Poker Flats Casino

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/6 with a full kill. 4/8 and 6/12 available on weekday mornings.

They may offer Omaha/8 as well on demand, but there seemed to be no regular games or schedule.

Rake: The rake on all games is $3 per hand + $1 jackpot.

Blinds on 3/6 the blinds are 1/3.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: All tables are hand shuffled.

Kill: Killer acts last on preflop betting round.

Game Character: Fairly loose and passive; typical small town game.

Wait Time: Often there is only one game going, so wait time can be anywhere from 0 minutes to an hour.

Tournaments

 * Mon-Fri, 11:30am, NLHE $10+$2
 * Mon 6pm NLHE: $20+$5
 * Tue 6pm NLHE: $20+$5
 * Wed 6pm NLHE: $20+$5, $20 rb
 * Thu 6pm NLHE: $20+$5
 * Fri 6pm NLHE: $35+$5

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Bad Beat Jackpot: AAA88 beat = $1500
 * High Hand: High hand of the day wins $100
 * Hand Of The Day: $325 or $100 bonus if you show one of the two "hands of the day".

In Merced, an unusual jackpot tradition has started: both Merced cardrooms pick one or two "oddball full houses" to be the hands of the day each day, and if a player makes one of those full houses (using both hole cards) they win a jackpot prize. This is specifically to juice the action slightly in the game: when the hand of the day is 22244, you will play 2-4 or pocket deuces, even for two or three bets cold.

Hands of the day are always weird full houses of high-and-low-cards, e.g. 555KK or TTT33, because their point is to get you to play hands you wouldn't normally play.

Atmosphere
Poker Flats is one of Merced's two small card rooms. Located on a corner of Main St right downtown, it's a small cozy room with only three tables. Everyone knows everyone and calls out each other's name as they enter the room ("Norm!"). One player went to buy more chips at the cage, and when the cashier wasn't visible, just entered the cage, left a hundred on the coutner, and grabbed a rack of chips. He then told the cashier when they came back from the bathroom what he'd done. Clearly, this is a laid back establishment.

There is a TV on the wall, and a few decorations around the place, but basically it's a standard small town card room.

Neighborhood: In the middle of downtown Merced, but Merced isn't that big a city. Seems like an OK place; businesses all over. Probably some city crime around, though, so be careful.

Parking: Large city lot immediately behind the building.

Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables, with unfortunate astro-turfy felt and old cracked vinyl padding on the armrails. Roll-up wheeled drink/food tables. An assortment of different player chairs; some are fancy office chairs with "Poker Flats" embroidered on their backs; others are standard fixed-leg chairs. Some are adjustable office chairs.



Service and Comps
No service, but they do seem to have coffee, water, and Pot Noodles. I don't know if they charge for any of them.

Links

 * Nearest competitor is the Gold Sombrero in Merced, or Chukchansi Gold in Coarsegold.

Visited by wiki authors
Visited by MarkT in May 2006.