Report: Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, West Virginia

I finally made the trek up to Charles Town last night (Thursday Aug 12). Though the poker room opened in early July, it was reportedly a clusterfuck for the first month, with limited tables, dealers, and hours, and consequent wait times of up to 4 hours to get seated. Yesterday marked the start of regular 1 p.m.-4 a.m. operations, 7 days a week. They are now up to 25 tables (still shy of their advertised 27 tables).

Drove up from northwest D.C. in 1 hour, 10 minutes, via I-270 and 340W. Easy commute from 8:15-9:25 p.m. Would have left earlier, but a massive storm got in the way. I parked in the East Garage and hiked through many smoke-filled slot halls to find the poker room. It is up a staircase by the racetrack (actually, under the bleachers). So no fish wandering in from the BJ tables, which are like 1/2 mile away, but at least the pony players will be wandering by on a regular basis.

The room is basic, undecorated, somewhat dark, and a bit funny-looking with the high tilted ceiling. But the tables are not crowded together, and they are nice, with autoshufflers, commitment lines, and automated player seating/tracking systems. The cocktail waitresses are surprisingly good looking and provide decent service.

I walked up to the brush and immediately got added to the 1/2 NL waitlist. I was 18th on the list but he said it would only be about 1/2 hour, and he was right. There were benches for waiting players to cool their heels and read free poker magazines. Or you can step through a door and watch the horses race right there in front of you.

At 10 p.m., the brush called a bunch of names including mine. I think they waited until the dealer change so the new players wouldn't have to pay the time rake ($6 every half hour). Just guessing here.

The play was typical for a B&M casino. Lots of limping and loose calls. Pre-flop raises from $7 to $11 got 6way action, raises to $16-$20 usually got 1-2 calls. Had one LAG posting straddles and generally running over the table, and plenty of folks trying to bust him with unsuited connectors or suited gappers. A couple guys showed they were capable of intelligent laydowns, but mostly it was a loose-passive fishfest.

On my 5th or 6th hand, I rivered a nut flush with AQs and got 2 calls (lower flush and 2pr) for a profit of $160+. Unfortunately, my flopped set of Q's later got cracked by a running flush, and I also managed to bluff off about $60 against the LAG, but I still ended up +$105 for the night after 2.5 hours of play. That's after paying $24 in time rake.

On this particular night, they had 20 of the 25 tables running, and a good variety of games (3/6 LHE, 10/20 LHE, 1/2 NL, 2/5 NL, 5/10 NL, 5/5 PLO, maybe others). All of the dealers I saw were very competent, not slow at all. They still don't have their cashier cage completed (the drywall is up), so you have to buy your chips from a young girl in a dark corner with what looks like an open ice cream cart full of thousands of dollars of chips. She has a guard behind her, but I mean WTF? Cashing out requires a winding, half-mile trek through the smoky slots to the cage by the table games. ($50 min bets on the BJ, $25 min on the craps.)

Overall, I felt this was quite a good experience and the room will only get better with time as they complete the poker room cage, start tournaments, etc. On the ride home (1:20-2:30 a.m.), there was zero traffic so I was flying down the road, braking just in time after spotting radar cops about 9 miles out on Rt 340. The time rake was not bad compared to pot rake, but then again, my cards were not running totally cold. Will definitely be coming back for more!

ChezJ