Dawson City, Yukon TR

Quote: PokerGrinder

I mean I'd like to make money on the trip but no it's for fun. Once in a lifetime type trip.

Btw for anyone keeping track we are currently eating a hamburger gravy poutine in Watson Lake, Yukon. I will try and update tonight depending on how late we get in.

Thanks for the live(ish) trip report, PG!

Many moons ago (on my own once-in-a-lifetime trip), I spent a night in a campground in Watson Lake. I remember it was late July, and we were sitting by the campfire that night waiting for it to get dark. It never did!

Routine means you do this all the time. Just like people going to work. (I guess not)
Having a fun trip like this is marvelous. Enjoy. Also making a bit to help paying for expense is great. Covering with a small profit is God sent.

In that case Speedycrap yes I do this regularly. I travel to play poker but this trip is more about the travel although I just found out they will be running 5/10 NL in Dawson so I went and picked up cash at the bank before leaving Whitehorse since I wasn't planning on them running games that big.

Enjoy and good luck

WE HAVE ARRIVED!

This casino is so cool looking on the inside!

Got spanked again tonight lol, it's really starting to look like I'm going to have to win a tournament to brake even on this trip. Why do you hate me poker G-Ds??? (Not serious about poker G-Ds obviously lol but I would like the dealers to use the non Chinese decks tomorrow)

Quote: PokerGrinder

Got spanked again tonight lol, it's really starting to look like I'm going to have to win a tournament to brake even on this trip. Why do you hate me poker G-Ds??? (Not serious about poker G-Ds obviously lol but I would like the dealers to use the non Chinese decks tomorrow)

Not gonna happen. They heard you were coming. Something about a trip report on some website...

My sympathies, PG

dam southerners coming north trying to rip our hard earned cash from our hands

we will teach them a lesson or two

going to send them home with their tails between their legs

you're not in THE PEG no more kid

only the tough survive this far north

regarding Bonnyville [sorry, a little behind in this thread] I wonder if the name is a version of Bonneville, like the old car model?

There are places in the US with Bonneville as a name, notably the salt flats in Utah, and sometimes such a name can 'travel' as a town name so to speak.

I originally got interested in the name due to the movie "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and the scenes at the North's POW camp that were shown. They called it "Bannerville" with a hint it was notorious, and I wanted to find out if it was based on a real prison camp or not. I finally decided they must have been referring to Fort Bonneville in Wyoming. That was abandoned soon after completion in 1832 and I was never able to confirm it was resurrected and used 30 years later in the Civil War for anything.

Sorry for being a bit off-topic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bonneville

always liked some of the editions of the car:

from wikipedia page, 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Bonneville

About to start $400 rebuy tournament. Hopefully I'm 10k richer later today.

I always thought the name was just a spin off of Andersonville, the real life hell hole of the Civil War.

And we are already rebuying, getting the bad rivers out of the way early.

Got it in with aces up, guy was open ended with a flush draw and the ♠️ came on the river. Hopefully I can keep that the only rebuy of the day.

I should clarify it's technically two rebuys as you can double buy.

Lose AK<99 all in pre, flop A93 gg.
I'm getting used to shouting REBUY! (3)
Next hand call on button with A7d flop is 1022 two diamonds. Utg bets, two callers and we call. Turn is 6 of diamonds. Utg checks, lady bets next guy calls, we raise, utg folds and it goes all in and all in. Oh crap I'm probably dead but I'm not folding (raised for half my stack) I call. Both have smaller flushes. Way to run good lol.

Not giving in depth play by play, tough while playing. Hope my posts are understandable for non poker players.

First break, well above average chips, almost 3x I think. In for $800 total, 3 rebuys and and a add on. Time for the run good.

Just lost JJ<A10s all in pre, down to 26 BB.

16 BB and we play down to 2 tables for the night. It I bag then I start up again at 2 tomorrow. Hoping for some run good.

Almost a full double up KQ>JJ in pre. I'm up to about 70k now at 2k BB.

Less writing, more winning.

Guy opens button and I jam AJs and he tank calls KQ. Turns a K. Hold there and I'm huge. Oh well, bad players get rewarded sometimes too.

Day off tomorrow, going to explore Dawson.

You need to join the vlog wars on YouTube.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

You need to join the vlog wars on YouTube.

No idea what that is.

Quote: PokerGrinder

No idea what that is.

YouTube comments used to be polite, restrained and relevant to the video, now youtube comments are a general battle field of insults and irrelevant comments.
You can post a video on tunafish and there will be comments about Trump and everything else there soon.

Well Eric places 3rd in the rebuy tournament and I had 10% so I end up making $63 after everything. Yay! Tomorrow is the $550 freeze out.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Guy opens button and I jam AJs and he tank calls KQ. Turns a K. Hold there and I'm huge. Oh well, bad players get rewarded sometimes too.

"...but I raised. I can't fold now, I'm pot committed!"

Sorry to hear he tried to give you his chips and the cards didn't let him. If only the cards would always let people part with their chips when they tried =P. Sorry to hear you're not running too well. Hopefully you can ping that freeze out or have a good run at some cash games!

Haha ya that call is a pretty huge punt. I found out after that he was playing a feeling but also fancies himself a good poker player. I call the good poker player bluff lol.

If the good players always won then the bad players wouldn't play. Luck is what keeps them coming back.

Thanks bud, I mean I'm down but nothing crazy. I still have a couple days here and then I think we will find games the whole trip to Vancouver. I'll also find games in Montana. I had a pretty large upswing before this trip. It's the joys of gambling, better buckle up especially if you are going to play big.

Ok so I am currently doing laundry at the hotel in Dawson City so I figured I would catch up on my TR that I have been neglecting...

Eric and I grabbed breakfast in our hotel which was average and then went to the newly rebranded Century Casino in St. Albert Alberta. We got there a few minutes early and waited for the tables to open. We ended up winning $10 each before heading off to the casino to grind. We played 1/2 in the afternoon and the game was full of punters. I was up about 250 when I decided to take a break before my night session.

I took a trip to West Edmonton Mall which if you don't know is one of the biggest malls in the world. I got schwarma for lunch which tasted like it came from a mall and then sadly I found a Purdy's. Purdy's is a chocolate store and they have the most amazing assortment of single chocolates. I bought 4, ate all four and felt a bit nauseaus.

I checked out the Palace Casino inside the mall to see how their remodel was going and it was a sauna in there and loud and yet the casino was full. Gotta love obsessive gamblers.

Back to Casino Yellowhead where I sadly got stomped for about $3700. I went back to the hotel, picked up a sub and munchies and watched the Red Sox win a 19 inning game on my phone.

Chips collected 20 (5 for my collection)
Total miles - 1578
Gas - $62.79
Hotel - $28.47
Food $96.08
Gambling +231.50
$15FP = $14
Poker -3192

Wednesday we left Edmonton and started driving north/west. We drove to Grand Prairie to visit the Great Northern Casino, we took a wrong turn and ended up in Edson, AB before realizing that we were on the wrong highway. We rerouted and got to Grande Prairie. We broke even and got our chips leaving pretty quickly since we had a long day ahead of us.

We stopped at Chances Casino in Fort St John where they semi recently added tables. We got there and signed up for a club card and got $10 in FP even though they tried to not give it to us. They had a sign up at the front of the casino that said new members get $10 FP but they said it ended after August. I checked the sign and it had no date or month on it. I told this to the lady and basically said its advertised so she should give it to us, They did and they walked over to remove the sign lol. I won $55 here altogether.

We got to Fort Nelson pretty late and checked into the Motel 6. I have mentioned on previous TR's that I love staying in Motel 6's because they have all been remodeled in the last year or so which makes them a great deal.

Chips collected 28 (7 for my collection)
Total miles - 2335
Gas - $117.50
Hotel - $28.47
Food $124.22
Gambling +286.50
$25FP = $23.75
Poker -3192

Not a whole lot to report on the drive from Fort Nelson, BC to Whitehorse, Yukon. The drive was long but about 2.5 hours shorter than google said it would be and I don't speed much at all. The views were beautiful along the drive and we stopped a few times to take it in. I will post pictures when I get home. We stopped in Watson Lake, Yukon to visit a huge attraction where people from all over the world leave lisence plates, road signs from back home or anything that they have to nail to a post. There are over 100,000 signs or momentos left there at this point. It all started when a injured homesick soldier was on duty during WWII. He was told to go fix the mile post on the highway since his broken foot didn't allow him to do much else. He asked his superior if he could add a mile marker to his hometown of Danville , IL. He did and then others added theirs and it grew from that to what it is now. We ate in Watson Lake and had the hamburger poutine that the chef was beyond proud of. It was good but sadly didn't use cheese curds. It was shredded cheese and the gravy had beef and mushrooms in it. While not a poutine it was still good and I loved how much the chef cared what we thought of his food. He was thrilled to hear we had enjoyed it and I made sure to compliment him on it a lot.

We then drove to Whitehorse, YK and got to our hotel around 10 PM, having made great time. Whitehorse has a very diverse culture and because of that many good restaurants. We had amazing sushi and then walked around the town a bit before calling it a night.

Chips collected 28 (7 for my collection)
Total miles - 2935
Gas - $196.15
Hotel - $28.47
Food $158.63
Gambling +286.50
$25FP = $23.75
Poker -3192

We grabbed breakfast at a local spot before walking around a bit and checking out some shops, our plan is to spend the day exploring when we stop in Whitehorse again later this week.

We drove the 6.5 hour drive to Dawson City on a truly terrible highway. It has no shoulders, sometimes no lines at all including in the middle. The roads are poorly made, maintained and overall not the most pleasent to drive. We made it to Dawson City in one piece and it is beautiful! We went to the casino which is a 3 minute walk from our hotel and I was amazed at how cool it looks. I lost $200 playing BJ to collect a chip, I lost the first 12 hands lol and I am stubborn so I wouldn't give in, I should have lol. I then proceeded to get bent over in this small buy in 1/2 game that was playing big. It takes too much of the skill out of the game when the max buy in is $200 and most people at the table are straddlng so the game is basically 2/5 with 40 BB stacks. I got runner runnered twice and lost a pot where I get it in with a stright flush draw and miss turn and river. I lose about $600 in the game.

I called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Well my laundry is done so I am going to go and fold it before going to the casino for the tournament today. I will finish updating this TR later, actually hopefully tomorrow cause that would mean the tournament went well.


Chips collected 33 (9 for my collection)
Total miles - 3269
Gas - $155.43 This got lower because I forgot to divided each days gas by 2, whoops.
Hotel - $153.03 This includes four nights in Dawson before we move hotels for our last night here.
Food - $187.26
Souveniers - $3.30
Gambling +86.50
$25FP = $23.75
Poker -3816

I hate it when someone berates a fish for getting lucky. I mean bad players are capable of playing better when mad or frustrated. Why spoil their fun? A fish catches a 2 outer to beat me, I usually say something like " That's why I raised on the turn trying to get you out. Well played " I mean why not make` him happy and encourage bad play. I am there to win money, not bust a bad player's bubble!

Ya all I said was nice hand. Not going to do anything to upset the fish. A poker pros job is to make the fish happy while they lose money. If they aren't happy and having fun then they won't come back.

Quote: sixsisters

I hate it when someone berates a fish for getting lucky. I mean bad players are capable of playing better when mad or frustrated. Why spoil their fun? A fish catches a 2 outer to beat me, I usually say something like " That's why I raised on the turn trying to get you out. Well played " I mean why not make` him happy and encourage bad play. I am there to win money, not bust a bad player's bubble!

What if it's a 1 outer?

https://youtu.be/pjz00NIZ3rw

https://youtu.be/_sdOd7OrsH8

You mean to hit a straight flush to beat my quads ? Been there, done that. Was in a tournament.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Ya all I said was nice hand. Not going to do anything to upset the fish. A poker pros job is to make the fish happy while they lose money. If they aren't happy and having fun then they won't come back.

Used to have chumps in pool hall pass up weaker opponents to play me. Usually because I would let them double up when they were stuck. Plus forget about running to 6 ball , then missing. Knew my limitations, pocket 1 ball, get position on 2 to give the 9 ball a ride and try to get lucky.

Actually had one player so bad he made worst shot I ever saw. His name was David Spook. REALLY. Well , one might David had a hot date later that night. He lost $40, half his bankroll, wanted to play last game for $40. It came down to a bank shot I missed that left 9 ball in front of pocket GRRRR

Dave was in his glory. I mean no way he could miss or make ball and scratch. Was his moment of glory. Even took of his suit coat to prolong the moment, chalked his cue, powdered his hands. I mean you would have thought he was in the movie " The Hustler " Back and forth with the cue stick, than an almost perfect stroke. ALMOST He thumb got hooked in his suit pant's pocket. The material ripped and the cue ball sailed off the table. I felt so bad that when he offered the $40, I told him to keep it and have a good date.
What the hell, why lose a customer? HaHa

Quote: PokerGrinder

Ok so I am currently doing laundry at the hotel in Dawson City so I figured I would catch up on my TR that I have been neglecting...

Eric and I grabbed breakfast in our hotel which was average and then went to the newly rebranded Century Casino in St. Albert Alberta. We got there a few minutes early and waited for the tables to open. We ended up winning $10 each before heading off to the casino to grind. We played 1/2 in the afternoon and the game was full of punters. I was up about 250 when I decided to take a break before my night session.

I took a trip to West Edmonton Mall which if you don't know is one of the biggest malls in the world. I got schwarma for lunch which tasted like it came from a mall and then sadly I found a Purdy's. Purdy's is a chocolate store and they have the most amazing assortment of single chocolates. I bought 4, ate all four and felt a bit nauseaus.

I checked out the Palace Casino inside the mall to see how their remodel was going and it was a sauna in there and loud and yet the casino was full. Gotta love obsessive gamblers.

Back to Casino Yellowhead where I sadly got stomped for about $3700. I went back to the hotel, picked up a sub and munchies and watched the Red Sox win a 19 inning game on my phone.

Chips collected 20 (5 for my collection)
Total miles - 1578
Gas - $62.79
Hotel - $28.47
Food $96.08
Gambling +231.50
$15FP = $14
Poker -3192

You must have had alot of munchies to watch a 6 hour game, which I also wasted my afternoon/evening on. Turned me off baseball for a couple of days, especially after the Apple Watch BS.

Nah I live and die with my team. I've been a Sox fan for 25 years. 19 innings are easy especially when it ends well. So demoralizing to watch a game that long than ends in a L.

good for you PG. I watched the whole game also, been a diehard sox fan since 1966.

My dads been a die hard since around then. He let me pick my favourite teams as a kid except baseball where the house is a Red Sox house.

Well I bust 21st just out of the money AQ<AK all in pre. Happy with how I played today just couldn't catch much in the way of cards. Oh well always another tournament.

On a happy note one of my best friends won the WCOOP 10k event on PokerStars today for just under half a million.

EDSON..... that must have been the highlight part of the trip LOL

somebody missed the 43 cut off heading towards Whitecourt and GP

now think how bad the roads way up there must be 6 months a year when they are covered in snow

better luck on your return trip south

Sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm confused. Are your gas and hotels split so your share is what is posted, or are those expenses to be split later?

Quote: coilman

EDSON..... that must have been the highlight part of the trip LOL

somebody missed the 43 cut off heading towards Whitecourt and GP

now think how bad the roads way up there must be 6 months a year when they are covered in snow

better luck on your return trip south

Oh ya Edson was great lol. We totally missed that we were supposed to turn off, I blame Eric since I was driving.

Those roads covered in snow would be horrendous.

Oh btw Eric ends up winning tonight's event lol. Just G-D ran it from 5 BB with 20 left to having half the chips with 5 players left. I had 10% again so I make money today lol.

The up to date gas and hotel totals are my half. The hotel totals are minus what I saved with credit card points which I took off my half of the hotel bills.

We went out for drinks and got a bit drunk tonight so I think I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow is a no tourney day so we are just going to tourist it up a bit. Goodnight!

Ok so I'm going to do one big post about our 5 nights in Dawson City. First off I loved it! Eric and I both said that we would return someday to Dawson City.

I already posted about the day we got there and how I lost playing cash games. On Saturday I walked around downtown and looked through a few shops. I didn't buy anything in case I found something else I wanted instead. I did find a hoodie that I planned on returning later in the week to get. We played the $400 rebuy tournament later that day and I was in for 3 rebuys and 1 add on when the rebuy period ended. I had the largest stack at my table but I spent the next 4 hours pretty card dead and couldn't get much going. I doubled up to 70k about 30 minutes before I busted. The button opens and I jam AJs and get tank called by KQo, he turned a K and I was sent home early. I won $100 playing BJ on my way out. Eric bagged a very short stack and we called it a night.

On Sunday we went to a place called Sourdough Joes for lunch where I had the fish chowder which comes with a massive piece of sourdough bread. The soup was fine (too much dill) but I prefer clam chowder. I picked up a Dawson pin for my cousins collection and I also grabbed a casino pin for myself when we got there.

Eric sat back down for the tournament and got a early double and then chipped up pretty quickly to have one of the bigger stacks. While he was doing that I sat cash and doubled up early flopping a set against a guys QQ. About a hour later I play an interesting hand where I have KJ of hearts in the BB. Utg raises to 15 and 5 players call and I call. Flop is 1096 rainbow with one heart. I check and a guy bets 20, everyone calls and I make the easy call with a gutter to the nuts, a back door FD and two over cards. I hit gin on the turn with the Q of hearts. SB checks and I bet 60 which is small but at this table small bets are being met with raises because of perceived weakness. I get two callers and then the SB goes to 160 and I ship. Both original callers fold and the SB snap calls. When she calls I say I'm free rolling her figuring she has to have the nuts too but she rolls over 78 for the flopped straight and I scoop a $1000 pot. Sadly the river is an 8 so I don't get to make my first ever royal flush.

I picked up after about another hour that was uneventful to go watch Eric who now was at the final table. He has the chip lead with 5 left and then gets it in with 3 players left for most of the chips in play. He has J10 on a 10 high flop with two spades, the other guy had J high spades and turns a spade ending Eric's day. He collected $8630, I had 10% of his action on a swap. We went back to Sourdough Joes for dinner and I had the fried salmon which was amazing. I've had fried cod but never salmon and it was excellent.

On Monday I did laundry while I updated this thread before heading to the casino for the $550 freeze out tournament. I lost 90% of my chips very early when I lost AA to AQ on a Q73 Q 2 board. I then spent the next 6 levels chipping up major until I had over two starting stacks. Sadly with 21 left I jam AQ on the button and the BB wakes up with AK and I couldn't catch. Eric was pretty short stacked at that point and then lost most of his chips AK<77. He was down to 4.5 BB's before just rolling over the final two tables. He had half the chips in play 5 handed and just proceeded to bully the table. Eric plays heads up sit n gos for a living so he just dissected these fish short handed. He ended up winning the tournament for $10,500 and I again had 10% of his action. We had champagne and then went to a few more bars while getting quite liquored up.

Tuesday we went to JJJ's for lunch and I got an amazing buffalo chicken sandwich with yam fries, portions in that town are massive. We walked downtown and bought souvenirs. I bought snow globes for my little cousins which I do everywhere that I travel to. I also bought a couple of keychains for friends, a beautiful print of the northern lights for my mom and the hoodie that I had found earlier in the week for myself. The hoodie is very basic and says Dawson City, Yukon on the right breast plate.

Eric went back to the hotel while I went to the casino to play. Sadly poker wasn't running as everyone had left town already. I sat and chatted with the dealers at roulette and the pit bosses for awhile. We had so much fun with all the employees all week, we went out to drink with them and I really loved how nice and fun they all are. They were building towers with the chips and we were having a ball. One of the casino security off the clock wanted to play so they let me demolish the towers. I bought in for $40 to mess around for a bit. I was down to my last $5 which I put on number 4 which is my birthday, I offered the dealer $25 if she hit it (yes I know that doesn't matter lol) and she hit it. I jokingly said that I was kidding before tossing her a green chip. I played 30 chips and cashed out $125 for a $85 profit, I lost $20 on roulette later that night while we were drinking.

For dinner we went to Klondike Kate's which was highly suggested to us. I had the currywurst sausage and yam fries which was excellent, I had never had currywurst before but I definitely would eat that again! Overall the food in Dawson City was excellent, expensive but not as expensive as I had anticipated.

After dinner we went to the Sourdough Saloon inside the Downtown Hotel to do the Sourtoe Cocktail. Basically you buy a shot of hard alcohol and then pay $5 to have the Sourtoe Captain put a dried out human toe in your shot and have you drink it. I was beyond grossed out by the concept but didn't want to pass up this type of bucket list thing. I did it with much hesitation and was given a certificate and a Sourtoe Cocktail membership, I am member #76,500! Eric did his and then we continued to drink, I needed it after the toe.

We ended up back at the casino to see the burlesque show. Most nights they do 3 shows throughout the night, the first a cancan show, the second a slightly sexier show and the third is a sexy burlesque show. We saw the first one every night during the tournament series but had to wait until Tuesday to see the other two. The last show was really good, the dancers are beautiful and talented and actually did a couple cirque like acts. They also had a male and female (diamond tooth Gertie, hence the name of the casino) singer doing well known old and new songs. The female singer was ok but the male was beyond excellent, he has an amazing voice .

Like I said we had an amazing time and the trip was well worth the drive. I would definitely go again in a few years as the poker is the softest either of us have seen anywhere in the world but we would fly next time.

Chips collected 33 (9 for my collection)
Total miles - 3269
Gas - $155.43
Hotel - $214.93
Food - $382.85
Laundry - $7.00
Souveniers - $106.29
Gambling +456.50
$25FP = $23.75
Poker -2524

Wednesday we drove 355 miles from Dawson City to Whitehorse for the night. We got into Whitehorse pretty early and I took that opportunity to walk around the area for about 1.5 hours. Eric did laundry while I walked around and then we grabbed sushi, I ate way too much and I was still full this morning when I woke up. Not a whole lot to post about in Whitehorse but it's a nice little city.

Today we drove 599 miles from Whitehorse to Fort Nelson, BC. Another day of mostly driving, the scenery on the drive is absolutely amazing and I can't possibly describe the beautiful autumn colours with words. I kept saying wow that's beautiful as I was driving. We stopped in Watson Lake for food and gas. If you remember this is where I posted about the sign forest. We stopped at a store and each bought a magnet of the sign forest. We drove while listening the the Red Sox game and then some comedy, then sadly a bunch of dead air.

We got a little slap happy about 3 hours away from the hotel which I think we can attribute to not sleeping enough. We were outside at the gas station where we spent about 3 minutes of uncontrollable laughter over not much at all. It got so bad my jaw and ribs hurt. We then drove the rest of the way, stopped for some food and have been watching tv since.

Tomorrow we head to Prince George, BC. We are leaving very early so that we get to the poker game as early as possible. I'm headed to bed now.

Chips collected 33 (9 for my collection)
Total miles - 4213
Gas - $212.64
Hotel - $249.75
Food - $456.79
Laundry - $7.00
Souveniers - $109.73
Gambling +456.50
$25FP = $23.75
Poker -2524

Hey PG,

Another great trip report. Thanks so much for sharing! Just curious why you didn't take hwy 37 to Prince George. It would be a little rougher, but new scenery and quite a bit shorter. My wife has been to Dawson City a couple of times on business but I have only made it as far as Whitehorse. Definitely on my bucket list.