Bicycle Casino
March 3, 2008
The Bicycle Casino is the world’s second largest poker cardroom.
Located in Bell Gardens, California, the casino offers a wide variety of poker games and limits, as well as pai gow poker and panguingue and California blackjack.
For several years during the 1990s, after being seized due a tax lien, the casino was owned by the United States government, providing millions of dollars of revenue to the government.
The casino is home to the Legends of Poker, a tournament series established in 1995 that now includes a stop on the World Poker Tour. Prior to the Legends, the casino’s main tournament series was called the Diamond Jim Brady.
The Bicycle Casino was the first brick and mortar casino to broadcast live poker games over the Internet. Live at The Bike ran five nights a week, and was accessible via the casino’s website. The program was first broadcast in February of 2005. Besides a group of regular commentators that has included Shirley Rosario, the show sometimes features guest commentary from professional poker players like Barry Greenstein and Kenna James. A sign in back of the hosts is signed by any notable player who provides guest commentary in the booth.
Live at the Bike became a subscription service in mid-2006. The live broadcast was canceled in March of 2007. Archives of the program are still available through a subscription.
The Bicycle Casino was featured in an episode of the TV series Numb3rs dealing with the murder of a successful card-counter.
Klondike Hotel & Casino
March 3, 2008
The Klondike Hotel & Casino was a 153 room hotel and a 7,700 square foot casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, in the United States.
The hotel sat between the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and McCarran International Airport on Las Vegas Boulevard on 6 acres of land. The Klondike was at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, and for many drivers, seeing the old red western buildings of the Klondike meant you had arrived in Vegas.
The hotel was known for being one of the last casinos near the Las Vegas Strip to offer cheap food bargains, notably the $1.49 spaghetti special, and offered them 24 hours a day. Tourists and locals alike could find offers for a free meal with a drink purchase.
History
The Klondike opened in 1962 as a Motel 6.
The hotel was sold on May 12, 1976 for $1.2 million by Ralph Engelstad who also owned the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino. The new owners were John Woodrum and his son Mike Woodrum. John bought the Klondike after splitting from his previous partner, Bill Boyd.
After taking control of the casino, John decided to run a power line to the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign which was not lit at the time. After the power line was cut and some discussions, Clark County decided to provide power to the sign.
At the end of 2005, the land the casino is on was sold to a developer who is planning to have the casino torn down. The casino was sold to Royal Palms Conmunities for $48 million with Mike Woodrum being an equity partner in the new development. The new resort will be called Paramount Las Vegas.
The casino closed on June 28, 2006 and hotel closed on June 30, 2006.
While you can’t actually see the name, the casino appeared in a scene in 1997’s Vegas Vacation where Clark (Chevy Chase) tries to win money back.
Hustler Casino
March 3, 2008
Larry Flynt’s Hustler Casino is a casino located in the South Bay, Los Angeles suburb of Gardena. It is owned by Hustler magazine Publisher Larry Flynt and it has been open since June 2000. The casino is Larry Flynt’s most profitable business, earning over $20 million annually as of 2007.
The casino was built on land formerly occupied by the El Dorado Club, a card room that Larry Flynt bought in 1998 for $8 million. Flynt spent $30 million building a Las Vegas-style casino.
In February 2007, the casino completed a major expansion and opened the Crystal Room, which serves as a combination card room, conference room, and poker tournament site.
Since 1997, Flynt has hosted “the biggest seven-card stud game in the world”; the game started at Flynt’s home but moved to his casino when it opened.As of April 2007, the minimum buy-in is $200,000, with $1000 antes and stakes of $2,000-$4,000. Unlike most high-stakes ring games, Flynt’s game is held in a corner of the casino’s main poker room floor. Regulars at the table include Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, and Ted Forrest. Another regular was Chip Reese before his death.
Commerce Casino
March 3, 2008
Commerce Casino is a cardroom located in the Los Angeles suburb of Commerce. With over 240 tables on site, Commerce Casino is the largest cardroom in the world. Established in 1983, the casino accounted for 38% of Commerce’s tax revenues for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
In addition to the main cardroom, the Commerce Casino complex includes a full service 200 room Crowne Plaza Hotel, which houses dining establishments, a day spa, beauty salon, pool and sundeck, banquet rooms, shops and entertainment. The Commerce is also home to several restaurants, as well as music and comedy venues.
Poker games
The Commerce Casino offers a wide variety of limit, pot limit and no limit poker games, including:
The casino spreads more Texas Hold ‘em games than any other casino in the world. Games with limits of 1-2 and 2-4 are upstairs in the ballroom, while 3-6, 4-8, and 9-18 exist on the main floor, with larger limit games in the Hotel section. No Limit Hold ‘em games have buy-ins as low as $40 and go much higher.
The Casino’s bad beat jackpots sometimes grow into six figures. The jackpot amounts are doubled at regular times during the week. Between 11am-12pm and 7am-8pm and 1am-3am daily Commerce Casino offers a $100,000 Super Jackpot for Hold ‘em.
Players can bring members of a home game to the Casino and they will provide game instruction, dealers, a pit boss, cards, chips and poker snacks. The “home” games act as live cash games and are eligible for jackpots.
Poker tournaments
The Commerce Casino is home to several poker tournament series, including:
- Los Angeles Poker Classic - Annual tournament beginning in January and running through early March. This is Commerce’s major tournament of the year, involving a World Poker Tour event, a Professional Poker Tour event and the celebrity event, the World Poker Tour Invitational.
- California State Poker Championship - Annual tournament, held every September since 2003. Originally held in June, the tournament was moved to avoid conflict with the World Series of Poker.
- Heavenly Holdem - Annual tournament held in May. It is a tournament with smaller buy-ins where every event is Texas hold ‘em.
- Holiday Bonus Tournament - Annual tournament held in December.
Non-poker games
Commerce also offers pan, No Bust blackjack, Caribbean stud poker, 21st Century Baccarat, Pai gow poker, Super Pan Nine and 13 Card (Chinese poker).
Bay 101
March 3, 2008
Bay 101 is a cardroom in San Jose, California. It has hosted the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event every WPT season except the first one. Like all cardrooms in California, it offers poker cash games and tournaments as well as special “California” style games.
Spotlight 29 Casino
March 3, 2008
The Spotlight 29 Casino is a Native American gambling enterprise in Coachella, California. It is run by the Twenty-nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. The facility has 110,000 square feet with 2,000 slot machines, 30 table games, and an 11 table poker room. The casino also has a 2,200 seat showroom. The casino opened as the Trump 29 Casino in 2002. The casino is currently adding a 200-room four-star hotel, pool/recreation area, spa and covered cabanas, health spa, convention center, and a four-story parking garage. The first phase (currently under construction) consists of a 1,245-space parking garage on the northwest corner of the property adjacent to Highway 86S. Construction of the garage is expected to be complete during 2008 with construction of the second phase following shortly thereafter.
Pechanga Resort and Casino
March 3, 2008
Pechanga Resort and Casino is an Indian Casino on the Pechanga Indian Reservation in Temecula, California. Pechanga Resort and Casino is the largest casino in the state of California with approximately 205,000 square feet of gaming space.
In June 2002, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians opened the $262 million Pechanga Resort & Casino complex. The resort, which was designed to highlight the tribe’s Luiseño culture, includes: an 85,000-square-foot (7,900 m²) casino, 1,200-seat showroom, 515,000-square-foot (47,800 m²), 14-story, 522-room hotel and 38,800-square-foot (3,600 m²) convention center, 1,200-seat showroom, 200-seat cabaret lounge, and seven restaurants. The casino section includes 4,300 slot machines, and 96 table games. In 2004, the tribe began and completed construction of a new gaming area, which added almost 35,000 square feet (0,000 m²) including a new nightclub, Silk, and the Round Bar. The new poker room features 60 tables of play, including no limit poker. Also included are about 60 new card tables. The new casino also features a new sportsbar and restaurant, and six eateries at the food court.
Pechanga Resort and Casino is Temecula Valley’s number one employer, with about 5,000 people employed.
The performance venue has hosted musicals, including Chicago, and performers including singer and actress Liza Minnelli, and comedian Jerry Seinfeld among others. Guests must be 21 to gamble on the property; the age limit was raised from 18 in 2003.
Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa
February 20, 2008
The Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa is a casino located in Cabazon, California near San Gorgonio Pass. This 27-story casino/hotel is one of the tallest casinos not in Las Vegas, Nevada; Biloxi, Mississippi; Montville, Connecticut; Detroit, Michigan or Atlantic City, New Jersey. The casino has 310 rooms and suites. A 44 acre resort, Morongo is still one of the largest casinos in California. At 330 feet (101 m) high, the casino tower is the tallest building in the Inland Empire.
Morongo is one of only three AAA four diamond casino resorts in California with Pechanga Resort and Casino and The Chumash Casino being the others. Morongo’s main casino floor is 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²) with over 2,000 slots and table games.
The $250 million resort, with one of the largest casino floors on the West Coast, has a 27-story hotel tower topped by a two-story glass penthouse restaurant and lounge.
The resort is located 20 minutes west of Palm Springs and 90 minutes east of Los Angeles.
The casino at Morongo offers more than 100 table games including four card poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’Em, blackjack, pai gow poker, mini-baccarat and three card poker as well as California-style craps tables (dealt with cards rather than dice) and a 22-table poker room.
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