Casino Chip of the Day

Nice post Doc!
I went back and read the MS story from the link, you did right by trying to get someone to corral the cows.
Just in case GWAE missed the story the first time, about 5:00 AM back in the early 80's on my way to work and less than 2 miles from my house, I had a cow adventure. Topped a little hill to notice, what the eff, a herd of black angus in the road. All happened in a hurry, slammed the brakes and swerved to miss the first couple then sideswiped another at about 35 MPH. Made an awful bamidy bam bam. Damaged the front bumper, grill, hood, entire left side, and nearly tore the rear bumper off my truck ;-) Wasn't funny at the time, which was before cell phones. I drove a couple miles up the interstate to get to a phone and got a Henry County police officer/Sheriffs officer to come meet me and drove with him back to the site of my crime. I expected dead cow in the road, no just a lazy herd walking down the road. I went to work while he herded them down the road with squad car. Apparently they are afraid of flashing blue lights (me too!

Doc I am leaving tomorrow but I don't believe the I-10 will be part of my route. Thanks though.

I am pretty jealous that you got the CNE chip before me, it is definitely in my plans for the next time I head that way. It might be the hardest chip to plan around. I will be posting a daily (hopefully) trip report over the next couple of weeks.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc I am leaving tomorrow but I don't believe the I-10 will be part of my route. Thanks though.

Be careful out there. I'm watching the news about it right now. What a mess.

State: California
City: Sacramento
Casino: The Sundown

While waiting for some soon-to-be-posted chips and trip reports, I figured I could sneek in this Chip of the Day. This chip is from the old Sundown in North Sacramento on Del Paso Blvd. When I played there it was just called the Sundown. Apparently the club goes way back, to the 60s. It was a popular club and they had standard Sacramento (Northern California) lowball, same structure, same rules. They always had a couple $4 limits when I played there, some $6 limits, and my memory tells me I've played $20 there also. I had a lot of fun at the Sundown. Good memories.

This is the same club that moved across town, or downtown, to become The Capitol Casino which operates now and is very popular. I think they moved about the year 2000 or 2001. I stopped there a couple times back then and by that time they were playing hold'em, although they did have a $20 lowball game going on the side. The main game was $9-$18 hold'em, I think with a kill. But even that is old news now. Today it's all No Limit, just like most everywhere.

The Capitol Casino and its chips were posted by rdw4potus on page 374 in 2013.

And my Chip of the Day: The Sundown

nice info

Is there a current daily poster or one on deck? I have 5 new chips to post this week if not.

Go right ahead. Bobbartop has posted most recently and may have more to come, but he hasn't been posting daily. PokerGrinder is still in travel status and collecting, so I think the stage is yours.

State: Florida
City: Brighton
Casino: Seminole

I'll be presenting 5 chips collected this past weekend on a road trip around Florida. There are still around 3 left to collect I think.

The plan for the road trip was from home (West Palm Beach) north to Jacksonville, west toward Tallahassee then southeast back past Orlando to WPB.

I have had issues in the past going to 2 casinos that use the same chips, or casinos that don't have table games anymore or only have them open certain hours or days of the week. In an effort to prevent this I always do some final research on each casino before trips collecting and I was thrown 3 wrinkles this time:

1) A wasted stop that I'll cover in a few days.

2) I discovered Hamilton Downs Jai Alai closed in fall of 2015, which is a bummer because I meant to make this trip last summer.

3) The Seminole Brighton casino's website had a poker update:
"As part of the continuous enhancements, Live Poker Play at Seminole Brighton Casino will not be offered as of August 1, 2016. Seminole Brighton Casino thanks you for your patronage and loyalty to the Poker Room over the years. "

Upon seeing this announcement and having a day off before 8/1/16 with nothing to do, I decided to catchup on some podcasts and make the 1.5 hour drive each way to middle of nowhere Florida to grab my chip here.

Seminole Casino Brighton is a 27,000-square-foot casino with over 400 slot and gaming machines, high-stake bingo action, and Josiah, a full service restaurant and lounge.

My cell phone navigation signal dropped from LTE to 4g to No Service upon arriving to the casino, which I suspected may happen (it's in the middle of nowhere, just north of big Lake Okeechobee).





Inside there were 2 poker dealers hanging out and I saw a board with 3 names on the interest list for 1-2 NL game. No games running, but thankfully they sold me a chip.

The inside of the casino in general is kind of cramped but was surprisingly busy for a weekday afternoon. Stuck a $20 in a DDB VP machine to gamble a bit before the drive back and went on a dream parlaying sequence, hitting a quad at 25c, parlayed to quad 2s no kicker at 50c, parlayed to a quad at $1. Played a couple scared hands at the $5 level before cashing out a $320 on my $20. Nice run!

State: Florida
City: Orange Park
Casino: Orange Park Kennel Club

Located on the southern edge of Jacksonville, bestbet Orange Park has 40 tables of action spreading cash games as well as daily tournaments.





The downstairs of this facility looks just like the Palm Beach Kennel Club, lots of race betters throwing losing tickets around. An escalator leads up to a fairly nice poker room. I didn't play here but was able to grab a chip from the cashier while checking the place out.

Nicer facility than I imagined.

Nice coverage, Wezvidz, nice photos. I was never one to be interested in Dog Racing, but I am a horse fan, I thought dog racing was kinda on the way out. I know they had it in Arizona, not sure if it is still there, and I know Florida has it. Does it still seem to generate much interest from the public?

And I saw you mention Jai Lai, that was interesting, I remember seeing it in Tijuana several years ago. It was a low mutuel handle, I don't know how they managed.

Nice report so far!

I haven't yet added this latest chip post to the thread's index. That index is such a nuisance to edit that I want to make certain that I have everything correct before I start entering the info.

In almost all cases, we have listed casinos based on the name of the place that appears on the chip. Not always, but almost all of the time. In this case, wezvidz has the casino listed as "bestbet" while the chip says "The Poker Room at Orange Park Kennel Club."

Now the bestbet web site shows establishments in both Jacksonville and nearby Orange Park (just outside the Jacksonville beltway). The MoGH Chip guide shows the same chip as posted by wezvidz on a page for "Poker Room at Orange Park Kennel Club" and a completely different chip for the Jacksonville location, with that chip indeed saying "bestbet" and including the Jacksonville designation. I don't know whether wezvidz picked up a chip from there on his recent trip and will be sharing it with us shortly.

That MoGH page for bestbet Jacksonville even has a bestbet logo that suggests that they have a third facility in St. Johns, just a few miles further from downtown Jacksonville. However, the MoGH page for that facility lists it as "Poker Room at St. Johns Greyhound Park," and shows chips that match that name. (As a side note, that page shows chips with values as small as $0.0005. Talk about your low-stakes games!) I did a Google Maps search for that location and found a streetview image that does indeed show a track and a building with signs saying "The Best Bet" and "The Poker Room," but that image shows gates closed across the entrance to an empty parking lot, so maybe the place is really dead.

I also checked the CasinoCity.com web site, and they do show bestbet locations in both Jacksonville and Orange Park, but not in St. Johns.

So what I'm really getting at is this: Should this chip/casino be listed as "bestbet" or as "Orange Park Kennel Club" or something? Is there a reasonable chance that they will be issuing chips some day that say "bestbet Orange Park" so that we would have justification for a separate CCotD entry for the place under that name?

I'd just like to try to have this sort of thing figured out before I list the place in the index. Any thoughts, wezvidz or anyone else?


Edit 5/23/20: Our member known as RideTheEdge has posted an image of a different chip from the Orange Park Kennel Club here.

Just my opinion, but I think the name on the chip should prevail, unless it is shared by multiple locations, or just wrong.

I imagine that if someone comes across a chip and wants to check it out in the index, it would be simple to find. Otherwise, the searcher has to know the casino's name to find the image. Of course, folks could be looking up casinos by name to see the chips....

I guess I will leave this to the experts.

I agree with using the name on the chip. I didn't even think twice when I posted because I took my casino name's from my trip itinerary. bestbet Jax and Orange Park share a website and it looked those were the names before I actually got the chip.

State: Florida
City: Jacksonville
Casino: bestbet

bestbet Jacksonville is the biggest poker room in the state hosting all games and all limits. Offering 70 tables of action spreading cash games as well as daily tournaments. They've hosted World Poker Tour events here before.

This place felt a little more urban. Hand on my wallet as I checked it out. Like Orange Park (and seemingly everywhere at cardrooms in FL now) there were player-banked BJ, 3CP, Ultimate Texas Holdem and Pai Gow tables. About 10 total here. As far as I understand, "banker" people make all the payouts and host the game (and simply "rent" the table at the cardroom), and can be seen with racks of chips stacked in front of them on the side of each table beside the dealer.





All tables games were full on a Friday night and had a waiting list like the poker games, so I grabbed a chip at the cage and left. Wanted to play UTH but no seats open at the 3 tables going.

OK, another excellent addition to the thread!

I have now added the two most recent chips/casinos to the index, which brings the total number of casinos presented in this thread to 950. I listed the Orange Park establishment (posted on the previous page) as "Orange Park Kennel Club" (without any reference to which "room" the chip came from -- that would make the name a bit too long for the index cells, I think).

So, wezvidz, if by some slim chance you still haven't reached the time limit for editing that post from yesterday, please revise the name of the casino in the header of your post so that everything matches up. If it is too late for you to do that, I will ask one of our friendly, helpful moderators to make the change. They have always been very supportive of this thread.

I can't edit so a friendly mod could maybe step in? :)

On an unrelated note, I was looking at Colorado chips from this thread because I will be returning to Denver next weekend. It looks like on my trip 2 years ago to Blackhawk and Cripple Creek I missed out on Big Jim's Gambling Hall & Saloon somehow. Google maps still has it listed as exisiting but the website link they provide (http://www.bigjimscasino.com/) leads to a garbage webpage that looks like is a placeholder after the domain was given up. Are they closed or still operational?

EDIT: nevermind, found an article on Google. Closed in summer 2014. Right after I was there. Can't believe I missed it. There was a downtown festival going on the day I was there so the main street was all closed off and I had to hike up and down both sides into each place, must have missed Jim's. This is an exception where I may buy a chip online. The only other time I did that was a coin from the Searchlight Nugget, which I visited on my way to Laughlin from Vegas a few years back but they didn't have their table games open and wouldn't sell me a chip. I figured since I was on the premises, the chip I bought on ebay isn't "cheating".

Quote: Doc

That MoGH page for bestbet Jacksonville even has a bestbet logo that suggests that they have a third facility in St. Johns, just a few miles further from downtown Jacksonville. However, the MoGH page for that facility lists it as "Poker Room at St. Johns Greyhound Park," and shows chips that match that name. (As a side note, that page shows chips with values as small as $0.0005. Talk about your low-stakes games!) I did a Google Maps search for that location and found a streetview image that does indeed show a track and a building with signs saying "The Best Bet" and "The Poker Room," but that image shows gates closed across the entrance to an empty parking lot, so maybe the place is really dead.

I can confirm that the poker room at the St. John's facility is closed. I believe the closing coincided with the opening of the room in Jacksonville a few years back. The same entity owns all 3 locations.

10 years ago, the St. John's room was the only place to play cards in town. I may still have a chip from that room. If I can locate it, I could do a "guest appearance" and add it to the list.

Quote: Doc

OK, another excellent addition to the thread!

I have now added the two most recent chips/casinos to the index, which brings the total number of casinos presented in this thread to 950. I listed the Orange Park establishment (posted on the previous page) as "Orange Park Kennel Club" (without any reference to which "room" the chip came from -- that would make the name a bit too long for the index cells, I think).

So, wezvidz, if by some slim chance you still haven't reached the time limit for editing that post from yesterday, please revise the name of the casino in the header of your post so that everything matches up. If it is too late for you to do that, I will ask one of our friendly, helpful moderators to make the change. They have always been very supportive of this thread.

Done. :)

State: Florida
City: Gretna
Casino: Creek Entertainment

Plan on this day was to head west from Jacksonville to this casino, then backtrack to 75 south toward Ocala.

One stop heading west was going to be the Jefferson County Kennel Club. My pretrip research absolutely failed me on this one. Complete ghost town. Place was shut down.







I sighed and continued west to a very weird venue where I got today's chip of the day.

"Creek Entertainment Gretna is located in Gretna, Florida. The venue opened in 2011 and features a 24 table poker room and simulcast betting on horse and dog races as well as Jai Alai meets.

The property is majority owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians who would like to develop it into a full service resort.

Although there are currently no slot machines here, Gadsden County voters passed a referendum shortly after the facility opened to be sure the state couldn't take the possibility away.

Unfortunately in 2013 a judge ruled that regulators erred when they gave CEG license for betting on barrel racing, so that practice has stopped."

This was a weird one. Middle of nowhere, anonymous looking building with minimal signage. Inside was just a giant ballroom, sidled by a bar along one wall and lots of poker action going on in the middle. An attached room through glass doors had a betting window and a wall of TVs where you could wager on dog racing.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Done. :)

Whadiditellya! Supportive to a level of satisfying a request before it is even asked!

Thanks, BBB.

Quote: Doc

Whadiditellya! Supportive to a level of satisfying a request before it is even asked!

Thanks, BBB.

Well, truthfully, I thought it WAS asked by wez when he replied to your post, saying he couldn't edit, but you're welcome, as always. Worth supporting such a valuable thread; I appreciate the content you provide, Doc.

Quote: wezvidz

State: Florida
City: Gretna
Casino: Creek Entertainment

No signs?? That is weird. It looks like there might be a BBQ restaurant opening soon. How did you find the place? Are there big signs by the highway?

State: Florida
City: Orange Lake
Casino: Ocala Poker & Jai-Alai

"Ocala Poker & Jai Alai is located about halfway between Gainesville and Ocala. The Jai Alai season is generally February and March.

Poker and simulcasting (intra-track wagering) run 7 days a week all year long. The poker room has 28 tables with 18 plasma big screens viewable from all the tables."

This was one beat up and backwoods gambling destination. One 3CP table going, 4 poker tables all in a little side room, and the rest of the facility was people betting on Jai Alai and races.

Quote: wezvidz

State: Florida
City: Orange Lake
Casino: Ocala Poker & Jai-Alai

"Ocala Poker & Jai Alai is located about halfway between Gainesville and Ocala. The Jai Alai season is generally February and March.

Poker and simulcasting (intra-track wagering) run 7 days a week all year long. The poker room has 28 tables with 18 plasma big screens viewable from all the tables."

This was one beat up and backwoods gambling destination. One 3CP table going, 4 poker tables all in a little side room, and the rest of the facility was people betting on Jai Alai and races.

I'm confused. It seems like there are two different facilities being described in this post. What am I missing?

I'm not sure what you're missing. In quotes is a blurb from their site, then my personal description below it.

Quote: wezvidz

I'm not sure what you're missing. In quotes is a blurb from their site, then my personal description below it.

I guess I was missing the first three paragraphs. I've got it now. Thanks.

This will be my last chip to post, and it's not a new venue, just a new chip. Played poker for the first time in ages at my local Palm Beach Kennel Club last week. After they renovated the room within the last year, they got completely new chips.


This exhausts my supply of new chips for the thread.

Quote: rdw4potus

Quote: wezvidz

State: Florida
City: West Palm Beach
Casino: Palm Beach Kennel Club

"The Palm Beach Kennel Club. 60 Hot Poker Tables, 185 Exciting Simulcast Races, 133 Thrilling Live Races, 2 Fabulous Restaurants, ONLY 1 PLACE."

I've been playing here for 5 years now, best poker action in south Florida. Dog races and terrible poker players, has the WSOP circuit visit 2 times per year. Not much else to say other than this picture is from a frame of 99 chips so it's not the best quality. Also all the chips here seem to be dirty so this is a better one I found.



On a side note, thread resurrection! I have a ton of Florida chips (mainly poker rooms) not posted so I'll contribute, along with some cruise chips and possibly some Denver-area chips in a few weeks. My iPhone pics aren't great so bear with me.

Awesome! Good to see the thread resurrected. What do you think about the poker players in FL in general? Are the games at tracks generally weak?

Wezvidz, good job I say!
Thanks for all the info and the pics.
The world can't be built by Doc alone.
Thx / 2F

The new Lucky Dragon Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas has announced an early December 2016 opening. The property is located just west of the Bonanza gift shop at 300 W. Sahara. The casino will be pretty small at only 27,000 sq. feet. (and probably filled with Baccarat tables.)

Sooo.... I pulled a GWAE and haven't cleaned up my chips and gotten them ready to post yet. Plus the GF has been demanding my time since I was gone for two weeks. This coming week is our local poker series so I probably won't get them posted this week either but I am thinking of skipping the series that starts in Edmonton after the Manitoba Poker Open so there is a possibility that I get started on it the week of September 26th.

Excuses, excuses, excuses....

Quote: Doc

Excuses, excuses, excuses....

And your point is lol?!? :P

State: California
City: Oceanside
Casino: Jerry's Place & Card Palace

Perhaps I can squeeze an oldie in while we're waiting for PokerGrinder to catch up with his busy schedule.

Here is my Chip of the Day. It took me a moment to figure out what it was. It says "Card Palace" on it but everyone knew it as Jerry's Place. This is a grey 50-cent chip from Jerry's Place. Jerry's Place would eventually become the predecessor to today's Ocean's Eleven. There is some rich card room history in Oceanside, a charming beach town in my opinion, halfway between Orange County and San Diego City. A little rough around the edges, La Jolla in ain't, but charming nonetheless.



In Oceanside, Jerry Stapp was a legend. Everyone liked Jerry Stapp. Sadly, Jerry died in 2006 at the age of 81. He had been an influential businessman in Oceanside since at least the 70s, maybe even the 60s. He had several businesses, bars, restaurants, and his famous card room, the Card Palace, later called just Jerry's Place. Jerry was known for his generosity, there wasn't a person or charity in town that he would not help.

He bought the small card room down town near the beach and later moved it to Oceanside Blvd near the railroad tracks, eventually moving up on Mission Blvd in I believe the early 90s. I played so many hours there I cannot begin to count.

When I first played there it was still draw poker only, and Jerry's had a unique style of lowball that I've never seen elsewhere. For you readers who do not know lowball, it may not seem interesting or significant. But 99% of California Ace-to-Five Lowball has always been played "pass-out", in other words you could not check raise or "back-in" before the draw. There were exceptions, of course, in some of the No-Limit games in the state but even they were generally pass-out before the draw and MUST bet a Seven or better after the draw. Jerry's had a different twist. It wasn't as different as the common lowball game found in San Diego, that's a different story, for another day, played with "buttons" and you must bet an EIGHT.

In Jerry's game, typically $2-$5, you could BACK IN before the draw. BUT, if you did, you MUST draw two. So there was still no "slipping the nuts", but you could still back in weakly with a two card draw if you felt like it. And I've never seen that anywhere else, and I played lowball everywhere.

So about the time Jerry's moved on up to Mission Blvd., (with hold'em), pretty soon Len Miller, who had previously run the small Normandy Bar Card Room downtown, went into partnership with Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese and brought in a Vegas crew to run a card room at The Grove, a nice restaurant that became the Oceanside Card Room, but we all called it The Grove. The short life of that business is a story in itself and I don't have time, nor knowledge, to try to jam it into this post. But Doug Dalton, if you know that name, came in as manager, and Chip and Doyle spent time playing and helping the club to become very successful, for awhile. Something happened to break up that merry arrangement and I soon left town and heard it wasn't that long before OCC at The Grove lost out to the new Oceans Eleven which was Jerry's Place bought up by Haig Kelegian and Crew. I guess Oceanside just ain't big enough for two successful card rooms.

Jerry Stapp, nice man, God bless you, RIP.

OK, I might be way out of line here, so everyone please let me know if that's the case.

I have listed this chip in the index under "Card Palace" rather than "Jerry's Place." We have usually been listing casinos by the name that appears on the chip. Also, in this case, listing it this way makes this thread's list compatible with the listing for the page at the MoGH catalog. They have this same chip shown there, and they do not even have a page under the name of Jerry's Place. I suspect that was a common nickname, but I'd get into a real mess if I tried to list casinos/chips by the various nicknames of the places.

If I have handled this properly, bobbartop, then it would be nice/compatible if you could change that name in the header of your post. If I have screwed this up big time, let me know (convince me) and I will go with the other name.

I have the sense that trying to track the history/ownership of card rooms in California would be as complex and frustrating as trying to track the history/ownership of casinos in Nevada.

I received a PM from bobbartop, with links to several articles that reference Jerry's Place. One of them is a document from the Oceanside Planning Commission in regard to changes at the Ocean's 11 Casino. That document makes a comment that, "The card room license from Jerry's Place, previously located at 2607 Oceanside Boulevard, was transferred to Oceans 11 Casino after the owners relocated the operation to 121 Brooks Street in February 1997.

The Museum of Gaming History Chip Guide lists seven casinos/card rooms in Oceanside:
(1) ALS,
(2) Bill Boltons Casino,
(3) Card Club, Inc.,
(4) Card Palace,
(5) Normandy Club (Al's Normandy Club),
(6) Ocean's Eleven, and
(7) Oceanside Card Casino (Oceanside Card Club), with all except Ocean's Eleven being listed as "closed."

The MoGH page I linked to before shows chips from the Card Palace, including one just like bobbartop posted, and says that place was located at 2607 Oceanside Boulevard (same as stated in the document above for Jerry's Place), but MoGH says that Card Palace both opened and closed in 1997. There is no reference there to its having been known as Jerry's Place.

Now, even though I played at Ocean's 11 (or Eleven) a couple of times in 2003, before I started collecting chips, I don't really know anything about those card rooms. There are a few scenarios that I could make up like: (1) The real name was Card Palace, but everyone knew it as Jerry's Place, perhaps because they knew who Jerry was, or (2) It changed its name to Jerry's Place but kept using chips that said Card Palace, or (3) The place was always named Jerry's Place, but they had picked up a supply of chips on the very cheap that said Card Palace, and MoGH just has the same policy I usually follow of listing chips/casinos based upon what it says on the chip.

Each of us could probably imagine other explanations of how/why the chip that bobbartop got at Jerry's Place says Card Palace. The question that really comes to my mind is whether there was ever a casino in Oceanside that used chips that said "Jerry's Place" and how we should handle this thread and its index if one of those chips ever shows up here. To me, it seems that such a chip and the one that bobbartop has just posted should be presented separately, as if they were from different casinos, even if they were in the same building, just like South Coast and South Point.

I'm still open to suggestions on the best way to handle this.

I've googled "Jerry's Place & Card Palace" and found a few hits like that. I've also found just as many references to "Jerry's Place". Something I find odd is that the address reference is always to 2607 Oceanside Blvd. But unless I am totally senile, I played for years at an address on Mission Blvd towards the end. It's like it moved, but the license stayed at the old address.

Note that when I first looked at my chip I had a moment's difficulty figuring out what it was. If someone had bet me what was on the chips back in the old days at Jerry's Place, I would have said "Jerry's Place". Obviously I would have lost that bet. One thing's for sure, though, I've never heard a player say, "Hey, let's go on over to the Card Palace". It was always Jerry's Place to everyone in San Diego County as far as I know.

By the way, totally unrelated but I'll throw this in anyway for trivia, I think the very first holdem spread at a public joint in California was up the road in Carlsbad at Ralph & Eddies. Early 80s. Didn't last long before the cops shut that down.

Quote: Doc

OK, I might be way out of line here, so everyone please let me know if that's the case.

I suspect that was a common nickname, but I'd get into a real mess if I tried to list casinos/chips by the various nicknames of the places.

I suspect many of the 'common' nicknames for various joints prolly shouldn't appear in print ;-)

State: California
City: Lemoore
Casino: Adolfo's Royal Flush



This is another chip from a card room of the past, although it still
says it's open on the MoGH chip guide. It's a nice bar with a connected
card room that used to have a lot of action. I've played there several
times and was always impressed with how friendly the place was.
Sometimes it seemed like they had four, maybe five games going.
They were all hold'em board-type games but once a week, maybe ten
years ago they still had a high draw game for the old timers.

Adolfo's Royal Flush is in the little town of Lemoore, and it is only a
few miles north on Hwy 41 from the newer Tachi Palace Indian Casino that
has already been written up here. I recently talked to the bartender
there and asked when the last time they had a game was. She said they
haven't had a game in about five or six years now.

That's too bad. I liked this friendly card room. So what happened to
it? The same thing that happened all over California. We once had a
card room in every little town, some 600 or so, until the Indians came.
Now it's no more poker tables, just pool tables and beer. Same scenario
happened all over the state, bit by bit, slowly but surely. It's a
shame. Except for the Indians.

Nice post/chip, bobbartop.

Since my recent posts have been along the lines of how to index some of these casino chips, this one makes another nice example:

The post heading from bobbartop, as well as the text of the post, name the establishment "Adolfo's Royal Flush." The chip just says "Adolfo's." The MoGH Chip guide lists it as "Adolpho's (Royal Flush Casino)," and the photo of the place (available at the MoGH listing and also on Google Street View) shows signs suggesting that there are two separate places there (as described by bobbartop): "Adolfo's Silver Buckle Lounge" and "Royal Flush Casino."

Glad there's not anything really important riding on how I list these places in a thread index!

State: California
City: Blue Lake
Casino: Blue Lake Casino

Last month I made a camping trip to the Mendocino area in Northern California. I was only able to stop at 3 casinos. Luckily they have not been posted yet, so here they are!

Blue Lake Casino is located on the Northern pacific coast in California, near the twin cities of Arcata/Eureka. It is owned by the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe consisting of 53 members (http://www.bluelakerancheria-nsn.gov/facts.html).
The casino had several blackjack games at $5-500, 25-500, 1 PGP at 10-500, 2 Spanish 21, a 3CP at $5-100 ante, 5-50 pair plus and UTH at 5-50.

The chip has Blue Lake on one side and Sapphire Palace in the other, which appears to be an event hall. Why they put the name of the event hall on their chips, I don't know. Maybe it's more visible and curious people can ask about it??

Quote: Konbu

Why they put the name of the event hall on their chips, I don't know.

My first reaction was, "Maybe there was an affiliated casino by that name and they both used the same chips." But, nope, guess not.

That's a really nice chip Konbu! Thanks for the post. I especially appreciate the shot with the edge detail. Is the rim raised, or is the face of the chip the same height all the way across? Any guess as to the manufacturer?

It's smooth all around and same height. A chipco is my guess.

State: California
City: Loleta
Casino: Bear River Casino

Bear River Casino is located on the Northern pacific coast in California, just south of Eureka. They have a craps table at $5-300 345x odds and $1-50 limit on prop bets. The table felt had 6 card positions on each half of the table with the die face of 1-6 on each square, which means the cards represent the dice value thrown. There are also 3 BJ and 3 SP21 at $5-100 and $5-500, 1 3CP $5-100, and 1 roulette wheel (sideways big 6 style with cards in each slot) in between 2 tables, at $5-300. Also there is a separate pit of 2 BJ, 1 SP21 with unknown limits. Their website states they are the only ones with craps and roulette in the Northern CA coast.

I did not have a chance to play dice since it wasn't open. I ended up collecting this one real quick at BJ. One more thing is after I came home I noticed on their website "We received new chips in August, 2016. Old chips can be redeemed for cash value by January 1st, 2017." I don't know if I got the new one or the old one, but I'm definitely not returning anytime again soon.

Nice looking chip, Konbu. I didn't even know there were Indian Casinos up there. I do know there is a rich history of card rooms, though, and apparently S&K is still there in Eureka. I have always wanted to go there and see Ferndale Race Track during their fair meet, in August, but I've never made it. I had a friend who lived there for years and he said it's beautiful there. In the 70s all the time, a little fog in the morning, sounds great. My friend was a real pot head, he was very happy living there.

Great posts Konbu! I really need to get back out to California as I have only collected 21 chips from the state.

Doc you will be happy to know that I am closer to posting my chip of the days. Tonight I cleaned 20 of the chips until my hands hurt from scrubbing the grunge off. I have just over 30 more to do which I am hoping to finish tomorrow. I then have the Manitoba Poker Open Wednesday to Sunday so hopefully I will get the pictures taken and uploaded in time to post a new chip next Monday. (but don't hold me to that Doc :P)

Quote: Konbu

I don't know if I got the new one or the old one, but I'm definitely not returning anytime again soon.

If a chip gets that much wear in the first two months, they must really have a lot of action going on there! I'm betting its the old chip design.

Yep, the MoGH chip guide says that one was issued 8/10/2005 when the casino opened.

Oh, and nice addition to the thread.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc you will be happy to know that I am closer to posting my chip of the days. ... (but don't hold me to that Doc :P)

Yeah, yeah, yeah .... nothing but excuses. :P

Before I get too lazy let me post the 3rd and last chip I collected in August.

State: California
City: Trinidad
Casino: Cher-Ae Heights Casino


Cher Ae Casino is located on the Northern pacific coast in California, halfway between Arcata and the Redwood National Park. They have a BJ at $3, a Single 21, 3CP, SP21 at $3, and a Roulette at $2 min. Their website says the roulette is single zero and that it's an actual wheel. I didn't pay enough attention to it to remember the details. This casino was the smallest of the 3 I visited on this trip. Everything else was a complete blur since I only stayed there for like 3 hand of BJ.

Quote: Konbu

State: California
City: Trinidad
Casino: Cher-Ae Heights Casino


Cher Ae Casino is located on the Northern pacific coast in California, halfway between Arcata and the Redwood National Park. They have a BJ at $3, a Single 21, 3CP, SP21 at $3, and a Roulette at $2 min. Their website says the roulette is single zero and that it's an actual wheel. I didn't pay enough attention to it to remember the details. This casino was the smallest of the 3 I visited on this trip. Everything else was a complete blur since I only stayed there for like 3 hand of BJ.

I've seen this listed forever, I'm sure way before they made the current casino. I'm not sure what it was before that but apparently it goes way back. I don't even know how pronounce it. It doesn't look like you stayed long so I'll assume you didn't notice any video poker? It's not listed on vpfree.

Must be a beautiful area up there. I should put this on my bucket list.

Thanks for the three posts.