Thank you for your response. Santa Clara county (Matrix and Bay 101) and San Mateo county have already moved to orange. Artichoke Joe's seems really cool, but every time I've gone there, they've never had no limit running.

FWIW, I believe Lucky Chances is currently open doing the "tent" thing.

Those guys are true champions.

I am not sure which area you live in, but head up to Graton in Rohner Park. Its closer to the NL online then what is down south. 100BB buyins 1/3 and 2/5 without a 2x bringin.
Probably no more than an hour north past the Oaks.

K.

Why are you telling me to head up there when you don't know what area i live in?

I can't tell if you are in Emeryville / Berkeley area, or further south in San Jose. A county would of been helpful in your posts.

For sure - I gotcha.

Trip report- Picked up my wife last Thursday at the airport and decided I wanted to see what bay area poker looked like.

Artichoke Joe's is running only 4 poker tables in their tent. 2 20/40 and 2 6/12. Plenty of empty California game tables, but super long lists for poker. 8 handed behind plexiglass. I'd call it a big FU to poker players and left quickly.

Lucky Chance: They had at least 15, probably closer to 20 poker tables in their tent. NL from 1/1/2 4 to go and 3/5/ 10 to go. Limit from 3/6 to 20/40 and an Omaha 4/12 half kill. Was not too cold in the tent, but bring a jacket. No food at the table, 8 handed. I'd go there first. I'd always preferred AJ's of Lucky Chance., AJ's lost me as a customer and will probably not go back. Makes the drive up to Graton now a no brainer. I live in Marin, use to work in DTSF but now work at home.

Thanks for the info! Did you happen to notice if LC had any LHE games between 3/6 and 20/40? When they first opened, they used to run 6/12 and 9/18 LHE games regularly, but those died out when NL took over. (6/12 to 8/16 is my wheelhouse; I don't think anyone's beating the drop at 3/6, so I'd rather not play it.)

As for the Oaks, I see from their website that they're now open 24 hours a day, but I haven't been there and don't know any details.

https://twitter.com/OAKSCARDCLUB/sta...648514/photo/1

I don't remember to be honest, most of the games are NL. I am just happy to occasionally play some non complicated cards every few months.

I doubt that LC was actually running a 20/40 LHE game. They never did during the pre-covid days, and I haven't seen it run in the tent either. I was there last weekend and they were running a 6/12 LHE game for at least part of the time I was there. I play NLHE, so really wasn't paying that much attention to the limit games, but did see it running when I was wandering around.

Thank you. I will check it out once I'm fully vaccinated.

Looks like Oaks and Bay 101 are back (according to their websites, still waiting on Matrix and Palace Poker).

This is awesome news!!!!! I’m stoked!!!!

As of April 14, the Oaks was open with a 3-6 and a 6-12 and some no limit games. Oaks Corner, the bar and hofbrau adjacent to the poker room, was still closed.

Does anyone know anything about the California Grand in Pacheco? They used to run one or two tables of 15-30.

Any plexiglass and how many ppl per table?

I went to the Oaks yesterday (Friday) afternoon and played for some five hours. I played mostly $1-$2-$3 NLHE, although while waiting for my seat in that game I played a few hands of 6-12 limit holdem.

Games are eight-handed, with plexiglass barriers between players. Masks covering the nose and mouth are required for everyone in the club. Neither eating nor drinking is allowed at the table, although players can bring food into the restaurant area to eat there. The Oaks Corner hofbrau is closed.

Players coming in through the main entrance are required to pass a contact-free temperature test before entering.

The club is operating at 25% capacity, per Alameda County restrictions on indoor commercial activity, so before going there I estimated that they had capacity for some 75 players at a time, or 8 tables. While I was there I was aware of six tables in use, and plenty of players waiting for seats as the day wore on.

Games going were 3-6 and 6-12 limit holdem and 1-2-3 ($100 to $500 buy-in) and 2-3-5 ($200 to $1000 buy-in) no-limit holdem. The Oaks' website claims they also spread 6-12 (w/kill to 8-16) Omaha/8 and higher-stakes limit holdem, but I saw no evidence, and I think they would have been hard-pressed to open a table.

Gameplay is 24/7. At peak hours, I would expect that wait times for seats are going to be quite long. Fortunately, you now can sign up for lists by phone or through the website.

Does anyone know when Pete’s 881 club will reopen (they have awesome tournaments there), or if (/when) Casino San Pablo will ever have poker again?

(Also, California Grand has been going strong for a while now, very awesome, very solid/great place to play. Very well run, I give a ton of props to those guys!!!)

It hasn't been "Casino San Pablo" for a long time; it is now the San Pablo Lytton Casino, and before covid it had one or two 3-6 limit hold'em tables. I find it easy to believe that those tables will never be available again.

I was wondering if they would ever have no limit again.

They closed that down over 5 years ago iirc. Word was that the casino manager hated poker. I believe it given they had only $1 chips.

I heard they got raided.

And what’s this about Casino Matrix not being allowed to put in more poker tables in exchange for the city taxing them at a higher rate? Total BS - bad on the city - that’s the definition of lose-lose! Now there’s no poker at all!

San Jose has long disliked poker. The number of tables is not a regulatory issue, it's a statutory one. A change in the number of tables has to be voted on by the residents.

I thought it was a California thing, not a San Jose (city) thing.

Nope.