Hollywood Casino

A new casino opened up last Friday. Its name is Hollywood Casino and it is located on the second turn of Kansas Speedway. It is also twenty five minutes door to door from my house. This is significant for me in that all other poker rooms in KC take me about an hour door to door. That extra half hour is a big deterrent. I may have more poker in my future.

The advertising campaign leading up to its opening billed Hollywood as Kansas City's first true Vegas like gaming experience. They sort of got there. It obvious it is not riverboat like the Missouri casinos. The ceilings vault. There is no smelly river. Everything is state of the art. Slots, table games are all shinny and new. They biggest non Vegas amenity is the alcohol. It is most definitely not free. No big deal, as I rarely drink and play poker.

The poker room is nicely and conservatively adorned. Just like the rest of the casino. There is not much flash, neon or flashing lights. Other than the slots that is. I walked up to the podium to put my name on the 1/3 nl game. I had to wait a while as the men in suits still seemed to be learning the ropes. The list was ten long and I put my name on it. They took my cell number so I could be texted when my seat was available. This I really liked. The other rooms do not do that. In fact I have never been to a Vegas room that does that, though I am sure it exists.

I wander off and lose $75 playing table games. I get my text 30 minutes later and go get my seat. The tables are nice and the chairs swivel and are comfy. The only issue is they shoehorned 12 tables into a space for 10. Hard to get around and no matter where you sit you are getting bumped by other players.

The play was way soft. A lot of players must have come in from the Kansas side that do not usually make it over to Missouri. I saw a lot of the regulars but only two were at my table. Usually the ratio is reversed. I get in cheap with 57d. Flop is 3s6d8d. Two of us call smallish bets to the river where I hit my straight. It checks to me and I get two players to pay me $40. I hit two sets in two hours. End up a buy in. Lots of calling down with top pair this day. Nice.

Over all a nice experience. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I have the Bravo Poker Live app for my phone. Lets me see how many games are going on in all three poker rooms. Yesterday, Hollywood had 9. Ameristar 3 and Harrahs 3. The average used to be nine between Ameristar and Harrahs. So Hollywood must be drawing from the west.