The Point Casino



The Point Casino just outside Kingston is an Indian casino only a few miles and one ferry ride away from Seattle (approximately 45 minutes, including ferry ride). It's on the same peninsula as the Clearwater Casino Resort, and only about 20 miles away. The casino was formerly called the Point No Point Casino (named after the Tribal Council of the area, which is called Point No Point), but the casino was renamed in early 2006. Most of their signs and a lot of their advertising still uses the old name (see picture above, and chip image below).

Games
Limit hold 'em: 3/6 most often. 4/8, 6/12, and 10/20 are listed and occasionally run. Call ahead to find out what's being spread, if you're curious.



Rake: 10% to $3 max, plus jackpot rake of $1-$2 based on pot size.

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

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: Two tables are hand shuffled, one has a standard Shufflemaster shuffling machine.

Game Character: Mostly locals, ranging from decent players to rocky retirees to fun-loving gamblers to think-they're-hot youngsters.

Wait Time: Depends greatly on time of day; games often break down and the poker room goes dead between 6:30 and 8:00 pm or so.

Tournaments

 * Sun, Mon, Tue 3:15pm NLHE $10+$5, 2x$10 rb. Around 20 players each time.

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Standard Washington Monte Carlo jackpots.
 * "Daily Double": Extra progressive jackpot for anyone who wins two Monte Carlo jackpots in one calendar day.
 * High Hand jackpot from 3pm-9pm, only on Sun, Tue, Thu, and Sat

Atmosphere
Quaint, smallish, wooden building on a forested hill in the "outback" of a rustic island in Washington's Puget Sound. This is an Indian casino that has not yet caught up with the "bigger is better" casino days of the new millennium, and looks like Indian casinos did in the early 90's: small little tribal operations with a hundred or so slot machines, a craps table, a half dozen blackjack tables, and a small restaurant. The people are very open and smalltown-friendly, though, perhaps because they don't have the big corporate push to always be showing bigger profits every quarter.

The whole building is very smoky, catering to the heavy chainsmoker, and since it's so small, the smoke permeates the place. The poker room is in the back, and only opened recently (early 2006), having converted what was once an office into the smallish room that now holds three awkwardly-placed poker tables. Smoking is allowed in the poker room (and is quite common), but they do designate the two seats along the back wall (seats 1 and 9) as "non-smoking seats" in an effort to provide non-smokers with some protection (you're against the wall, so less smoke drift will occur). It doesn't really work that well, though. Oh well.

The poker room itself is one of the quirkiest and most amusing I've ever seen: one wall is taken up with a huge reproduction (fully licensed) of the famous "Dogs Playing Poker" painting. The tables "were accidentally too big", says the manager, "because they sent us Stud tables instead of Hold 'Em tables." The tables are covered with the weirdest felt I've ever seen: it's patterned in a textured, fleur-de-lis style and is a rich ruby red. It looks like cloth you would make ladies' dresses from in the late 1800's in Texas, and not felt at all. The padded rails are light beige, a strange contrast to the red patterned felt. There are two smallish LCD TV's on the wall. Generally quiet since it's back in the back of the casino in its own separate room.

In all, the whole experience (from the odd tables to the cramped quarters to the homey, smoky atmosphere, to the unusual assortment of players) is something like "We set up our own poker room in the garage: come and play!". Which, honestly, is kind of fun. It's like a home game in a casino.

Neighborhood: The isolated casino building is in the middle of a forest. There is literally nothing around for miles except for trees. It's even a little hard to find - you're driving up that road from Kingston, and pass the "tribal council building", then keep driving and suddenly POOF! A sign on your left says there's a casino here.

Parking: Reasonable amount of parking - probably well over a hundred spaces, and the casino's just not that big. They offer a free shuttle to and from the Kingston Ferry, so you can park on the Edmunds side and just pay the passenger fare back and forth, if you like.

Tables and Chairs: 9-seat tables with goofy non-felt surface. Beige vinyl armrests. Table "felt" is very firm. No commit line. Standard cheap metal-frame lightly-padded chairs.

Service and Comps
Occasional friendly service from the bar; no food allowed (there is a restaurant in the casino, though). Self-service coffee in the room, and self-service sodas from a soda fountain just oustide the poker room (to the right, in the slot machine area).

Links

 * Nearest competitor is probably the Clearwater Casino Resort just down the road about 20 miles.
 * Visited by MarkT in Jun 2006.