OK, no more rhyming or singing the lyrics of “Do you know the way to San Jose.” Its bad enough that I just stuck that tune in your head if you happen to know it anyway.

Today’s write up is one to help all you short-stacked satellite monkeys (like me) that are angling for a shot at the big time on a thin roll find a spot to do it. Outside of Vegas and LA, very few places are as open to poker as the Bay Area, Northern California. Despite the regulatory quirks that keep some games from getting too big ($200 spread cap and 40 table room limits) the area comprised of the metropolis inhabiting the area around San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose is FULL of card rooms that try to be very player friends. Below are a few spots that have a way for you to win your way into a $10K major event on the WPT or at the WSOP.

The Bay 101 Shooting Star. Bay 101 Casino, San Jose, CA.

Having played in this event that features star players brought in with $5,000 bounties placed on their heads and daily $10k awards for having the chip lead, I’d have to say it is one of my favorites. So far, in my interviews with various poker stars, there seems to be and agreement. With a cap on seating at 500 entrants and a cool million guaranteed for first place, it is possibly one of the best shots at becoming an overnight poker millionaire you will ever have (before taxes, of course.) The very fan friendly event built up over the years in the laid back town of San Jose has made it a fun, comfortable stop away from the gambling Meccas like Atlantic City, Reno and Vegas. Matt Savage is anchored here and takes great pride in making sure this is one of the best run events on the WPT. (Matt does a sterling job anyway, but home turf is home turf.)

Currently, Bay 101 is running a satellite series that can be entered into as cheaply as the Sunday $100 + rebuys/add-on events all the way up to the $1000 satellites running the week before the $2k and $10k main events. More info on these satellites can be found at the following link:
http://www.bay101.com/cgi-bin/events/x.cgi

WSOP Main Event and $1,500 Stud Event from Oak’s Card Club, Emeryville, CA

This year the tournament team at Oak’s headed by Allan Wasserman decided to give both their Stud and Hold ‘Em players something to shoot for with a weekly tournament series building towards a big $25,000 WSOP package freeroll and a once a month Seven Card Stud WSOP tournament. The ‘Super Saturday’ $100 plus one $100 rebuy has an attractive addition to the first prize money…a $1500 seat in the WSOP Seven Stud Event plus airfare and accommodation. Personally, I think this is a victory for those of us that enjoy playing multiple “brands” of poker and Allan should be applauded for this type of innovation. To top that off, he was creative enough to put together a GREAT No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament series with a great freeroll WSOP bonanza payoff at the end that both rewards regular players AND keeps the tournaments themselves playing out broadly with juicy first prizes as well. Over my two years up here in Northern California, I have come to really enjoy these tournaments and even if you don’t plan on shooting for the big prize of your seat in the BIG SHOW you’ll have a great time playing in this storied card club. If you want to find out more about these tournaments or what it is like to play in the OLDEST card room in the US (founded in 1907 as a clubhouse for the Oakland Oaks baseball team) just hit this link and head out to Emeryville: http://www.oakscardclub.com/index_special_e.asp

WSOP “Warm Up IX” Garden City Casino, Garden City/San Jose, CA

Jesse Rodgers, beginning his 13th year as Tournament Director at The Garden City Casino, takes pride in giving his players a shot a bigger money and glory every year. Now in its NINTH iteration, the WSOP Warm Up IX will take place between April 18th and the 28th featuring chances to win Main Event seats as well as Stud 8/b, Limit Hold ‘Em, Mixed Games, Omaha HLS and smaller NL Hold ‘Em event entries. The pricing for these events is always very reasonable. Each of  these tournaments will have a $225 buy in. Some will be No Rebuy, some a $100 Rebuy and the tournaments sending players to the $10,000 Main event will have multiple $100 Rebuys. Basically, for about double the cost of the normal daily tournaments, the local grinder can take a shot at not only some better than average prize money, but a seat in the big show and a little bit of travel and expense money. Be sure and check out http://www.gardencitycasino.com/calendar.cfm for the soon to be posted WSOP Warm Up IX event schedule as well as details on how to get to and in touch with Garden City and the venerable Jesse Rodgers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 5:59 pm and is filed under room reviews, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.