Colusa Casino Resort

A remote Indian casino nestled in bucolic farm country about an hour north of Sacramento, Colusa has recently expanded and renamed themselves the Colusa Casino Resort. They've added a small hotel and in general upgraded the facility. It's still small as "Indian casino resorts" go, but it's a reasonable size in general. A smaller casino area than you might expect, but with a huge bingo hall, which is still one of their big attractions to the locals.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/6 with a full kill and 4/8 with a full kill, all played with $1 chips. On Saturday afternoon, they also have 6/12 with a kill.

No-limit hold 'em: 2/4 Blinds. $40-$400 buy in.

Killer acts last in the preflop betting round.

Wait Time: A small number of tables (only 2 or 3 of which are usually in use), leads to occasional long wait times. They will announce your seat over the casino PA, though, so you can go play blackjack while waiting for a seat.



Rake: $3+$1 jackpot for 6 or more players. For 5 or fewer, ask the floor and they can reduce the rake to $2+1. Rake is taken from the pot after the flop.

Posting: New players do not need to post to enter a game.

Shuffling: 3 tables have Shufflemaster shuffling machines.

Tournaments
The daily and weekly tournaments at Colusa are probably the best-structured regular tournaments in California. Players start with $5,000 in chips and blinds start at $25/25 and go up as you might expect (25/50, 50/100, 100/200), and levels are 20 minutes long. You get a lot of play for your money in a Colusa tournament. A normal weekly Friday tournament with 35 entrants can run five hours before finishing.


 * Thursdays, 6:30pm, NLHE Bounty, $30+10, no rebuys. 20 minute levels. Start with only $3000 in chips. Most prize money awarded as bounties ($20 per head busted out), with $10 of buyin going to main prize pool, which pays only first place.
 * Fridays, 6:30pm, NLHE, $50+20, no rebuys. 20 minute levels. $2000 guaranteed prize pool.
 * Saturdays, noon, NLHE, freeroll. Turbo tournament (5 min levels), winner gets $100 in chips and must play an hour.
 * Saturdays, 6:30pm, NLHE, $50+20, no rebuys. 20 minute levels. $2000 guaranteed prize pool.
 * every day, noon to 4pm, NLHE Sit-n-go. $30+$10. 15 minute levels. Start with $1000 in chips. Will start when anywhere from 6-10 players are ready.

Every few months, they also host a larger tournament (such as the $10K Guarantee on Sunday Dec 9 2007) with longer structures - 30 minute levels, $20,000 starting chip count, $150 buyin.

To attract more players, they may reduce the buyins on the regular weekly tournaments soon...

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Bad beat jackpot (AAATT beaten) = $10,000
 * Royal Flush Jackpot = $1000

High hands (quads or better to qualify):
 * High hand of the day = $50 (in a single calendar day; high hand count resets at midnight)
 * Second highest hand of the day = $100

Atmosphere
Recently, Colusa abandoned their poker room, and moved just two tables out into the casino floor. On two visits, both Monday after noons, the only game offered was 3/6 kill.

An interesting stab at building a poker business in remote northern farmland, the Colusa poker room is quite pleasant to play in, but seems to not be as full as a player (or the management) might hope. It only really fills up at the busiest times (Friday and Satruday nights), and most other times there are only two or three tables going, usually one game of 3/6 and one of 4/8.

The room itself is well-lit, with high ceilings and good ventilation. It is nicely removed from the hustle and bustle of the casino proper; it is not connected to the main gaming floor. Instead, you walk into the bingo hall in back and off to the side, through a small vestibule room (an overflow bingo room, perhaps?), and then into this separate and nicely-appointed room. The result is complete quiet; no noise from clanging slots or even from the lone bingo caller on bingo nights.

Three TV sets hung on the wall have their volume on but turned low, so if no one is talking, you can faintly hear the ESPN newscast, but it's so soft that it does not disturb the playing of the game.

Very nice computerized software for running the board where you sign up, which also is used for running the tournaments, when they turn one of the TVs into the tournament clock screen.

Neighborhood: A semi-remote area just off I-5, in the middle of farmland. The drive off of I-5 is not bad (about 8 or 9 miles of country road driving), and the resort itself is surrounded by nothing but fields and a single professional office park. Seems very safe, if somewhat remote.

Parking: Quite a bit of open-lot parking (no parking garage). Probably 300-400 spaces total.

Tables and Chairs: Extra-large 9-player tables (sometimes accommodates 10 players, and does so easily without crowding - you'll need long arms to reach the commit line if you're sitting on the ends of the table), standard fixed-leg chairs. Nothing special, but very serviceable with decent padding. Tables and chairs are relatively new (room was re-furbished in late 2007). The felt is new and crisp, with a clean commit line.

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

Service and Comps
Occasional standard cocktail service, and full menu service from the (somewhat expensive) deli/bar in house. A waitress wanders through the room about every 20-30 minutes.

Free coffee and sodas; coffee is in the room (in back), and they have special soda refrigerators here for cans of soda -- or just step outside and refill your own cup from the soda fountain in the bingo hall, for free.

Links and Notes

 * Nearest competitor is either Casino Marysville in Marysville, or Cache Creek Casino in Brooks.
 * Visited by MarkT in Nov 2007.