Cache creek trip report

[wall_st]

This past monday I went to Cache creek to play some live poker. Cache creek is located right outside of podunk CA, off of the 508. The casino itself is quite impressive. I had been to the original Cache creek several years ago, but this one is much larger it seems and has quite a few table games for an indian casino (even craps). I am not much for gambling outside of poker, so I proceeded directly to the poker room.

The poker room is located in what I would consider a very poor location. Basically you are in the middle of the casino surrounded by slots. There is a rail that separates the room from everything else and although the poker room itself is non smoking the smoke from the rail is really bothersome. There seems to be some sort of rule against smoking on the rail, however this rule makes no sense since they have alligned the rail with ashtrays and garbage cans.

The room consists of 12 tables. Since it was a monday night game selection was pretty thin. They were offering a 3/6, 4/8 with a full kill, and 100 buy in NL game. There was an interest list for 2/5 NL, but there was no names on it. I put my name on the 3/6 list and got called within 10 minutes, I also put my name on the 4/8 list but the game broke before I could get in on the action.

A bit of background on me, I usually play 4 tables of 100NL 6 max online. I do quite well at this limit, however it seemed pointless for me to be playing a full ring NL game (which i do not really like anyways). Not only that but the structure of the 100 buy in (no more no less) game was pretty stupid. The BB was $2, the SB $1, and the button... was another $1. I do not really like any sort of NL stack structure that does not allot 100 Bbs or more. I thought to myself do I really want to pay 4% of my stack every orbit to fold a ton of hands ? I thought better of it and just played the 3/6.

All of the tables at cache creek are pretty new and nice. They all have automatic shufflers built in which is nice also. However they did not use kem cards. In fact the cards that they did use were practically garbage cards that said cache creek on them. Not only that but the cards were bridge index cards, so you had to pick them rather high off of the table just to look at them in the first place. There appeared to be a setup change every two hours or so.

The 3/6 was your typical mix of bad players. Most of the players were much older than me (im 23) and almost all the players at my table were Hispanic and speaking spanish. I am not trying to be racist but generally my experience playing with other Hispanics was that they were very aggro, however this bunch (with the exception of the guy on my right) was very passive. In fact it was not uncommon to see a flop and a turn card checked around. I ended down on my session after playing for 3 hours a whopping $16.

Overall I found the room offered me very very little in terms of good playing opportunites. I will likely not be returning. My biggest complaint was the rake, which seemed rather high. The rake was taken everytime there was a flop and was as follows $3 to the drop, and $1 to the bad beat jackpot (which according the board was like $408,000). This seemed rather high and in fact it made any limped pot with only 3 people or less not even worth playing. I found it very frustrating to limp with 1 other person and then see only six dollars in the pot. In fact I woudl say this is a large reason as to why the action was so dry. Despite 3/6 chips structure the pots usually appeared rather small.

I honestly cannot recommend this poker room to anyone. The only game that may be worth playing would be the 2/5 NL game, but once again that was not going while I was playing.

[L0QTiS]

Try going on the weekend. I went there several months ago just to see what the place was all about, and found the games were fair to good, with a decent selection of tables through 4-8, although I can't speak for NL or anything higher. I get the impression that traffic throughout this casino increases exponentially as the weekend begins, and thus to the poker tables as well. And, I agree, the rake is pretty high. Not sure I would 'recommend' the room, but it's worth a look on the weekend.

[CripAces]

The games are much much better on the weekend. Infact the wait lists make it insane on the weekend. I am in Berkeley and would rather just go over to Lucky Chances then have to drive all the way out to the Creek, but in terms of good games they are filled with tourists and are nice on the weekends.

[wall_st]

My main complain was not the lack of action. I certainly understand that the action is always better on the weekends. My main complaint was the poor rake structure and the overall lack of game selection. I know how juicy that 2/5 game must be on the weekend, along with other 3/6 games and what not.

Also is there a law that says you cannot comp alcohol at a casino in CA ?

[CripAces]

Yeah, there is a law that says exactly that. sucks

[Meatmaw]

Thanks for the info. Are there no sit n' go single table tournies at any of the casinos around here? I'm going to cache creek pretty soon and would enjoy playing a live sng but haven't heard of this occurring anywhere but foxwoods in a thread a while back. Anyone have info? Also, does cache creek run any tournaments? I couldn't find any info on their site.

Thanks.

[SB182]

Cache Creek stopped running tournaments at the beginning of this year. Only games they spread are 3/6, 4/8 kill, 100 max nl, and a 200-500 nl game goes on the weekends and some evenings although its health is questionable. Can't comment on any other casinos in norcal.