San Manuel

[Ryno]

Went there Saturday. Nice place - the poker room is a true room, separated from the main casino with glass doors. The room is smoke free, and the tables are well spread out. I did not count but would guess there were 20-25 tables. Service was pretty good. If you leave your drivers license, they give you a buzzer to put in your pocket that works in the whole casino - very nice touch.

There is no No Limit - only limit holdem and I think a couple tables of really low limit Stud and Omaha8. Everything is 3-chip (3-6, 6-12, 9-18, 15-30). The small blind is 1 chip at the 15-30 game, so I assume that is true of all games. The 9-18 and 15-30 (and perhaps others) play with a full kill - 2 won pots in a row regardless of size (openraise with no callers counts). Play was especially cautious in the kill pots - a raise got you isolated with the kill button at least half the time.

There was 1 9-18 and 1 15-30 at 4pm on Saturday, and at 5pm they opened a second 15-30 must move. The game was surprisingly poor, but the regulars were the ones complaining so I guess they are used to better games. There are no automatic shufflers, and at one point play was folded to the blinds (who chopped) 5 straight hands! The dealer was not a happy camper.

When chips were in play, it was a mixture of tight-passive and loose passive. The first time I raised the turn, people "ooohed". The regulars routinely tell each other their hands or throw chips back and forth.

Verdict - nice room, but surprisingly tight players. Pechanga trumps San Manuel across the board (it has a hotel and San Manuel doesn't, bigger room and variety of games, better structure(2-4 chip blinds), bigger casino), so San Manuel is and probably will be a locals' place.

[Bulbarainey]

did they get rid of the 2-4 game? I was there about 5-6 months ago and was very unhappy with the blinds and rake: 8 players, 2 $2 blinds, all raked... and not to mention on BlackJack they charged a $1 fee per hand as if they were a city casino, which has to do it because you cant wager against the house, but they have no reason other then to jip players more to take that extra $1!!

[Ryno]

Hi - I don't remember a 2-4 game but it might have been there. The rake was not terrible in the 15-30 ($3 drop, $1 jackpot). I did play blackjack as well - mediocre rules (H17, DS, LS, 0.51 house advantage) and half of the tables had constant shuffle machines. All tables were 6 deck. There was no $1 commission - I think that has been eradicated here with all the competition. Morongo was the last holdout.

[onegymrat]

Hi Ryno,

I haven't been there in a year and a half, and what has kept me away was the dirty atmosphere, HOUR long wait lists and dreadful parking conditions. From your report, it sounds like the atmosphere is great. How were the wait lists for 9/18 or 15/30? Is the parking user friendly?

[Ryno]

You know, there may have been renovations, because the place looked pretty nice all around. I did valet - it was only $3 (pay when you hand them the key), and when you are ready to leave, they have a machine that scans your ticket and requests your car automatically.

The list was kind of long, but having the buzzer meant we could go play blackjack (I'm sure this was not lost on them when they thought of the idea). I only had to wait 20 minutes because they started a new 15-30 game, but otherwise the wait would have been really long. There was only one table each of 9-18 and 15-30, each with 7-8 people on the list when I got there.

One thing that does kind of suck is getting there - Highland is closed for a good bit as they expand the 210, so you are navigating thru San Bernadino trying to get there, with little detour signs. Going home, I actually drove 215 north all the way to the 15 to come south, just to avoid that mess in the dark.