Phoenix Casino



A few miles northeast of Sacramento proper, just east of I-80. Take the Greenback Lane exit and drive about a mile, then turn right on Auburn Blvd. It's on the left hand side of the road, behind an AAMCO store. It's got a big sign on the street.

New web site: http://www.playatphoenix.com/

Games
Limit hold 'em: 4/8, 4/8 with half kill, 15/30

No-limit hold'em: 2/3 runs daily.

Omaha/8: 6-12 Omaha/8 or better runs daily.

A spacious casino with a half dozen or so other gaming tables, including Pai Gow tiles and double-hand poker. Interestingly, their 21st Century Blackjack table charges no player fee; it takes the rake only from the player-dealer for each hand.

Rake: The rake is $3+$1 jackpot for 7-9 players, $2+$1 for 6 players, and $1+1 for 2-5 players. The rake is taken from the blind(s) before the flop. No flop, No drop The Omaha/8 game is raked an extra dollar (max $4+$1) and has a separate bad beat jackpot (2222 beat to qualify).

Blinds were standard (2/4 on the 4/8, etc).

Posting: New players are not required to post.

Shuffling: Shufflemaster machines are standard on most tables.



Wait TIme: With so few tables, waits can be somewhat long, up to a half hour sometimes if it's busy.

Tournaments

 * Sunday 11:00 am: NLHE ($60+$5, 1x$40 rb).

Jackpots and Promotions

 * Big Bad Beat Jackpot: Quad 7's or better beaten = $30,000 (Feb 06)
 * Small Bad Beat Jackpot: AAAQQ or better beaten = $7000 (Feb 06).
 * High Hand Bonus: Highest hand in every eight hour period wins $100. Minimum qualifer, aces full.  Both hole cards must play.

An interesting feature of the small bad beat jackpot is that as the jackpot grows, the qualifying hand drops. It starts at AAAKK, drops to AAAQQ when the jackpot hits $5K, AAAJJ when it hits $7500, AAATT when it hits $10K. Then it starts dropping one rank a week (AAA99 the next week, etc) until eventually it gets collected.

Atmosphere
Very nice place with comfortably open spaces, handsome decor and smiling employees. Seemed to be quite busy with relatively happy customers. Room to walk around, an interesting archway leading to the separated poker area. A full bar connected to the whole thing, in a friendly open style. Completely remodeled in late 2004, it still looks shiny and new.

This is clearly a gaming establishment with a nice bar attached, as opposed to the other way around. They seem to go out of their way to cater to poker players.

Neighborhood: A business street, the neighborhood is busy and not scary at all. The only other business in the shopping plaza with the casino is an AAMCO shop.

Parking: Lots of parking in the plaza shopping center.

Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables, nice felt and nice padding. Comfortable wood-frame fixed-leg chairs.

Service and Comps
Full service bar and full service kitchen. Remarkably, the casino offers free meals and free drinks to poker players while they're actively playing. Only one free meal per player per day, but I heard the food is pretty good.

Service was relatively prompt and cheerful.

Links

 * Nearest competitor is The Lucky Derby in Citrus Heights.
 * A city copy (PDF) of their application to expand their gaming room by one table, in Mar 2006

Visited by wiki authors

 * Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006.