Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: AcesAndEights

Yeah I think it looks fine, Doc.

I agree. And now there's plenty of space in both of those posts to support future growth, too:-)

If it is not obvious, my post of the Aliante Station chip originally appeared where Part 2 of the directory is now. I moved the contents of that entire post down a little and added it to where I had replied to TIMSPEED's post. In some cases, it can harm the flow of a thread when someone goes back and edits their earlier posts, but in this case (since I was already editing post #1 on almost a daily basis) I think moving the content of my early posts around is a pretty good solution.

BTW, I heard from TIMSPEED who indicated he would ask the Wizard to have that one post deleted from between the two parts of the directory. I don't think it's a problem there, but if it were possible to move that post down between Part 2 and the new position of the Aliante Station post, that would be ideal.

By using two posts (up to about 2 * 65,000 characters) we should have capacity to keep the directory going for quite a while. If we start getting too many chips in one "half" of the directory, it shouldn't be any problem to change the point at which the split occurs. By my count, we have 571 casinos that have been covered to date in this thread, so we should be able to handle something in excess of 1,100 with the split directory. Assuming we get enough contributions to keep the thread going that long. I have no idea whether there is any limit on how long a single page of posts can be. Hopefully the forum software doesn't do some kind of automated repagination -- I think that would make a bunch of my links break.

I would leave TIMSPEED's post there or some of your links won't work because they will be on the previous page.

Quote: miplet

I would leave TIMSPEED's post there or some of your links won't work because they will be on the previous page.

Yes. This is a very good point.

State: California
City: Lemoore
Casino: Palace

Today's chip of the day comes from the Palace casino in Lemoore, CA. (sorry Doc, I should've looked ahead...) Lemoore is in a very rural and agricultural area, south of Fresno and west of Visalia. The Palace casino has a 200,000 sqft gaming floor with 2,000 slots and 33 tables. The casino spreads 3CP, 4CP, blackjack, baccarat, spanish 21, card roulette, PGP, and UTH games. There are also 7 restaurants and 255 hotel rooms. Apparently, this property changed names and chips after my visit. It is now the Tachi Palace Casino.

Here's a picture of the property:



This Palace and yesterday's Palace really could not be more different. One is a small dumpy urban cardroom, the other is a large rural tribal casino resort. I was pretty surprised to see the size of this Palace when I arrived. I suppose these may be the closest slots to Fresno, but the casino is pretty remote. It reminded me of some of the properties in Michigan where it's just not immediately apparent why a casino so large would be located where it is. I suppose, like in Michigan, the answer is that this is where the Tribe's land is.

I visited the Palace on the 2nd of my 4 trips to CA. The trip saw me fly to LAX, drive to San Jose, drive to SD, attend a conference, drive back to LAX, fly to SFO, drive to Sacramento, drive back to SFO, and head home. This visit fell between San Jose and San Diego. And, unfortunately, I was running crushingly behind. I needed to be in San Diego for a conference at 8am, and I was 50 miles south of Fresno at 8pm (with several stops yet to make). I checked into my hotel in San Diego at about 6am.

The Palace had one of the better game selections that I saw in CA. And, oddly, all of the games were open. I mean, some BJ tables were closed, but all of the carny games were staffed. There were very few players around, so I had my pick of games and tables. I picked PGP. The joker was partially wild. I played about 10 hands. It was a very frustrating session. I won about $80, but 4 of the hands were almost monsters. Most notably, I had 789QKA* suited. A flush with a pair of aces up is a great hand, but it felt like I'd been robbed somehow. The 9 was the last card revealed, so at least there was no suspense and subsequent letdown.

My chip from the Palace is a red Paulson RHC. It features a howling wolf in front of an image of the sun.

State: California
City: Lemoore
Casino: Tachi Palace

Here is the old and new Tachi $1 chip, dirty and worn. This is the same property as the Palace that rdw4potus posted above. I visited just this Thanksgiving day at night and the place was packed. All tables were full. There was only 1 maybe 2 PGP tables and I managed to snag a seat at one. The minimum stayed at $10 surprisingly and there were people betting the min. Other people were hovering and placing bets next to people's bets. Oh and the area has lots of dairy farms so it smells like cow day and night. Their website claims to have 2000 slots, 7 poker tables and 33 table games. I also had their Thanksgiving dinner buffet for $18.99 and had 1 small lobster tail and really skinny snow crab legs.

BTW I just drove up to Mono Winds in Auberry, CA only to find out tables have not been opened in the last 5-6 yrs per the cashier and the tables were finally just removed about a month ago.






Edit: photos re-uploaded.

Quote: s2dbaker

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.

Wow, I did not know about the name change! From the Maxim, my old stomping grounds, to the Casuarina (Westin) to the Max.

I have some Maxim chips, postcards and soap.

Quote: rdw4potus

(sorry Doc, I should've looked ahead...)

No problem. I now have them listed in the directory as "Palace (Hayward)" and "Palace (Lemoore)". I'll let your description and Konbu's chip post cover the topic of the name change to "Tachi Palace" -- though the chip just says "Tachi Hotel and Casino" without the word "Palace." Should there be a separate "Tachi" entry in the directory, with a link to Konbu's post? That's the way I would have done it if I had posted both kinds of chip. I would have made separate posts for each name of the casino.

With regard to the directory, the post by TIMSPEED that appeared between Part 1 and Part 2 has now disappeared. As I said yesterday, I don't know how repagination of threads is handled on this site, but I doubt that this little change would cause any problem. If anyone ever encounters a directory link that doesn't work, please let me know.

Quote: Doc

With regard to the directory, the post by TIMSPEED that appeared between Part 1 and Part 2 has now disappeared. As I said yesterday, I don't know how repagination of threads is handled on this site, but I doubt that this little change would cause any problem. If anyone ever encounters a directory link that doesn't work, please let me know.

Just a few need fixing. I sent you a PM.

Just a few????? Jeez, there were 41 broken links in the list that miplet sent to me. Can all of these breaks be caused by the deletion of just one one-line post? I guess so, since all of those posts now appear at the bottom of the page before the one where they appeared previously. Anyway, I have fixed them now.

Thanks a bunch, miplet!


Edit: I got another note from miplet pointing out 16 more broken links (total of 57) that his script had not found the first time around because of a formatting difference (which I didn't even know about) in the way the array is set up for the index of Nevada chips.

Another round of thanks to miplet!

State: California
City: San Diego
Casino: Palomar

Today's chip of the day comes from the Palomar card club in San Diego, CA. The Palomar has 11 tables, including 2 PGP tables and 9 poker tables.

Here's a picture of the property:



Palomar was quite spacious and well laid-out. Especially in contrast to the Lucky Lady which I'd visited a couple minutes earlier. I played PGP at Palomar. It was a very fast game, similar to the game at Lucky Lady where nobody really set their hands. I played for a few minutes, lost $60, and headed out.

My chip from Palomar is a yellow Chipco product. It features an image of a 5 card broadway straight. There's a lot of wear, mostly on the edge area but also in the center of each face.

According to Wikipedia, the Spanish name "Palomar" means "pigeon roost." Strikes me as quite an appropriate name for a card room.

State: California
City: Paso Robles
Casino: Paso Robles

Today's chips of the day come from the Paso Robles card club in Paso Robles, CA. Paso Robles is in San Luis Obispo county. It's on US101 north of Atascadero. The card club has 3 tables, 1 poker table, 1 BJ table, and 1 3CP table.

Here's a picture of the property:



I reached the card club around 9pm. They were open, but the only people there were the 3 staff members and the corporate player. They were hanging out watching TV and talking about how their poker players hadn't shown up that night. I walked in and they were just giddy to have a player. It was kind of cute. They gave me my choice of playing BJ or playing 3cp. I picked BJ. I cannot stress enough how great the people were at Paso Robles. Again, the staff at the casino were amazing. Really, really great folks. Now, let's talk about the game. It's dealt from an uncut sealed preshuffled shoe. There's a $1 ante, bj pays 1:1, double 9,10,11 only, split 1x, no DAS. I have never seen rules close to that bad, even in charity games. But, boy, were the folks great!

My chips from Paso Robles are Icon products. My $5 chip is purplish. The MOGH calls it "dark red" but I think it's much more like a red/blue mix than a red/black mix. I also have a blue business card chip from the casino. This is where I got the idea for my own business card chips.

Quote: rdw4potus

I also have a blue business card chip from the casino. This is where I got the idea for my own business card chips.

Did you start a thread on that? Some day I might want to make my own business card chips...

Quote: AcesAndEights

Quote: rdw4potus

I also have a blue business card chip from the casino. This is where I got the idea for my own business card chips.

Did you start a thread on that? Some day I might want to make my own business card chips...

I did! Here's the thread. It was a pretty easy process. I wish I did a couple things differently, but for the most part they've been great.

Quote: 1BB

Quote: s2dbaker

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.

Wow, I did not know about the name change! From the Maxim, my old stomping grounds, to the Casuarina (Westin) to the Max.

I have some Maxim chips, postcards and soap.

Here's the new $5 chip:

State: California
City: Citrus Heights
Casino: Phoenix

Today's chip of the day comes from the Phoenix card club in Citrus Heights, CA. Citrus Heights is a Sacramento suburb and is also home to the Lucky Derby card club. The Phoenix closed their card room earlier this year. It is now just a sports bar, complete with darts, pool, and beer pong.

Here's a picture of the Phoenix:



I played poker at the Phoenix. I didn't stay long, only playing through two rounds of blinds before heading out. I lost $40 during my session. I can see how the poker room at Phoenix would have closed. It was definitely not a focal point of the property. The club opened in 1980 and closed in 2013. Maybe they were sort of resigned to that fate at the time that I visited in 2011.

My chip from Phoenix is a yellow chipco product. There's a little wear, mostly around the edge of each face.

I could use some advice from you folks regarding organization of this thread. When I started it some twenty-one months ago, I really had in mind that it shouldn't be difficult to discuss just one casino and and its chip(s) each day. I did invite others to post their comments and, if they had them, images of other chips from the same casino.

In some cases, and it's not so surprising, people contributed but weren't so Johnny-on-the-spot, so that their chip postings appeared after a few days (or maybe a year) delay. I'm just fine with that.

Also, I noted from the beginning that casinos seem to change names more than rarely. In my collection, and in the way I have handled my posts in this thread, if a casino changed its name, I consider that as equivalent to its being a brand new casino. Examples of that in Las Vegas include Barbary Coast and Bill's Gamblin' Hall, South Coast and South Point, Horseshoe and Binions, etc. Each of those gets its own day and its own place in the directory.

There were also cases where I posted a chip from a casino and noted that the place had operated under another name before I ever got there. In those cases, I often invited people to post right then the images of any chips they had from the previous incarnation, since I didn't know whether we would cover the long-gone establishments otherwise.

With that introduction, my question is how best should we handle cases like two that have come up in just the past few days.

On 12/11/13, rdw4potus posted his chip from the Palace Casino in Lemoore, noting that, "Apparently, this property changed names and chips after my visit. It is now the Tachi Palace Casino."

Right after that post, Konbu posted a reply with his chips from both the Palace and the Tachi (notably with no "Palace" in the name). I asked whether the Tachi deserved its own place in the directory, perhaps with a link to Konbu's post. I didn't get any reply.

Then yesterday, s2dbaker posted a reply to my posting of a Casuarina chip way back in April 2012. In his reply, s2dbaker presented his chip from the Max Casino, which is the new name of the Casuarina.

I certainly like having the Max chip posted in this thread, but I think it would be more consistent if we had that "new" casino presented properly on it's own, not just as the equivalent of a footnote to the Casuarina. Same with the Tachi.

So how should I handle such things? Should the Max now be in the directory with a link to s2dbaker's post? I certainly want to acknowledge the chip and the new casino, and s2dbaker was indeed the first person to post a chip from there.

My only concern is that if I start handling such posts/chips in that way, one day a member may come along and post in a lump his/her collection of twenty chips from casinos we have not yet covered. If I add all of those to the directory, then we sorta lose the theme of having a chip of the day. And that member might post those chips on a day when we have already had another casino covered.

Any suggestions on how best to handle this sort of thing? Maybe I'm just being too nerdy, trying to keep such a thing strictly structured.

My suggestion would be to have an index entry for each name. The index can reflect the "changed name to _____ on "date", and "changed name from ____ on "date"", in parentheses after each entry.

Quote: s2dbaker

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Casuarina

Here's the new $5 chip:

Is it just an optical illusion, or is the insert on the "yellow" side off center?

This is a pretty cool catch if they actually produced only 500 chips for the "Grand Opening". Did they have other "limited edition" $5 chip designs for the grand opening, or were all the others of a standard design?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: s2dbaker

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Casuarina

Here's the new $5 chip:

Is it just an optical illusion, or is the insert on the "yellow" side off center?

Those are two chips scanned side by side. I was with a friend who got one as well and I commandeered it for this post.

Quote: Ayecarumba

This is a pretty cool catch if they actually produced only 500 chips for the "Grand Opening". Did they have other "limited edition" $5 chip designs for the grand opening, or were all the others of a standard design?

I do not know. I just noticed the LTD 500 when I was scanning them. Perhaps Doc can inquire when he goes on his chip collection mission.

I came across an industry generated, 'economic impact' report that asserts many of the California cities that host card clubs get at least 25% of their general fund budget from them, with one (Hawaiian Gardens) getting over 80%.

Quote: Doc

I could use some advice from you folks regarding organization of this thread.

Follow your heart, Doc!

Quote: Doc

...
Right after that post, Konbu posted a reply with his chips from both the Palace and the Tachi (notably with no "Palace" in the name). I asked whether the Tachi deserved its own place in the directory, perhaps with a link to Konbu's post. I didn't get any reply.

Sorry for not replying. Whatever you suggest Doc let me know. I can go and edit it into a separate entry for Tachi / Tachi Palace.

State: California
City: Ventura
Casino: Players

Today's chip of the day comes from the Players card club in Ventura, CA. Ventura is a city of about 100,000 people between Malibu and Santa Barbara on CA-1 along the Pacific coast in southern CA. It's a surprisingly normal town in one of the prettier parts of the country. The club has about 25 poker tables.

Here's a picture of the property:



I visited Players club in the summer of 2011. It had just moved across town to its new location. That proved to be a real pain, because the new address was not easy to find. Then, when I found the address, it wasn't in my GPS. It had taken me a little over 3 hours to drive the 70 miles from LAX to Ventura, so not finding the club was pretty maddening. I played poker to collect my chip. I played 1/2 NL hold'em. My hold'em game was pretty dull. Everyone was very tight, and I couldn't catch the cards to use that. I realize that made me pretty tight as well, but I couldn't even pull off a semi-bluff. I was interested in an Omaha variant that they have, but they weren't spreading it at that time. They have an Omaha game with a 10 total cards (5 in the hand, 5 on the board). As if the poker hands in regular Omaha weren't high enough, adding another card makes for some real monsters. I think I'd like that added variance.

My chip from Players is a Chipco product. It's green and white, with an image of a wave. Lots of these chips with wave images seem to depict other-than-friendly waves.

"Players Club"??? Reminds me of the Player's Club for which Player's International had Telly Savalas hawking membership cards back in the '80s.

Quote: Doc

"Players Club"??? Reminds me of the Player's Club for which Player's International had Telly Savalas hawking membership cards back in the '80s.

I saw Telly pull up to Resorts in AC via the Boardwalk a long time ago in a stretch limo. He was everywhere back then with that Player's Club. I believe his hand prints graced Resorts' front entrance until they were taken down for remodeling and Margaritaville. I wonder what they did with them.

State: California
City: Merced
Casino: Poker Flats

Today's chip of the day comes from the Poker Flats card club in Merced, CA. The club has 3 poker tables.

Here's a picture of the club:



I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I went to the "card club across town" while I was waiting for the Merced Poker Room to open. This was the club I visited at that time. They seemed to have a good setup. On their 3 tables there is 1 cash game and 1 tourney table. The third table flexes between the two formats as needed. They were in the middle of a 20 person tourney when I arrived, and I needed to wait a bit for the second table to transition to a cash table from a tourney table. That was done very quickly once the player count had dropped far enough to fit at one table. I was able to talk my way into the table (despite my spot on the list) by explaining that I would only play for 10 minutes. That allowed me to bypass other players on the list who were cool with my plan and purpose. 10 minutes was about 1 round of blinds. Pretty much nothing happened during that time. I don't think I played more than 2 hands (my blinds) which I basically pushed on. My notes show that I won $7. I'm not sure if that includes the value of this chip or not.

My chip from Poker Flats is a yellow sunfly chip from the Blue Chip Company. It has an unusually large center inlay, similar to the ones we've discussed previously that extend out to and cover the hat & cane section of some Paulson chips. It's a very simple and basic design, with lots of white space. It actually looks kind of weird that the inlay covers the starfly section of the chip.

Hmm... I wonder what the "LV" stands for?

Quote: Konbu

Sorry for not replying. Whatever you suggest Doc let me know. I can go and edit it into a separate entry for Tachi / Tachi Palace.

No apology is necessary, of course. Tell you what: if you could edit that post to include a Tachi header like the ones rdw4potus and I have used (state, city, and casino name all in bold) and structure it a bit as if you are posting for a "new" casino, not just posting your chip from the Palace, then I will add Tachi to the directory. So is the new name "Tachi" or "Tachi Palace"?

And s2dbaker, your Max chip post needs those headers, too. And it might make a better "new" casino post if you just threw away all the quoted text about the Casuarina and just told the story of your visit to the Marvelous New Max.     ;-)   Let me know if you will do that.

Thanks again to both of you for your contributions to this thread.

Quote: Doc

So is the new name "Tachi" or "Tachi Palace"?

It's actually pretty clever what they've done. The word Palace actually is on the chip, right between the "Tachi" and the "Hotel".

State: California
City: Rancho Cordova
Casino: Rancho's Club

Today's chip of the day comes from the Rancho's Club in Rancho Cordova, CA. Rancho Cordova is in the Sacramento metro area. The city is also home to the Cordova club. So, Rancho Cordova has two card clubs, the Rancho and the Cordova. Sweet! Rancho's Club has about 10 tables. In addition to poker, they spread blackjack, baccarat, and something called double hand marquez. Double hand poker is non-proprietary PGP, but I'm not sure what the marquez twist to the game is.

Here is a picture of the property:



I thought Rancho's was about 1 step below Cordova Club in terms of quality. Neither is great, and neither is awful. The poker area at Rancho's was very heavily populated. But, the bj ad bacc tables were wide open. I changed things up a bit and played bacc to collect my chip. Sadly, my change of game didn't change my luck. I lost $60 in about 15 minutes. I think at this point I was down about $500 for the day. That just isn't supposed to happen with a $60 loss limit and $40 win limit and 20 sessions per day. But, I dipped at least that low on 2 of my 4 trips to CA. On this one, I rebounded well. On the one to the central part of the state, things got pretty hairy.

My chip from Rancho's is a red Bud Jones product. The center section is a very cool, stylized depiction of the city. The Bud Jones "BJ" is at about the 3:30 position on the chip.

Dumping my chips from CA card rooms. Not much to add except to say that RDW was completely right about the folks from Paso Robles. I collected many of these chips on a drive in May to Paso Robles for a wedding. It is very rare for a SoCal resident to venture north of Los Angeles, trips east or South are far more common. I stopped at many casinos on my way up that day and I arrived at the Motel 6 I was staying at to find that the Paso Robles Casino was literally in the parking lot of my motel. (I would not normally stay at a Motel 6 but there was a wine festival in town the weekend of the wedding and prices were sky high. I actually had to pay more than $100 a night for my room at the Motel 6!!!!). I wandered over to the casino and the only open table on a Saturday am was a NL Texas Hold Them tournament with about 8 (gr8) players. The staff was a supervisor, dealer, bartender, and cage. Not sure how it is a profitable business model to have 4 staff and 8 players but it must work for them. I sat at the bar, ordered a beer and watched the action while all the employees (but the dealer) chatted with me. I remember them being extremely friendly and charming people. The BJ would not be open until 4pm and the wedding began at 5 so that was out of the question. They could not have been more friendly though, they actually offered to open the game for me but that would have involved someone driving in and I would have felt obligated to give them a lot more than $40 in action if they did that so I declined. They happily sold me a chip and gave me the chip business card RDW posted. What a pleasant experience.



The only chip that is significantly different on the reverse is the Hustler chip:


It was this thread that inspired my chip collecting. Thanks again Doc and RDW.

Quote: rdw4potus

It's actually pretty clever what they've done. The word Palace actually is on the chip, right between the "Tachi" and the "Hotel".

Obviously, I didn't read the fine print!

Nevertheless, the Tachi Palace is now in the thread index, with a link to Konbu's revised post. Thanks, Konbu. Haven't yet heard from s2dbaker.


And thanks also to bigfoot66 for that set of $1 chips. Nice addition to the thread.

State: California
City: Placerville
Casino: Redhawk

Today's chip of the day comes from the Redhawk casino in Placerville, CA. Placerville is due East of Sacramento on US50, right on the edge of the Eldorado National Forest. Redhawk has 2,100 slots and 66 tables on a 88,000 sqft gaming floor. The casino has a very wide variety of games: card craps, card roulette, blackjack, Switch, baccarat (including midi), 3 card poker, 4 card poker, Ultimate Texas Holdem, Let It Ride, and Pai Gow Poker.

The valet area at Redhawk is really something to see, especially when the roadway is wet and it's dusk. Here's a promotional picture that happens to capture those elements perfectly:



I'm not quite sure what Redhawk's target market is, exactly. It's close to Sacramento, but it's not the closest casino to town (and there are card clubs in the city). It's close to Eldorado and the tourism/recreation there, but so is South Lake Tahoe and I hear there are a couple casinos there. I guess, wherever Redhawk's draw comes from, it's an above average resort/casino with a kind of cool funky lodge theme. It's sort of 1 part modern sleek and 1 part lodge, combine in an 88,000 square foot space and garnish with kitsch.

I played PGP at Redhawk. The joker was partially wild. My very first hand was (in order) *AAA444. That's a great hand, but I really wish fours looked less like aces. I about wet myself 3 times as I fanned the cards out. As it was, the payout on the quads really helped me bounce back from the hole I'd fallen into throughout the day. I played maybe 5 or 6 more hands and then cashed out up $400 for the session.

My chip from Redhawk is a red Paulson RHC. The casino's logo is an RH with a backwards R, so that the vertical stroke is also the left side of the H. As a child of the '80s, I can't look at a backwards R without thinking of Toys'R'Us so this is a bit odd for me.

Quote: rdw4potus

It's close to Eldorado and the tourism/recreation there, but so is South Lake Tahoe and I hear there are a couple casinos there.

Nah, no casinos in South Lake Tahoe. They're all across the street in Stateline, NV, though the chips tend to say "Lake Tahoe" just as those from Paradise say "Las Vegas."

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Placerville
Casino: Redhawk

Here is my chip from Redhawk. It seems odd to me as the denomination is centered between the dollar sign and the "1", rather than just the number.



The wings remind me of an album cover from the '70's rock band Journey. Instead of the "RH", do you see an, "Old Tymie" moustache on a backward "P"?

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: Citrus Heights
Casino: Phoenix

Today's chip of the day comes from the Phoenix card club in Citrus Heights, CA. Citrus Heights is a Sacramento suburb and is also home to the Lucky Derby card club. The Phoenix closed their card room earlier this year. It is now just a sports bar, complete with darts, pool, and beer pong.

My understanding is that the owner of Lucky Derby purchased the Phoenix license as is planning to merge his two licenses into a larger casino. I actually really liked playing the table games there, very friendly place. They were the most relaxed casino I've ever been to, the dealers were openly betting out of their racks while also dealing!

Ayecarumba posted his so I won't post my $1 chip. I like the Red Hawk. It's fairly big and has many tables. And the self-serve soft drink/coffee station is nice because I hate waiting for service. My first and so far the only experience of card craps was here. There are Asian buses coming from Oakland chinatown and I believe it's like $5 or $10 ride with matchplay/slotplay back. Now with what I am sure is fierce competition from Graton in Rohnert Park I think the buses need to be free (plus match plays of course) to lure people there haha

State: California
City: San Pablo
Casino: San Pablo Lytton

Today's chip of the day comes from the San Pablo Lytton casino in San Pablo, CA. San Pablo is North of Oakland, across the San Francisco Bay from San Rafael, CA. The geography is a bit odd, as San Pablo is bordered on all sides by the city of Richmond. The casino has 1,300 slots adn 12 tables on a 31,500 sqft gaming floor. It is quite crowded, but it's easy to understand the desire to put as many slots as possible in a casino this close to the population centers of the Bay Area. The casino has baccarat, blackjack, 3 card poker, pai gow tiles, and pai gow poker in addition to their poker tables.

Here's a picture of the property:



The casino has a very strong southwest feel. This is what I thought the casinos in New Mexico would look like, but for the most part they don't. It's a fine casno, but it's a little odd to see a property styled this way right in the middle of town. The casino opened in 2005, and it's been fighting for the right to expand pretty much ever since. Those efforts have been continually rebuffed, which is a shame because it's pretty cramped feeling inside.

I played BJ at San Pablo Lytton. I had a very Aceofspades session. I'd think I was doing well hitting to 19 and 20, only to be out pipped by the dealer every time. I did win a couple times, but mostly I had good hands and lost. Within 1 shoe, I'd lost my $60 buyin.

My chip from San Pablo Lytton is a yellow Bud Jones product. Yellow is a somewhat unique color for a tribal casino, but I suppose this offsets some red chips from the card clubs in the area.



(edit: Now with chip images included)

deleted

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

You forgot the picture of the chip.

Oh, good grief:-) Fixed!

Quote: rdw4potus

State: California
City: San Pablo
Casino: San Pablo Lytton

Here's a picture of the property:

This picture reminds me of the 18th hole on a putt-putt golf course. There is even a "ball" lined up for the shot into the castle.

So how have I missed this little tidbit until now?

Today's QoD at the Las Vegas Advisor site says that the owner of the Dottie's chain ...

Quote: Las Vegas Advisor QoD

...was recently approved to buy the Hacienda casino-hotel just outside Boulder City. It will be Nevada Restaurant Services’ first venture into the full-service casino business, when the renamed and remodeled Hoover Dam Lodge debuts, after a brief shutdown, just prior to New Year's (if all goes according to schedule).

I wonder whether they will have Hoover Dam Lodge chips in play by the time I get there in February.

I always pass by San Pablo and even went in once. It's a very smoky place and all the slots are class 2 because they have the daub button with a note on the machine itself saying "don't forget to daub!" Also a collection is paid on every round (at least for PGP from what I remember). No different than a card club.

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State: California
City: Visalia
Casino: Sundowner

Today's chip of the day comes from the Sundowner card club in Visalia, CA. Visalia, which is in inland cenrtal CA, is also home to the Deuce. Sundowner has 2 poker tables.

I can't find a picture of the club, which is really a shame. Now I'm left using words to explain exactly how sketchy the Sundowner appears to be. First, it's pretty rundown on the outside. Second, it's a stripclub. Correction, it's a members only stripclub. Third, the back of said stripclub contains a second separate entrance for the card room, which is a half-walled room behind/next to the stage area. There is an official card-club cat. There's a joke in there somewhere, I think...

The cardclub itself isn't too terribly awful. It felt a lot like the clubs in Merced - just a room with some tables in it. I actually visited Sundowner on a different day than I visited the Deuce. After my visit to the Deuce, I stopped by Sundowner and was scared off by the "members only" status. I stopped back in on my way back to the highway from La Fuerza on a trip about 3 months later. On the second visit, I noticed the "poker players in the back" sign. Luckily (?) the stripclub was dark on the day I visited the inside of the club. As the other players explained it, it sounded like the dancers would accept tips from players in exchange for distracting other players. As one guy put it "I only come when they're closed over (in the strip club). Otherwise, it's like Baseketball in here, but with tits!"

I played a poker tourney at Sundowner. I lost and lost early. I opted not to rebuy and didn't want to wait for the tourney to consolidate to 1 table so a cash game could start on the other table. I talked the manager into selling me a chip. The chips they use for cash games are not Sundowner chips, but are instead from the defunct Tagus card room on the the other side of town.

My chip from Sundowner is a yellow Paulson LCV. There's not much to it, just the Tagus name on one side and the denomination on the other side.

Quote: rdw4potus

The chips they use for cash games are not Sundowner chips, but are instead from the defunct Tagus card room on the the other side of town.

Well, that sure makes for an interesting decision on how to list the chip in the thread directory! Guess I'll just go along with rdw4potus's choice.

Quote: Doc

Well, that sure makes for an interesting decision on how to list the chip in the thread directory! Guess I'll just go along with rdw4potus's choice.

I figured I had to call it Sundowner since I've never been to Tagus. There have been a couple times when I've received a chip at one casino from a physically connected property (Bucky's/Cypress Bayou, Gold Creek/Double Eagle) but this is the only time I've received a chip from a physically distant - and closed - casino. I don't think this would be allowed in most places, but California's lack of regulations/regulators allows it to happen.

State: California
City: Friant
Casino: Table Mountain

Today's chip of the day comes from the Table Mountain casino in Friant, CA. Friant is straight north of Fresno on CA41, on the shores of Millerton Lake. Table Mountain has 2,000 slots and 50 tables on a 70,000 square foot gaming floor. The casino has baccarat, blackjack, spanish 21, 3 card poker, pai gow poker, card roulette, and ultimate texas hold'em.

Here's a picture of the casino:



I have two stories to tell about my visit to Table Mountain. First, there's the Pai Gow Poker hand that I fouled. I'd been playing in the LA market for most of the prior two days and the joker is fully wild there but it is NOT fully wild at Table Mountain. At Table Mountain, I got KcJc10c9cJs*2d. I thought it was two pair, and set it as *K1092/JJ. The house ruled the hand fouled and tried to collect all my chips. I basically started chanting "I have a straight flush. I have a straight flush. Pay the bonus. Pay the bonus..." The floorwoman said "this is a fouled hand. All bets must be collected." I said "Is that what the rules sheet actually says? You'd pay the SF if I set the hand as JJ1092/*K...shouldn't you pay it now too?" She said "no," I said "check, please." She threw her hands up and walked away. Then she came back 2 minutes later, told the dealer to pay me, and reamed me out for making the other players wait. She was literally screaming at me in the middle of the casino floor. I stayed as calm as I could, told her that I wasn't the one that made them wait, colored up, and left. There is not a chance in hell that I'll ever step foot in this casino again. I kind of felt bad for not tipping on that win, especially when the poor dealer has to put up with that manager all day.

The second story is somewhat related to the first. I was mad as hell when I left Table Mountain. I went up to Mono Wind only to find out that they'd closed their tables when Table Mountain was expanded a couple years ago. I guess that makes sense, since the best way to get to Mono Wind is to drive up the road that passes directly in front of Table Mountain. On the way back down from Mono Wind, I was enjoying the road and driving pretty damn fast. It's a winding road, with lots of switchbacks. For the most part, it's well graded and banked almost like a track. That made the speed fun and manageable. Then, one of the turns was banked outward. I damn near drove off of a cliff. Luckily, it was a right turn so I was able to use the oncoming traffic lane to keep myself from plummeting to my death. And, luckily, there was no oncoming traffic for me to collide with. Good God, that was awful.

My chip from Table Mountain is a red Paulson RHC. It's pretty beat up, but was the best I could find before I had my little ordeal at the table. The hats and canes are very near the edge of the chip. I'm not sure if that's a wear-related condition, or if the size of the ring of indentations is variable.