Outlaws Card Parlour



Located directly on US 101, take the Santa Rosa Road exit and head one block south. Front Road is the frontage road for the highway, so Outlaws' distinctive windmill sign can be sign easily from both directions on the highway.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/3/6/12 (Mon and Thu nights only), or 3/6 with a full kill (Sunday nights only).

No-limit hold 'em: Only played during unusual "cash tournament" (see below) on Monday nights.

Omaha/8: 3/6 with a full kill/scoop (Wed nights only)

Dealers's choice: any of the above games (or five-card draw) can be played if chosen by the dealer on Dealer's Choice nights. Tue and Fri nights it's 3/6 dealer's choice. Sat nights it's 3/3/6/12 dealer's choice.

The card room opens every night at a different hour, with a tournament (different tournaments every night; see below) which takes up both tables. As players bust out of the tourney, the cash game for the night starts forming. The cash game is also different every night, as detailed above.
 * Sun: opens at 5pm.
 * Tournament = Omaha/8 tournament, becomes NLHE after 1st break ($40 buyin + unlimited $20 rebuys)
 * Cash game = 3/6 kill LHE
 * Mon: opens at 6pm
 * Tournament = NLHE "cash tournament" (see below)
 * Cash game = 3/3/6/12 LHE
 * Tue: opens at 7pm
 * Tournament = Five-card draw tournament, $20 buyin
 * Cash game = 3/6 dealer's choice
 * Wed: opens at 6pm
 * Tournament = unknown
 * Cash game = 3/6 scoop
 * Thu: opens at 5:30 pm
 * Tournament = unknown
 * Cash game = 3/3/6/12 LHE
 * Fri: opens at 6pm
 * Tournament = unknown
 * Cash game = 3/6 dealer's choice
 * Sat: opens at 6pm
 * Tournament = unknown
 * Cash game = 3/3/6/12 dealer's choice

Wait Time: Can be quite long, depending. There's only two tables, but everyone's playing the same game, at least.



Rake: $3 + 1 jackpot.

Posting: unknown.

Shuffling: All tables are hand-shuffled.

Tournaments
They have different tournaments to kick off each night's festivities (see the daily chart above), but they have two very unusual features to their tournaments.

First, they are the only physical casino I've heard of that actually spreads tournaments of five-card draw. The owners say it's a popular tourney and will be offered for a long time to come.

Second, they offer an extremely unusual "cash tournament" on Monday nights. This tournament is played as no-limit hold 'em but not played with tournament chips: it's played with real cash chips that represent your buyin. When you bust out of the tournament, you are literally losing your buyin. Players are not allowed to quit while there is more than one table playing, but once all the players are merged onto a final table, a player may quit the tournament at any time and take their chip stack and cash it in. Once the tournament gets down to three remaining players, the tournament stops (the last three are required to quit at that point), though the owners say players often make deals once they're down to the last four or five, and split the cash chips in front of them, so they can quit the tourney and go on to the cash game that's already started up by that time.

Jackpots and Promotions
Bad Beat Jackpot:
 * for Hold'em: AAA99 or better beat
 * for Omaha: Quad 9's or better beat

Atmosphere
In the Great Plains states, small farming towns often ended up centered around one big "general store" that provided the bulk of the material goods for the town throughout much of the past century. While in some places, the general store has gone out of vogue, in others it is celebrated (see Wall Drug, for example). The general store in a small community often combined many functions of what would be separate stores in today's modern towns: dry goods, food, medicine, sundries, post office, restaurant, etc.

Atascadero is a small coastal commmunity in California about fifteen miles south of Paso Robles, and about ten miles inland from Morro Bay. Quiet and somewhat remote, it's a charming place with the feel of a small Midwestern town - and lo and behold, it has Outlaws Bar and Grill. While not exactly a general store, the overall ambience of the place evokes midwestern turn of the century farming store: rough hewn wood timbers, solid wooden flooring, the "added on some rooms" feeling of the various rooms of the building that hold parts of the restaurant, and the "added on afterwards" feeling of the neat little card "parlour" in front.

The proprietors told me they used to have three tables in the room, but they moved a couple out to the larger "great room", more in the restaurant, to have some space. I arrived as the Tuesday night tourney was starting up, and both tables in the parlour were nearly full of players. They were playing a five-card draw tournament, though, which is virtually unheard of in physical cardrooms these days. I watched for a while, bemused, as the owners told me all about how their card room operates.

The wood planking walls and older memorabilia scattered on them evoke an "old west" vibe: pictures of John Wayne and boards with pithy sayings burned into them complete the feeling. Small without feeling cramped, instead coming across homey and fun, I only wished I could stay for the cash game, but I had no time, as the owners said the tourney would run a couple of hours or so. They open at different hours each day of the week, and stay open as long as there's enough players to play. Typically, that means they close around 1 or 2am each night.

Tables and Chairs: 9-seat tables with a mix of decent (red!) felt and grey vinyl. Fixed leg chairs with cool leather upholstery and nice padding, or some plain metal-leg chairs in other places. It's basically some decent equipment that has been bought at different times from different people, so it isn't a matched set.

Parking: A reasonable amount of parking is available in this combination restaurant and card parlour, but it does seem to only hold about 30 cars or so.

Smoking: No smoking allowed in the building under California law.

Service and Comps
Reasonable frequency of service from a waitress who comes into the card room from the bar/restaurant (they are separated by a hallway and a door that's usually kept closed, so the noise from each doesn't bother the other). A player's menu for seated players offers significant discounts on the hearty American fare available at Outlaws: hamburgers, steaks, etc, and very cheap while you play.

Links and Notes

 * Visited by MarkT in Jul 2006.