit if it is KC than NYM. Which is good, because I've developed some degree of a fan's rooting attachment to them apart from any calculated wagering interest, so I don't need to have any mixed, complicated, or confused view of what comes next.

I'll probably post something more about KC fans & the game Friday & my excursion & whatnot, later when I have a little more time on my hands, for the one and a half or so people who might be interested in that. But at the moment I thought I'd note a few current things that kinda sorta have some degree of topical relevance to the forum:

1. After Friday's result, the opening Las Vegas lines on winning the World Series have it close to a tossup, For example, William Hill is at KC -110 & NYM -110. I made my own estimated fair value line at NYM -105 & KC +105. So, the line is about right, IMO, after accounting for paying vig to the books. Meaning I don't see any further potential bet there now on either side for me. Unless the line came up particularly flaky to me for one individual game of the Series for some reason, which I think is highly unlikely given the intense level of scrutiny and minute analysis this event gets at this stage.

2. Royals fans broke the internet, and probably will again. So don't think you're gonna get on it wirelessly anywhere around the east side of Kansas City metro area during those seven (potential) remaining games. Or at least not very well. Eventually cellular internet connections (on multiple carriers - I checked with others) imploded and went completely dark after being merely terribly overloaded to the point of barely useable during earlier innings. I choose to blame this entirely on brats uploading endless "selfie" pics, rather than any of the fine substantive text remarks found here, of course.

Quote: Selfie Twit

"OMFG! See me! I'm here! And I'm ME! And here's me again! Still here, and more of me! ...uhhhh, did sumpin just happen? Nevermind; here's me again, in full high def color!"

Never been to Lumier but here's what I can tell you about the other 3 on the Missouri side of the river:

Hollywood Casino:

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Pros:
*Good poker room with some cool tournaments, one is an ante-only tournament, which is a cool idea. They also have some cheap ones too, Monday mornings they have a $30 buyin at 10am.

*Nice coupons, though that's not a factor here.

*Good beer. Place called 99 hops house, has all kinds of different beer.

*Good staff

Cons:

*Rooms suck.

*Not much else besides gambling and resturaunts

*Really dull atmosphere

*floor setup is like a maze if you're not familiar with it; one side is a maze of slots and the table games are all in one area, and on the complete opposite side from the poker room.

------

Ameristar St. Charles


Overall rating: 9/10, especially considering that you're traveling.

Pros:

*Easily the best rooms

*More attractions than just gambling

*Very unique and cool atmosphere, probably my favorite in terms of that.

*Amazing dining. Sports bar kicks ass, buffet kicks ass, and they have a cool 1950's-style diner which is a great place to catch breakfast.

*Poker Room is probably the best place to play cash games, high hand jackpots that pay out instantly and vary depending on what you get, progressive bad beat, and 5 Aces Cracked (first 5 players to get pocket aces and lose get $100) is pretty awesome in my opinion.

Cons:

*If you're between the ages 21 until your early to mid 30's, they ID check frequently to the point where it can be super annoying sometimes. They do things as a routine that most places only do if they're suspicious of you (like quiz you on random information on your ID. Ugh I hate that. They freaked out when I was an inch off with my height once.) I can understand why they do it; like 7 or 8 years ago they busted a 16 year old at the blackjack table and apparently he was in there for a while. Still, it's annoying.

*No cashier in the poker room.

*If tournaments are your thing, I wouldn't reccomend Ameristar unless they're hosting Heartland Poker Tour. Limited schedule and high buy-in prices make them weak on tournaments compared to Hollywood and River City.

------

River City

Overall: 8.5/10

Pros:

*Poker room is really nice, especially for tournaments. Only place in town to offer Sit and Go's, also the only place in town to offer 7-card stud. I would have to say that overall, this is probably my favorite poker room, especially the staff, they rock.

* Very local feel to it. Ameristar may well be the best place if you're coming from out of town, but from the perspective of a St. Louisan born and raised, this is my favorite casino. Even the name refers to the fact that St. Louis is known for being a riverfront town. If you really want to get a good local feel from your visit I couldn't reccomend this one enough. It REALLY comes to life on Friday nights.

*If you're a craps player, and particularly enjoy crapless craps, this is the best damn crapless table in town. Every other place, including Lumiere from what I've heard, only offers crapless as a $10 table, here it's a 5 dollar table, and they have $15 buy bets for 2/3/11/12 where vig is only taken on wins, and you can even lay 2/3/11/12, although you do pay vig up front for those (understandably so). If you want to play craps, come here.

*Their burger joint called Burger Brothers is good stuff. They offer two shake flavors that change every day and the butterscotch one is delicious.

*Actually set up in a simple, easy to navigate way. Gaming floor all goes in one straight line with the cashier's cage in the center. The south end of the cashier's cage has the poker room, and right outside the poker room are all of the poker related table games and the majority of the video poker machines. The north end has Burger Brothers and all the non-poker games like craps, roulette, blackjack and baccarat. This setup actually makes sense, and I love it.

* Actually good music plays on the radio. Most places just play poppy grocery store music, here I've heard Black Sabbath, Metallica, AC/DC and all kinds of good music.

Cons:

*All casinos in the St. Louis area allow smoking, and usually I don't mind it, but here it can get REALLY bad. Ameristar and Hollywood have much better ventilation systems, this place has next to none. I almost like a subtle smell of smoke at a casino but this can get real bad real fast.

*The poker room's Achilles heal is that it allows straddling in any position at any time for up to 2.5bb, in no-limit hold 'em. and if the first player to act straddles in, big blind becomes first to act and straddler becomes last to act. What the hell is this nonsense you ask? I'd like to know myself.

-----
Other things to consider:

*Ameristar and River City are both owned by Pinnacle, so if you have a MyChoice card from any other Pinnacle property, it should be good at either of these places

*Lumiere I do know has the easiest bad beat jackpot to hit, with the minimum hand being Jacks full of 9's

*Other casinos on the Illinois side of the river do not have poker rooms, however there is a racetrack to bet on horses, which I don't think we have on the Missouri side.

*As I said before, all Missouri casinos, at least in the St. Louis areas, allow smoking, Illinois casinos, however, do not. For anybody wanting how E-cigs are treated in areas that don't allow smoking, Hollywood doesn't allow it, however river city will allow e-cigs in the poker room but you must blow the vapor away from the table and away from other players, Ameristar and Lumiere I'm not sure about. Illinois I believe has the same indoor restrictions on them as actual smoking.

* Hollywood has blackjack tournaments either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, I don't know how it works but it's there if you're interested.

* Hollywood's video poker machines have the double-up feature, as far as I know Ameristar's and River City's do not.


* Hollywood has or at least at one point had UFC pay-per-views in one of the resturaunuts.

* River City has concerts and other live entertainment, and Hollywood recently purchased the amiptheater next door. Concerts at River City are 21+, Hollywood Casino Ampitheater is just a normal concert venue off of casino property, therefore it is not age restricted.

* Heartland Poker Tour usually comes to Ameristar in October and to River City in April, Hollywood has the Hollywood Poker Open every 6 months around the same time.

------
Hope this helped!

Could not be happier for KC. I really want them to win it all.

Quote: Zer0

Hope this helped!

I'm real sure that level of descriptive detail will definitely end up being helpful to someone coming across this thread. My time in RiverCity² (and my baseball park self-indulgances) will be over, at least for this year, in about another 24-48 hrs depending on a few small loose ends But I appreciated the descriptive meat you put on the factual bones. Maybe I'll get to use some of it myself next summer, and I don't think the electrons will be wasted anyway.

The poker rundown was particularly interesting to me, because there are really only a couple of things I regularly go to casinos to do, and that's half of them. Of course I can always check Bravo at https://www.bravopokerlive.com/venues/ or the app for the bare basics of what cash games are actually running (as opposed to the "we will spread XYZ123..." BS), and it seems that all the STL rooms are hooked up to the system as far as I know. But as you know coloring in beyond that is especially useful for poker, so thanks for doing some of that.

Just getting back to my hotel in my quick first pre-dawn once-over here's one thing I really had to stop and ponder a bit, because I've never seen or heard of it before, and I'm not even 100% sure I've got it straight.

Quote: Zer0

Hollywood Casino:

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Pros:
*Good poker room with some cool tournaments, one is an ante-only tournament, which is a cool idea.

[Bolded highlight added to quote by me - DD] So, if I'm understanding this correctly, it is a tourney with no blinds at all? And I'm assuming a NLHE tournament. But the antes must escalate as they would in a conventional tournament with a two-blind format, right? It may take some doing to fully appreciate how that would go and decide how best to go at it.

Quote: DrawingDead

I'm real sure that level of descriptive detail will definitely end up being helpful to someone coming across this thread. My time in RiverCity² (and my baseball park self-indulgances) will be over, at least for this year, in about another 24-48 hrs depending on a few small loose ends But I appreciated the descriptive meat you put on the factual bones. Maybe I'll get to use some of it myself next summer, and I don't think the electrons will be wasted anyway.

The poker rundown was particularly interesting to me, because there are really only a couple of things I regularly go to casinos to do, and that's half of them. Of course I can always check Bravo at https://www.bravopokerlive.com/venues/ or the app for the bare basics of what cash games are actually running (as opposed to the "we will spread XYZ123..." BS), and it seems that all the STL rooms are hooked up to the system as far as I know. But as you know coloring in beyond that is especially useful for poker, so thanks for doing some of that.

Just getting back to my hotel in my quick first pre-dawn once-over here's one thing I really had to stop and ponder a bit, because I've never seen or heard of it before, and I'm not even 100% sure I've got it straight.

Quote: Zer0

Hollywood Casino:

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Pros:
*Good poker room with some cool tournaments, one is an ante-only tournament, which is a cool idea.

[Bolded highlight added to quote by me - DD] So, if I'm understanding this correctly, it is a tourney with no blinds at all? And I'm assuming a NLHE tournament. But the antes must escalate as they would in a conventional tournament with a two-blind format, right? It may take some doing to fully appreciate how that would go and decide how best to go at it.

Haven't had a chance to do this particular tourney myself but from what I understand, yes that's how it works.

Quote: DrawingDead

Hot diggity. I likey where I sit. Aisle seat, two steps from concourse for bathroom sprint, great view, and one measly win from guaranteeing a cash on a wager. Not the most spendy seat in the joint, but sure not a cheap one either.



This batting practice best not be in vain, because I saw many charcoal briquettes giving their lives for the event, there's that bet thing, and I don't have a ticket for a Game 7.

Local KC poker players & assorted casino degenerates... excuse me make that 'APs' should expect the tidal wave of drunken joyful fans donking off chips, or the drunken despondent fans puking chips, about 5 hours hence.

We got called up north over the weekend for a few plays and were a little "understaffed" at home for the weekend and how it turned out lol. I hope you had a blast, you must have had one of the best seats in the house for how that game finished. If you find yourself back in the area for the big show, let me know and I'll see if I can hunt you down some complimentary BBQ and brewskies in the parking lot before you go in :P

Quote: Zer0

------
Hope this helped!

Are you kidding, I practically want to go there now after that write up, probably the most in depth write up I've seen for that area, like ever.

WARNING: Too long, don't read, baseball game chatter, useful casino gambling information is to be found in thread replies from others and is not in this post

I'm back home to the desert now, since I have a lot to do in the next few days to be well prepared to lose a chunk of my casino money on the Breeders' Cup again. and that's the end of it for me for the year for my excursions to both STL & KC.

I thought Friday's American League Pennant clinching ALCS Game 6 at Kauffman in KC was truly a terrific game. Significant games among good teams are not necessarily close or good games. That's just in the nature of that sport, where the best team in baseball will only win about 60% of the time and the worst team in the major leagues will win 40% of their games. It isn't football where a 320lb lineman can pound a 260lb lineman's face into the ground all day, every day, every time. But this one was millimeters close, tough, intense, very well played on both sides, and I felt lucky to be there. KC won this by gutting it out with superb defense and some brilliant baserunning. Things like this that stat sheets don't show very well tend to be more characteristic of play in the National League than the American, due in part to some rules differences. That happens to be the kind of play I most enjoy seeing and I generally follow doings in the NL more than the AL, but KC's team plays more like a NL team, and that's part of why I came to like them.

My final scorecard:

1. Found my bimbos & hotdog disarmament. With a long 162 game season to promote, I've found all ballparks I've seen tend to put on some of the same promos and delightfully cheesey gimmicks. A lot of the chants & cheers are stock & a bit coached, which I don't mind a bit, though one fellow near me in Game 1 had some success starting a "Bautista drives a Prius" chant when he was in the field. There's Kiss-Cam, name that tune, bobbleheads, scoreboard screen showing grandpas & kids doing the "show us your Gangnam dance moves" etc. One bit of performance art I appreciate has the sparsely attired bimbos who are hired to go around between innings dancing on the dugout roofs and suchlike, then pointing alternately at a couple of seating sections to launch a prize at the people in the one that the professional bimbos have expertly judged to have yelled the loudest or best. With bimbos #2 & #3 holding the ends of an elastic slingshot the size of a 1960s Volkswagon bus, bimbo #1 loads and cocks it with a balled-up t-shirt, and lets fly, with about a 15% rate of the precious item coming down within the intended section in my experience. But I hadn't seen this in KC. After whining my "where's my bimbos!?" displeasure out loud a kind KC local proudly pointed them out to me, and filled me in on why they were less prominent to me than at Busch and other ballbarks. Uniquely I think, the KC bimbos used to be armed with hotdogs (I didn't think to ask if the 'dogs were cooked) until someone got a dog in the eye, and sued. Then they quit using hotdogs and took away their slingshot at Kauffman, so at the K the young ladies artistic work is confined to tossing the usual t-shirts into the crowd.

2. Moustakas saves civilization from invasion of pillaging Canadian barbarians, which civilization forgets immediately. With two runners in scoring position, KC's Ventura running on fumes on the mound in the fifth inning while Toronto's ace Price looks sharper with every out, the universally feared big bomber Josh Donaldson comes to the plate, cocks his bat, and swings. A flaming meteor that used to be a baseball shoots toward the left side headed for the gap where no defense could hope to stop it from clearing the bases and putting Donaldson at second for the kind of big inning with which Toronto buries opponents. Moustakis becomes a levitating gymnast soaring horizontally in an instant and keeps the ball miraculously stuck to the end of his glove. Official play-by-play reads: "Donaldson lines out to 3rd baseman Moustakas to end inning." And I've not seen or heard another word about it since.

3. Lucky horseshoe falls from sky onto Royal head & lost wandering ghost of Bartman gets ticket back to Chicago. With the perfect sightline provided by the aisle space immediately at my right elbow from my seat between 1st base & the right field pole I saw what l thought at the moment was fan interference, a spectator's glove snag a ball headed for the top of the right field wall (I thought I saw it clearly) then a moment later as a KC home run was signaled and the stadium erupted, and I thought "Whew, we sure don't need a Steve Bartman thing. Not here, not now, please; let that stay a cursed Chicago thing." Then a replay appeal commenced and I had a sick sinking feeling that the spirit of Steve Bartman was was suited up and about to appear in a Kansas City uniform. But no. Ruling stands. (Link to Wikipedia article: THE STEVE BARTMAN INCIDENT.)

4. Bautista drives a Prius, Cain doesn't, 3rd base coach still employed. On the game winning run, I didn't actually see the ball get down in front of right field as the fans along the rail jumped to their feet, but had a beautiful panorama of the two key elements that made the play. With the very fast excellent all-round athlete Lorenzo Cain at first base that ball landing in front of Bautista is a routine single that results in Cain standing at 3rd with nobody out with his superior baserunning skills. But inexplicably Bautista, after fielding it cleanly, hesitated a moment and threw to the wrong infielder. Brain lock misreading the situation, effect of excess adrenaline for prolonged time, my new chanting acquaintance got his goat...? If he makes the by the book play and the runner is sent home even Cain is dead meat at the plate. The 3rd base coach signalling the green light for going home from 1st in that situation, with anything less than two outs, is a decision that is very unconventional to the point that it might be considered reckless and would probably be ridiculed if it doesn't work. It worked; it was spectacular and brilliant.

5. Special rates for midnight barbeque buffet. Nearly an hour after the game, ceremony stuff wrapping up, most folks were on their feet and hardly anybody looked like leaving. I didn't either. I did feel lucky to be there for it. I did not think I would feel lucky to be the proud owner of some of the most incredibly elaborate mobile grilling setups I saw as I weaved out among them that looked like they must take hours to break down and somehow return to the mother of all trucks that brought them.

Quote: DrawingDead

4. Bautista drives a Prius, Cain doesn't, 3rd base coach still employed. On the game winning run, I didn't actually see the ball get down in front of right field as the fans along the rail jumped to their feet, but had a beautiful panorama of the two key elements that made the play. With the very fast excellent all-round athlete Lorenzo Cain at first base that ball landing in front of Bautista is a routine single that results in Cain standing at 3rd with nobody out with his superior baserunning skills. But inexplicably Bautista, after fielding it cleanly, hesitated a moment and threw to the wrong infielder. Brain lock misreading the situation, effect of excess adrenaline for prolonged time, my new chanting acquaintance got his goar...? If he makes the by the book play and the runner is sent home even Cain is dead meat at the plate. The 3rd base coach signalling the green light for going home from 1st in that situation, with anything less than two outs, is a decision that is very unconventional to the point that it might be considered reckless and would probably be ridiculed if it doesn't work. It worked; it was spectacular and brilliant.

A lot has been written about that play, for good reason. Apparently the third base coach (Schuerele?) noticed that Bautista idiosyncratically made the throw to second instead of first when the ball is hit hard to that area and the runner breaks hard for second. Hosmer broke hard around first and drew the throw from Bautista to second, allowing Schuerele to signal Cain home easily. Essentially a seemingly random play was actually planned out and calculated.

We should be in for a great Series.

Ultimate X. Ameristar and Hollywood have a shitload of them. Hollywood might have the most edge sortable cards in the country. Buy a pack for .25 cents in the gift shop and you be the judge. Free soda. Militant ID check points, and Ameristar scans, so don't use a fake. They have Lunar Poker at Hollywood which is tough to find, and actually a pretty cool game. You can definitely make money in this Bermuda Triangle zone of casinos if you have enough tools in your toolkit.

So here's an update for Hollywood's Poker Room:

They got rid of Aces Cracked, and the bad beat is now a flat 20k, however there is going to be a jackpot called "sets cracked". Basically, there's going to be a progressive jackpot for each pocket pair, and if you have one of those pairs and catch trips, a full house, or quads and lose to another pocket pair, you get the jackpot, so say you have pocket 6's, and you catch a set, but somebody has pocket 7's and they catch a set too, you'll get paid the jackpot for pocket 6's. The jackpot starts at $100 for each pocket pair and they add $25 for each day that pair doesn't hit.

River City got rid of Lunar Poker.....

Quote: teddys

Quote: DrawingDead

4. Bautista drives a Prius, Cain doesn't, 3rd base coach still employed. On the game winning run, I didn't actually see the ball get down in front of right field as the fans along the rail jumped to their feet, but had a beautiful panorama of the two key elements that made the play. With the very fast excellent all-round athlete Lorenzo Cain at first base that ball landing in front of Bautista is a routine single that results in Cain standing at 3rd with nobody out with his superior baserunning skills. But inexplicably Bautista, after fielding it cleanly, hesitated a moment and threw to the wrong infielder. Brain lock misreading the situation, effect of excess adrenaline for prolonged time, my new chanting acquaintance got his goar...? If he makes the by the book play and the runner is sent home even Cain is dead meat at the plate. The 3rd base coach signalling the green light for going home from 1st in that situation, with anything less than two outs, is a decision that is very unconventional to the point that it might be considered reckless and would probably be ridiculed if it doesn't work. It worked; it was spectacular and brilliant.

A lot has been written about that play, for good reason. Apparently the third base coach (Schuerele?) noticed that Bautista idiosyncratically made the throw to second instead of first when the ball is hit hard to that area and the runner breaks hard for second. Hosmer broke hard around first and drew the throw from Bautista to second, allowing Schuerele to signal Cain home easily. Essentially a seemingly random play was actually planned out and calculated.

We should be in for a great Series.

This is tardy, but a little sumpin' I enjoyed watching tonight just reminded me that I meant to say thanks for cluing me into this background. My info flow was slimmed down while on my road trip, and this added a layer of understanding to some moments in a scene that I'll probably be remembering for quite a while. At the time my experience of it went about like this: "Oh no, no, no, stop!... Wait, what?...Oh yes, yes, go, go baby go!" Except compressed into less time than it just took to type it.

I'm happy to admit that, unless the Twins are in it towards the end of the season, I'm purely a fair-weather MLB fan. I gotta say, though, this is a great Series! Some spectacular plays and at-bats so far.

I really envy that you got to go to that game, DD, and with such good seats. The only thing you didn't get to do is catch a foul ball.

Quote: beachbumbabs

The only thing you didn't get to do is catch a foul ball.

During my long baseball junket three foul balls went right to me or within a foot of me, all at Busch in St. Louis, and all in the same game. I ducked behind a guy with a glove. I don't need a baseball. Especially not one surgically extracted from my face. When one of those suckers comes screaming towards me, my goal is to not die.

Just so everybody knows.... River City's poker room is going to close in April and be replaced with a bunch of baccarat tables and some noodle bar. Major bummer. Go while you can.

Quote: Zer0

Just so everybody knows.... River City's poker room is going to close in April and be replaced with a bunch of baccarat tables and some noodle bar. Major bummer. Go while you can.

Thanks for the update. But boo. Baccarat? Harrumph. Noodles & baccarat sounds like raw material for a really bad joke that would surely get me in trouble if I made it.

Were any of the area casinos damaged by the flooding last month, or anything else in the city someone would care about going to? Hard to tell how significant it really was just from news reports from a distance.

Do they have a bad beat jackpot at that poker room?

Yes but it's only a flat 5k and it's only for holdem. Their tournaments are the shizznat though.

Quote: DrawingDead

Thanks for the update. But boo. Baccarat? Harrumph. Noodles & baccarat sounds like raw material for a really bad joke that would surely get me in trouble if I made it.

Were any of the area casinos damaged by the flooding last month, or anything else in the city someone would care about going to? Hard to tell how significant it really was just from news reports from a distance.

No it's got nothing to do with the flooding. All the casinos were fine as far as I know surprisingly. Also if your joke involves Asian people, that's actually likely the kind of setting they're going for; Hollywood has an area with a Chinese grill and a bunch of baccarat and pai gow tables. All I can say is I better see something original like pai gow with a side bet that doesn't suck ass or I literally have no reason to go to River City; they made their crapless table $10 when it was $5, they're getting rid of poker altogether, and beyond that the only thing they have that nobody else does really is DJ Wild which I can live without. Supposedly Ameristar is expanding their poker room in light of this, all I can say is they better do the tournaments River City did and offer 7-stud (which is currently only at River City here and it's on fridays.)

Quote: Zer0

No it's got nothing to do with the flooding. All the casinos were fine as far as I know surprisingly. Also if your joke involves Asian people, that's actually likely the kind of setting they're going for; Hollywood has an area with a Chinese grill and a bunch of baccarat and pai gow tables. All I can say is I better see something original like pai gow with a side bet that doesn't suck ass or I literally have no reason to go to River City; they made their crapless table $10 when it was $5, they're getting rid of poker altogether, and beyond that the only thing they have that nobody else does really is DJ Wild which I can live without. Supposedly Ameristar is expanding their poker room in light of this, all I can say is they better do the tournaments River City did and offer 7-stud (which is currently only at River City here and it's on fridays.)

Apologies in advance for the fact that this may be annoying to hear, even if it is probably something you already knew. But. Those small-ish tournies with reasonable buy-ins are loss-leaders for poker rooms that actually don't even cover the most immediate explicit expenses of putting them on, let alone defraying any casino overhead expenses, with casino poker rooms generally doing them for the purpose of bringing people to the joint in hopes that they'll stick around for the cash games that pay the light bill and most of the dealers' wages and other non-wage employment expense, and then hopefully also sometimes going on to feed the house-banked table games & machines. And buy some noodles and whatnot.

I don't know if they were accomplishing that unstated general promotional purpose very well or not in that place, but If they weren't getting a significant cash game business in the room much larger than the volume of tournament play, and the main attraction of their tournies was just the good tournies & not carrying over to much else, then it is probably a pretty sensible business decision for them to give up on the poker room. From a player's point of view I really do sympathize with you in your annoyance about that; I also now have no reason at all to go there myself next time I make it into town. Just saying, reality of the business is that unless it is a ridiculous hyper-turbo super-fast push-fest that plays out like a slot machine that's over practically before you know who was playing, tournaments with less than about a $500+ buy-in that have a decent blind structure allowing for a fair amount of play, even with very high juice often taken from the prize pool, generally aren't sustainable on their own without generating at least several times as much volume of play at cash tables.

In any case, thanks for taking the trouble to provide people with the updates on that - it is appreciated from a distance and may have spared someone a couple of time zones away (me) from totally wasting a chunk of a precious day or evening several months from now by going to a place that has nothing for me now, and quite likely also some others similarly situated you don't hear from who may silently lurk in the threads around here.

Quote: DrawingDead

Apologies in advance for the fact that this may be annoying to hear, even if it is probably something you already knew. But. Those small-ish tournies with reasonable buy-ins are loss-leaders for poker rooms that actually don't even cover the most immediate explicit expenses of putting them on, let alone defraying any casino overhead expenses, with casino poker rooms generally doing them for the purpose of bringing people to the joint in hopes that they'll stick around for the cash games that pay the light bill and most of the dealers' wages and other non-wage employment expense, and then hopefully also sometimes going on to feed the house-banked table games & machines. And buy some noodles and whatnot.

I don't know if they were accomplishing that unstated general promotional purpose very well or not in that place, but If they weren't getting a significant cash game business in the room much larger than the volume of tournament play, and the main attraction of their tournies was just the good tournies & not carrying over to much else, then it is probably a pretty sensible business decision for them to give up on the poker room. From a player's point of view I really do sympathize with you in your annoyance about that; I also now have no reason at all to go there myself next time I make it into town. Just saying, reality of the business is that unless it is a ridiculous hyper-turbo super-fast push-fest that plays out like a slot machine that's over practically before you know who was playing, tournaments with less than about a $500+ buy-in that have a decent blind structure allowing for a fair amount of play, even with very high juice often taken from the prize pool, generally aren't sustainable on their own without generating at least several times as much volume of play at cash tables.

In any case, thanks for taking the trouble to provide people with the updates on that - it is appreciated from a distance and may have spared someone a couple of time zones away (me) from totally wasting a chunk of a precious day or evening several months from now by going to a place that has nothing for me now, and quite likely also some others similarly situated you don't hear from who may silently lurk in the threads around here.

Yeah the problem is they had virtually NO cash game promotions whatsoever; the high hand was $100 to the best hand every four flipping hours and the bad beat was a flat 5k total (2500 loser, 1250 to winner, 1250 table share), and they had no jackpot for Omaha and they hardly ran it. Right now they're giving 100 for each full house every day, 100 for the first person to get quads and 200 for a royal/straight flush. This is to kill off their bad beat/special hand fund. And I know tourneys don't do much as far as $ goes, long as Ameristar does the Rebuy/Add-on and the Mystery Bounty we are good, I'd be happy if they did those two and nothing else.

EDIT: I will say this did work out for me because Heartland is going to be going to Ameristar in May, which would have been at River City otherwise, and it's going to be there while I'm staying there for an anime convention across the street, all I can say they're gonna get an interesting crowd lmao

Update:
Good news everybody!

River City's $150 Mystery Bounty tournament is coming to Ameristar starting April 3rd! This is exciting because this was RC's best tourney! Here are the rules for those who aren't familiar:

*Tournament is every Sunday at 12, late registration until 2.

*$150 buyin, $50 bounties, one name is randomly drawn before the tournament begins to be the mystery bounty, upon getting KOed, the mystery bounty and whoever knocked them out both get $150

* 20k chips, 30 minute levels, antes start after about level 5.

Just a warning for anyone that may visit the St Louis area, please do not let any savage locals trick you into eating the "good" St Louis style pizza at Imo's. That was probably the most disgusting pizza I've had in my life including frozen pizza.

Imagine if White Castle tried to make pizza. My taste buds were so offended I was tempted to ask for my money back

Seriously, like a piece of cardboard with tomato paste and processed imitation cheese slices on top. Who eats that crap?

And while I'm at it, what is wrong with people in cincinatti? Chili on spaghetti, seriously?

Were you expecting mozzarella on your pizza? It's overrated for sure though. I hate the fennel in their sausage even more. Toasted ravioli is also very overrated here.

Quote: mcallister3200

Seriously, like a piece of cardboard with tomato paste and processed imitation cheese slices on top. Who eats that crap?

And while I'm at it, what is wrong with people in cincinatti? Chili on spaghetti, seriously?

So basically, it's Little Caesars.

Quote: mcallister3200

Just a warning for anyone that may visit the St Louis area, please do not let any savage locals trick you into eating the "good" St Louis style pizza at Imo's. That was probably the most disgusting pizza I've had in my life including frozen pizza.

Imagine if White Castle tried to make pizza. My taste buds were so offended I was tempted to ask for my money back

What's wrong with White Castle?


Ok, I get it. A lot of visitors don't like our thin crust St. Louis Style pizza. The problem was that Imo's isn't the best for that. I personally like the Cecil Whitaker's chain, or a few of the local Mom & Pop joints. They blow away Imo's, I think.

But if you want to try a St. Louis original cuisine, then I suggest Toasted Ravioli and Gooey Butter Cake. Those rarely get down-voted by anyone.

Anybody tried eating their way through the old StL Italian district called The Hill? Worth doing? Easy to wander/walk it?

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

So basically, it's Little Caesars.

I won't touch that garbage.

Quote: tringlomane

I won't touch that garbage.

There's a reason why they're only $5. Definitely not worth a penny more.

Quote: mcallister3200

Just a warning for anyone that may visit the St Louis area, please do not let any savage locals trick you into eating the "good" St Louis style pizza at Imo's. That was probably the most disgusting pizza I've had in my life including frozen pizza.

Imagine if White Castle tried to make pizza. My taste buds were so offended I was tempted to ask for my money back

Vehemently disagree, but it has been a decade since I last had Imo's. One of the few thin crust pizzas I like, the other is Chelsea II in AC, which I strongly recommend.