Casino Chip of the Day

I will post my lucky lady chip later. They also play pai gow this way at the Oceans 11 casino in Oceanside. I like it better, but if you want to set your hand you can.

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: San Diego
Casino: Lucky Lady

The method of play at the club was unique. I don't think I'm a fan. All players receive cards, all players look at their cards. All players set their cards down. No need to set the hand - everybody just gets set the house way. That makes play go by very quickly, but it also removed the element of skill from the game.

Were players offered a chance to bank? With the only option the house way, it sounds like a good opportunity.

Hehe... What's the deal with B.O.? Do offenders get so used to it that their senses are dulled? Maybe it's a local thing, like how everyone who works in a restaurant that serves a lot of garlic, or lives in a community that consumes a lot of garlic doesn't notice the odor oozing from their pores.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: San Diego
Casino: Lucky Lady

The method of play at the club was unique. I don't think I'm a fan. All players receive cards, all players look at their cards. All players set their cards down. No need to set the hand - everybody just gets set the house way. That makes play go by very quickly, but it also removed the element of skill from the game.

Were players offered a chance to bank? With the only option the house way, it sounds like a good opportunity.

Hehe... What's the deal with B.O.? Do offenders get so used to it that their senses are dulled? Maybe it's a local thing, like how everyone who works in a restaurant that serves a lot of garlic, or lives in a community that consumes a lot of garlic doesn't notice the odor oozing from their pores.

Yes, players can bank. And, I'm sure it is a good opportunity. Though, the banker must also use the house way. Also, the exposure per round is 4 figures, easily.

Not sure about the BO thing. The room is so small and so cramped, I don't think it'd take more than 1 or 2 malodorous people to taint the air for everyone. Partly, it may just be the culture/mindset of some players. "this is my lucky ____, and I'm not washing it until ____", etc.

Quote: rdw4potus

Yes, players can bank. And, I'm sure it is a good opportunity. Though, the banker must also use the house way.

Are you sure about this? While I played Baccarat and not PGP at the Lucky Lady, at Oceans 11 you can either set your hand or leave it in a pile for house way, but you are entitled to set your hand if you choose.

Quote: bigfoot66

Are you sure about this? While I played Baccarat and not PGP at the Lucky Lady, at Oceans 11 you can either set your hand or leave it in a pile for house way, but you are entitled to set your hand if you choose.

I am not sure. I can say that is what was happening when one player at the table was banking. But I don't know if that was a requirement, or if it was just her (poor) choice.

State: California
City: Marina
Casino: Marina Club

Today's chip of the day comes from the Marina Club in Marina, CA. Marina is in Monterrey County, North of Monterrey and West of Salinas. The City's history is pretty interesting. The former site of Fort Ord was turned into the Cal State Monterrey campus and a large nature preserve. The club has about 12 tables. Poker dominates the offerings, but there's also blackjack and PGP.

Here's a picture of the club:



Monterrey Bay brings in a number of tourists and retirees. Those folks, combined with students and other area residents, comprise the customer base for the Marina Club. The building itself reminded me a LOT of the dining hall at the summer camp that I attended. Restroom placement, food service, everything was the same. I kind of wonder if the same plan was sold both to this urban card club in CA and to my rural camp in MN. Once I got past that shock, I found the blackjack table. Things went very well. I won about $130, mostly on the last hand of the session, which was one of "those" hands - 3 splits to 4 hands, 3 doubles in those splits and the dealer broke. The table had a weird vibe. The poker room (behind the player when seated at the BJ table) was humming and seemed to be very well run. But the BJ table was very loose and relaxed, almost like a church game-night table where the outcome and process don't really matter. There was no animosity between them, but the best way I can explain it is to say that the dealer didn't care what the corporate player did with his money, and the corporate player didn't care what the dealer did with her cards.

My chip from the Marina Club is a Purple Chipco product. I think this is the only Purple chip in my collection. It's very worn, even in the middle of the chip. The chip features an image of a wheel straight (edit: actually, straight flush) in diamonds. Not a bad hand, but it strikes me as odd to not see a royal in that spot.

Quote: rdw4potus

Monterrey Bay brings in a number of tourists and retirees. Those folks, combined with students and other area residents, comprise the customer base for the Marina Club.

I just happened to notice all the license plate numbers/symbols were edited out of the photo. Has this been your practice all along these thousands of wonderful photos? IF so, what about the guy on the phone with his wife? How's he going to explain where he is?

Quote: NokTang

I just happened to notice all the license plate numbers/symbols were edited out of the photo. Has this been your practice all along these thousands of wonderful photos? IF so, what about the guy on the phone with his wife? How's he going to explain where he is?

I didn't notice that about the license plates. That's funny! I grabbed this one from the Museum of Gaming History's website. I'm not sure if they edited the photo, or if it came to them that way. I'm surprised how many casino/gaming properties don't have professional, "official" photos. I'd say that more than half of the ones I've posted have been amateur shots, complete with vehicles and people in them.

I suspect that the censored-license-plate photos were taken from the Google Maps Street View page, where they customarily remove such info.

Anyway, I am back from my trip, have read up on this thread but no others, and have brought the post#1 index up to date.

While traveling, I added 11 chips to my collection. A few are from casinos that rdw4potus has already covered, so I will post those images after I get the chips cleaned up and photographed. The others will wait until an appropriate time for me to take the lead again for a few days.

Quote: Doc

I suspect that the censored-license-plate photos were taken from the Google Maps Street View page, where they customarily remove such info.

Anyway, I am back from my trip, have read up on this thread but no others, and have brought the post#1 index up to date.

While traveling, I added 11 chips to my collection. A few are from casinos that rdw4potus has already covered, so I will post those images after I get the chips cleaned up and photographed. The others will wait until an appropriate time for me to take the lead again for a few days.

Glad you're back safely. 11 is a high number. Certainly more than "a chip or two." How did you get your wife to allow you to add those chips?

Quote: rdw4potus

How did you get your wife to allow you to add those chips?

We purchased the jewelry and craft art that she wanted.

Hey -- I'm a husband!

State: California
City: Merced
Casino: Merced Poker Room

Today's chip of the day comes from the Merced Poker Room, which is unsurprisingly located in Merced, CA. Merced is about halfway between Stockton and Fresno on CA99. The city is fairly large (about 90,000 people) and has easy access Yosemite and the national forest areas in Eastern CA. In fact, Merced bills itself as the "Gateway to Yosemite." The card club has 4 tables, 3 poker games and 1 BJ game.

Here's a picture of the property:



The Merced Poker Room kind of looks and feels like a small town fraternal lodge. The facility is open from 11:30am to close. I arrived at 1:30pm, and it was closed. A note was on the door that said "Be back later - Pete." So I went to the card club across town and then returned. I waited for Pete until about 3pm. He explained that they don't get enough players before 4 or 5 to sustain a game, so he closes up and runs errands if it's slow. I explained that they should just post different hours so that people don't get frustrated. They had enough players for a poker game by about 3:45, and the BJ dealer arrived at 4ish with the corporate player on-site at 4:30 or so. So, I guess, the BJ table just wouldn't have been open at 11:30 no matter what. After all that waiting, I really wanted to have a good session. The game was fun, but I lost $60 in about 15 minutes.

My chip from Merced Poker Room is a Paulson RHC. It's red, which is rare for a card club in California (no matter how often I say that, dammit) The chip features an image from Yosemite National Park.

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Merced
Casino: Merced Poker Room

The picture/color/font combination strikes me as late '70's. "Brady Bunch" anyone?


(photo from: images.zap2it.com)

The posted hours vs. actual due to, "errands" is not surprising. The marijuana farm needs attention too... hehe..

It's very nice to see all the CA chips but I just can't get over paying a collection on every hand. I will soon go to the 5 indian casinos in the central valley but none of the card rooms so it's nice to see them here.

Earlier this week, I returned from a Caribbean cruise and had several hours to wait for my flight home from Fort Lauderdale. I rented a car (had a free rental day available) and made the rounds of the three Seminole casinos that were nearby. The $5 chips from these casinos were presented by rdw4potus last June, along with his discussion of those establishments, so I'm just going to post the $1 chips here. I also stuck them into some June 2013 posts so that perhaps they can be located by someone using the thread's directory.

Seminole Coconut Creek Casino


Seminole Hollywood Casino


Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Casino


Have fun searching for "errors" in the UV images. :-)

Another post filling in a blank from the past ....

On that cruise, I made it back to Aruba and to the Crystal Casino once again. I had previously posted images of the token I got on my earlier visit. I really don't like tokens very much and try to replace them with clay/ceramic chips whenever I can. I still was not able to get a $1 clay chip from the Crystal, but this time I kept a $5 chip for my collection.

I am not sure of the manufacturer of this chip. The MOGH catalog claims that it is from Bud Jones, but I am not convinced. To me, it looks more like one of the designs from Matsui, but I have not found this specific design anywhere.

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Lake Elsinore
Casino: Lake Elsinore

Today's chip of the day comes from the Lake Elsinore card club in Lake Elsinore, CA. The city is in western Riverside County, on I-15. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd always thought that the city was in Orange County. The casino has 16 poker tables, plus about 10 table games including BJ, 3CP, and PGP. The property also has a 93 room hotel, which makes this one of a very few card clubs in CA that have on-site hotels.

Here's a picture of the property:



I visited Lake Elsinore at about midnight. I did not notice a hotel. I did not feel safe in the parking lot. I would never consider staying at this property. I'm not even sure that I could be paid to do so (ok...I'm sure there's SOME price at which I'd do it...). I played PGP to collect my chip. The card club was very lively. I walked in at midnight, but I would not be surprised to learn that everyone else had been playing and drinking since their workdays ended many hours earlier. I picked PGP for two reasons - BJ was full, and 3CP had some sort of altercation in progress. I think the scenario at 3cp was the age-old case where someone sat down, got a monster, and heard about it from the person who would otherwise have received those cards. My PGP game was fast, fair, and quiet. Nothing awful happened, but I couldn't get a hand, either. I suppose that's the story of that game. I busted out when my 2 pair finally lost to the dealer's hand.

My chip from Lake Elsinore is a yellow Paulson hat & cane. The design is pretty minimalist, with just the name, location, and a couple small palm trees on the face of the chip.

This place used to have an awesome all you can eat Fried Chicken special for like 5 dollars. It was really good. That part seems scary over there but it was more bark than bite. There are nicer areas in that region that are actually way more dangerous.

State: California
City: Marina
Casino: Mortimers

Today's chip of the day comes from Mortimers card room in Marina, CA. Mortimers and the Marina Club share an alley/parking area. Mortimers has poker, BJ, dining, and a dancefloor.

Here's a picture of the property:



It was pretty late when I got to Mortimers. The dining and dancing parts had died down (if they were ever populated), but the poker tables were going strong. The internet suggests that Mortimer's has higher limit tables, while Marina Club has more consistent action. 6/12 limit with a full kill and 5/10 limit are listed as the standard games at Mortimers. Those are rich games for a small town. There's also a lot of back and forth foot traffic between the two clubs. I got the feeling that guys were playing at one club and watching a tourney wind down at the other. I played BJ at Mortimers. I lost $60 of the $130 that I'd just won next door. Figures.

The MOGH says that my chip from Mortimers is a Bud Jones product. I'm skeptical of that listing. Based on the markings and quality, this looks more like an RT Plastics blank to me. Either way, it's blue and lists the name, full address, and denomination. I can't think of another chip that lists the full street address of the casino/club.

Quote: rdw4potus

Casino: Mortimers

Just because I can -- and because you showed the photo with the sign -- I'm listing this one in the directory as "Mortimer's".

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Porterville
Casino: Eagle Mountain

Today's chip of the day comes from the Eagle Mountain casino in Porterville, CA. Porterville is South of Visalia, between CA99 and Sequoia National Park. Eagle Mountain is a large property, with a 70,000 sqft gaming floor that has 1,500 slots and 12 tables. Eagle Mountain keeps their table game selection simple. There's poker, and there's blackjack. $3 blackjack is available 24/7.

Here's a picture of the casino:



I played BJ at Eagle Mountain. I was pleasantly surprised to find the tables still open in the middle of the night when I arrived. It took me about 10 hands to lose my $60, so the session itself was pretty brutal. But, it was nice to not lose half a day waiting to find the tables open.

Eagle Mountain is a big casino in a small town. It's surrounded by other cities with card clubs and a couple national parks. I suppose it does have the only slots in a reasonably large geographic area, but it's still hard to see where the draw for 1,500 slots is coming from in a city with 50,000 people.

My chip from Eagle Mountain is a Paulson RHC. It follows the pattern of tribal casinos in CA and red chips. Its a pretty basic chip, with an image of an eagle and a mountain - hey, what was this place called, again?

Sorry late post but here is the $1 chip for the Eagle Mountain. I just visited today and they had $3 BJ CSM. Not sure about rules did not pay attention. They also had 1 EZ PGP $10-$300 with lousy fortune bonus paytable. Surly dealers not even a greeting when I sat down and bought in. It was very out of the way and I don't think I would have gone had it not been to collect. And now that I've been I will never go again haha. The reservation/casino is tucked away in the mountains very pretty mountainous area but driving is no good. Also I think the only draw it has for the slots is buses from Bakersfield but another 5-10 mins away is Tachi, a much better establishment and comfortable drive.

Quote: Konbu

State: California
City: Porterville
Casino: Eagle Mountain

Sorry late post but here is the $1 chip for the Eagle Mountain. I just visited today and they had $3 BJ CSM. Not sure about rules did not pay attention. They also had 1 EZ PGP $10-$300 with lousy fortune bonus paytable. Surly dealers not even a greeting when I sat down and bought in. It was very out of the way and I don't think I would have gone had it not been to collect. And now that I've been I will never go again haha. The reservation/casino is tucked away in the mountains very pretty mountainous area but driving is no good. Also I think the only draw it has for the slots is buses from Bakersfield but another 5-10 mins away is Tachi, a much better establishment and comfortable drive.

Thanks for the contribution Konbu. How did you do overall?

The smoke screen hits me in the face right when I walked in so I knew I wasn't staying long so only bought in for $40. Played 4 hands of BJ down $10. Saw EZ PGP went over and played another 4 hands and went all in and finished contributing $40 to the local community. ;) Well actually $39...

State: California
City: American Canyon
Casino: Napa Valley

Today's chip of the day comes from the Napa Valley card club in American Canyon, CA. American Canyon is in southern Napa county. It's just off of I-80 north of Berkeley. The card club has 12 tables, including poker, BJ, PGP, and 3CP.

Here's a picture of the club:



I played 3 card poker to collect my chip. That wasn't my first choice, but it had an open seat so I took it. I ground out a $20 win after about 30 minutes of play. I was sort of surprised by the club. I don't know what I was expecting, and the club wasn't bad. I think really I just thought this would be one of those _____ & card clubs. Wine bar & poker room, restaurant & poker room...it's just a poker room. It's a decent poker room, but this isn't the fancy part of Napa county.

My chip from Napa Valley is a red Bud Jones product. I really like the image of grape vines. I think it ties in well with the Napa Valley name.

State: California
City: Compton
Casino: New Crystal Park

Today's chip of the day comes from the New Crystal Park card club in Compton, CA. Compton is an LA suburb. It's a notoriously rough city, though I didn't think it looked especially run-down. The club has about 30 tables, including PGP, BJ, 3CP, and LIR in addition to poker.

Here's a picture of the facility:



I really didn't spend much time at the New Crystal Park at all. I played BJ to snag my chip, then headed off to Inglewood to visit Hollywood Park. I thought that New Crystal Park, like the rest of Compton, was less awful than I'd been made to expect. I suppose there's a difference between dangerous and decrepit. Perhaps the area is dangerous, but it looked decent.

My chip from the New Crystal Park is a Yellow Paulson RHC. Even the center inlay is yellow, which creates a bit of an odd effect where it is a bit difficult to see where the inlay section begins and ends.

Some of these CA card clubs have interesting architecture.

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Fresno
Casino: Club One

Today's chip of the day comes from the Club One card club in Fresno, CA. I'm always surprised when I see the population of Fresno (about 500k) and the metro area (about 1.3MM). It really doesn't feel that large to me. No doubt it's a large city, but it feels more like Rochester MN or Peoria, IL than like Austin TX or Louisville KY. According to Wikipedia, Fresno is the largest inland city in CA, with about 30,000 more residents than Sacramento. Club One is right in downtown Fresno. The casino has a 25,000 sqft gaming floor with 76 tables. There are various poker games, several blackjack versions, spanish 21.5, 3CP, PGP, Pai Gow tiles, bacc, and UTH.

I'm not sure what the property was before it became a casino. It feels like it used to be a discount department store or something - there are several doors, a few rooms, lowish ceilings, etc. The location is great - right downtown, with easy access from major roads that connect directly to the area highways. Here's a picture of what is nominally the front of the casino:



I learned today that the casino has free underground parking. I have no idea how to get to that lot. I drove around the casino 4 or 5 times looking for parking, and didn't see an entrance to anything that wasn't on the street. I finally gave up and parked at a meter on a side street. With my limited time and metered parking, I played 21st century BJ to collect my chip. I think this must be a very hard place to deal. They deal 21st century BJ, no-bust BJ, and Pure 21.5 BJ. Those games are similar but different, and I would imagine that it's very hard to deal all three games in one shift. From my own experience, my session of 21st century BJ was dealt without incident. The corporate player wound up with too much of my money, but that's my only complaint about the experience. If it's not clear by now, I got pretty well creamed on my trip through central CA. Even sticking to a $60 buyin with a $60 loss limit and a $40 win limit, I still almost went broke with an $800 stake. That was a little nerve wracking, but I did manage to rebound in the end.

My chip from Club One is a Paulson RHC. It's one of those that have an image that covers almost all of the hat and cane area. If that was the plan, I don't know why Icon or Gemaco wasn't just selected as the vendor for the chips. The chip is yellow, and has a sort of marbled pattern on the inset. It was a real pain getting the camera to focus with the presence of that image. This chip is one of the most perfectly aligned samples in my collection. The edge inserts line up almost exactly the same on both sides of the chip. I wish I'd paid more attention in the casino - I wonder if I got lucky there or if some production process was followed to make that true here where it isn't so on other RHCs that we've seen.

Another belated chip I just obtained today. I don't go out of the way to visit card clubs but since I'm in the area I swung by. Will visit 500 club as well soon. I played PGP at $20 a hand with 50c drop. Just pretended I was prepaying commission. Also I saw a sign posted at the cashier indicating there was a chip change around Sep/Oct and the $25 $5 $1 chips (didn't see other denoms in play) look like this now.

State: California
City: Gardena
Casino: Normandie

Today's chip of the day comes from the Normandie card club in Gardena, CA. Gardena is an LA suburb, and is also home to the Hustler card club. Normandie has 68 tables, including several poker variations, PGP, PG tiles, baccarat, blackjack, and 3CP.

Here's a picture of the property:



I played BJ at Normandie. I didn't write down all the rules, and their website also doesn't list them. I did note, and the website does confirm, that BJ pays 3:2. That's very rare in California card clubs, so I assume that some other rule(s) must be quite restrictive to offset that payout. As variance would have it, I lost my $60 buyin without experiencing a payout on a BJ, though I did manage to make it take about 45 minutes before I'd lost that money.

The MOGH lists this chip as a house mold. It looks a lot like Bud Jones chips that we've seen from other casinos, like the Hacienda in Boulder City. I assume that the MOGH's classification of this chip is incorrect.

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Gardena
Casino: Normandie

The Normandie is the oldest card club in Los Angeles.



Edit: The Normandie will be introducing new chips in March of 2014. Anyone with old style chips needs to exchange them by March 10. After that time they will no longer be honored.

State: California
City: Emeryville
Casino: Oaks

Today's chip of the day comes from the Oaks card club in Emeryville, CA. Emeryville is between Berkeley and Oakland. It's right on the San Francisco Bay. Oaks club is right in the middle of town, near the I80/I580 exchange. The casino features 40 tables, including several poker games, PGP, PG tiles, blackjack, baccarat, and 3CP.

Here's a picture of the club:



I had a hard time getting to the Oaks club. I came from San Francisco, crossing on the Bay Bridge. Emeryville is so close to the foot of the bridge that it was hard to pick a highway and find an exit. I went with I-80 NB, and took the first exit. But then I had to backtrack south a fair bit to get to the club. I'm not sure if I-580 EB would have been a better choice or not. I think I'd have had to backtrack west if I'd have taken that route. The whole thing reminded me of those roadside businesses that have high visibility but no access from the highway (note: you can't see the club from either highway, but the backtracking is the same).

I played BJ at Oaks. It was the Pure 21.5 variety, but I'm not sure what the specific rules of that game are. I did pretty ok in my short session, turning my $60 into $100 within about half a shoe. I got the strong sense that the corporate player and the dealer were romantically involved. I'm not sure whether that's allowed, and I guess I'm not sure how it'd be controllable since they work for two different companies. But it was funny to see them flirt/chat.

My chip from Oaks is a yellow Bud Jones product. Like yesterday's chip from Normandie, it's similar to the Hacienda chip with the gold ring around the inset. I don't really know what the deal is with this club and problem gambling, but the "Play it smart" message was several places within the property and it's also on the chips.

Once again, I am not sure at all about some of the identifications of the chip manufacturers. In my old age, I have become skeptical of some of the info listed in the MOGH catalog. I don't know the manufacturer of the Normandie chip, but I'm not confident that it came from Bud Jones.

As for the Oaks Club chip, I think it looks quite a bit like the one rdw4potus posted from the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino in Hogansburg, NY, except for the colors, the width and number of the outer edge markings, and the glitter ring. I particularly note the position of the denomination marks alternating with those crescent marks.

rdw4potus was skeptical about the MOGH identification of the Akwesasne chip coming from Bud Jones. Right below his post, I replied with a chip design I created at the Matsui design-your-own-chips site, which just matches up options from their catalog. I think this one from Oaks (other than the colors and the glitter ring) looks like that web creation. Matsui offers yellow chips, green markings, and glitter rings, too. I didn't create a mockup like that, but I suspect the Oaks chip came from Matsui. Still not sure about the Normandie chip.

State: California
City: Ridgecrest
Casino: Oasis

Today's chip of the day comes from the Oasis card room in Ridgecrest, CA. Ridgecrest is on US 395, between Sequoia National Forest and Death Valley National Park. It's a small town, with a population of about 30,000. Casino City doesn't list a table count for Oasis, and the club doesn't have a website. I played poker at Oasis, and there was at least 1 other poker table.

I can't find any pictures of the Oasis club. That's a shame. the club is in a kind of interesting area. It's across the street from a mall, but the building it's in is more commercial than retail.

My poker session at Oasis was short-lived. I sat for 2 rounds of blinds at a 1/2 NLHE table. I got terrible cards, but stole the blinds a couple times and left roughly even. I did have one tragic hand, where I played 33 to the flop, saw JKA and some betting, and folded. Want to guess what two cards came on the turn and river? Gah!!

My chip from Oasis is a yellow diamond mold. It's very basic, but it's in pretty good shape.

State: California
City: Oceano
Casino: Oceana

Today's chip of the day comes from the Oceana card room in Oceano, CA. Oceano is in San Luis Obispo county on California's Central Coast. The city is at the southern edge of San Luis Obispo Bay. The Oceana club has 3 poker tables and 1 blackjack table. Oceana opened in 2010, which makes it one of the newest card clubs in CA. It has lots of near/local competitors, but it was full when I visited.

Here's a picture of the property:



The image of the front of the property is relatively common for several of these tiny clubs. It's like they took a bar out of 1970 and made it a card club. I really like the heavy door and covered windows.

I played BJ at Oceana. The pace was quite slow, but the game was lots of fun. I've never seen anything like it - we were 50% watching the poker tables and 50% playing BJ. I made it through maybe 20 hands in 50 minutes. Really, the poker table was probably moving faster. I think the club had promo dollars to burn, because they were doing hourly high-hand and bad-beat jackpots and all the BJ guys would watch any/every time one of the conditions might be met (and any time there was a big pot).

My chip from Oceana is a red Paulson RHC. I really like the design of this chip, with the 4 suits in a circle surrounding the denomination.

State: California
City: Oceanside
Casino: Ocean's Eleven

Today's chip of the day comes from the Ocean's Eleven card club in Oceanside, CA. Oceanside is just off of I-5 at the northern edge of San Diego County. Ocean's Eleven has about 50 tables, including poker, blackjack, baccarat, UTH, PGP, and 3CP.

Here's a picture of the property:



Ocean's Eleven was a very busy and vibrant place. It's right off the highway - like RIGHT off the highway - and the parking lot was very full when I visited. I had to drive around a bit to find a spot. Inside, there was a poker room with sort of an offshoot that housed the other games. I played PGP at Ocean's Eleven. It's by far the fastest game I've ever played in. The game was the same as the version at the Lucky Lady, with all hands being set the house way. But, the dealer at Ocean's Eleven was insanely fast. Like one of those BJ dealers who is trying to break some sort of shoe depletion speed record, but with PGP. I think he'd have preferred if the players just didn't look at their cards at all, but most people at least picked them up and put them back down.

My chip from Ocean's Eleven is a red Paulson RHC. The inset extends out onto the hat & cane section. It features some palm trees inside of what I think is supposed to be a setting sun that's just broken the horizon line over the surf.



I'm not really sure whether Ocean's Eleven or Oceana should have been first alphabetically. The MOGH and Casinocity were split on the order, so I went with a before s. I'm not sure if the s really should have counted...

I'm almost certain that Ocean's Eleven is the only California card room that I have ever played in, and that was before I was actively collecting casino chips. I was working with a group of guys on a project at Camp Pendleton, and we were staying at a motel in Carlsbad. We drove within sight of Ocean's Eleven both directions on our way to/from work, so we stopped in there a couple of evenings. I remember playing some version of blackjack, and one night we joined a Texas hold 'em game for a while. I'm not a poker player, but that's what some of the others wanted.

I assume the name of the place is stolen from one of the films (Sinatra or Clooney?). I remember it as being a reasonably nice place that I wouldn't bother going back to.

As for alphabetizing the names, I think a big part of the issue is what sort rules you want to follow. Also, the apostrophe is likely as important as the "s". I tried an Excel sort and got the following sequence:

       Apple
       Ocean Eleven
       Ocean's Eleven
       Oceana
       Oceans Eleven
       Papa

Make of that what you will.

State: California
City: Santa Cruz
Casino: Oceanview


Today's chip of the day comes from the Oceanview card room in Santa Cruz, CA. Santa Cruz is at the north end of Monterrey Bay. The San Lorenzo River runs through town, and the city is on CA-1. The river cuts the town roughly in half, and Oceanview is in the western part about 1 block from the river and south of CA-1. The club is pretty small. There are 4 poker tables.

Here's a picture of the club:



I visited Santa Cruz twice in one day, and still partly/mostly struck out. The club's hours were frustratingly posted as open-close at the time (they now list defined opening times, 3:30-close, noon-close, 11:30-close, etc.). I don't think I've ever seen a business that isn't open until closed. That is a definitional statement. And it's a pretty crappy one to use when people from out of town want to stop by. I can say that "open" had not yet occurred at 1pm, and "close" had not yet happened at 9pm when I returned. Unfortunately, a wind-down was occurring at 9pm when new players were not allowed to join. I decided to try to buy a chip. There are $5 chips in the club's set, but all they had in the cage and in play were $1 chips (this also means that they don't use the $2 or $3 chips in the set). At any rate, I collected a $1 chip as proof of my attendance at the club and then headed farther down the bay.

My chip from Oceanview is a blue Paulson SCV. It's a pretty basic and well worn chip. It's almost as though these $1 chips are the only ones that the club puts into use, oh wait...

Quote: rdw4potus

Casino: Oceanside

Oceanside? The photo says "Ocean View" (two words) while the chip says "Oceanview" (one word). Neither says "side" at all.

For the moment, I have put "Oceanview" in the directory, but I will certainly change that if you tell me it is incorrect.

Since I haven't visited these card rooms, my role here seems to have been relegated to that of a combined Editor/Critic. :-)

State: California
City: Cayucos
Casino: Old Cayucos

Today's chip of the day comes from the Old Cayucos card club in Cayucos, CA. Cayucos is on the Pacific coast in San Luis Obispo County. It's about 35 miles north on CA 1 from Oceano. The Old Cayucos card club has 2 poker tables. One was in use when I visited, and the other was quite snugly covered.

Here's a picture of the property:



This might have been my most memorable stop in CA. It was absolutely pouring rain when I arrived at 10pm. I had a hard time finding the club. As the picture shows, the building just says "saloon". I had to get out of the car and walk down the street to find the club by address, since I couldn't see anything in the rain. After a couple minutes, I realized that the "Saloon" was the Old Cayucos Tavern and Cardroom. When I entered the building, I was very thoroughly drenched. I don't think anyone had walked in for a while, because everyone looked up when the door opened. It was like that moment in a Western when someone may or may not begin a gunfight. There were about 20 people in the bar, including 4 people playing pool and 8 guys playing poker. Everyone else was watching one of those two things. I walked up to the bar and asked about the poker game. The bartender said it was "not in (my) best interest to try to enter their game" and motioned to the very rough-looking group at the poker table. I nodded and went over to watch pool and ponder my options. When I got to the pool table, one of the other lookers-on punched me in the stomach and said "hey! How you doing, you fornicating donkey?" (cleaned up...) Yeah, that dude thought he knew me but he sure didn't. I didn't really know what to do at that point. After a long day and not wanting to go out into the rain, I decided to go with it. We then talked for about an hour about random topics, with him all the while thinking I was his buddy. Then he left and one of the guys playing pool turned and said "so, who the hell are you really? That was epic..." Finally, I went back to the bar and asked about just buying a chip. The bartender decided he could let me buy a chip since I got sucker punched and paid for a couple beers.

My chip from Old Cayucos is a yellow Paulson SCV. It's very basic, with the name and address on one side and the denomination on the other. I'm not sure how much these chips are used. Like Oceanview, it appeared that Old Cayucos only put their $1 chips in play.

I don't think I will need any reminders not to go visiting the Old Cayucos on a rainy night.

There are so many good stories in this thread.

State: California
City: Atascadero
Casino: Outlaws

Today's chip of the day comes from the Outlaws card club in Atascadero, CA. Atascadero is an inland community in San Luis Obispo county. It's on US 101 between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. Outlaws has 4 poker tables.

Here's a picture of the club:



I visited Outlaws on the same day as I visited the other casinos in SLO county. That was not a particularly good day. I lost, it rained, I got punched, and I failed to realize that the girl I had a crush on in high school (yeah, we're pretending there was only one...) is single and a resident of Atascadero. I visited Outlaws in the middle of the day's schedule. It was a little tricky because the club doesn't open until 5:30, but it's also physically at the beginning of the day's route. I drove a route that looks somewhat like an upside-down capital R in order to accommodate the stop at Outlaws.

My play at Outlaws was pretty brief. They were having a tournament, but dealt a cash game as players were trickling in for the tourney. I was able to play in the tail end of the cash game and I lost about $80, mostly on one hand. Turns out that when the small blind has 8J, a board of 876/8/4 is only good if the big blind didn't limp in with 95.

My chip from Outlaws is a red Paulson SCV. I like the look of this chip. The inset is quite small, and there's a wanted sign on one side. It seems to me like that's a nice touch for a chip from Outlaws.

Quote: Doc

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Casuarina

The Casuarina is now The Max. I stopped in at The Westin to get a chip and now they have new chips. I got a "collector's" $5 chip just for getting a replacement player's club card. I couldn't get close enough to the two open tables to ask for a $1 chip. Someone more adventurous will have to do that for this thread. I'll post an image of my "collector's" chip when I get home and scan it. I'll also post the image of the player's club card in the appropriate thread.

Quote: s2dbaker

The Casuarina is now The Max.

The Max is on my list of chips to get. My wife and I will make our next visit to Las Vegas in February, and I plan to pick up chips from several places that have opened since our visit last May, possibly including two that my list just says may open "early 2014." Does anyone have good info on when the SLS and the former Bill's Gamblin' Hall are expected to (re)open? Or what the latest plans are for renaming Bill's?

Quote: Doc

The Max is on my list of chips to get. My wife and I will make our next visit to Las Vegas in February, and I plan to pick up chips from several places that have opened since our visit last May, possibly including two that my list just says may open "early 2014." Does anyone have good info on when the SLS and the former Bill's Gamblin' Hall are expected to (re)open? Or what the latest plans are for renaming Bill's?

Bill's looks like it'll be awhile. They are still adding steel I-beams.

deleted

Thanks for the info. The latest I could find on a Caesars page was a very old reference to "early 2014", with another site claiming that the date was supposed to be March/April prior to dropping the Gansevoort name.

In February, I will definitely pick up chips from Downtown Grand, Max, and Silver Sevens and will have to wait to get the other two on a later visit. Has anyone volunteered to do the planning work on a WoVCon IV? (Not including the European edition.) I haven't heard much from Nareed lately.

State: California
City: Bishop
Casino: Paiute Palace

Today's chip of the day comes from the Paiute Palace casino in Bishop, CA. Bishop is a very touristy little town in Eastern CA. It has relatively easy access to Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Death Valley parks, in addition to several State parks, National Forests, and recreation areas in CA and NV. Paiute Palace has 345 slots and 6 tables on 16,000 very smoky square feet of gaming space.

Here's a picture of the property:



I visited Bishop on the 3rd of 5 chip collecting trips to CA, which was in the days immediately preceding the second Wovcon. I flew into LAX and drove through central and southern (inland) CA, then headed up 395 and crossed into NV through the Inyo national forest before heading down to Vegas. I spent the night in Bishop at the Comfort Inn. Many hotels in Bishop appear less-than-nice, or at least less-than-meticulously maintained. I guess that's because there are no other lodging options anywhere remotely close to town. Like, driving 150 miles up to Reno, down to Ridgecrest, or across Yosemite to Modesto are the next-closest options. I thought the Comfort Inn was pretty much at-level, which was a pleasant surprise. I grabbed a to-go meal from Denny's and hung out in the room for a bit catching up work before heading to the casino. One thing I noticed about Bishop...since it's so isolated, and such a tourist trap, gas prices were insane. At the time, gas in LA was $4.25, gas in vegas was about $3.50, and gas in Bishop was $5.90. Yes, that's $5.90. I suppose the amount of diesel required to drive the unleaded to Bishop does necessitate at least a small cost premium but that was excessive.

I've since visited the area one more time, though I didn't make it far enough north to go to Bishop itself. I want to see the Methuselah Tree, and I've struck out twice now. The entrance to the grove in which the tree lives is at the top of CA168 as it crosses the Inyo National Forest between CA and NV. I went once in May, and the road to the grove was closed because of snow (it's at about 10,000 feet). I went again in late August, and the road was closed because of fire risk. One day, maybe I'll succeed in my quest to see an ugly, scraggly, 5,000 year old tree.

Paiute Palace was an interesting casino. It's small, and quite quaint. There's a strong lodge theme, especially indoors. The casino, which opened in 1996, felt a bit dated. It also was pretty hilariously smoky. I didn't even want to put my clothes back in my suitcase after my visit. There were so few people in the casino, they almost have to have had a closed air circulation system with no outdoor exchange at all. I played BJ at Paiute Palace. They also have UTH and card roulette. The game moved quickly, which worked well since I didn't want to be there any longer than I needed to be. I cashed out $50 after 1 shoe and went back to the hotel (after stopping at Walgreens to buy Febreeze).

My chip from Paiute Palace is a red RT Plastics mold. It has a very unique sort of crown or comb shaped patter on the edge inserts. Fittingly, the chip features an image of a mountain, which is what you'd see looking in any of at least 3 directions from Bishop.

State: California
City: Hayward
Casino: Palace

Today's chip of the day comes from the Palace card club in Hayward, CA. Hayward is between Oakland and San Jose, where the San Mateo bridge runs into I-880. Palace has about a dozen tables, including poker, PGP, and blackjack.

Here is a picture of the property:



I have a theory about hotels that I've shared on here before. The basic premise is that hotels with words like quality, comfort, affordable, etc. in the name usually lack those attributes. (note: I'm a fan of and frequent guest at these chains. I just think it's silly to be Quality Inn when the selling point is a $59/night price and not actually quality at all) There's a corollary that applies to ethnic restaurants: "A #1 chinese fancy buffet" was maybe the worst restaurant that I've ever been to. And now I think there may be another corollary that applies to casinos. The Palace was a pretty depressingly rundown place, as the pic shows.

The Palace has PGP (actually, double-hand poker. Is the PGP name trademarked?) but the min was $25 so I played $10 BJ instead. I'm not sure that was a smart choice. I lost my $60 at the BJ table pretty fast, and the PGP table had a nice little run. Of course, being at that table could have changed the deal randomization and altered the events there. At any rate, I stayed for about 20 minutes and then headed out.

My chip from the Palace is a black Paulson LCV. The MOGH also shows an SCV version of the same chip. The chip has a little bit of wear, but it cleaned up pretty well when I scrubbed my chips last Spring.

When I attempted to edit post #1 of this thread, to add the Palace chip to the directory, I encountered an error message that I have been dreading for the past six months: "Your post is too long, please shorten it."

It seems that posts are limited to 65,000 characters, and the software prohibits posts that are getting too close to that limit. I had first encountered this problem on May 15, 2013, and JB had made some very useful contributions that reduced the number of characters needed to create the tables and links in that directory. That gave us about a 42% capacity boost for that post, but I knew that it was just a delaying tactic.

That added capacity has now been used up, so this evening I split the directory into two parts. Part 2 follows Part 1 by just a few lines, with only one short post intervening, so I think this solution works rather well, though it required a little subterfuge. Those of you who follow this thread might take a look back at the directory and let me know what you think of this method of dealing with the imposed limitations.

Would look better if TIMSPEED's post wasn't there but it's the best solution.

Quote: Konbu

Would look better if TIMSPEED's post wasn't there but it's the best solution.

Yeah I think it looks fine, Doc.