Rancho's Club



A few miles east of Sacramento proper, just north of US Hwy 50. In a strip mall on the corner of Folsom Blvd and Mills Park. A nice card club in a businessy area right along the train tracks.

Games
Omaha/9: 4/8 limit with a half/kill, spread on most days, but ends when the game breaks -- sometimes 5pm, sometimes early the next morning. Yes, this is not Omaha/8, it's Omaha/9. A hi-lo split where the low hand qualifier is 9-high. As you can imagine, this enables quite a few more lows and leads to a lot more action and bigger pots.

Rake: The rake at HE is $5 for 6-9 players, $4 for 5 players, and $3 for 2-4 players. The rake is taken from the pot after the flop.

Blinds on the 4/8 games were 2/4, but the blinds for the NL game were 1/1/3 (button and small blind each post $1; big blind posts $3). All blinds are live.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: Shufflemaster machines are standard on all tables.



Wait Time: Not too long, even on a busy Saturday night.

Tournaments
Sunday, Noon: Freeroll $4k NLHE for anyone who has logged at least 15 hours of play time that week, starting 6/7/2009

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Big Bad Beat Jackpot: Quad 8's or better beaten = $69,000 (Nov 09)
 * Small Bad Beat Jackpot: AAAJJ or better beaten by quads or better, $3000 (Nov 09).
 * Royal Flush Bonus: All suits win $500 each.
 * High hand three times per day: Wins $100.
 * Happy hour from 3-5pm and 5-6am: All Jackpots and Promotions are doubled besides the Big Bad Beat Jackpot.
 * Buy-in Bonuses: Between 8am-9am, you can get 60 in chips for $40 in the hold'em game, and 100 in chips for $70 in the Omaha game. And at 2am you can get 100 in chips for $70 for any game running.

Various other promotions throughout the year (e.g. "flop a flush, win $50", or "Win with nut-nut in Omaha, get a point!")

Atmosphere
Extremely nice looking interior. Remodeled in late 2005, and looks it. Mellow decor, updated in general. New tables with crisp clean felt and fresh padding. No footrails on the tables, interestingly. A very comfortable place to play, with friendly staff who made a point to not only find out my name, but use it in play ("It's folded up to Mark, who raises...").

Neighborhood: A strip of businesses that from the outside don't look too great: a kwickymart, laundromat, Chinese restaurant, etc. Not sure how safe it is to walk around here at night; seems a little creepy, frankly.

Parking: Practically none. The spaces in front are all labeled with the business name that owns them, and Rancho's Club only has like 6 spaces. So find street parking behind the building.

Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables. New and very nice. Drinks and standard "slide-in" casino cup holders. Chairs are standard non-wheeled metal frame chairs.

Service and Comps
At meal times, the staff brings in full meals for everyone at the tables, apparently for free. I didn't partake, having just had lunch, but others did and they didn't seem to pay. Drinks are also available. More than one waitress was servicing the club, which is surprising given how small it is.

Links and Notes

 * Nearest competitor is probably The Lucky Derby in Citrus Heights, or Red Hawk Casino about 20 miles east.
 * Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006 and Nov 2009.