The Lucky Derby



A few miles northeast of Sacramento proper, just east of I-80. Take the Greenback Lane exit and drive about two miles. It's on the left hand side of the road, across the street from a Carl's Jr.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 4/8 and 4/8 with half kill. They don't appear to spread any higher (or lower) limit games. A 6/12 was recently added.

Omaha/8: Generally 6/12 with half kill. If the game starts for the day at 4/8, it will be bumped to 6/12 no later than 2:00 PM.

No-limit hold 'em: 1/1 blind $20-60 buy in; 2/5 blind $100-table-match buy in.

A very nice card club in a large building in a shopping-busy area. Malls are right nearby.

Rake: The rake is $3+$1 jackpot for 7-9 players, $2+$1 for 5-6 players, and $1+1 for 2-4 players. Even if there is no flop, $1 is taken for the jackpot.

Blinds on the 4/8 were odd: there was only a single $4 blind, in the position after the button. Since the rake was $4, the dealer simply took the blind and put it on the drop box.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: Shufflemaster machines are standard on most tables.



Wait Time: Not too long, even on a Sunday afternoon. Seemed to take about fifteen minutes for a 4/8 seat. They were unexpectedly not spreading Omaha at the time because the Sunday tournament was still going on and was taking up the tables.

Tournaments

 * Tuesday, 6:30 pm: NLHE $50+$15 (first Tuesday each month: $100+$15)
 * Saturday, 3:00 pm: NLHE $37+$13
 * Sunday (every Sunday) 11:00 am: Ladies Only NLHE ($30, unlimited $20 rebuys for 1st 3 rounds)
 * Sunday (1st Sunday of every month) Derby Deep Stack  10:00am: 10,000 chips ($220)

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Big Bad Beat Jackpot: Quad 8's or better beaten = $10,300 (Feb 06)
 * Small Bad Beat Jackpot: AAATT or better beaten by quads or better, $6200 (Feb 06).
 * Omaha Bad Beat Jackpot: Any quad's beaten = $4600 (Feb 06)
 * Royal Flush Bonus: progressive by suit and differed by game (Omaha had separate jackpots).

Atmosphere
Very nice place with reasonable decor and efficient, cheerful employees. Seemed to be quite busy with relatively happy customers. Room to walk around, a separate but connected room for Asian games like Pai Gow, televisions in a few places but not all over.

Neighborhood: A nice part of suburbia: a shopping center behind the building, a mall only a block away. Lots of shopping and part of California's "driving culture". A Carl's Jr and Del Taco across the street.

Parking: About twenty along the side of the building (west side). Plenty more in the parking lot for the shopping center immediately behind the building.

Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables. Nice felt and padding. Chairs are standard fixed-leg metal frame chairs.

Service and Comps
Sodas, coffee, and water are free. Full meals and light snacks are available off the decently-sized and variety-filled menu, for a not-too-cheap price. Example: dish of vanilla ice cream ($2.50). Club sandwich ($6). They have a free membership card that gets you 15% off food items on the menu. As cardroom food goes, the food is very good.

Service was relatively prompt and cheerful.

Links

 * Nearest competitor is the Phoenix Casino in Citrus Heights.

Visited by wiki authors

 * Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006.
 * Visited by Luckbox in August 2009.