NorCal  Poker Ambassador
No paranoia here—just playing poker
By Randall Rapp

Paranoia comes in many shapes and forms, and poker is certainly not immune to its dark cloud. Your Ambassador found himself thinking about this on his most recent excursion, not because of a feeling that the other players were out to get him, but because of all those “eye in the sky” security cameras at every cardroom.

Not that I have a problem with security. Heck, I understand completely why they’re up there and wholeheartedly endorse their presence. They strongly discourage cheating and provide a sometimes necessary instant replay for the game. But as I go about my travels I can’t help but wonder just how many recordings there are of me and what nefarious uses they could conceivably get put to.

There’s a little voice in the back of my head conjuring images of Will Smith in the movie “Enemy of the State.” Hopefully I won’t start seeing black helicopters and vans that are a little too nondescript as I go from one casino to the next.

Capitol Casino
Sacramento

On the second Saturday of every month the Capitol Casino hosts a $220 buy-in deep stack tournament at 10:00 a.m. I was fortunate to be there on just such an occasion recently and the event didn’t disappoint.

You get 6,000 in chips for your buy-in and another 2,000 with an optional “dealer appreciation” of $10. Rounds are only 20 minutes, but the structure is easily one of the best I’ve come across with lots of extra levels you don’t see in most tournaments.

On this day there were 74 players creating a prize pool of $14,800 with $4,958 going to first place. With my eye squarely on a top finish, I did my best to keep up with some very tough players at the Capitol.

After the usual ups and downs (mostly ups) my table broke and we were down to 30 players. I had a decent sized stack, but had been card dead for a while and the blinds and antes were starting to severely eat into it. After a couple of revolutions I found myself with pocket 10s and knew I was going to have to make a stand. When the flop came all small cards I re-raised all-in and was called by a huge stack with small suited connectors. Unfortunately he had four to a flush which he hit on the river and I was out in 23rd place.

Despite the way it ended, it was a great experience and a great tournament which I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone looking for an event with extra play in it. All that and a great deal on a steak and eggs breakfast. Short of making the money it couldn’t have been better.

Red Hawk Casino
Placerville

It recently came to our attention that the Red Hawk Casino installed a poker room that opened last November, so it goes without saying that this called for an official visit from the Ambassador. Tucked away in a quiet corner of the casino, this seven-table room (they very recently increased from six) is a nice addition to the NorCal poker scene.

They were spreading $3/6 limit and $1/3 no-limit games so I took a seat right away in the no-limit. Both players and dealers were friendly and gracious, so I felt at ease right away. I nursed my stack along for a couple of hours, eventually hitting a few big hands and came away a winner. What better way to break in a new cardroom!

FLB Casino
Folsom

In the summer of 2008 I found myself watching the opening ceremony of the summer  Olympics while sitting at a poker table at the FLB Casino, so I found it very amusing to find the same thing happening again for the start of the 2010 winter games.

With owner Dan Dreher sitting in the $1/3 spread-limit game, I couldn’t resist taking a seat just to attempt to get into his pocket. Unfortunately, the one big hand we clashed on he came away the winner.

I always have fun at FLB and this evening was no exception. It was Friday night and the sports bar was a hotbed of activity so the poker room was a nice haven from the noise. After getting whupped by Dan on that one hand I proceeded to get more stuck and still more stuck, but out of shear obstinance I hung around, remained patient and eventually cashed out with a near break-even night.

Limelight Casino
Sacramento

Another coincidence nearly occurred when I dropped by the Limelight Casino. The last time I was there it was with Mrs. A and the two of us played in their Valentine’s Day tournament. While this was merely the day before that event, it still brought back fond memories of the year before.

Once again I chose the $1/3 no-limit over the $3/6 limit and had a grand time. It started off with a delicious pizza and continued right through the poker game. I sat with some friendly neighbors and enjoyed myself immensely, especially since I won enough to more than make up for the tournament buy-in at the Capitol!

The 500 Club
Clovis

Closer to home, I’d heard about a tons-of-fun tournament on Tuesday nights at The 500 Club, so I thought I had better go see. The tourney begins at 6:00 p.m. with a $20 + $5 buy-in and unlimited re-buys with an add-on at the end of round three. The twist here is that the casino pays the buy-in and admin fee for all the ladies entered.

I showed up a little after 5:00 p.m. and discovered that just wasn’t early enough to get into this extremely popular event as they are limited to five tables. I got on the alternate list (number 16) and hung around only to discover that just about everyone takes as many re-buys as necessary and only a few alternates got in.

The next week I figured I had it licked and showed up around 4:30. Same thing. They start selling entries at 3:00 p.m. and by about 3:30 they were full. The next week, though, I had things finally figured out and managed to secure a coveted seat.

Not surprisingly, the percentage of ladies playing is a lot higher than you’ll usually run into at most tournaments. My extremely unscientific polling data comes up with a usual average of about 10 percent female. A quick head count as we got underway told the story: half of the players were women!

The atmosphere was lively and boisterous as most of the players know each other well. The structure of the tournament was lively too, as the blinds went up quickly with some pretty big jumps. Your faithful Ambassador held his own, though, winning a few timely coin flips and avoiding trouble when it came along. Pretty soon we were down to three tables, then two, and, before I knew it, a seat at the final table was mine.

After a couple of rounds of being bled by blinds and antes I won a coin flip to double up, only to lose one several hands later. With the big blind at 10,000 and coming my way the next hand, I shoved in my final 30,000 with A-8 only to run up against J-J for an eighth place finish. Not a bad ending to an enjoyable evening.