Other US Rooms
Casino and Poker Rooms featuring a ♠ have been personally reviewed, while other locations without the spade are based solely on that Casino's literature or on credited independent reviews. The information in these reviews was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details and prices as these can change at any time.
As we tour the country, we will be visiting Card Rooms and Casinos and providing reviews. For listings of Card Rooms and Casinos throughout California, the US and Canada, please visit California Casinos. If you have a favorite casino or card room, or would like to review rooms, we have not yet found, please send us an e-mail at Editor@PokerInsider.ORG.
California boasts the largest concentration of poker tables in the world, with over 1,300 tables located in large poker rooms, small back rooms and Indian casinos across the state. The huge number of tables also allows for a wide variety of games played and poker styles.
♠ June 2006: This was the first card room where I could not get anyone to answer a few questions for me. Trying to talk first to the tournament director, I was referred to the shift manager. The shift manager brusquely handed back my card and told me to come back the next day. Joe's Pool Parlor became Artichoke Joe's, a fixture in San Bruno sporting life since 1921. Joseph Sammut opened his pool parlor and phone exchange in Al LoReaux's former plumbing shop. Most calls concerned horse races; Joe accepted any wager, no matter how large. Asked how he would pay off if he lost a big bet, he replied, 'In artichoke leaves,' hence the name.
Entering from the outside, it appears to be a small back room casino with an Asian restaurant on one side, a bar on the other and double doors in the back. Entering through the doors reveals something other than a small back room. The 20,000 sq. ft. casino has 38 tables, offering Hold'em, Omaha and 7-Stud. The California/Asian games are Fast 9, No Bust 21, Pai Gow and Pai Gow Poker. Low buy-in Hold'em tourneys are held Sunday through Thursdays.
♠ March 2005: The Bay 101 Casino in San Jose is home to the World Poker Tour (WPT) Shooting Stars Tournament. The casino was smaller than expected with only 30 gaming tables, but it was a friendly and pleasant place to play. They offer you an exciting environment for casino card playing, delicious American and Asian food in the restaurant and deli as well as a sports bar, banquet facilities, and even a hair salon. The gaming experience is distinct from other casinos. Besides providing the very best gaming experience, what truly sets us apart is how they cater to you. They serve you from a delicious menu at your game table while you play!
♠ June 2006: We re-visited the club when the WPT was not in town and found the casino packed. When not configured for the WPT, the club has 28 traditional Texas Hold'em, 7-Stud and Omaha tables and 12 California games.
If the City of San Jose would smarten up they could increase their revenue by either allowing the clubs to have more tables or allow a third club to open. It is an interesting side note, the current mayor, who was worried about bad influences of the casinos, was recently indicted.
♠ May 2006: Cap's, Salinas' sole remaining card room could best be described as a back room establishment if it weren't actually the side room of the bar by the same name. It is a small intimate room with two tables present, but with only one normally in use. The players seemed friendly, with $3/$6 the primary game. The room opens at 4 PM with games starting at 5 PM daily. In the "Small World" category, the woman running the room and I were chatting while I waited for the games to start. We found out we had lived in the exact same duplex unit in the City of Marina (a block and a half from Mortimer's and the Marina Club) twenty years after I moved to Carmel Valley.
♠ May 2006: If you visit Caesar's Club, in the back area of a nice Mexican bar in Watsonville, you should probably "Habla Espanol" a little more than I do. Catering to the high immigrant population of this agricultural area, the club has two tables, with $3/$6 the main poker game. When I arrived, they were just officially setting up the card room for the day, but both tables were already occupied with play of a Rummy style game for money, though I could not discern who was winning or how much was played on each hand.
♠ May 2006: This small club has five tables and caters mostly to nightly tournaments. Ring games break out before the tournaments and as tables free up during and after the Tuesday - Saturday tourney schedule. It was prior to the 7 PM opening when I arrived, but the card room manager let me in to look around the room and talk. There is a Mexican restaurant connected to the card room that serves wine and beer.
♠ June 2006:
The Garden City Restaurant and Casino's motto is Fine Food, Spirits and Gaming
and it lives up to it in spades. The small footprint A-frame Chalet style
building on the outside disguises a classy interior with a nice restaurant and
bar leading to a 40-table casino. Their are 28 tables for traditional 7-Stud and
Texas Hold'em and 12 for the California (Asian) games of No-Bust 21, Pan, Pai
Gow and Double Hand Poker. Since the City of
In 2004, The Garden City
paid out $3.5 Million to Hold’em Tournament Players. They have $40 to $60
Unlimited Re-buy tournaments Monday through Friday mornings with typical cash
pools of $5,000. Every fall they host their traditional
Garden City restaurant is
a treasured landmark for fine dining: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or a late night
snack. Executive Chef Gino Trimble, Executive Sous Chef Johnny Estabillo, and
Sous Chef Emilio
♠ May 2006:
Located in a bowling alley complex, Luck Buck's floor space is roomy for its
five tables and well lit. They offer low limit Hold'em,
♠ June 2006:
The Lucky Chances brings new meaning to the term Dead Man's Hand. Located in
Colma, the cemetery capital of
They just held an
interesting tournament 2nd Annual Last Chance Tournament of Losers. This
tournament is a free roll for the players who were either the first knocked out
of the daily tourneys or were knocked out on the bubble. The Saturday through
Thursday daily tournaments are a little pricier here than at most card rooms,
with $100 to $200 buy-ins, but that means the cash outs are bigger,
too.
For your dining pleasure
they offer Rene's Fine Dining for daily Lunch and Dinner and Sunday Brunch and
the always open Colma Cafe for faster fare.
♠ May 2006:
The Marina Club, across the street from Mortimer's, is a dying breed, being one
of the last card rooms that do not take a rake. Instead, they take a $5 every
half hour table fee. The club is in the midst of a renovation, with up to seven
tables available once the work is complete. The remodel will bring a much-needed
upgrade to the room. The new lighting system casts an even glow on the cards and
makes for easy viewing, even if you are wearing your shades. Currently, they
have one or two tables normally playing Hold'em, with a $2-$6 spread the favored
game. Nightly they offer Black Jack and Pai Gow. The Marina Club and Mortimer's
are a blast from the past, since I lived a block and a half away as a young Army
Lieutenant a quarter century ago.
♠ May 2006:
Across the street from the Marina Club, this is another typical back room card
room behind the Bar and Restaurant. The room has five tables available, with two
to four normally filled. The games are open to whatever the clientele wish to
play, with low stakes Hold'em the standard. The Marina Club and Mortimer's are a
blast from the past, since I lived a block and a half away as a young Army
Lieutenant a quarter century ago.
♠ October 2009: With a weekend planned in Santa Cruz, I did a search to find the Ocean View's tourney schedule. What I found (besides heartbreak for finishing on the bubble) was that this little card room on the California Central Coast can be seen as a major factor in the move in poker toward Maniacal Loose-Aggressive players. For the whole story, see the article in the November Inside Scoop.
♠ June 2009: With the College shut down for a few weeks and the tourists not yet hitting the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, things are slow at the card room during the early part of June. Late afternoon saw a game of Dealer's Choice disappear and the room close early on a Thursday night. Friday night proved to be better as the locals filled the room. Small buy-in tourneys now dot the schedule several times a week and on the weekends. The new website looks good and keeps the players up to date on tourney schedules for the week. Some of the older players always have an interesting story on the olden, not so golden, days of poker; all you have to do is ask.
♠ May 2006:
With four tables, but room for more, this storefront card room is brightly lit
and has neither a back room dinginess nor casino glitz. The new room is a vast
improvement over the old room on
♠ May 2006:
With all of the small, intimate card rooms along the central
♠ May 2006:
The Palace is another of the old-time card rooms from the 40's. With eight
tables, it is larger than most of the bay area rooms. Several of the tables have
the auto-shufflers that are gaining popularity nationwide. $3/$6 Hold'em is
popular, but their $100 buy-in No-Limit game is the best in the area. They have
daily tournaments with a $40 - $50 buy-in. Inside also offers a snack bar with a
moderate menu. Fronting on busy
♠ May 2006:
The San Pablo Lytton Casino is the Bay Area's Indian casino. The poker area is
toward the back and boasts 20 poker tables. They offer Hold'em games from $3/$6
to $8/$16 and a $100 buy-in No Limit game, as well as Omaha and 7-Stud when the
players desire it. The casino is more than a card room, with slots and 20 plus
other table games, such as Pan and Double Hand Poker. All told, it is a typical
flashy Indian casino with a strong poker presence. Besides the numerous gaming
opportunities, Casino
♠ August 2007: As the popularity of poker grows, so does the
Bicycle Club outside of
The Bike has always been
known as
Not only has there been an
architectural facelift, the club continues to lead the way in innovative
marketing. Marketing Director Kelly O’Hara aptly put it when she said, “The view
is always the same, unless you are the lead dog.” Their latest innovation is the
promotion of Ladies poker events. Besides the long running quarterly
♠ March 2005:
The Bike (as the locals call it) in
♠ August 2007: A new paint job and etched glass doors have added a
touch of elegance to one of my favorite small card rooms. The addition of flat
screen TVs around the playing area is a nice touch, and the small bar and cafe
are Jonathan Wood, the Day Shift manager is one of several people running the
club while the search for a new General Manager is underway, and they are doing
a fine job. The club is still small, with only six traditional poker tables, as
well as tables for Asian Games and 21. They have also added a small private room
for high stakes Asian Games where the players can get away from the distractions
of the main card room floor. They currently only have one low buy-in tournament
a week, on Monday nights, but they are looking at increasing the tourney
schedule in the near future. They pride themselves on catering to their loyal
customer base, but also being a place for novice players to break in to brick
and mortar casino action. They are beginning to promote the club as “The Home
Game Away from Home” where a group of friends can come together and play poker
as a group.
♠ March 2005:
The Club Caribe Casino in
♠ February 2008: Looking back at my review of three years
ago, I realized that saying I shortchanged the Commerce Casino would be a gross
understatement. Not only did I omit the grandeur of the hotel's
Assyrian/Babylonian motif exterior architecture, I failed to mention the
opulence of the gaming floor with life size Ben Hur-esque chariot and horses to
the Sphinx-like statues that adorn the main entrance. As the self-proclaimed
“Poker Capital of the World,” the world's largest poker room (at 91,694 sq. ft.)
has a huge reputation to live up to, and it does a magnificent job.
When it comes
to the Casino Games, they have them all. With so much room, ring games abound.
They normally offer Limit and No Limit Hold‘em, 7-Card Stud and 7-Card Stud,
Hi-Lo Omaha and Omaha High-Low, Razz, Lowball, Pot Limit, Mexican Poker,
Pineapple, 5-Card Stud, 5-Card Draw and Low-Ball with limits ranging through all
levels. The California Games area offers No Bust Blackjack, 13-Card Poker, 3
Card Poker, Caribbean Stud, 21st Century Baccarat, Super Pan-9, Pai Gow Poker,
Pai Gow Tiles and Joker’s Wild Pai Gow have.
However, the Commerce
does not limit itself to offering the widest variety and largest number of ring
games. They provide a full tournament schedule for wallets of all sizes. For
those with bigger financial dreams dancing in their heads, the Commerce Casino
also hosts the annual
♠ March 2005: The Commerce Casino in Commerce is home to the
World Poker Tour (WPT) LA Poker
Classic. It is the largest poker room in the world. Even though I did not last
long in my initial foray into a WPT event, I did win a couple of satellites to
pay for my entry.
♠ February 2008: An amazing change is happening at the
♠ March 2005: The New Crystal Park Casino in
♠ March 2005:
The Hollywood Park Casino near
♠ March 2005: Larry Flint's Hustler Casino in
♠ March 2008: I finally got to visit an old friend in person. This
new casino has all the trappings of a quality upscale card room, which is a real
change from the dark and dingy little smoke filled room of my youth. The
brightly lit interior highlights both the poker tables and the
March 2007: I have not
been back to the Normandie since I was a young 18-year-old stud player over 30
years ago. Playing cards in
♠ July 2005: The Golden West Casino in
♠ June 2005: The Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage has all the glamour associated with
the new era of bigger and better Indian casinos. The poker room is small, with
only ten tables and unlike most casinos and unlike most poker rooms today, they
do not offer tournaments (except for their monthly player loyalty freeroll). Do
not let this stop you, since there are plenty of poker style table games and in
an area known for fine dining, their restaurants are
fantastic.
♠ October 2009: It had been several years since I last checked on the status of a poker room at the Spa Resort in Downtown Palm Springs. On my previous visit, the only poker in the immediate area was played at Aqua Caliente, their sister casino. What I found here was a hidden jewel in the desert. The card room is small, with only seven tables, set off from the main slot machine area, next to the Deli. The majority of play is small stakes Hold'em, mostly $3-$6 Limit and $1-$3 No Limit ($50 to $300 buy-in), with $4-$8 Limit and $2-$5 No Limit available if their are players to fill the tables. Though it is primarily a locals casino during the week, a sizeable crowd drives down from L.A. for the relaxed atmosphere on the weekends.
They offer a daily $40+$10 Early Bird Tournament at 11 AM Monday - Saturday, with a blind structure geared to last a couple hours. They have Bad Beat Jackpots, Rack Attack specials and High Hand Specials. The dealers are friendly, the floor staff knowledgeable and atmosphere relaxed. This is definitely the place to go in the desert for low-stakes Hold'em at it's finest.
♠ June 2005: The Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio is an oasis in a desert wasteland, as the
largest desert casino should be. Though the poker room is small, with only eight
tables they have daily tournaments with buy ins as low as $10.00. The casino is
lively and the players friendly.
♠ Sometime in 2009: Fantasy Springs, after experimenting with Poker Pro style automated tables, closed its poker room.
♠ June 2005: YOU'RE FIRED!!! Those were the words heard by Donald Trump's management team as the Tribal Elders took back control of the casino. The Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella is out in the middle of nothing. It is the last of the desert casinos heading east on I-10. Do not let the desolate location fool you. The casino is full of the expected Trump Glitz, even though The Donald is no longer part of the operation. The poker room is small, with only eight tables, but it is nicely tucked away to limit the hustle and noise of the slot machines and other table games. Though it is small, it has been an official satellite host for the World Series of Poker. The Rattlesnake Restaurant, though a bit pricey is worth the money. The service was excellent and the food exceptional.
♠ April 2010: You will be impressed with the newly remodeled poker room at Spotlight 29. With eight tables, the brightly lit room is ready for some hard and heavy poker Action. The room hosts two Daily Big Deal No-limit Hold'em tournaments daily, a $35 buy-in with two re-buys and an add-on that sports a $1,500 guarantee at 11 AM and a 7 PM $60 bounty freeze out tourney with a $1,000 guaranteed. Their current promotion is the 29 Surprise, where from noon to Midnight combinations of 2's and 9's win cash prizes. They are also adding $5,000 to the Bad Beat Jackpot (Aces over 10's beaten by quads) from 5 PM to 7 PM and midnight to 3 AM every day. On Saturday nights, if five or more tables are playing, the room orders in meals for all the players to replace the once standard buffet. All live game play in April and May count toward a discounted or free seat in a WSOP Main Event Satellite to be held on June 5, 2010.
♠ June 2005: The Morongo Casino in Cabazon has recently opened its NEW casino, resort hotel and spa with a larger Poker Room. Home to the Poker
Superstars Invitational II, the newly built casino and resort hotel is state of
the art. The enclosed poker room keeps out cigarette smoke and the noise from
the slots. The sign-up board is computer generated and looks a lot better than
black marker on white board normally used. They have daily morning tournaments
and several nighttime tourneys each week. With 25 tables, it is the largest
poker room in the
♠ July 2006: With the opening of the new beautifully built casino a little over a year ago, the San Manuel is one of the larger Indian Casinos in
the desert area. Located near the
With a full complement of more than 30 Asian (Pai
Gow) and
♠ June 2005: The Soboba Casino in
The staff is well trained, the players friendly and
the room was lively. They comp’ed me dinner at the Cafe, and the Patty Melt was
superior to most, with a double patty and large chunks of grilled
onion.
If an exciting game of
poker is what you are looking for, then the spacious non-smoking 15-table poker
room is just for you. Players can choose from several exciting variations, such
as 7-Card Stud High/Low, 3/6, 4/8, and 8/16
Not far from the Marine
Base at
The spacious and
comfortable 54-table Pechanga Poker Room offers exciting poker action 24-hours
every day with
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