A Brit in Vegas » Pala casino

Inland poker update:

Steve — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:47:41 +0000

With the tournament just eight days away and the qualifying date (Jan 27th) almost over only fifty players have qualified for the Annie Duke $25k freeroll at Pala casino. The weather, five inches of rain and rising, has left the room rather quiet this week. The lucky qualifiers must be doing a rain dance in front of Indian casino country.

Pechanga casino has attracted almost 100 players to their evening tournaments this week.All tournaments have guarantees.The room is awesome and you can see the schedule here. The casino has a Wine + chocolate festival on the same day as the Annie Duke freeroll. Maybe Annie can drop Ugly Joe off there on her way down to Pala.

Harrahs boasts the lowest rake (and the tightest machines) in the Valley. They also have an aces cracked promotion at the weekends and daily tournaments. The drive is a little frightening at night especially with all the coaches but go down in the daytime it is like being in Scotland!

New: Inland Empire poker update

Steve — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:03:41 +0000

Vegas too quiet and cold? Well this year the weather is perfect for a trip to SoSo Cal or the Inland Empire. This is the area the native Indians have looked after and I love it. Orange Groves, vines, ostrich or emu farms ,horses, free range chickens and casinos!Within a 30 minute drive you can go from Pechanga to Pala to Rincon to Valley View.

Pechanga has a poker room any Vegas casino would be proud of. If I was forced to pick a Vegas twin I would say Venetian. The room is a private room upstairs. Plenty of tables so they can hold tournaments without limiting the cash games. The tournaments come with a guarantee so popular in SoCal.

Friday 7pm $80 $10000 guarantee. 4000 chips 20 minute rounds.

Saturday Jan 30th $125 $20000 guarantee 5500 in chips 30 minute rounds.

Sunday Jan 31st $60 Omaha8 4000 in chips 20 minute rounds.

Harrahs Rincon is probably the best known poker room in the Valley because the circuit event has attracted Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu and Max Pescatori in the past. The regular poker room is a cozy dozen tables.They still like to hold tournaments though including a $42 crazy pineapple on Wednesday and Sundays. If you can master this game you would have a huge edge,

Pala is all getting the hours in for the Annie Duke $25000 giveaway on Sat Jan 30th. The room is twinned with the Sahara in my opinion, definately a step down from Pechanga but a nice casino with fine dining options.

Pala prepares to welcome Annie Duke

Steve — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:22:07 +0000

Pala casino will hold a free roll for its regular players on Saturday January 30th. A free roll with a difference. This is the $25k Annie Duke challenge. Annie appears in a TV commercial for rivals San Manuel but the Indian casinos must see her as the reconisable face of poker.

The event is open to the first 117 players to reach 100 hours of live play.As of today 28 players have qualified. Players have until January 27th to log in the hours.

The Pala casino is in a very scenic part of the SoCal wine country. It is a very clean casino with fine dining. Maybe, Yarom Limor will tag along with his friends Annie + Joe.. If he does he won’t find a McDonalds in the food court but a Sushi, Noodles, Deli and Mexican. The casino also boasts an Italian,Mamas, that makes it own ravioli.

The casino has live bands playing throughout the day and a lounge where the Pink Floyd Experience and the Romantics are scheduled to appear soon.

The poker room is an enclosed room with 19 tables. Today they had a 1-2 NLHE ($40-$400 buy in), 4-8 LHE with a kill and 3-6 Omaha h/l. They also had a $25 NLHE 7pm tournament.

Pala casino is a few miles down a winding narrow road from Pechanga casino. In fact Valley View, Harrahs Rincon and Pauma are all a short drive (or bus ride) away.