19th Hole



Located more or less in downtown Antioch, the 19th Hole is a sports bar/hangout which also has a side room where they spread poker, nightly, starting around 5:30pm.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/6 and 3/6 with a full kill. 2/4 and 4/8 spread upon demand. Generally, they start each night by spreading a 3/6 game, then at 7:30 switch to 3/6 kill.

Blinds: The blinds at the 3/6 are odd: they're only $1 for the small blind and $2 for the big blind. Since the big blind is essentially nearly always getting pot odds to call with any two cards, I'm not sure what the point is. The big blind can save a buck, I guess, if it's two or more bets cold when it gets back to them.

Rake: $4 per hand, taken from the pot after the flop.

Game Character: Typical bar-room card players. Most are slightly lubricated, a few are definitely tipsy. You get the guy who raises every hand preflop, the calling station who calls down every hand even with ace-high, the tight player trying to play well but getting sucked in most hands, etc.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: The main table has a Shufflemaster machine, the other two tables are hand-shuffled.

Wait Time: Varies, but is generally not too long - 30-45 minutes at peak times.

Tournaments

 * Tue-Wed 5:30pm: NLHE $20+$2.
 * Thu-Fri 5:30pm: NLHE. Unknown buyin.

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Bad Beat Jackpot: $2000.
 * Bonus hands that look a lot like a Washington Monte Carlo board. Royal Flush = $100, Straight Flush = $50, etc.
 * Bonus buyin: if you're there when the game starts at 5:30pm, you can get $120 in chips for a $100 buyin.

Atmosphere
A somewhat dark bar with a somewhat brighter poker room in "back" (really, its on the right side of the space as you look at it from the front, but when you go in the front door you get turned around so that the poker room feels like it's in the "back" now). The dark bar part also has a 21st Century Blackjack table in it, and one Pan table.

The poker room itself has its own door to the outside, and has a number of big windows. The windows have shades in them, but still let in a lot of light making the poker room feel notably less claustrophobic than the bar area itself.

The poker tables are kept in great condition; they slip covers on top of them every night before closing, to protect them during the main part of the day when poker isn't played yet. A spare table is over in the bar area, just a weird little folding-table dealie. They don't use that one, I assume, except for the tournaments.

Four largish televisions are hung on the walls of the room so anyone can see the game.

Neighborhood: A strip mall shopping center near downtown with a nondescript bar/casino in it. That's the 19th Hole, apparently an Antioch "tradition" for years.

Parking: Plenty of parking in the lot for the shopping center.

Tables and Chairs: 10-player tables with decent felt, though the padding is extra-fluffy, making it hard to stack or slide chips. The vinyl armrests are yellow, making a nice contrast to the black felt. Clean commit line. Nice, padded fixed-leg chairs

Service and Comps
It's in a bar, so you can get drinks and bar food. A bar server comes by every 30 minutes or so asking if anyone wants anything.

Links and Notes

 * Closest competitor is Kelly's Casino a few miles away.
 * Visited by Mark T in Jul and Aug 2006.