you have to remember the income level for the bay area is very high and so you have many players that can actually afford to play the games.

So the answer is that the city of San Jose currently limits the maximum single
bet to $200. So that is why their spread limit games are 5-200 and 10-200.

The city of SJ is in a huge budget problem. They currently take 13% of all
rake dropped by Bay 101 and Garden city. They limit the maximum number of
tables to 40. They proposed to the casinos to move to 15% of rake. The
casinos said if you do that, we will move outside the city limits and you will
lose everything.

So the city has proposed allowing them to have 49 tables and allow no limit
with the 15% rake. The casinos agreed. This goes to the voters during the
early summer.

Where would they move?
Bay101 makes in the neighborhood of $25M profit for their owners. The increase in drop tax would amount to around $1M.

Into Santa clara county, outside the city limits. There is nothing in the
California poker casino moratorium that stops them from doing this. This
"threat" was actually made. It has to do with more than just the 13 to 15%
increase in rake. Bay 101 has been fighting with the City for over 10 years.

I talked to one of the owners the Friday before last week when he was in
the casino

Then there would be cardrooms popping up left and right.

Are you saying they could move to Sunnyvale or Palo Alto?

Or are you saying to a piece of unincorporated land?

Explain why the moratorium would not apply. Explain why there aren't a dozen cardrooms in Santa Clara County.

One of the Bumbs (George, Tim, or Brian?) or Marko (I thought he was very ill) or Ron Werner (technically an 'owner')?

GC vs. Bay101 --

GC has much nicer chips. They're premium Paulson chips as opposed to Bay101 which has the worst chips I've ever played with anywhere. They're somehow both slippery and sticky at the same time.

GC's non-carpeted floor is terrible. Drop a glass or a rack of chips and it's game over. Spill a drink, and it becomes slippery. Who's ******ed decision was that? It's also textured, which makes moving a drink table or chair much more difficult than it should be.

GC chairs are more cushy, but they're monstrously heavy and combined with the floor are hard to move. They also are harder to sit forward. I give the nod to Bay101.

The giant GC tables and stripper pole is dumb.

There are occasional GC TV ads, but they are very rare.

Wifi is nice. Unfortunately it hasn't worked in a few weeks, but when it does it's pretty cool.

Stud died out at Bay101 about 4 years ago, Stud8 died out at GC over a year or two ago (soon after the new management took over). The Oaks has the biggest Stud game in the Bay Area, 4/8, lol.

Because the moratorium is on EXPANSION of gambling in California. If Bay 101 were to relocate out of the city of San Jose, while keeping fixed the number of tables, gambling in California would not expand.

Or Santa Clara or Milpitas or...

Whichever city has the most beneificial laws, most likely.

Because the moratorium is on licenses, not on a building that once housing a cardroom, can never let it go. They move, the number of licenses doesn't change.

Haha, I love the Bay chips. I know a lot of guys who do too.


Yeah that floor is an all-time FAIL.

The pole is a travesty. The tables are bad.

No one mentioned the major difference in quality and quantity of young female employees. One of the few advantages of GC.

If they could somehow combine the previous two issues it might actually be worth playing in one of their new and not improved five prop 20/40 games.

Just wondering more about Bay 101.

I see on their website they have:

3/6, 6/12, 9/18 & 12/24, etc..

1. How tight, passive or loose are the mid-limit games compared to 3/6?
2. Are they all running close to 24.7?
3. With the Silicon Valley in a bad recession, are there less "bad/loose" players at 6/12 and up?
4. How do 6/12 and up compare to similar levels of play in Vegas?


I reside out-of-state(currently) and everything here is 3/6 or 4/8 LHE(3 to 6 players see every flop, 95% of the time with no raises) . And tight/semi-aggressive(ABC poker) is winnable.

So if I move back it would be nice to test a notch or 2 higher.

They run 3/6, 6/12, 8/16, 20/40 and up.

It depends. The last couple times I played 6/12, they were tight, 2 or 3 to the flop every time. By contrast, last weekend I watched an 8/16 pot go to the flop 5 handed after a couple levels of betting, flop, turn, and river lots of betting on each round, 3 to showdown, pair of deuces to pair of 4's to pair of 7's, none in the pocket, and K and Q, etc on the board.

You should be able to find at least 1 of every game except Omaha at any time.

Dunno for sure, but seems like the biggest effect has been on the bigger games.

In my limited experience (I mostly play NL when in Vegas) Bay 101 regs are a bit tougher than Vegas at the same limits.

3/6 here is loose pre-flop (lots of players to the flop) and tight post-flop. It makes it a hard game to win, because the likelihood of everyone missing the flop is small. If you donk light and get called, you're probably beat.

Bay 101 uses Bud Jones chips, which are likely my least favorite chip. They do stay cleaner, but the combination of slick surface with the vacuum-seal indentation in the middle make them very annoying for me to work with. They feel like they have magnets in them (I know, they don't. But they feel like it.) and stick together when least desired, but somehow still slide around and fall over when you don't want them to.

Other than that, I enjoyed my playing time there when I last visited my brother in Cali. It's a nice room and plenty busy.

Is this the best room in the area for LHE up to 10/20? Any idea how long it will take me to drive from Bay 101 to Pebble Beach GC?

for small stakes Lhe there are a few places to play that are good. bay 101 is the nicest. a couple hours drive to pebble

how do u know this? do u have links?

Merc News article on the ballot measure.

I was un-aware that GC had better tourney structure than Bay, becuase I only play at Bay...Which tourneys are the best to play at GC?

Also, I have never been to Lucky Chances and see the advertisment for the once a month $40k 1st place tourneys. Has anyone ever played this tourney? Or the $10k 1st place tourney? How is the competition?

I stopped playing live cash because the rake is so high, but did play a few tourney's at Bay 101, and the structure is pretty bad. Any thoughts? Thank you...

For those who think the clubs can just leave town, note:

that is, they have to change the state law first.

So they implemented a betting line at Garden City recently. One question: If a player verbally declares a bet of $50 and moves $100 across the line, what is the bet. I say it should be $50 (verbal declaration binding) but they ruled the bet was $100. Is that ******ed or what?

if you are going to have a betting line then you have to enforce it.

So the betting line outweighs a verbal declaration? Is that in Roberts Rules?

I think it only makes sense that whatever you do first is binding. If you verbally declare, that should stand, if you move your chips first, that should stand.

Does anyone know the cheapest place to stay near Bay 101? There seem to be a number of hotels within one mile.

Is the novelty of visiting Bay101 worth an hour's drive?

I usually play at the Oaks in Emeryville, because I both live and work nearby so it's very convenient. This Saturday, I will have one of my rare poker sessions where I'm able to plan in advance that I'm going to play. I'm thinking about driving down to Bay101 just to see what it's like, and maybe donk around on the 8/16 half kill (which they don't have at the Oaks). Alternatively, I can just go to the Oaks and get an extra 2 hours of play in.

Any recommendations?