Oaks

Hours, Tables, Location
Open 24/7. 25 tables, plus additional "no-bust blackjack" and "double hand poker" tables.

4097 San Pablo Ave, Emeryville CA, cross streets 40th and San Pablo, next to Oakland. Phone: 510-653-4456. May be reached using public transportation via the MacArthur BART station and 57 bus across 40th street, or the free Emery-go-Round.

Games
Limit hold 'em: 1/2, 3/6, 6/12, 15/30, 30/60. The 30/60 is prescheduled on Tuesdays and Fridays at 1pm (signups one week in advance), but runs regularly on other days.

Spread-limit hold 'em: 1/2 SL, $40-$200 buyin, $100 max bet. 2/4 SL, $80-400 buyin, $200 max bet.

Omaha/8: 4/8 with a half kill, 6/12 with a half kill on Thursday and Friday nights.

7-Stud: 2/4 (0.50 ante), 4/8 (0.50 ante)

Lowball: Occasionally a 10/20 game.

Pan: $2 most mornings, $5 and $20 also available (with doubles) if there is interest.

Rake:
 * Hold 'em 1/2: $2 + $1 jackpot per hand ($1+1 6-handed, $1 5-handed).
 * 3/6, 6/12, 15/30, and 100max: $3 + $1 jackpot per hand ($2+1 6-handed, $1 5-handed).
 * 30/60 and 200max: $4 + 1.
 * Omaha/8: 4/8: $4 + $1 jackpot.
 * Stud 2/4: $2 + $1 jackpot per hand ($1+1 6-handed, $1 4-handed).
 * Stud 4/8: $3 + $1 jackpot per hand ($2+1 6-handed, $1+1 5-handed, $1 4-handed).

Game Review
(anonymous reviewer, June 2005): Probably the lowest live table in the Bay Area with absolutely horrible players.

MarkT, Dec 2005: 1/2 Ridiculously loose, but it has to be. The rake eats up a good chunk of these pots. The $1/2 game seems particularly pointless, although as one offduty dealer told me in coversation, it's essentially people "killing time, having a little fun, and hoping to hit the jackpot". There is no other casino in the Bay Area that offers a live 1/2 game. The 1/2 here is actually played with 50-cent chips, and the small blind is truly only 50 cents! 3/6: Fairly loose and fairly passive.

Posting: New players (or returning players who missed a blind) can choose to "buy the button" by posting both the small and big blinds in position after the button, in which case neither of the normal blinds posts anything. Otherwise, standard posting rules apply.

Shuffling: Standard ShuffleMaster shuffling machines on all tables. Except on tables in the upstairs back rooms(April 2006) which they open to handle overflow for tournaments and weekends.

Anonymous reviewer from June 2005 said: Dealers are pretty friendly, but an equal number are non-talkers and a few are a little bit incompetent at reading the board and how hole cards relate to the board... (missed straights and flushes) but this is rare.



Wait Time
Varies from time to time and game to game, but waits seemed somewhat reasonable when I was there on a Saturday afternoon. About 15 minutes for a table at any given game.

Tournaments

 * Monday 6:30 pm: NLHE, $100 + $20, no rebuy
 * Tuesday 10:00 am: NLHE, $50 + $15, 1 $40 rebuy
 * Wednesday 6:30 pm: NLHE, $80 + $20, 1 $80 rebuy
 * Saturday 11:00 am: NLHE, $100 + $20, no rebuy
 * Sundays, 1:00pm, NLHE, $100 + $25, 1 $100 rebuy

Jackpots

 * Bad Beat Jackpot: Quad Jacks or better beaten (both hole cards must play in both hands). Progressive, but starts at $10K. 50% of pool to loser, 25% to winner, 25% split between other players at the table. For Omaha, the qualifier is Quad 8's or better beaten. For Stud, the qualifier is Quad Jack's or better beaten.

Atmosphere
Reasonably nice casino: possibly the nicest in the Bay Area. High ceilings, open and well-lit. A few strategically-placed TVs and clocks hung on the walls. A few separate rooms of tables in addition to the large main room.

Neighborhood: While an open and well-travel area, vehicle break-ins and drug sales occur with a non-neglible frequency. Vehicles have been compromised even in the supervised lots. This casino is probably located in one of the worst areas relative to other Bay Area casinos.

Parking: They have their own parking lot next to the casino with about 70-80 spaces, and a security guard at the entrance to watch it (and, presumably, watch you as you enter or leave the casino). They also offer Valet Parking: pull into the lot and drive straight ahead to the back where the valets are. If the lot is full, a large overflow Oaks lot is right across the street with another 50 spaces or so, and street parking by Pixar Studios is plentiful.

Tables and Chairs: 10-player tables. Comfortable chairs, nice tables. Definitely upscale. Cool looking chips with foil stamping in their center.

Anonymous Reviewer from April 2006: Bay 101 is a nicer Bay Area cardroom than the Oaks. Oaks can get really dirty, all sorts of garbage under the tables, especially on weekends. Chairs stained. But they have been upgrading the tables (nice new felt compared to the worn, faded old tables) and TVs the past year. Good mix of people from all walks of life. Also students from nearby UC Berkeley. Emeryville is an up-and-coming town, lots of new commercial and real-estate developments (loft-conversions and condos). Pixar headquarters is right up the block. Area looks scarier than it really is, but you must still exercise caution, as with any area around a cardroom.

Service and Comps
Service can be hard to flag down, but they bring food with OK speed once you do order.

The casino is literally connected to a hofbrau place that looks pretty good. While waiting for a table, you can wander through the hofbrau and window shop the reasonably priced, tasty food. If you are playing at a table, they give you a discount. Try the Pork Fried Rice. Free self-serve coffee, tea, hot/cold water at the back near the banking games.

A full kitchen renovation completed January 2007.

Links

 * Official Oaks Website
 * Nearest competitor is Casino San Pablo then probably the California Grand Casino in Pacheco/Martinez, or possibly Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno, on the other side of the bay.
 * The Tibbetts v. Van De Kamp decision, which made Hold 'em legal in California. In 1990, the state Attorney General delivered a letter to the Oaks stating that they had been discovered spreading Hold 'em games in their casino and that the AG considered them to be a form of the banned "stud-horse poker".  The Oaks immediately ceased offering Hold 'em and sued the state.  This case was decided in favor of the Oaks on appeal in 1995, which immediately legalized Hold 'em (and other popular forms of poker, including 7-Stud) throughout the state.

Visited By Wiki Authors
MarkT visited on December 31, 2005