Since no one has yet posted a trip report, I thought I'd just go ahead and do it.
TRIP REPORT: TWO ROOKS' PLACE, San Diego
I was in San Diego for a business trip and since I had some downtime, I figured I try to find some action. I usually play 3/6 limit in AC, so I was looking for something along those lines. Luckily, I remembered that Two Rooks had a cardroom/casino going in SD, so I went over to check it out.
First off, what you heard about parking is WRONG: there is NO valet. I must have sat outside the house in my car for a good ten minutes before I realized the guy in the maroon sport coat was just Two Rooks' dad and that he WASN'T parking cars. My bad. Do NOT try and get Two Rooks' dad to park your car; it isn't going to happen.
The good news is I got a spot right around the corner in front of a split-level ranch. Seemed safe.
The casino itself is pretty small. One blackjack table (empty) and one hold-em table squeezed into a rec-room that's about 20 x 15. I was told that there is usually blackjack action, but that the regular dealer had a US Government final the next day and was at home cramming.
Luckily for me, though, I came to play poker and there were a couple empty seats at the table when I arrived.
First, of course, I went over to the cage for a rack. They were out of acrylic racks when I was there, so I got my chips in a 1 gallon zip-lock bag (which I was asked to return when I cashed out). The chips are a little grimy, but definitely in better shape than the ones at the Taj in AC.
I sat down in the 4 seat. It was the typical collection of casino players: a couple retirees playing their social security checks, one or two drunk tourists, two kids from the JV Baseball team, a squirrly chick with braces. The action was pretty loose/passive. The dealer wasn't great, but not terrible either. She had a couple misdeals and she mis-pushed the pot once when she didn't see the rivered flush. We also had about a 20 minute break while she took a cellphone call from her ex-boyfriend.
THERE IS NO TABLE SERVICE AT THIS CASINO. You need to get your own Coke/Diet Coke/Mr. Pibb from a large green cooler in the bathroom. The drinks ARE comped, though, which is nice. If you want an alcoholic drink, you have to go back upstairs and ask Two Rooks' mom for a 'real' glass and then you can have pretty much whatever they are offering that night. The night I was there, they had two options: Beefeater Gin or Amaretto. I had an Amaretto on the rocks. Tasty! (I'm 35, but I didn't get the sense that they were carding, just FYI). I also had a really good chat with Two Rooks' mom; she is definitely cool with the casino.
The one thing that was never mentioned in the thread: there is a poker rate! After 6 hours of play, I was eligible to sleep on the trundle bed in Two Rooks' sister's room (she's away at college in Nebraska). I didn't stay, but it's good to know in the future, especially if you don't feel like driving after a few Amarettos.
Only one stressful situation and it was around a hand. I had KK in MP and raised. It was folded around to the CO (one of the JV Baseball guys) who 3-bet. Folded back around to me and I call. Two players and the flop comes KQJ. I bet, he raises, I re-raise, he caps. Turn is a blank, I bet, he calls. The river is a T, so I'm now feeling a little nervous. I check. This guy looks at his cards and gives a little chuckle. I think he's going to flip them over, but he mucks them (no verbal declaration). Then he says "[censored], I meant to flip those" and reaches into the muck pile and pulls out an A. The dealer has no clue how to handle it, so they call the floor over. The floor is none other than Two Rooks himself! We go over the hand with him but he's not really sure how to call it. He decides that we should look it up online, so all of us -- the table, the dealer, TR -- go upstairs to his room to look it up online. His room is ok, pretty standard: some rock posters on the walls, about a week's worth of dirty clothes on the floor and a Pamela Anderson calendar from 2004. He does have a CRAZY collection of bobble-heads. We spend about 10 minutes Googling "Floor Calls" "Mucked Hands" etc. and finally he makes a call and tells the JV kid that he's sorry, but without the verbal declaration, his hand is mucked. We go back downstairs and TR then pushes the pot to me. The JV kid kinda freaks out, but TR calms him down and tells him he can take a 6-pack of Mr. Pibb. The two JV kids leave and the table basically breaks up. I was up about $80 (roughly 2bb/hr).
I spent about an hour just kind of chilling with Two Rooks and his folks after that (there was some left over pizza in the fridge from the 200+40 tourney they ran the previous weekend).
All in all, a good experience.
