San Francisco & Poker?

Heading to San Francisco next month, what is the poker scene in the bay area? Does anyone recommend one cardroom over another? Thanks for your help.

Don't know about San Francisco, but if you're in the South Bay, Bay 101 is nice, spacious and well lit, while Garden City is more cramped and darker. As for the games, I'm mostly a tourney player, but Bay 101 seems a little softer (nicer environs bring in more entertainment seekers?). Both have ~15 tables, more stud at Garden City.


Craig

The games are excellent in the Bay Area, as long as you play holdem; there's no real stud to speak of, except 4/8 games with a huge drop. Up near the city, you've got two very good choices: Lucky Chances in Colma (South San Fran) and Artichoke Joe's, near SFO. LC's is a bigger room and has good games up to 20/40 (but the time collection is outrageous, 7 bucks/half hour!), and it also has live-action N.L. games that very serious. They also have many 6/12 games and lower, though I think they take a Jackpot now, so the rake may be pretty high. The food there is lousy and expensive.


AJ's is an older place with maybe 30 tables, but only about 12 that are usually going. They spread up to 15/30 and this game is one of the best Midlimit games in the world on Weekend nights when there are usually two or three drunks in the game blowing off rack after rack. The food there is lousy but cheap.


In the South Bay (San Jose) there are two choices: Bay 101 and Garden City. Bay is newer and a big room (~40 tables) and is hopping all the time. The wait lists for games can get a little long, but games are good. The 6/12 there is outstanding! 15/30 games can be OK, but are often quite tough. The game at AJ's is better as is the game at Garden City. There is a 30/60 game, which is similar in nature to the 15 and they spread a spread limit game (30-200 I think) that is a good place to get ruined in a hurry if you don't know what you're doing. The food there is OK and only kind of expensive.


Garden City is an older cardroom in San Jo, and I usually play here. The reason: action (at night and on weekends)! The 6/12 games there are at least as good as the Bay 101 and the 20/40 game... well that game is truly special. I forgot who it was, but one 2+2er said it best (to paraphrase) "there's only one 20-40 game going, but that's like saying there's only one Sophia Lauren." Actually, word has spread and there are usually 2 and sometimes 3 20 games going and they get out of control. If you have a good sized bankroll and a good stomach for some tough beats, then this is the game that you should play. You'll see sh*t there that'll make you wonder if some players think that it's 20 cent - 40 cents. There are some very tough players, but there's MORE than enough money to go around. The food there is not so good and is expensive. Also their games are tough in the day time, but in the afternoon and evenings, they are tough to beat, IMO.


There are also games in the East Bay (near Oakland), but I don't have experience in these games. These are just my opinions, but I'm Just Another Sucker.

Across the bay from SF in Emeryville is The Oaks. The Oaks is over 100 years old and my favorite place to play. It is accessable from SF by both BART and bus. If you take BART call from the station and they will send a shuttle van to pick you up. If you take the F bus from the SF bus station it will drop you on the corner. They also have two parking lots if you drive.


The Oaks charges time for all of its games. $6/12 is $5/half hour.


Lucky Chances is also accessable by BART. They have a shuttle bus that runs between the club and the BART station every half hour.


Lucky Chances takes 3 dollars from the player on the button for games $9-18 and less. This counts towards the player on the button's bet. Why you need to give the button more incentive to call is beyond me. Since the charge is the same fro $2-4 through $9-18 it makes sense to play as high as your bankroll permits. They also take $1 form each pot for the jackpot. For $20-40 and higher they charge time.


When I lived in SF I stopped playing at Lucky Chances. There were a lot of players who would be speaking tagalog during the hand. It was common for the winner ot give his friends stacks of chips as refunds. I've heard players even say that they only called at the river because they knew they would get their bet back if they lost.


This behavior was pretty common among certain groups of players at the low stakes games. I complained to the floor people on a number of occasions. Sometimes they would come over to the table and say something but as soon as they left it was back to business as usual. Some floor people even told me that this behavior was customary in the Phillipines. I thought I was playing in CA! Since the management was more interested in not offending the Filipino players than running a square game I took my business to The Oaks.

I've played at Lucky Chances a few times. It's location is the primary reason for its clientel, those damn happy passing chip filipinos. OOPS I forgot i'm a filipino but unlike the rest, I keep all my chips to myself. Anyway I found there 6-12 games too tough for me. My bankroll doesn't allow me to test bigger games, yet:-) But in my opinion they have the best weekly tournaments. especially mondays and wednesdays at 10:30am. NO LIMIT holdem $45 buyin (1)$20RB (1)$20add on. I've never played in it, I always arrive late.


Now about BAY101. that's where you will definetly get outdrawn. But there 6-12 games are more to my skill level. that's the only place I play in live games. there tournaments suck.


and since we are talking bout the bay area, i'm down in monterey. 45minutes sout of san jose. there is a cardroom that always takes my money. mortimers 4-6 spread limit holdem. it's a small place all the same players, some are good, some are really bad but god damn luckier than a damn fricken leprechaun. If any pros wanna come down and get there ass kicked this would be the place. and pleas let me know, I wanna watch. maybe John Feeney would be interested.


they have a bigger spread on weekends

I spent about 2 years in the North Bay area and found both the Oaks and Lucky Chance have nice O/8 games at 4-8. Personally, I enjoyed the Oaks although LC was a "nicer" environment. In general, I found the games to be much softer than in the LA area.