Sac poker rooms/ casinos are not pro MTT. They are used as gimmicks to fill rooms, & they do the trick without good structures. I don't see anything changing as long as poker room table limits remain the same.

Way to go Sean Drake! I sweat him HU at his FT and he really owned his opponent IMO.

Funny fact, yesterday in the 1k, I had 2 sac players at my starting table. Small world.

How's the 5-10+ action been the last week?

I like Thunder Valley, but there are definitely a few things that could be improved:

1) It's too smoky. I wonder if they could somehow enclose the room to guard off some of the excessive smoke.

2) The tournaments are terrible. They take 25% juice, and the structures make for an early all-in festival (even though there are zero antes).

3) The rake is too high. $4 + $1(jackpot) and they collect it all after the flop, rather than increments like in Nevada.

4) The promotions aren't very good. It seems that most of the jackpot collection will go into the pockets of the bad beat winners. Since my chances of getting the bad beat are so low, I'd rather that they spread the pool more evenly, or just get rid of the jackpot drop entirely.

5) Some of the dealers are really bad. I can actually name a couple of them, but I won't because it would be rude. One of them excessively moves her hands, tapping the table, counting bets, then recounting the bet, and triple-counting to make sure. She probably only gets between 5-8 hands per 30 minutes. There are also some very good one's who are extremely quick and accurate.

Overall, I think this room is pretty good given the amount of traffic that comes in due to the casino's location. There's always a game going, and it's pretty fun. If they made some improvements, it would be a great room.

as far as rake goes that is high but the normal around hear 4 or 5 dollar rake for a 2-5 is high though.the limelight used to run a 2-5 game were the rake was 3 dollars a hand max rake which is the nuts around hear obv but the game never got going eveyone would play 1-2-2.anyone know of any low rake 2-3 or 2-5 games around town??HAS ANYONE BEEN TO THE PHONNIX WHT UP WIOTH IT THERE???

Played the Oaks "deep stack" yesterday terrible strucure just like Thunder get it in poker.

Sick brag for playin in the 1k

Congrats Sean!! I don't know if we've met I'm friends w/ Kyle, Jerry and Andrew. I don't play at FLB much..... I ship'd a private tournament there for the opening of the new barber shop but don't know if you dealt that? AnyhowVN win, NorCal represent!!!

-- lol hope you deal the 1/2 game w/ it on a few times

I know who you are talking about. I play TV 3 times a week minimum. There are some fun dealers which I like having at the table who interact with the players a little more. I appreciate that management allows dealers to play after 2AM now.

Been playing at the phenoix because of the promo 40 hours u get 400bucks and ten bucks an hour after that. They have a hard time keeping anything going other than 4-8holdem. They have a 1-2 4dollar min open NL game but only 100dollar max buy in. they rake 5 dollars per flop and 1 dollar drop if no flop. They have a plo game on sundays thats starts at 5pm that is picking up its 1-2 with one on button 4 open no max buy in.... Even with the pay u to play promo are these stakes beatable with that big of rake?

how big does that plo game go? and is there generally a lot of action?

plo hardly ever runs live around hear r us ure u didnt mean omaha hi lo??

Nope didnt mean hi lo. sundays they run a plo game starting at five. The action has been picking up. I think there about 1month into running this game. The players are all new to the game except 1 or 2 others. Its a 1-2 4bring in one on the button. Its uncapped buy in but most people buy in for 100-200 range.....

Anybody play in limelight $50 Thursday night mtt yet? How many players? what kinda payouts can be expected?

Limelight rakes 4 max, play 3-5 0n Fridays. Thursday tourny is 2-4 tables.

I have got a couple calls about Phoenix's PLO going on Sundays.


0 for 5 in cashes in bracelet events this year so far, hows that for a sick brag

What up Haze, you taking any shots this year?

LOL, just my way of being jealous of you buddy, and hey your final table run last year was pretty impressive. No big shots this year The scene locally is getting a little better, I mean at least there is a $220 with 10k starting stack, thats about as big as it gets for me for now, GL the rest of the way bro.

Thanks. Thats true the $220 is decent, compare it to 5 years ago when Derby's first Tuesday was the only tourney worth attending, Sac Town has come a long way. We should get the big tourney rooms to start introducing antes, without them we will always be considered a joke by some.

Where and when is this $220?

Capital Casino, second Saturday at 11am, its $200+20 8000T +$10 add-0n 2000T, Re-entries through 1st break, 100+ players usually

Thunder Valley, Jul 10, 2nd sunday, $250 10,000T

And Capital has a $500+50+10 15,000T every 3 months or so, think its in August

weve established in this thread that a real 200 mtt includes antes and tv doesnot so it is not a real tourney,have u even read this thread to this point in time??tv tourneys are joke period weve already come to this coclusion.

I did run into Ben the poker room director at Thunder Valley the other day and brought my complaints about the tournament structure up to him. He seemed like a really nice guy and was kind enough to take 5 minutes out of his day to listen to what I had to say, which I appreciate, but I don't think it did any good. He basically said that the structure that tournament has is already a big improvement from what it was before ( I can only imagine how awful it was before lol). He mentioned that "you get what you pay for" or something to that extent and mentioned that the tournament ran for 7 hours as it was and that people don't want to be stuck in the casino for 15 hours to play a $250 tournament. He also said that it is standard for tournaments to not have antes and that antes are typical only for "deep stack tournaments" and mentioned that they do offer a deep stacked tournament there once a month. I mentioned to him that I have never played in a tournament that did not have antes before and that adding antes would thin the field quicker therefore having less people playing for 7 hours or however long it was that apparently was deemed too long to play for a $250 tournament.

He listened to what I had to say but I don't think it is going to change anything, at least as far as the structure is concerned. He also mentioned when I asked that they have been receiving interest from many different tournament circuits about having events at Thunder Valley and hinted that bigger tournaments could be held there in the near future which clearly is a good thing. I still don't get the whole no antes thing though, I mean I have made my living playing tournaments the last few years and have played 1000s of them and this was the 2nd tournament I've ever heard that didn't have antes, the only other being the all in or fold event at the California State Poker championships at Commerce back in May, but I didn't play it and it was kind of a gimmick event so it doesn't really count. If they made just a couple minor changes to this event it could be a lot better, especially with the expanded poker room opening soon they can guarantee more seats/bigger prizepool and it would be better for everyone.

I have heard of weekend tournaments being held in the bay with good prizepools before but can't seem to find them anywhere online. Does anybody know what casinos if any run good tournaments in the bay/valley/northern Nevada that would be worth traveling to? Please don't list some $50 buyin at limelight with $500 added either that is not what I'm talking about. I mean something with a buyin of $100 or more (preferably in the 200-500 range) that actually has a legit guarantee and a field of at least 100 that will pay something substantial to the winner.

Thanks ahead of time, and once again thanks to Ben from TV for taking time to listen to what I had to say!

Another thing I have wondered about and wanted to ask here before walking into Thunder Valley and looking like a ******, but can anybody explain why all of the rooms here in the Sac area seem to be capped at 100bb max buyin? I recently spent a lot of time playing at Casino Arizona in Scottsdale where the buyin limits for 3/5 were $300 minimum and $1000 maximum and the games were much, much better down there. Now, I understand that Scottsdale is not Sacramento ( there are a lot more people with more $$ down there) and the Phoenix area in general has more people than Sacramento, but there were always plenty of games going and the buyin restrictions made them play much deeper and looser than the games that I have found around here, and I think that it would be better for the games if they were to start raising the buyin limits. I can't tell you how many times I've been playing the 2/5 at Thunder Valley lately to see some drunk guy walk up to the table, buy in with $100 (which for some reason is the minimum at the 2/5 there, wayyy too low imo) play 1 hand lose his stack and leave the table. Lower buyin limits encourage people to buy in low and often times there will be a full table running with 6 stacks of 60bb or less and the chip leader will have $700 or something ridiculous like that. Allowing gambowlers to buy in for $1k at CAZ really loosened the games up and made them much more entertaining/profitable to play, and it was fun to sit at a 3/5 game and buy in for 1k and be the 2nd shortest stack at the table on a Saturday night. Never seen more than 2 or 3 stacks over 1k at Thunder valley 2/5 which is kind of sad. Having a table full of nitty 40bb short stacks is not good for the game at all.

So youre trying to convince the only card room in sacramento that constantly has action, so much so that it has to knock down walls so they dont have to turn away more people how they should run their poker room? There are a ton of other rooms in the area which offer "better" games and promos and their almost out of business. This place gets 120 people on a MONDAY for their tourneys

I dont think you get the business side of the poker room at all and only see it from a nitty poker players perspective

How is trying to buy in for more money nitty? LOL ANyways I posted it because, like I said before, I don't know the reason why things are the way they are and am looking to find out. I didn't want to ask at the card room and look like an idiot so I decided to post here first. I am an online player and have about 2 months worth of experience grinding live, most of it in a different state and simply am wondering why they do things different here given that the other way works very well in another place. Not hating on anyone's business practices I'm simply asking a question.

Im just saying that the room is packed to capacity while most of the other rooms within a 50 mile radius are completely dead and you want them to waste the time re-ealuating their ante structures?? What they are doing works, and works VERY well--at least for them. and if you really think that changing the antes will affect their business, maybe you should pitch it to the rooms that can't even get a second game going before trying at a place that has 16 tables going on a monday.

blackjackpro,

It is obvious that for whatever reason the "action" currently is at thunder valley but that doesn't change the fact that it is clearly the most unorganized room in sacramento with the worst staff. The sad thing is they are probably 30% improved from when they opened their room. I know I talk to plenty of sac regulars and there is no answer to why tv is so crowded because in general everyone hates:

1-ten handed games
2-smoky environment
3-super loud room
4-dealers that are average at best, horrible at worst
5-floor that is very clueless
6-waitresses that come by literally once an hour

For whatever reason fish like to play there which attracts everyone else and word spreads and suddenly its busy. things change quickly and it wasn't that long ago that the lucky derby was the place to play. It would be in the best interest of sac poker if like 3-4 of the tiny rooms in the area went out of business so the action could be concentrated to like 2 rooms but I don't see that happening.

lucky chances hAS GOOD mtts on the weekends for sure thats a little far though.some cardroom really needs to step up and start having mtts i could run a mtt easy and meet the guarntee no probelom just have x starting days and probelom solved,like turlock poker oom recently had a 60 dollar 10 k guarntee with 5 starting days morning and night sessions,was well run and had a GREAT structure,ran by some guy in his twenties that knows what good for the players.black jack pro waht r u talking about???how is dude being nitty buy wanting bigger buy in mtts with antes???u do know almost evrey tourney in the world has antes???its nitty that the mtt doesent have antes u not understanding that means ur poker iq is minimal at best!!!