Where to play in San Juan, Puerto Rico?

[Richard Berg]

I've heard there are lots of casinos, but don't know anything else. Hotel booking is beyond my control so room quality isn't a factor.

[Dubra]

hi,
i was just there over winter break.
there are two hotels that offer poker that I know of. The intercontinental and the el san juan, which are pretty much right next to each other. they offer tourneys at 8pm alternating every night. poker starts at 8pm in both. i played the el san juan which offered 1 table of 2/5 limit with the option to bet 10 instead of 5 at any time. the game is amazingly fishy. no one folded preflop. preflop raises are ignored as well. pots get big fast, so i'd reccomend playing hands that are good multiway. 2-3 ppl every showdown.

tourneys--played in a 25+5 at the ESJ which was essentially a crap shoot. its a 2 table tourney, which keeps bringing in new players for the first two hours, as the blinds escalate. its key to get there early and be one of the original players, as they start you with 250 chips. its kind of funny when ppl are buying in for 250 chips when blinds are 100/200. haha. enjoy

[afish]

You should know that the rake at the ESJ 5-10 is 10% up to $10. I know people say the game is so fishy that rake can be beaten, but I don't believe it.

[theantelope]

I played at the Wyndham El San Juan last weekend. If you are going and have a choice of nights to play, play on Sunday night from 6:00-10:00 pm. They have their "Sunday Poker Party" at that time. The house pays $25 to any winning flush, $50 to any winning full house, $75 to winning quads, $100 to a winning straight flush, and $500 to a royal. You only need to use one hole card. The hand does not need to go to the river or showdown--just flip your hand up and the dealer will call over the floor to confirm it, even if everyone else has folded.

I think this promotion arrangement makes the rake beatable.

In general, the calendar has them starting poker at either 5:00pm or 6:00pm daily. However, keep in mind that poker is not their main thing, and they only have a few dealers who can deal poker. The Sunday I was there, their 6:00pm-8:00pm poker dealers called in sick or something, so poker didn't start until 8:00pm despite the calendard and the poker party materials saying a 6:00pm start.

Some funny things to look out for: The dealers sometimes change *mid-hand*. That's right, I was in a hand where a dealer dealt out the cards preflop, and then was replaced by another dealer who dealt the rest of the hand. Also, the dealers stack the chips in the pot at every opportunity. You will never have a pile of chips pushed to you--it's always handed over in a neat stack. The waitresses are very good--or at least ours was. It seemed like our table was her only territory, and if she wasn't filling an order she was milling around the table soliciting orders.

A few other random observations: They don't like having lots of $5 chips in play. As soon as there is $100 in the pot, the dealer will change out the red chips for $100 chips.

If you speak Spanish, don't let the others at the table know this. If they think you only speak English, they will often talk about their hand in Spanish while it's still going on. I heard it happen twice in three hours.

Also, they put the sign-up list out early in the day. Head down to the casino at 1:00 or 2:00 pm and put your name on the list.

[Richard Berg]

Thanks guys. Should've clarified: I'm only really interested in limit cash games where the rake is beatable. (Never played spread-limit but I'm sure I could figure it out.)

Great call on the Spanish thing. I'm sure I will look the part of a gringo tourist (pasty white skinny dude in preppy clothes), so I think I'll keep my bilingual background to myself.

How late do these poker nights go?

[theantelope]

They say the game usually goes until 4:00am.

[shant]

The Spanish tip is golden. Escalara means straight, and they'll let you know when they're drawing to flush, if they have you beat, etc.

The rake is easily beatable when 7 people go to the flop for $35 each preflop and every bet that goes into the pot postflop is $10.