Mike's Card Casino



A typical small town cardroom, in the middle of the downtown of this cute little town that sits right on the road to Yosemite. The card room is situated literally on the central corner of the town.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/6, sometimes 4/8, sometimes a kill. Blinds are unusual: for 3/6, it's $3 on the button and $3 immediately to the left of the button. There is no other blind.

Omaha/8: 4/8 games every day, sometimes 3/6. Tue and Fri nights have a 10/20 Omaha/8 game.

Rake: $4 per hand, $3 for 5 players or less.

Game Character: A steady crew of regulars know each other. They are generally loose but aggressive, and more skilled than typical small town players. More emphasis on gambling and less on tight play. Also, a large number of the regulars love Omaha and play it whenever they can.

Posting: New players do not need to post.

Shuffling: All tables are hand shuffled.

Wait Time: Varies from time to time. When a tournament is running, no cash games go until enough players bust out of the tourney to start a ring game.

Smoking: none

Tournaments

 * Every day 10 a.m. NLHE $25.00 buy-in. $5.00 add on.


 * Every day 6 p.m. NLHE $25.00 buy-in. $5.00 add on.

All tournaments are somewhat speedy affairs (max 2 hours). Buyin starts you with $100 in chips. Initial blinds are 1/1, then 2/2, then 4/4. Levels are 10 mins each.

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Bad Beat Jackpot: AAATT or better beat by anything (for Omaha, it's quad tens or better beaten)
 * Bonus Hands: Progressive Jackpot for each hand type. Only 1 hole card need play.
 * Royal Flush
 * Straight Flush
 * Quads

Atmosphere
A small but friendly-seeming local card room that sees enough business from their regular clientele to actually be open 7 days a week for a reasonable number of hours. To even be able to host two daily tournaments is quite unusual for a card room this size, so while their regular crowd is not large it's clearly dedicated.

Managed by friendly open people always willing to help explain their setup.

Neighborhood: In the middle of the downtown area of this small town, it's surrounded by banks and other big businesses, but seems like a nice place in general.

Parking: No parking - park on the street. Or, at night, park in the bank parking lot across the street.

Tables and Chairs: the tables are generally old and faded but still serviceable. A still visible commit line is generally enforced. Cupholders are inset into the vinyl armrests. A motley collection of chairs: some of them adjustable office-style chairs, some of them older fixed-leg metal frame chairs. For tournaments, they cram 11 chairs at each table, but typically they run with only 9 or 10 chairs at each.

Service and Comps
No comps; some sort of coffee and beverage service, but it seems to be help yourself.

Links and Notes

 * MarkT visited in February 2007
 * Zeke S.visited in June 2009.
 * Closest competitor is probably Casino Real in Manteca.