Closed California Poker Room
Lucky Buck 1620 Railroad Avenue Livermore |  |
925-455-6144 Closed |
| Name: | PokerWiki |
| Date: | Tuesday April 10, 2007 |
| Subject: | Lucky Buck Review |
| Message: | On Railroad Ave, about 6 blocks west of Livermore Ave. Located inside the Granada Bowl bowling alley.
Games Limit hold 'em: 3/6, 4/8, 4/8 half kill, 6/12, 10/20. 6/12 half-kill definitely on Saturday nights (after 4pm), but becoming more common on other nights as well. Players must request for a higher limit. NLHE: Not allowed per city code. Omaha/8: 3/6 or 4/8 or 4/8 half-kill, 6/12, 6/12 half-kill. Game will not be greater than 3/6 till after 4pm on most days and it is common to see a 4/8 half-kill by 6pm. Players must request for a higher limit. This is a small social card club that caters to whoever is playing, and as such they offer "Dealer's Choice". Peer pressure tends to keep the limits low and the games stuck on Limit Hold'em and Omaha 8/b, though if you can interest people in something else, it sounds like they're open to the idea. They only keep Jackpots for Omaha and Hold 'em, though. The room recently expanded in October 2006, going from 5 to 10 tables. Game Character: 3/6 and 6/12 seemed loose, alternating between passive and aggressive. Rake is $3, $1 for Jackpot and High Hand of the shift. No Flop no Drop applies in this card room. Rake is taken directly out of the pot after the flop. Posting: New players do not need to post, and can choose to wait until the button passes before entering the game. Shuffling: Five tables with Shufflemaster machines, 5 hand shuffled. Wait Time: Varies based on time of day and game population. They do have "must move" tables for the popular games (e.g. 3/6 Holdem) if they have more than one table of it, to ensure that at least one table is always full. The wait procedure here is the oddest wait structure I've seen at a casino: you put your name on the wait list, but you do not sign up for a particular game (they don't have separate lists for separate games). This may be due to the potential fluidity of games due to the Dealer's Choice aspect of the room. When a seat opens at a table, the table reports what game it is currently playing, and the brush goes down the list of people waiting, asking each in turn if they want to join that game at that table. Eventually, a player is found and the brush asks if they want their name kept on the list or not. If not, the player's name is removed from the list, otherwise, the player's name is kept on it and the next opening at another table would have that player called in turn. Tournaments Daily tournaments: * Monday-Friday: 9:30am (signups start at 9am) NLHE, $20 buyin * Saturday: 9:30am (signups start at 9am) NLHE, $25 buyin * Sunday: 11:00am (signups start at 10am) NLHE, $25 buyin * Sunday: 4:00pm (signups start at 3pm) Limit HE, $50 buyin Last Monday night of the month (except months with holiday on last Monday) $110 Buy - In; No Rebuys - Tournaments vary from Partners/NL Hold'em/Omaha Hi/Lo; and Ladies Tournaments. Call to see what featured tournament is being played each month. Jackpots Multiple jackpots are available, though the Omaha and Hold'Em jackpots are kept separate. * Royal Flush bonus of $100 (no qualifier the board can play), payable to holder of Royal Flush. Applies to Omaha as well as Hold'Em. * High Hand jackpot of about $200 or so to the holder of the high hand in each 8-hour window (10am-6pm, 6pm-2am, 2am-10am). Must be shown to dealer (ie: flop a straight flush and everyone mucks. Table cards and that qualifies), at which point the dealer calls out "high hand!". Board can play. Separate high hands are kept for Omaha and Hold'Em. * Small bad beat jackpot: Aces Full Of Jacks or better, beaten (both hole cards in both beaten and beater hands must play). This jackpot is often maxed out at $9999 for Hold'Em, and seems to be hit around once a month. * Mega bad beat jackpot: Quad 8's or better, beaten (both hole cards in both beaten and beater hands must play). This jackpot is somewhere north of $25,000 and climbing for Hold'Em. Atmosphere "Friendly, hometown atmosphere". Four doors lead directly to outside, to the bowling alley, and to the connected bar. Mostly filled with regulars who know each other. Great staff, and very friendly dealers! They enjoy their jobs, and are very professtional. The Lucky Buck is located inside the Granada Bowl bowling alley. It has a door to the outside (on the east side of the building), and the sign outside the door says "POKER ROOM" in big block letters. A small sign on the door itself has the name of the club on it. The manager's desk doubles as the cashier cage. The chips are just kept in chip trays, stacked on the "bowling shoe racks" behind the manager counter. Incongruously nice chips (some of the nicest chips I've seen at any casino). Neighborhood: a slightly "industrial" area, just a block or two off the main drag in Livermore. Across the street are two grocery stores, so it's kind of "shopping/business". Seems safe and family-friendly. Heck, it's in a bowling alley. Parking: A quite cramped and serpentine parking lot; good luck finding your way around in it (lots of little one-way stretches, etc). Looks like it might hold about 40 cars, and it wasn't easy to find a space. Tables and Chairs: Standard 9-player tables. Felt is that slick "astroturf" felt. Player chairs are nicely padded metal frame fixed-leg chairs. Service and Comps Every now and then, a waitress from the bar comes through and says "cocktails?", and you can order a cocktail that she'll come back and give to you. They're not complimentary. If you ask for a Diet Pepsi, like I did, she comes back with a cold unopened can and says "fifty cents please." At meal times (e.g. 5-7pm for dinner), someone from the snack bar inside the bowling alley bakes up some pizzas with various toppings and just brings them into the poker room, and puts them on the table next to the manager counter. The pizza is complimentary; just get up, take a paper plate, grab some slices, and sit back down and keep playing. They keep the pizza coming for an hour or two and then stop. Different meal every night of the week, not just pizza. |
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