Lake Bowl Card Room

Hours, Tables, Location
Folsom Lake Bowl is a combination bar/tavern, pool hall, bowling alley, and poker room. As you can imagine, on weekend nights the joint is hopping!

Games
Limit hold 'em: 2/4 and 4/8. With the electronic tables, they will configure to fit demand.

No-limit spread-limit hold 'em: 1/2 blinds, $50-$100 buyin available 24/7. Their web page says they will spread higher games. (It also indicates Saturday nights they spread 3/5 and 5/10.)

There has been a 1/2 no limit game going on EVERY time I have gone to Folsom Lake Bowl.

Pot Limit Omaha: 1/2 every Wednesday night starting at 6PM. 4/8 Omaha Hi/Low every Thursday night at 6PM.

This is a very small card club tucked into a hidden little room inside the bowling alley. Reachable from the bar or the alley, they will still check your ID and card you (and stamp your wrist) before you can get in, since they're primarily a bar.

Game Info
Frankly, a good percentage of the players are drunk, so the play is wild and insane, and unfortunately can probably get a bit violent if the drunk guy gets badly beaten.

This card room has a good number of regular players who will play any two cards against each-other. If you are patient, you can win some nice sized pots off of their crazy play against each other.

At 2/4, the rake is $3 for 7-8 players, $2 for 2-6 players. At 4/8, it's $4 for 7-8 players and $3 for 2-6 players. NL 1/2 rake is $4 for 7-8 people, $3 for 4-6 people and $2 for 2-3 people.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: The entire table is automated. There is no (human) dealer, no chips and no cards. Each table position has a monitor which will display your cards when you cup your hand over the cards on the screen. This system takes only a few minutes to learn and they are happy to provide a quick lesson to new players. There are some benefits of the system: no dealer errors, no dealer tipping, more hands per hour. Of course if you like the interaction that an entertaining dealer offers you may not like this system.



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

Tournaments
DAILY:    10am NLHE $40

Monday:   6pm NLHE $60 / 11:59pm NLHE $40

Tuesday:  6pm NLHE $60 / 11:59pm NLHE $40

Wednesday: 11:59pm NLHE $40

Thursday: 2am (Friday Morning) NLHE $20 REBUY

Friday:   6pm NLHE $60 / 2am (Saturday Morning) NLHE $20 (Sober-up Tourney)

Saturday: 6pm NLHE $100 / 2am (Sunday Morning) NLHE $20 (Sober-up Tourney)

Sunday    6pm NLHE $100 / 11:59pm NLHE $60 / 1st Sunday Ladies Only 6pm NLHE $35

All 6pm tournaments guarantee $500 for 1st place.

Jackpots
A bad beat jackpot is offered, starting seed is $10,000.

Atmosphere
Insanely noisy on weekend nights, and probably other times too. Connected to the jumping dance bar/pool hall by only a single swinging glass door, which is constantly opening and closing, and sometimes getting propped open, at which point you can't hear anything anymore over the blasting music.

A very crowded, small room with the four tables squeezed in there. Lots of TVs hanging on the wall (five or six in that small room) showing various sports or other shows.

I met a guy at my table who lives in Cameron Park and plays at the Blacksheep Casino Company there, but comes to Folsom to play low limit, since it's the only place that spreads 2/4 anywhere around. He's right. All other casinos in the Sacramento Area have a minimum of 3/6, and usually 4/8.

Neighborhood: Clearly a nightlife spot, it's busy and jumping, but sort of semi-remote, being in a business-y area just outside of town. Not sure how safe it is at night, frankly.

Parking: A large parking lot (60-100 spaces) that is barely paved; watch your tires and suspension!

Tables and Chairs: There are five tables, with 10 Player "Poker Pro" Electronic Dealers, the entire system is automated. Although the tables have positions for 10 players, only 8 may play at a time (Folsom ordinance that the floor-person told me the casino is working on getting changed.) Very comfy wheeled chairs for players.

Service and Comps
At times there is a server, other times the floor-person will double as drink runner. Beer comes in gigantic steins (what are they, liter mugs?) This, naturally, leads to drunk players.

All players who buy-in for $80 between 10am and noon will receive $100 to play (once per day). Players who come in between these hours will also receive a free breakfast.

The player card required for the Poker Pro system keeps stats on all of the players. The top 40 players from each month will qualify for a monthly $15,000 freeroll, paying out to the top 7 places.

Links

 * Nearest competitor is probably Rancho's Club in Rancho Cordova.

Visited By Wiki Authors
Visited by Sisa in June 2007.

Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006.