Soboba Casino



An Indian casino east of Los Angeles, in Riverside county off the 60. It is fairly remote, considering it's in the LA metropolitan area - you have to drive on a country road through farms for about ten miles south of the 60 highway before you get to the casino.

Games
Wait Time: Can be quite long (30 minutes or more), but you can pass the time playing blackjack and such out in the main casino: they announce your seat availability over the casino's speaker system.

Game Nature: The players range from medium-skilled low-limit players to fairly bad players, who are either far too passive and are using the game to pass the time while waiting for their spouse to finish playing the slot machines or are far too active, figuring that "the game is about bluffing, so you have to bluff a lot".

Rake: $1 jackpot is taken from every pot regardless of size. $3 rake is taken if the pot grows over $6; an additional dollar of rake is taken when the pot hits $20.

Posting: New players do not need to post to enter a game.

Shuffling: The four main tables have Shufflemaster machines installed; the other five do not but are mainly used during tournaments.

Kills: Killer acts last.

Tournaments

 * Mon-Fri: 10am tournament: NLHE, $15 buyin, one optional $10 rebuy
 * Sat: 10am NLHE $20 buyin, one optional $20 rebuy
 * Sun: 10am freeroll for players who played enough hours during the previous week (14 hours during the week = entry into that week's freeroll), with a $1500 prize pool.
 * Mon, Thu: 7pm tournament: NLHE $25 buyin, $5 bounty on every player
 * Tue, Wed: 7pm NLHE $15 buyin, one optional $15 rebuy
 * Fri: 7pm NLHE $40 buyin, one optional $35 rebuy. $3000 guarantee.
 * Sat night 12:30 am "midnight tournament": NLHE.

Jackpots and Promotions
Bad beat jackpot: AAAJJ or better beaten by four of a kind or better.

At various times during the week, they run hourly high-hand bonuses, $100 to the player who shows down the highest hand during that hour. This happens most weekdays from noon to 6pm.

Atmosphere
As Indian casinos go, Soboba is on the small side. It's really just two big quonset huts connected together and decorated nicely, but it works. Right next to the casino is a large outdoor arena that has a loose cloth-style "roof" and lots of bleachers, presumably for watching rowdy outdoor events like horse riding or bronco busting or such.

The casino is small, but nice. The poker room is likewise small, but very pleasantly appointed. An lightly-colored oblong room with very high ceilings, equipped with ceiling fans that are rarely needed for comfort. 4 large LCD TV's adorn one wall so players can watch the big sporting events going on. Large windows and sliding glass doors look out over a pleasant patio with tables and chairs (apparently for eating?) and a picturesque waterfall, and let in a lot of pleasant indirect sunlight into the room.

Nicely isolated from the rest of the casino, through glass doors which are kept closed. Head to the "Mesquite Room" in the back of the casino in order to find the poker room.

Tables and Chairs: Acceptable if not great fixed-leg chairs with moderate padding. A stack of cushions are available if you want more padding. Nine-seat tables with cheap black vinyl armrests, and somewhat low-rent green felt.

Parking: Hundreds of parking spaces in a large, spread-out lot, none covered. A little parking shuttle cart drives around the lot frequently to give rides to the front door and back.

Smoking: Smoking is allowed in the casino, but the poker room itself is completely non-smoking, and is behind closed doors and therefore fairly isolated. No drifting smoke happens. Smokers can step directly outside though the sliding glass doors to the patio if you want to take a brief puff in the sunshine.

Service and Comps
Standard casino cocktail service is available, as well as food service from the onsite restaurant. The waitresses don't come around very frequently, though - ask the brush or floorperson to call one for you. It might still take a while.

They have standard rollup tables for eating food while you play; for drinks you use the same rollup tables.

A food special available only to seated poker players: $3 for a soda and slice of pizza.