Marina Club

Hours, Tables, Location
( This page was last updated on July 17th 2009 by a Marina Club regular.)

Open from 10 am, every day (occasionally open 24 hours if enough players are still around at 6).

There is a promotion every morning if you start the 1st game. Every one at the table is guaranteed an additional $10 on top of whatever they buy in for. The kicker is that they deal 5 cards to every one face up. Each ace is worth $20 and each king is worth $15 instead of the guaranteed $10. You have to play for two hours though or pay back your bonus when you leave prior to 12pm unless you lose your 1st buy in regardless of whatever it may have been. For this reason most players buy in for $20-$40 at first and are prepared to re-buy. To get the promotion you hvae to put your name on a list posted on the from door every morning. The list is usually but not always filled by 9:30am.

4 tables.

204 Carmel Avenue, Marina CA. Right on a very busy street that acts as one of the business streets in the small town of Marina. Literally across the street (the other side of Carmel Ave) from Mortimer's Card Room.

Games
Spread-limit hold 'em: $2-6 spread.

No-limit hold 'em: $40-100 buyin, $1/$2 blinds.

This is a very small card club that serves the low-rollers along this stretch of the coast. Offers the only true spread-limit game in Northern California. Higher-limit players play across the street at Mortimer's Card Room. Usually, this place is busiers than Mortimer's, by a bit. Certainly, it's friendlier, probably because the stakes are lower.

Game Info
2-6 was quite loose with typically 5-6 players seeing every flop. Almost always 1 full table with a short wait list and often two tables going by 8pm.

2$-1$ NL some one said "was wild and crazy with lots of bluffing and moving all in with low pairs, etc." but in reality the no limit games only play a couple times a week and it all depends on who is playing. The tables are a healthy mixture of rocks and action players in my experience. I recommend calling ahead of time to find out if they have a table going that night if you are looking for a good no limit game.

Rake:
 * Spread limit: $3 for 6-9 players, $2 for 4-5 players, $1.50 for 2-4 players, no flop, no drop.
 * No limit: $2-$1 blinds 6-9 players, 3$ per flop for 6-9, 2$ per flop for 2-5 players, no flop no drop. (There is no time charge, I play there all the time and don't know why any one posted that there was on here. There is a placard bolted to every table to the right of the dealer that states exactly what they charge per number of players. They also aren't ever very eager to start a game with 5 people or less as they make the reasonable assumption that the game will break as soon as one player moves to the main game or goes broke.)

A weird backwards blind structure at the 2-6: The small blind posts $1, and the button posts $2. The dealer then takes both blinds (if there are 7 or more players) as the rake, places it on the drop box, and waits to see if a flop ensues. If it does, the rake goes down the hole.

You can open for 2-6$ in the spread limit game. I don't know why any one posted that the 1st person to open has to limp in for 2$. That is not true.

You can also straddle from any position except the button, by placing a bet equal to half of your intended straddle amount. You can straddle 4$ or 6$, which means you put out 2$ or 3$ out prior to the deal. This is also a kill and the 1st person to bring in can only call the straddle. After that any one in later positions to act can raise if they like.



Posting: New players do not need to post.

Shuffling: Machine Shuffled. Hand shuffled as well if you ask nicely.

Wait Time
Can take quite a while since there's only four tables, or can be instantaneous.

Tournaments

 * Sundays, 11:00am. NLHE.  $40+$10 buyin, one $40 rebuy, one $40 addon.

Jackpots

 * Bad beat jackpot, any quads beaten qualifies. Current value on July 17, 2009: $4000.

Atmosphere
Also connected to a bar, like Mortimer's Card Room, but without the dingy "backroom" aspect. This looked more like an adjoining business that had a door between the two put in. They were doing remodeling of the room while I was there, but except for a general air of clutter and "this is more someone's home than a business", it was fine.

A lot of regulars who all know each other. Very friendly folks who are more than willing to explain things to you if you ask. The dealers didn't seem completely on the ball, but I guess you can't have everything.

Neighborhood: Sort of a "hangout/dive" area on a busy corner just south of downtown Marina. Doesn't look particularly attractive. There are security guards at night.

Parking: About a dozen spaces in front and more across the street for Mortimer's.

Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables, standard fixed-leg chairs that aren't very comfortable. Both were a bit worn out, but OK.

Service and Comps
No service, but the bar is right next door. At dinner time, someone goes and gets a few boxes of pizza and plops them on an empty table for everyone to share, for free.

Links

 * Nearest competitor is literally across the (not busy) side street: Mortimer's Card Room.
 * Nearest large room is probably the Garden City Casino in San Jose.

Visited By Wiki Authors
Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006.