Capitol Casino



Just a mile or two north of the capitol building itself, on the north edge of town. A very nice card club that seems to stay fairly busy, and seems to have active games at all three standard limits they offer, at all times.

Games
Cards: The cards are large index and somewhat harder to peek at by just lifting a corner. Very easy to see the board from any seat for those with vision problems.

Wait Time: Wait times vary greatly. The 1st &amp; 15th of the month are especially busy. 4/8 kill usually moves pretty fast. Depending on the night, a seat may be open or you may wait an hour. Average wait time is 20 minutes.

Game Nature: Generally more action than would be typical at low-limit games like this. A few young hotshots who think they will power through the table wander around, but often run into local rocks who often put bad beats on them, not even noticing their "advanced" play.

Rake: $3+$1 jackpot for 6-9 players, $2+$1 with 5 players, and $2+$0 for 4 players or less. The rake is taken from the blinds before the flop. If the blinds agree to chop preflop, no rake is taken; however stealing the blinds does incur the full rake.

For the no-limit games, the drop is $1 before the flop, then the additional $4 is taken on the flop (includes a $1 jackpot drop).

Posting: New players need not post, may wait for the button to pass.

Shuffling: Shufflemaster machines on all tables

Kills: Killer acts in turn. Most unusual kill structure: when the kill is triggered, the killer does not post a kill blind preflop and can choose to fold when it is their turn, without cost.

Tournaments



 * Monday-Thursday 10am: NLHE $20+5 buyin, $300 added (Average 1st place $600+, average entries 60)
 * Friday 10am: NLHE $45+5 buyin, $300 added
 * Saturday tournaments 10am, different each Saturday:
 * 1st and 4th Saturday: NLHE $20+5 buyin, $500 added
 * 2nd Saturday: NLHE $200+20 buyin
 * 3rd Saturday: NLHE freeroll, $1000 first place, unlimited $25 rebuys and addon.
 * Sunday, 11am: NLHE $50+$10, signup starting at 10am. Double stack. One optional rebuy.  $4,000 prize pool based on 80 players.
 * For more information and/or recent updates just visit their website: http://www.capitol-casino.com/tournaments.asp

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Big Bad Beat Jackpot: Quad 8's or better beaten: Progressive. (Starts at $50,000, $1,000 a day added, $100,000 max.)
 * Small Bad Beat Jackpot: AAAJJ or better beaten by quads or better, (Starts at $5,000, $20,000 max.)
 * Royal Flush Bonus: progressive by suit. (Starts at $200, $600 max.)

Atmosphere
Extremely nice looking interior. A connected cafe features tables where you can watch TV and order a meal while waiting for a table. A side rail with chairs and tables on the outside let you also sit alongside the action and watch or wait for your turn. Downright fancy in decor, upscale bathrooms, etc. Very very nice.

The Dragon Room where Asian games are played (Pai Gow, double-hand poker, and "Coming Soon! 21st Century Blackjack") is also very nice. It has a waterfall and Asian art work, and is connected to the main card room via a separate hallway. Poker tournaments often overflow into this room.

The brush board is computerized and visible to players on a wall of the casino. It's a homemade "board" program someone wrote in Excel using macros, but it does the job fairly well.

Smoking: No smoking at the tables or in the main room, but they actually have a separate indoor closed smoking lounge, so you don't have to go outside to smoke. This is a rarity in California, where smoking indoors in most businesses is banned.

Neighborhood: A business-filled area that looks relatively clean. 16th street turns into a highway about two blocks north of the casino, so there is really only one more block of normal street to the north before it becomes a freeway entrance/exit. Not unsafe, but a bit odd in terms of navigating. A residential neighborhood to the east is a convenient place for street parking.

Parking: One parking lot behind the building and about 50 spaces in the main lot on the North side. Additional parking at Big Al's Furniture, directly south of the building. The exterior shot of Capitol Casino on this page was taken standing next to Big Al's Furniture.

Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables with a foot rail. Nice felt and padding. Chairs (fixed-back and fixed-leg metal frame chairs with decent padding) have rolling wheels on them, making it very easy to get in and out of them.

Service and Comps
A full menu (with both American classics as well as a lot of Asian and Mexican dishes) and bar service available. The food was very good, but not cheap. You can eat at the table; they wheel out one of two sizes of tray table to you and you can munch away as you play. Coffee and Iced Tea is free (minus a toke for the server); sodas and bottle water are a dollar.

Servers themselves and porters are generally responsive, but can at times be hard to locate. The floor will call service for you when you ask.

Links and Notes

 * Nearest competitor is probably The Lucky Derby in Citrus Heights.
 * Visited by MisoSouper in July 2009.
 * Visited by Dell in Dec 2007.
 * Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006 and Nov 2009.
 * Visited by Binki in June 2006.