Seattle

steve, in all seriousness

you need to drop this hit n run mentality

Good advice! If I hit and run its impossible to have one of those +2k session, like two dudes at table #1 did.

The big mistake was not smoking for the last session. I start to get impatient and play worse as a result, when all I need to do if play ABC poker + flop the nuts and trap people. I have unmedicated ADD (as you all may be able to tell) and I'd rather not be one of those robots wearing headphones, but the a good portion of the players there are lol bad and are simply gambling.

Also, I haven't played 1/3 in 5+ years so I'm a wee bit rusty

Thanks for reading, appreciate it

edit: and as a side note, financially the last two years have been the best of my entire life, so tripping over a couple hundy is rediculous.

Aces poker lakewood LIVEBLOG #4

That prime rib was edible. $12.76 as apparently they don't do partial comps here

arrived pretty late, got seated in a 1/3 around 7pm. Only hand of note was 88 vs AKs, for it in on the flop for $140issh

Joined the o8 game at 810p, 3 on the list. Only two Asians over 50!

Unfortunately the game may break soon

Playing 6 handed for a while.

65+ f Caucasian female next to me is legit horrible. Reraising kill.pot preflop with kj35, betting top pair to the river

+65+ Asian female keeps buying in for $100 and losing it. Done it probably five times

Game breaks around 10, +36

1045pm

Get KK early position. 30s male after me makes it $10, I reraise to 30. 1 caller, that guy.

Flop is three cards under 8. The exact sequence of events is a blur, but I bet the flop, he goes all in for $200+. He had A7, turned a 7 but didn't improve. He looked bored. $240 pot

Left at 11pm, as it's way past my bedtime, getting tired.

+367 4 hours

+2067 since I started playing again, I think it's been 6 sessions? Add in two hours per sesh for the commute

Obviously very lucky, including hitting quads 3x over last weekend. Action is good, and only one person seemed to pay any attention to my play style, as boring as it is

Lots of new faces each session, as opposed to Fortune which had way more regs IMO (haven't been there in years, may have changed)

Id say it feels more like a home game at times

They have at least two edible items, the bacon cheese and wings.

Last Friday of the month little.creek has a $200 o8 tournament, I may try that. Their hotel is dog friendly, but pricey at $208 a night. It starts at noon so I'd need to leave at 9am, rough

LIVEBLOG #4 ACES LYNNWOOD AKA MLT

You can play out a rack here. Parking isn't that good. Mildly dank but well lit.

Had a gyro at fork grill a few minutes away;; it sucks now, unfortunately.

Button straddle allowed. Lost like $20 at nl, moved to plo at 415. About 4k on the table

AKJ8 double suit. Button raises $15 pfr, 3 in the hand. I'm in late. I'm in the cutoff 4 players. My stack is $260

Flop is QT8

Open ended and bottom pair, two backdoor flush draws, one to the nuts. First to act bets $50 2x callers, button folds

Turn is a brick but brings diamonds. Bet is $80 all in, I call and another calls.

River is the perfect black 9. #2 checks, I go all in for $115, 1 caller. I scoop with the nuts.

Aggressor had a set, other guy turned the flush draw and rivered the bottom end of the straight

$750 pot bam!

So two people got it in on the flop and decided to run it twice. The dude who asked to run it twice benefitted, as he lost the first board but won the second. I know it's to reduce variance, but they're playing to cop the side pot basically

Table is white guy, 2x 50+ Asian, 55+ Indian, Latino guy, two mid 30s vaguely Asian, all male

Left shortly thereafter into the worst Seattle traffic I've experienced! Two lans closed on SB I5 plus the rain and the protests, holy crap.

Why not play more? These reasons:

- Tripling up in the high variance PLO game is a win in itself, especially after not playing it since the pandemic
- I have video games I'm playing. I don't need to play poker all night
- My dog is waiting for me in the car

+432

7 session result +2488

EDIT:

The promos at Aces MLT are strictly worse than Lakewood.

Lakewood: $250 high hand every half hour, $499 for hhs on following days until Thursday
MLT: $200/100 hh every hour, $499 is only good on Sat/Sun

When the heat kicks on you can smell ozone in the air

Toilets have handles like my apartment. Auto flush? heck no

A review from Brian Chen on google:

3 months ago
Aces Poker is honestly one of the worst poker rooms I’ve played in. The room is packed with old-school nits, most of them well over 50, just sitting around waiting for AA or KK. I’ve played in California and Vegas before, and I have to say—Seattle’s poker scene is on a different (and disappointing) level. It’s all limp-callers and passive nits here, and Aces is the peak of that style.

There’s no real action at the table. No one plays creatively, no one’s taking spots—it’s like they’re allergic to the idea of a “squid game” hand. The vibe is stiff, and if any of these old guys lose a hand, they get salty; if they win, they start showing off. It’s not fun poker—it’s just waiting and folding.

On top of that, the dealers are mediocre at best and often have bad attitudes. Honestly, if you’re looking for a dynamic, action-filled poker environment, this is not the place.
-----

I don't agree with Brian. The first table only had two people over 50, and one of them paid off the guy who was the aggressor with the set in PLO in the story above to the tune of $300+ with KQ vs AK.

I had an open ender + a gutshot, with A K .. J 9 giving me 4 or more outs. Bedtime

steve i was at mlt last night from 4:30 to 8:15

i was the guy in the blazer with a beard

Missed connection, crazy! I figured you were at fortune. I wore my new purple grimace hat.

LIVE BLOG #5 ACES LAKEWOOD

Dump $50 at NL set mining. O8 game full, usual suspects.

The contrast between the Lakewood and Lynnwood is actually ridiculous.

Lakewood was formerly a casino with a dance club. It was high ceilings, great lighting, easy parking. Right off I5. The keep the main ballroom open, you can wander on and look at all the movie posters.

Lynnwood is the opposite. Formerly a thrift shop or something, it's tiny in comparison. The ambulance from the bathroom kind of lingers in the room, like a cave, with the personality of a broom closer.

Back to even on o8

ok I posted updates but they got eaten, here's the summary:

- I'm no longer playing the O8 game because the regs are dicks, as warned to me earlier in this thread. one of them actually said he didn't want to play with these people.
- the 60+ asian lady I mentioned that kept rebuying for $100 each prior days was literally hovering over the table waiting for her seat. She then tripled up and cashed out. What a c***.
- lost $200 at 08, got to almost even at 1/3, then went all in preflop AA vs 99, I lost

final result
-300; Aces only win 80% of the time

edit lol at the spellchecker in my previous post

the burger is some sort of textured meat / vegetable protein, not 100% beef. They always fall apart halfway thru; the toppings make it decently edible.

No offense, but these blog posts should be in the blog subforum, not in this thread.

Yeah I thought about that, but this is basically a dead thread, might as well camp in it

I'm 75% sure I'll be heading down to little creek for the O8 tourney and cash games this weekend, not sure if I'll do one or two nights.

Get a room for thursday nite, check out at 11am for the noon tourney.

Or, be a baller and go two nights. $431 total

Will be interesting to see who all is there. Word is the games are good.

Just need to call tmmw to confirm the tourney is this friday. $431 for two nights. Maybe I can give them some action at the casino and see what offers I get, I haven't been to there in over 10 years

Does anyone have any idea to see their live games?

I’m glad Steve is posting here as it’s otherwise a dead thread

Some chip porn from last nights 1-3

steve do you use the aces poker app? i learned for the first time last night that i can use it to get on the list, and here i was calling ahead like a moron each time

noice RR!

Their app situation is wierd. For aces lakewood, I did the code thing and get on the list thru their website. Supposedly there is a separate app for Lakewood but good luck figuring it out

Thanks for the reminder, I need to install their app on me new phone.

Regarding dead thread status, try going back a couple hundred pages. We were talking about 15/30 O8 at the muck, this new room called fortune, diamond lil's potentially absconding with player funds, it's wild. Lots of people no longer around

Seattle poker is alive but nothing like it was even 8 years ago. All the tribal rooms gone; I have vivid memories of squeezing into the tiny room at snoqualmie.

BUT TO THE NOW

Booked a night at the little creek this Friday. I'll drive in early for the noon $200 + 20 tourney, play the evening O8 game, and probably spread some cash around in the casino to see if I get any offers.

I booked this sweet deal where if you donate four cans of food you get..... $7 off. LOL. I booked it via phone, imagine that.

It doesn't look like any games are running now, on a Tuesday.

lol at the gradient in the confirmation email

I will not smoke in the hotel, I can smoke outside

This is going to be fun! The plan is:

- win the O8 tournament
- destroy the locals at the cash game
- splash some cash on the casino floor at craps or ultimate texas hold em if they have it to generate room offers. If they have 6 deck BJ I can try to do some card counting; I use the knockout method

Regarding food, it's eat at the casino or in shelton, which is only 11 mins away. As I'll be probably be getting nicely toasted, best to stay on property.

Water’s Edge Cafe open till 2am
is the ideal place to take a break and refuel before embarking on your next adventure. There’s something to satisfy every palate with your pick from freshly prepared salads, delicious hot and cold sandwiches, hearty soups, tasty sides, and an assortment of beverages

pizza Friday & Saturday | 12PM-9PM

legends cheesesteaks down for that

salish grill $25 fish and chips ouch

island grill has really pricy oysters, $5 each? holy crap. But a $20 fish and chips? what?

I use the knockout method

What is the blackjack knockout method?

An unbalanced system where the running count starts higher than 0 based on the number of decks (like 24 for a 6 deck shoe). It includes 7's as a +1 count.

It is easier to implement because you use the running count directly not the true count. So you avoid estimating remaining decks and that conversion of RC to TC.

LITTLE CREEK CASINO REPORT 10/2025

Poker room is on the main floor. Small, clean nonsmoking casino. Free pepsi products. Easy to get in and out of. Very clean bathrooms, lots of security roaming about.

$200 O8 tourny had 19 entrants. It was a pretty lame experience. Average age probably 62. Lady next to me had a vpip of like 85%, and somehow always managed to hit her emergency low or random suckout. meanwhile I was card dead. The dynamics of the game really change the 3/4th blind increase. People were chasing and giving the lady chips for no reason that I could tell

Top 3 payout which sucks IMO. Forgot to do the math on the vig. first was like 1600

Turns out the 4/8 O8 runs on sunday, GDI. Floor said it was a spicy game . There was no games running late friday night, sat am had a miserable looking 4/8 hold em.

I think they are mainly a tournament room, which is a shame because the poker room is nicely setup. Being only 20 minutes or so away from Fortune Lacey must be hard to compete with, as I doubt they're drawing many players from f'ing Shelton. Honestly I prefer Fortune Lacey, as they actually staff their pit games during the day and offer top notch foods.

Hotel room was fine. I disliked the showerhead, it was square. Hot tub was not very hot, and had enough foam in it to start a party. They seriously need to invest in a protein skimmer.

Tried a pacific and kumamoto oyster at the bar. The latter was great, clean taste, mildly briny. The pacific was a bit funkier but they gave a couple fun sauces to take the edge off. I'm new to eating oysters

$15 burger was the definition of mediocre casino burg

So poker is a bust, switched to table games.

craps - bj - uth - face up pai gow - 3 card poker. The tables weren't fully staffed; the 3 card poker never ran, for example.

-$50 at UTH, I hate this game now

Switched to face up pai gow on the advice on a youtube video regarding easy, low house edge pit games. Never played this game before. +100 no side bets played. Fun people to play with, and it's slow-paced. I played $20/hand, and was the good luck the table needed.

Saturday, no poker worth playing, pai gow wasn't open. I earned 232 tier credits; I estimate I played 10 minutes of UTH $5/hand, and 2 hours of pai gow at $20/hand... which was like 11 hands. People just love to slow roll their cards

From my limited research, you need 2500TC to qualify for anything useful.

Went to check out Fortune Casino Lacey. It's oddly located. Two 1/3 games going. $100 hh (no qualifier per hour), and apparently food as good as Fortune Renton.

However, you can drive 15 minutes or whatever north to Aces, which has a $250 hh/half hour. Infinitely worse food, but its "free."

Won $20 playing pai gow again, tipped the dealer a redbird and bounced.

Went to aces lakewood where a fun thing happened. In the O8 game I had A3TT on the button and called out "chop block" and raised. BB called. Flop was TTx lol. I gave the BB his 6 bucks back and took the hh for another +75. Game died at like 6pm, after running all night Friday apparently

overall result gambling -70ish

SECRET S420 TIP:

The tribal gas station also sells liquor, which is unusual. They also offer all your fried gas station favorites. Their chicken tendies were kind of pricy, $9 for two + a couple of sides.

The fry guy was sweaty and delivering the goods, but was falling behind because as of 11am maybe 1/2 of the counter was stocked. Couldn't get the combo due to lack of sides.

They also offer very expensive smoked salmon and oyster products.

Fun trip reports, Steve. They must have moved the poker room. I remember it being on the 2nd floor. It's downstairs now?