From: slandrum@ntg.com (Stephen H. Landrum)
Subject: Bay Area (California) cardroom experience
Organization: New Technologies Group, Inc.  Palo Alto CA
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 22:18:43 GMT


I've been going to some of the California cardrooms for a little less
than a year now, and have been monitoring the rec.gambling newsgroup
for about the same amount of time, and I thought I'd share some of my
impressions of the cardrooms that I've been to.

I play low stakes limit Texas Hold'Em (I usually play 3-6).  The
cardroom that I frequent most is Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno.  They
are licensed for 35 tables, and the tables are split about evenly
between two rooms.  The front room almost exclusively plays Texas
Hold'Em (occasionally they have one table playing draw loball), and
the back room is Asian games (Pan, Pai Gow, Pai Gow poker).  There are
a couple of 2-4 and 3-6 Texas Hold'Em tables going all the time (its
open 24 hours), and on Friday evenings the typical offering in the
front room is 5 games of 2-4 Hold'Em, 5 games of 3-6, 1 of 4-8, 1 of
10-20 (or 15-30) and a couple of no-limit games (usually 1-2-2 $100
buy-in, 2-3-5 $400 buy-in or 5-5-10 $800 buy-in).  The buy-in for the
2-4 and 3-6 limit games is 10x the small bet, for all other limit
Hold'Em games it is 10x the large bet.  The blind structure is:
left of the button has small blind (one half of the small bet rounded
down), his left has the big blind (one full small bet), and the button
pays time.  The time payment is not live, and at the 2-4 and 3-6 tables
the time payment is equal to the big blind.  At the no-limit tables,
time is collected on the half-hour (I am not sure of the rate), and the
button has the first blind and all of the blinds are live.

Most of the players at the 2-4 games are completely unaware of what is
going on around them, and many of them have no idea even what good
cards are.  This game can be played just as a percentage game and come
out ahead, but you have to be careful because there are some players at
the tables who know what they're doing.  You will also find players at
the tables who are killing time while they are waiting for a bigger
game to open up, and you have to watch them (although much of the time
they are playing very loosely because the stakes are meaningless).
You should almost never bluff in this game, and about 1/4 of the pots
have someone going all in.  The risk of being drawn out is too high for
my taste.

I prefer the 3-6 games because the players are just a little bit better
(not much), but most importantly because the players generally have
more money and are not going to be buying in for the minimum and going
all in all the time.  It is possible to bluff in this game, but in
order to pull it off you have build up the impression that you only
bet the nuts.

The tables at Artichoke Joe's seat 10 players (occasionally they will
put 11 at a table when they have just broken up a game and moved the
players around).  If a limit table drops down to 6 or fewer active
players then the time charge drops to 1/2 rounded down.  If you get
a royal flush (using at least one card from your hand), then you win
a T-shirt.

I have played a couple of times at the Cameo Club in Palo Alto.  This
cardroom is much smaller than Artichoke Joe's, and when I went on a
Friday they only had 4 Texas Hold'em games going (2 2-4 games, 1 3-6
game, and 1 15-30 game).  They occasionally have a 1-2-2 no-limit game.
The atmosphere here is much more like a social club.  I got nervous
after I sat down when I realized that everyone in the place knew
everyone else except for me.  One nice thing, they have free coffee
and free tea (both hot and iced).  The blind structure is similar to
Artichoke Joe's, except that time is paid on the half hour.  At the
2-4 game time costs $3.50/half hour, which ends up being comparable to
the time charge at Artichoke Joe's.  The tables at the Cameo club seat
9 players.  The Cameo Club closes at 2:00am, and the last hand of the
night the players usually try to jam the pot in one final gamble.

The other cardroom that I have played at is the Casino Royale in San
Bruno.  They have a small cardroom, a bar, a couple of pool tables,
and several arcade games.  I went on a Friday night, and they only had
two tables going, a 3-6 Hold'Em, and a dealer's choice.  They advertise
a 7-stud game (which is the reason that we went, one of my friends was
looking for a 7-stud game), and claim that they usually have one going
on Friday, but not this time.  The blind structure at the 3-6 Hold'Em
was a little bit different than I had seen before.  The player to the
left of the button had a $3 blind, and the player to his left also had
a $3 blind.  Both blinds were live, but the first blind was taken to
pay for time.  If a pot ever exceeded $30, then $1 was taken for the
jackpot fund (I don't know whether they have a bad beat jackpot, or
a straight-flush jackpot, or something else entirely).  Two of the
players at the table when I was playing worked as dealers there, and
since I had come with 3 of my friends, that didn't leave very many
suckers at the table, but I managed to win anyway :-).  The tables at
Casino Royale seat 9 players.

Of the three places I've played, the dealers at Artichoke Joe's were
definitely the most professional.  Also, at Artichoke Joe's the two
seats next to the house dealer are no-smoking seats, and they now have
two no smoking tables as well, which is a big win in my book.
-- 
Stephen H. Landrum                                        VOICE: (415) 813-8909
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