So I just got back from the casino (Casino Niagara - Niagara Falls, ON - Canada).... I played two things in the poker pit. One was a couple of $35 SnG's with 11 people seated. About this all I will say is that the tourists seem to be attracted to this cause the hands were mostly being won by absolute garbage pairs because they were calling preflop raises with that garbage (like one person who called my raise of $250 preflop with 3c 8d...... When starting with a $1000 stack that is pretty crazy to any real player (or I would hope so at least)

Second thing I was playing was the $1/$2 NL game. Now I have never played at the casino before today so I was very aware of the differences that were happening. Firstly there was the session fee ($5 charge every half hour to play) now granted there is no rake, but when you look at the big picture, I think I would prefer the rake.... At least that way you do not have to pay to lose money to bad hands (other than blinds)...

Now another thing I had not thought about before sitting and playing was tipping the dealer. Within my first few hands I won a decent sized pot after hitting 4 A's with 3 on flop and one in hand. I had no clue that people tipped the dealer until a few hands later someone did it and I noticed on all the next that a tip was thrown back to the dealer.

Anyway my point is that casino play is much different than the online play that I am used to and just wanted to make some others aware of what they might expect if they are going to be going to a casino anytime soon. Please respond and let me know how things are structured at the casino near you if any of you have any knowledge.

Thanks =-)

p.s. The result of the day was a lot of REALLY bad beats by people that were raising preflop with NOTHING and having one guy sit down at my table (thankfully directly to my right) who kept throwing 2x $50 bills at the pot all in preflop.... Finally after like 5 blind steals someone called him and he had KK..... I really am not kidding..... weird experience.... I think I know what to expect from people online to some degree and casino play will take a few more brutal sessions before I know what to expect there as well....