Local Card Room - RAKE

[hutmaster]

Druff,

My options for live play are fairly limited on the Central Coast....Chumash Casino is where I would normally go. I recently discovered 2 small local card rooms within 25 minutes of my house. They each only have 2 or 3 tables and post a schedule that rotates by day as to what games they are dealing. The room in Grover Beach is run by a former Casino Manager of Commerce, David Stearns and his wife Theresa (supposedly one of the top dealers at Commerce for many years). Anyways.....this is the rake structure for the club in Oceana...fairly typical amounts? I'm not really familiar with what the average rake tends to be..

[Jasep]

Druff,

My options for live play are fairly limited on the Central Coast....Chumash Casino is where I would normally go. I recently discovered 2 small local card rooms within 25 minutes of my house. They each only have 2 or 3 tables and post a schedule that rotates by day as to what games they are dealing. The room in Grover Beach is run by a former Casino Manager of Commerce, David Stearns and his wife Theresa (supposedly one of the top dealers at Commerce for many years). Anyways.....this is the rake structure for the club in Oceana...fairly typical amounts? I'm not really familiar with what the average rake tends to be..

A really important factor in rake is when it is taken, for example in FL the rake is taken immediately, so if you play 1-2 with a 5 dollar button straddle the rake (5.00) is take right away regardless of pot size.

In CT they do 10% max up to 4.00 so its 1.00 at 10, 1.00 at 20, 1.00 at 30 and 1.00 at 40...

So with these two examples winning small pots of say 9 bucks costs you 5 in one place and nothing in another.

Most pots will be small iin a no limit game, there is a lot of raise and take it situations...

I'm sure limit is a bit different for obvious reasons.

Just my 2 cents

[Bootsy Collins]

No matter where you play in California, you will always get raped by the rake.

[Slim T]

hey

rake done got so bad everwhere that a boycott is in order - start one and see what happens


slim t

[Bootsy Collins]

hey

rake done got so bad everwhere that a boycott is in order - start one and see what happens


slim t

I am down for starting the movement. "No more rake"

[Dan Druff]

Hut, that rake is pretty bad, especially since they are taking out an additional dollar for the jackpot.

It pretty much makes all the games below 10-20 unbeatable, and even 10-20 itself becomes questionable at that point (with $6 rake).

Unfortunately, casinos are discovering that poker players are degenerates for the most part, and while they will whine about high rake, they'll keep paying and continuing to play, figuring they're good enough to beat it.

BTW, I know the city you live in (I won't say it out here), and I'm surprised you go to Chumash. Isn't that a bit far?

[hutmaster]

Hut, that rake is pretty bad, especially since they are taking out an additional dollar for the jackpot.

It pretty much makes all the games below 10-20 unbeatable, and even 10-20 itself becomes questionable at that point (with $6 rake).

Unfortunately, casinos are discovering that poker players are degenerates for the most part, and while they will whine about high rake, they'll keep paying and continuing to play, figuring they're good enough to beat it.

BTW, I know the city you live in (I won't say it out here), and I'm surprised you go to Chumash. Isn't that a bit far?

Chumash is only about a 30 minute drive from me. Usually if I go to Chumash my wife will come and we'll spend some time in Santa Ynez and Solvang. There are a few really good restaurants in the area and my wife likes the shopping. Sometimes we will stay over, during the week I can get rooms at the casino or at Hotel Corque for $59/night. The Casino used to run a free shuttle that left from my city every hour and had return shuttles that also left the casino every hour. It was a nice service but they discontinued it. Now you have to make reservations atleast 48 hours in advance and the shuttle only has two arrival / departure times per day. The poker room there is actually pretty nice. They have 14 tables and the room is upstairs away from the main casino floor. There is a small smoking lounge inside the poker room as well.

[Dan Druff]

Hut, that rake is pretty bad, especially since they are taking out an additional dollar for the jackpot.

It pretty much makes all the games below 10-20 unbeatable, and even 10-20 itself becomes questionable at that point (with $6 rake).

Unfortunately, casinos are discovering that poker players are degenerates for the most part, and while they will whine about high rake, they'll keep paying and continuing to play, figuring they're good enough to beat it.

BTW, I know the city you live in (I won't say it out here), and I'm surprised you go to Chumash. Isn't that a bit far?

Chumash is only about a 30 minute drive from me. Usually if I go to Chumash my wife will come and we'll spend some time in Santa Ynez and Solvang. There are a few really good restaurants in the area and my wife likes the shopping. Sometimes we will stay over, during the week I can get rooms at the casino or at Hotel Corque for $59/night. The Casino used to run a free shuttle that left from my city every hour and had return shuttles that also left the casino every hour. It was a nice service but they discontinued it. Now you have to make reservations atleast 48 hours in advance and the shuttle only has two arrival / departure times per day. The poker room there is actually pretty nice. They have 14 tables and the room is upstairs away from the main casino floor. There is a small smoking lounge inside the poker room as well.

Didn't realize Chumash was that close to you.

What are some good restaurants in Santa Ynez/Solvang?

I drive through that area several times per year, and would probably stop to eat there more often if I knew what was good.

[hutmaster]

Chumash is only about a 30 minute drive from me. Usually if I go to Chumash my wife will come and we'll spend some time in Santa Ynez and Solvang. There are a few really good restaurants in the area and my wife likes the shopping. Sometimes we will stay over, during the week I can get rooms at the casino or at Hotel Corque for $59/night. The Casino used to run a free shuttle that left from my city every hour and had return shuttles that also left the casino every hour. It was a nice service but they discontinued it. Now you have to make reservations atleast 48 hours in advance and the shuttle only has two arrival / departure times per day. The poker room there is actually pretty nice. They have 14 tables and the room is upstairs away from the main casino floor. There is a small smoking lounge inside the poker room as well.

Didn't realize Chumash was that close to you.

What are some good restaurants in Santa Ynez/Solvang?

I drive through that area several times per year, and would probably stop to eat there more often if I knew what was good.

For Italian I recommend Trattoria Grappolo. Willows inside the casino is actually pretty good but overpriced, dinner for 2 is easily $150+
The Vineyard House is a decent place built in an old victorian house, food has always been good and very reasonably priced. Usually they have a dinner for 2 special that included 2 entrees, an appetizer, dessert and a bottle of wine from a local winery for $50. Root 242
is also an excellent choice. It is actually owned by the casino but is located in Solvang. It is run by famed celebrity chef Bradley Ogden. On the way to the casino is also a great little local grocery store / deli that makes great food. It's called the Los Olivos Grocery. My favorite is the Cachuma Chicken sandwich. It's a grilled chicken breast on toasted sourdough with fresh avocado, tomatos, lettuce, jack cheese, mayo and pepperoncinis. If you continue north on the 101, stopping for a steak at Jocko's in Nipomo is definitely recommended. Nothing fancy ....just damn good steaks. You can get a 18 ounce Spencer cut (ribeye on the bone) for about $25. The place looks like a dive, but has the best Santa Maria style BBQ on the Central Coast. Everything is cooked over an open flame of red oak.

If you are wine drinker, you would probably enjoy staying over for a night or two and visiting some of the wineries. The movie Sideways was filmed around here.

[Dan Druff]

Didn't realize Chumash was that close to you.

What are some good restaurants in Santa Ynez/Solvang?

I drive through that area several times per year, and would probably stop to eat there more often if I knew what was good.

For Italian I recommend Trattoria Grappolo. Willows inside the casino is actually pretty good but overpriced, dinner for 2 is easily $150+
The Vineyard House is a decent place built in an old victorian house, food has always been good and very reasonably priced. Usually they have a dinner for 2 special that included 2 entrees, an appetizer, dessert and a bottle of wine from a local winery for $50. Root 242
is also an excellent choice. It is actually owned by the casino but is located in Solvang. It is run by famed celebrity chef Bradley Ogden. On the way to the casino is also a great little local grocery store / deli that makes great food. It's called the Los Olivos Grocery. My favorite is the Cachuma Chicken sandwich. It's a grilled chicken breast on toasted sourdough with fresh avocado, tomatos, lettuce, jack cheese, mayo and pepperoncinis. If you continue north on the 101, stopping for a steak at Jocko's in Nipomo is definitely recommended. Nothing fancy ....just damn good steaks. You can get a 18 ounce Spencer cut (ribeye on the bone) for about $25. The place looks like a dive, but has the best Santa Maria style BBQ on the Central Coast. Everything is cooked over an open flame of red oak.

If you are wine drinker, you would probably enjoy staying over for a night or two and visiting some of the wineries. The movie Sideways was filmed around here.

Yeah, I know a lot about the area but just not about specifics like which restaurants are any good.

I will definitely refer to this post again when I pass through there, which I estimate will be in a few months.

Thanks!

[Shizzmoney]

Unfortunately, casinos are discovering that poker players are degenerates for the most part, and while they will whine about high rake, they'll keep paying and continuing to play, figuring they're good enough to beat it.

Sounds exactly like US taxpayers