Lake Bowl Card Room

Lake Bowl, Folsom CA.

Hours, Tables, Location

Open 6pm until close every night. On weekends, they may not close until around 10am. During the week, earlier.

4 tables.

511 E Bidwell St, Folsom CA. A few miles east of Sacramento proper, a mile or two north of US Hwy 50. 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. Two tables of each, except on Tuesday nights.

No-limit spread-limit hold 'em: Only spread on Tuesday nights, starting at 6pm. 1/2 blinds, $50-$100 buyin, $2-$300 max bet (spread).

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.

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.

Your hand apparently can be turned face up at any time and continue to be played live. A drunk player did just this, to show he had only 3-5 offsuit. The floorman watched and ruled it was still live. As the player with pocket queens kept betting into him and he called, he caught 4-6 on the turn and river to make his straight (a deuce was on the flop). The hand was ruled live.

Posting: New players need not post.

Shuffling: Hand shuffled. No machines available. Dealers take unusally long hour-long shifts. Especially given they have to deal with the drunk guys all the time who seem to sort of fall asleep half the time.

Dollar chip from the Folsom Lake Bowl poker room

Wait Time

Not too long, even on a busy Saturday night.

Tournaments

• Monday, 6pm: NLHE $50+$10 (signup at 5pm)
• Wednesday, 6pm: NLHE $25+$10 (signup at 5pm)
• Sunday, 1st Sunday of each month, Ladies-only NLHE tournament, 6pm $25+10 (signup at 5pm).

Jackpots

No jackpots.

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: Small 8-player tables (and they still barely fit!). Worn but nice felt. Very comfy wheeled chairs for players.

Service and Comps

Every now and then, someone from the bar would walk through and ask if you wanted anything. That seemed to count as service. Beer comes in gigantic steins (what are they, liter mugs?) This, naturally, leads to drunk players.

Links

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

Visited By Wiki Authors

Visited by MarkT in Feb 2006.