Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

Bay Area players, I need your assistance. My brother just turned 21 a few days ago and he'll be out here on thanksgiving break for a week. I want to take him to a casino to play some poker and stay and celebrate for a weekend.

Priorities in order:
1)Decent poker room with a few tables that spread low NLHE (or spread-limit). From the few rooms that I have read about, the NLHE table buyin caps are incredibly short (like 20-40bb); I'd ideally like medium-deep stacked (like $200+ capped $1/2).
2)Relatively inexpensive, nice rooms (we're both students)
3)Shortest drive. This is the last priority, as I'd rather drive further and enjoy the stay more.

Thanks [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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Priorities in order:
1)Decent poker room with a few tables that spread low NLHE (or spread-limit). From the few rooms that I have read about, the NLHE table buyin caps are incredibly short (like 20-40bb); I'd ideally like medium-deep stacked (like $200+ capped $1/2).
2)Relatively inexpensive, nice rooms (we're both students)
3)Shortest drive. This is the last priority, as I'd rather drive further and enjoy the stay more.

Thanks [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Where the heck do you live? Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Marin County, Oakland? This makes a big difference on #3.

I'd recommend the 1/2 $300 max buy-in game at Artichoke Joes's anyway. AJ's is actually a litte more upscale compared to the other big casinos.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

[ QUOTE ]
Bay Area players, I need your assistance. My brother just turned 21 a few days ago and he'll be out here on thanksgiving break for a week. I want to take him to a casino to play some poker and stay and celebrate for a weekend.

Priorities in order:
1)Decent poker room with a few tables that spread low NLHE (or spread-limit). From the few rooms that I have read about, the NLHE table buyin caps are incredibly short (like 20-40bb); I'd ideally like medium-deep stacked (like $200+ capped $1/2).
2)Relatively inexpensive, nice rooms (we're both students)
3)Shortest drive. This is the last priority, as I'd rather drive further and enjoy the stay more.

Thanks [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Take the short drive to the airport and fly to Vegas.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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2)Relatively inexpensive, nice rooms (we're both students)


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All of the rooms in the Bay Area are sort of grungy, imo.

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I'm in the palo alto area; I guess basically I'm trying to let him have the "casino experience." I remember my first time staying at a casino, there's just so much going on, it's a fun atmosphere (at least for a little while). I'd gladly hop onto a plane and hit up vegas, but unfortunately we'll probably only be staying overnight wherever we end up going, so Vegas doesn't make much sense for us. I see ads on TV for indian casinos all the time, River Rock, Cache Creek, ect. Any comments/suggestions on those or places like those?

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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I'm in the palo alto area; I guess basically I'm trying to let him have the "casino experience." I remember my first time staying at a casino, there's just so much going on, it's a fun atmosphere (at least for a little while). I'd gladly hop onto a plane and hit up vegas, but unfortunately we'll probably only be staying overnight wherever we end up going, so Vegas doesn't make much sense for us. I see ads on TV for indian casinos all the time, River Rock, Cache Creek, ect. Any comments/suggestions on those or places like those?

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Hell, if you're staying overnight, Vegas makes even more sense. The best cardrooms in the Bay area are only that - cardrooms. No slots, no craps, no bells, no waterfalls or high-end restaurants or limos or high-dollar hoes walking around. There are Indian casinos, but to see real flash, go sit on a plane for an hour. Less time than driving to Cache Creek.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

i just went to lucky chances tonight. it's 1/1/2 200 max buyin. the room's decent although busy and crowded, and the players were pretty bad.

i dunno, you're not going to have a crazy experience in one of these casinos. the rooms are crappy, i'm guessing, and there just isn't anything going on in the casinos. if you could do vegas, that would definitely be the way to go. i did that for my 21st and it was one of the best birthdays i've had.

but yeah, poker at lucky chances was good and it's a 100bb max buyin.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

Cache Creek is pretty good. I haven't played there since the new room (poker) opened up, but I hear it's good. The drive suuuuucks though taking that windy az road. In Palo Alto, I probably go over to Bay 101. They have somewhat of a pit with Cali 21, Pai Gow and of course poker; so you get a casino type atmosphere. There is Gold Country, FeatherFalls north of Sac which is about the same drive as Cach creek, maybe a bit further. It is full on gaming, which you guyz might enjoy.
And last but not least (I am partial lol) is Jackson which is much further.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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I'd gladly hop onto a plane and hit up vegas, but unfortunately we'll probably only be staying overnight wherever we end up going, so Vegas doesn't make much sense for us.

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One night is a perfectly suitable Vegas trip length. Check the airfares (including Virgin America); you might be surprised.

If you decide against Vegas, how do you feel about the drive to South Lake Tahoe? Google maps calls it four hours flat from Palo Alto without traffic. I've never actually played poker there (used to go with my parents when I was like 12) but I've heard the poker room at Harvey's is good. Also there are four full casino resorts there so you can get the real casino experience, and the surroundings are beautiful.

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I'd recommend the 1/2 $300 max buy-in game at Artichoke Joes's anyway. AJ's is actually a litte more upscale compared to the other big casinos.

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a friend of mine is there right now. he says there are 6 empty seats for the NL table. a fellow at his table played it last night and had this to say about it;

"almost everyone buys in for the absolute minimum, then pushes and gets busted by one of the big stacks. i played for 3 hours, saw two flops, and grossed 50$."

btw its not really a 1/2 game. everyone plays with 5$ chips basically and its 1-3-3, 5 to go. id call it a 3/5 game, personally.

why one would cap a 3/5 game at a 300$ buyin is mysterious but there it is.

regardless; AJ *is* a very nice place to play cards, the food is really quite good,there is tons of parking, and its easy to get to.

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Surprised nobody suggested Reno

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

Because Reno is even worse than the Bay area?

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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Surprised nobody suggested Reno

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Last time I was in Reno, a tumblweed rolled across Virginia St. and did some minor damage to my NSX. It is a ghosttown! But I hear it is easy to win some cool prizes at Circus Circus.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

Thanks for the tips guys, we might just head down to Lucky Chances and do vegas when we'll be able to stay longer and have more money to spend (well, I'm going to vegas the week after he leaves, but he'll be back at school; sucks for him).

Also going to look into Cache Creek, but their site doesn't say anything about what games/limits/buyin caps there are. I guess I'll call the poker room unless anybody has any experience with their new room (supposedly something like 28 tables).

Went to tahoe last summer and played at the peppermill in reno; tahoe was gorgeous

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Surprised nobody suggested Reno

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http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...part=1&vc=1

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8769/picardcx7.jpg

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

i played cache creek once. its a very nice casino for the area. They had a few tables of low fixed limit 2/4 or 3/6 and some 2/4 NL 100-200 buy in that was donktastic. i was there on a thursday afternoon.. there were 2 tables of NL on probably four of the limit which i wasn't paying much attention to. a very nice poker room with some good gimmicks (aces cracked, etc). but the casino itself is very nice

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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i played cache creek once. its a very nice casino for the area. They had a few tables of low fixed limit 2/4 or 3/6 and some 2/4 NL 100-200 buy in that was donktastic. i was there on a thursday afternoon.. there were 2 tables of NL on probably four of the limit which i wasn't paying much attention to. a very nice poker room with some good gimmicks (aces cracked, etc). but the casino itself is very nice

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really?

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

If you don't mind a bit of a drive try Napa Valley Casino. It's tiny but friendly. They have a $1/$3 NL no cap. The best thing is that they charge time $6/half hour. Works out much cheaper than most Bay Area rakes. They also have a hotel discount worked out across the street.

Another small casino is American Canyon Casino. I think it's $2/$2/$3 with a $4 rake $300 cap? Been awhile so not sure of the details.

Lucky Chances is probably your best bet. The $1/$1/$2 is pretty close to what you want. More of a casino atmosphere. I think the cap was $200. An oddity with Lucky Chances is that they make you limp for double the big blind. As a result you can think of the blinds as half size, probably zero after the rake, so raising in EP doesn't make much sense. This seems to encourage a lot of limped pots. They also have a $2/$3/$5 $500 cap I think.

Bay101 and Garden City have spread limit where the betting is also capped

Garden City:
$1/$1/$2 $2-$100 $100 cap
$1/$3/$5 $5-$200 $200 cap

Bay101:
$2/$3/$5 $5-$100 $100 cap
$5/$5/$10 $10-$200 $1,000 cap

The spread limit plays a lot like NL unless it's a raised multiway pot. Then it plays more like a large limit game after the flop. Implied odds may be limited below what you normally expect in NL so Daniel Negreanu would probably hate it. Hard to justify playing the T7o against a tight EP raiser.

Sorry if I got some of the details wrong. It's been a while since I played at some of the lower limits.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

i heard a funny description of the bay 101 spread limit 5$ to go game; apparently a lot of high limit types will basically bum rush it and cap every bet, effectively turning it into something like a 50/100 limit game.

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

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i heard a funny description of the bay 101 spread limit 5$ to go game; apparently a lot of high limit types will basically bum rush it and cap every bet, effectively turning it into something like a 50/100 limit game.

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True. There are $100/$200 limit players that sometimes do that while waiting for a seat. There is one player who will even do that on the $1000 cap. His swings can be $7,000 easy. I once had to call $30 all-in on the river into a $1,500 pot playing just the board when my bottem end straight flush draw missed. He had a bottom end gut shot draw and we chopped. I don't even want to think about it if I had more money and folded, he always shows the bluff.

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Surprised nobody suggested Reno

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Last time I was in Reno, a tumblweed rolled across Virginia St. and did some minor damage to my NSX. It is a ghosttown! But I hear it is easy to win some cool prizes at Circus Circus.

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And when was this? Last time I was there, beginning of October, the Nugget had two 3/6 games and a 1/2 NL. GSR (formely Hilton) had about 20 STT's and a MTT going. Plus 1/2 NL, I think a 2/5 NL, a couple of 4/8's and 10/20.

It ain't Vegas, but the games are pretty good. Plus you have all the other casino games, inexpensive lodging, etc.

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Surprised nobody suggested Reno

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Last time I was in Reno, a tumblweed rolled across Virginia St. and did some minor damage to my NSX. It is a ghosttown! But I hear it is easy to win some cool prizes at Circus Circus.

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And when was this? Last time I was there, beginning of October, the Nugget had two 3/6 games and a 1/2 NL. GSR (formely Hilton) had about 20 STT's and a MTT going. Plus 1/2 NL, I think a 2/5 NL, a couple of 4/8's and 10/20.

It ain't Vegas, but the games are pretty good. Plus you have all the other casino games, inexpensive lodging, etc.

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Beginning of October is the fall Pot of Gold at the MGM, er Bally's, er Hilton, er, I mean Grand Sierra Resort (at least it was last week, who knows what it will be next?). Tourney time is busy, but that is only 4 times a year. The WPT in the spring is the biggest.

The rest of the year (except maybe when the bowlers are there?), Reno is a poker ghost town.

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i heard a funny description of the bay 101 spread limit 5$ to go game; apparently a lot of high limit types will basically bum rush it and cap every bet, effectively turning it into something like a 50/100 limit game.

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That's rare. I've never seen it.

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but yeah, poker at lucky chances was good and it's a 100bb max buyin.

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That's slightly misleading, because the $4 bring-in makes the game play a little bigger than the 1/1/2 blinds would imply.

I can't put my finger on what it is but playing 2/5 in Vegas is way more fun for me than playing 2/3/5 at Lucky Chances.

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Lucky Chances: can anyone comment on the limit scene there? I played 6/12 in 2005 Thanksgiving weekend. It was pretty loose although there was blatant softplay amongst regulars and off-duty dealers. Even with that and the huge drop I thought it was beatable.

do they still spread 6-12 through 20-40? generally good games or not?

Re: Bay Area(ish) Casinos
 

There is a NL game in Hayward at the Palace card room, a little hole in wall, with maybe 6 tables, but the NL is always filled with at least half of the seats being dead money players. Have had a few days where I ran $200 original buy in into 10k +.