United States of Poker

In the words of the late, great Tupac Shakur, "To live and die in L.A., it's the place to be." Well, the same goes for poker. Los Angeles, a town famous for Hollywood glitz and glamour, traffic jams, and the Lakers, also happens to be one of the nation's top poker destinations.

A formidable alternative to the more mainstream Las Vegas, Los Angeles lies in close proximity to nearly 20 major casinos, with the world's largest poker room, located at Commerce Casino, a mere 15-minute drive from downtown.

The City of Angels also serves as the home base for many of the game's top pros, hosts three World Poker Tour events each year, and holds many other huge events, including the California State Poker Championship and the World Heads-Up Championship. This region continues to be a fertile breeding ground for poker's hottest up-and-coming players. In fact, five out of the top 10 finishers in the 2006 Card Player Player of the Year race hail from Southern California.

Here is a look at some of the region's poker hotspots.

Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
Players who venture into Barona Valley Ranch's 15-table poker room can choose from several game variations, including no-limit hold'em, $8-$16 hold'em, and seven-card stud eight-or-better. In addition, jackpots are offered.

"With its increased presence on television, the game of poker has recently experienced enormous popularity," said Tim Malinoski, poker room manager. "We knew that we needed to create the ultimate playing environment to satisfy this growing audience and provide our guests with the best gaming experience possible for their entertainment dollar."

The spacious nonsmoking poker room offer players the utmost in comfort and convenience. Featuring elegant décor and comfortable seating, it also offers televised off-track betting.

Barona Valley Ranch's 300,000-square-foot casino offers more than 60 table games, including blackjack, poker, Pai Gow, Barona craps, and cash baccarat. Also available are 2,000 slots, video poker, and keno machines.

The $260 million Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino is one of San Diego's leading destination resorts. In addition to the casino, it also features 400 luxurious guest rooms and suites, a lakefront wedding chapel, the AmBience Day Spa, a full-service events center, and the 18-hole championship Barona Creek Golf Club, rated the fourth-best public-access course in California by Golfweek Magazine.

For reservations and information, visit www.barona.com or call toll free (888) 7-BARONA (722-7662).

The Bicycle Casino
The elegant Bicycle Casino boasts one of L.A's best poker experiences, with 175 tables featuring every game and limit to satisfy the most discerning poker player. Recognized as a top tournament house, the Bike hosts a grand array of tournaments, including its signature event, Legends of Poker, now a major World Poker Tour stop. This spacious casino provides a wide variety of no-limit hold'em games, three-card poker, Caribbean stud, blackjack, and California games, along with special heads-up events, daily tournaments, and satellites for most of its major events. The Bike features special promotions each month and offers bad-beat jackpots.

Recognized as a progressive poker house, the Bike is the first and only casino to stream live cash games every Monday-Friday evening directly from the poker room floor. Its popular show Live at the Bike! features a live high-stakes cash-game webcast, shot in the Bike's Plaza section, its newest renovation. With more than 1,500 hours of archived entertainment available through its website, www.thebike.com, the Bike has created a unique opportunity for players to sit in on a high-limit game and better their strategies by learning from a variety of poker pros and experienced cash-game cowboys.

Known for exceptional customer service and a top-notch professional staff, the Bike remains a leader in accommodating its clientele. Classic Club members are part of the "You Play, We Pay!" rewards program, in which hours of play earn players points for meals or monthly cash rewards. The Bike also features three restaurants, a bakery, a full-service salon, gift shop, car wash, and valet service.

For more information on The Bicycle Casino, visit www.thebicyclecasino.com or call (562) 806-4646.

Chumash Casino Resort
The Chumash Casino Resort is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between Los Angeles and San Francisco, in the heart of the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley wine country. It offers 94,000 square feet of Las Vegas-style gaming, and its 24-hour poker room features 14 tables and a variety of games.

The $200,000-guaranteed Central Coast Poker Championship, a no-limit hold'em tournament, will be held on Saturday, April 28, at 9 a.m. The buy-in/service fee is $320, with no rebuys. The event is limited to 630 players. Players may register in person at the Chumash Casino Box Office (open from noon until 10 p.m. daily), online at www.chumashcasino.com, or by telephone at (800) 585-3737. Call for complete tournament details.

For more information, visit www.chumashcasino.com or call toll free (800) 248-6274.

Commerce Casino
Known as "The Poker Capital of the World," Commerce Casino is the largest poker casino on the planet. With more than 243 total gaming tables, Commerce Casino features just about every form of poker, including limit and no-limit hold'em, seven-card stud, Omaha, lowball, pot-limit, Mexican poker, pineapple, draw, lowball, and many others.

Commerce Casino offers a well-lit, comfortable, relaxing, quiet (no ringing slot machines), and smoke-free environment, plus a welcoming, knowledgeable, and friendly staff who are quick to provide assistance and instruction at the request of players.

Take the word of a top pro! Phil Laak recently called Commerce Casino "the greatest place on earth … greater than the Garden of Eden; greater than the Pyramids; greater even than Napoleon. Not once did anyone ever give me grief for wearing a hoodie. Want to eat at a table? No problem … glorious, just glorious. The greatest place on earth, by far."

The casino is busy day and night with cash games in both the high-stakes area and the lower-limit area, and offers a full menu for tableside service. However, Commerce also features an array of excellent restaurants - from sushi to deli to elegant dining.

One of the fun programs that the casino offers is Bring Your Home Game to Commerce. Beginning or intermediate poker players get VIP treatment with a special game created just for nine personal friends and family members. Commerce Casino provides instruction, the dealer, the pit boss, cards, chips, and even some poker snacks. The Home Game coordinator will help make dinner reservations at one of the four restaurants on the property or arrange hotel rooms at the well-appointed Crowne Plaza Hotel that is part of the hotel/casino complex. It's a great way to have a bachelor or birthday party.

If you are a tournament poker player, the time to be at Commerce Casino is in February, when the casino hosts two televised World Poker Tour events - the L.A. Poker Classic, with its $2 million first prize and $7.5 million total prize pool, and the World Poker Tour Invitational, an invitation-only extravaganza that draws Hollywood's elite poker-playing set matched against 200 of the top pros.

For more information on Commerce Casino, visit www.commercecasino.com or call (323) 721-2100.

Crystal Casino
Crystal Casino & Hotel is one of L.A.'s fastest-growing casinos. The historic Crystal Casino and 225-room hotel was purchased in April 2006 by a group led by the Kelegian family (The Bicycle Casino and Ocean's Eleven Casino). Since taking over, they have embarked on an aggressive remodeling campaign and now offer over 10 times more live action and tournaments.

The purple, blue, and silver décor has been replaced with a new "Bellagio look." They have spared no expense in redesigning and furnishing the lobby, poker rooms, California games section, and 11,000-square-foot event center, for tournaments, parties, and special promotions.

A $500,000 exterior face-lift has begun that will include new signage, paint, lighting, and a redesigned entrance and parking lot.

Crystal's new poker room is packed nightly and most days, offering no-limit hold'em from $20 to $1,000, limit hold'em starting as low as $2-$4, and a complement of Omaha and stud games. A host of daily promotions and reward programs are also offered. Crystal Club members receive $1.50 to $5 per hour under its Everyday is Payday promotion. Every hour from 3 p.m. to midnight, Crystal pays $100 for the highest hand in the room. All seated players eat for free under the meal rewards program. Poker players enjoy reduced hotel rates starting at $29 with three hours of play.

Crystal draws more than 1,000 tournament players each week to its afternoon and nightly tournaments. On Friday and Saturday nights, it offers guarantees of $10,000 for its multiple-rebuy 7 p.m. tournaments. No-rebuy tournaments with buy-ins as low as $30 are held Sundays through Thursday at 7 p.m. and in the afternoon. Crystal also offers Sunday freeroll tournaments.

Additionally, Crystal has been the host to several major tournaments, including the televised Heads-Up Challenge in February that attracted 64 of the top players in the world. Look for other major tournaments in the next several months, capped by Crystal's largest tournament of the year, the L.A. Summer Slam, July 20-29. Tournament buy-ins will range from $100 to $500, with special complimentary hotel rooms and other discounts for all tournament players.

For more information on Crystal, visit www.thecrystalcasino.com or call (310) 631-3838.

Hawaiian Gardens Casino
Does anybody remember that just five short years ago, there was no such thing as a regular no-limit hold'em game? Sure, there was an occasional game around town, but certainly not on a regular basis. Then, on April 8, 2002, the restricted buy-in version of no-limit hold'em was introduced at the Hawaiian Gardens Casino.

The casino invited its most adventurous customers to attend the opening ceremony. A fellow named Guy won the first hand - a story he recalls to this day. The game was played for about three hours, with an average of five or six players. Incredibly, there were 20-30 people standing around watching.

During the first month, the game averaged two tables a day. By the fourth month, there were up to four tables a day. During the sixth month, the Travel Channel started airing no-limit hold'em on cable TV, and soon the game was in high demand in all casinos.

From this little kernel of an idea - that everyone should start with the same amount of money - has grown a tremendously diverse expansion of the poker that was played at the end of the 20th century.

Soon after the original $100 buy-in no-limit hold'em game started, Hawaiian Gardens decided to augment the game with another new variation: the sit-and-go. Three weeks after Hawaiian Gardens launched this new idea, sit-and-go poker appeared on PartyPoker.com. And coming to Hawaiian Gardens Casino on May 12, 2007, will be the first-ever Sit-and-Go National Championship.

For more information on Hawaiian Gardens, visit www.hgcasino.com or call (562) 860-5887.

Hollywood Park Casino
What's new at Hollywood Park Casino? It's ePoker; that's "e" as in electronic poker. Hollywood Park Casino built a new room dedicated to the latest innovation to hit poker in Southern California. The room has seven PokerPro™ tables, which are dealerless tables where the computer controls the action, betting, and cards through a series of touch displays. Each player is seated with a touch display in front of him, and a large flat-screen monitor is in the center of the table, displaying the pot, chip stacks, and community cards. The PokerPro system combines all of the benefits of online poker with the face-to-face interaction of live poker. The result is a faster, more accurate, and efficient poker-playing experience. Only the player can see his own cards, thanks to a touch-sensitive screen.
What are the advantages of ePoker?

Speed - The no-limit hold'em games average 50 hands per hour, and Omaha eight-or-better games average 40 hands per hour - more than a 150 percent increase over a live-dealer game.

Accuracy - To date, there has not been one misdeal. Players have never acted out of turn (they just can't), no one has ever made the wrong bet amount, and every pot is pushed or chopped and accounted for correctly.

Cost - Since there is no dealer, there are no dealer tokes. The collection schedule is identical to the live games.

Comfort - The ePoker Room has comfortable chairs, and there are eight big-screen TVs for viewing sports, news, simulcast horse racing, and a variety of poker-related cable shows.

The games offered in the ePoker Room include limit hold'em, no-limit hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, pot-limit Omaha, and so on. Limits vary from $2-$4 to $5-$10 limit hold'em, $20-$40 buy-in no-limit hold'em ($1-$1 blinds) to $200 buy-in no-limit hold'em ($3-$5 blinds), and Omaha eight-or-better limits are $3-$6 and $4-$8; there's also a pot-limit Omaha $2-$2 game.

ePoker has its advantages in the tournament world, as well. Single-table tournaments (sit-and-go) are available and multitable tournaments are scheduled at 2 p.m., 9 p.m., and 3:30 a.m. A single-table tournament (sit-and-go) yields approximately 70 hands per hour. In live sit-and-gos, as the table becomes shorthanded, the play slows as the dealer shuffles more often; in ePoker sit-and-gos, the play increases in speed.

In addition to ePoker, Hollywood Park Casino has a vast variety of gaming options. There are daily poker tournaments at 11:30 a.m. and every evening. There are 66 live poker tables spreading hold'em, Omaha, and stud. The bingo pavilion is the largest charitable bingo operation west of the Mississippi. California card games include blackjack, Caribbean stud, Pai Gow poker, Pai Gow tiles, baccarat, and super pan 9. During horse racing season, players can walk to the adjacent Hollywood Park Racetrack or place bets on simulcast racing from the poker table with the bet runners on staff at the casino.

For more information on Hollywood Park, visit www.playhpc.com or call (310) 330-2800.

Hustler Casino
Publisher and casino owner Larry Flynt has successfully completed and opened the multimillion-dollar expansion of Hustler Casino, which is located just a few minutes from downtown Los Angeles in Gardena.

Now, players can enjoy the warm, plush surroundings of the all-new Crystal Room, an elegantly appointed cardroom with lush carpet, crystal chandeliers, Monte Carlo-style décor, and superb service. With this new addition to one of the fastest growing casinos in Los Angeles, Larry Flynt has taken gaming at Hustler Casino to a new level.

With this elegant expansion, there is no waiting for games and plenty of convenient parking.

The casino offers action in Vegas-style blackjack, Texas hold'em, Pai Gow poker, and the all-new three-card poker.

Additionally, Hustler Casino offers large seeded limit hold'em jackpots featuring a $40,000 seed for all $6-$12, $15-$30, and $25-$50 games. The qualifier is aces full of tens beaten by four of a kind or better. The limit hold'em jackpots are offered 24 hours a day, every day.

Regarding other gaming news, Casino Manager Tracy Edwards said, "The growth in our no-limit section has exceeded our expectations over the last 12 months. Though Hustler Casino is smaller by volume than some other area casinos, it can now offer the same exhilarating action as larger competitors."

Hustler's daily tournaments, too, have grown over the years, due to larger guarantees, well-designed structures, and knowledgeable staff members who aggressively pursue excellence.

For more information on Hustler Casino, visit www.HustlerCasinoLA.com or call (310) 719-9800.

Morongo Casino
Morongo Casino's intimate 22-table poker room offers limit Texas hold'em, no-limit Texas hold'em, seven-card stud, and Omaha eight-or-better. Also offered are daily tournaments, which are limited to the first 100 players, and players playing in live games two hours prior to tournaments are given preference for sign-ups.

Here are some of the poker room's upcoming events and other promotions:

$15,000-Guaranteed No-Limit Hold'em Tournaments
Friday, April 13, and Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m.; $130 buy-in, $20 entry fee; satellites held daily; limited to 14 tables

$10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Tournament
Monday, April 30, at 7 p.m. To qualify, pay $30 and play 30 hours of live-action poker between April 1 and April 27.

$50,000 Hold'em Jackpots
Players must have aces full of tens or better beaten by four of a kind or better; both cards in a player's hand must play; the kicker can tie the board; offered every Tuesday and Thursday in April from 6 p.m. to midnight, every even hour; double poker jackpots offered every Monday and Wednesday from noon to midnight, every even hour.

Royal Flush
If a player makes a natural royal flush (using both cards in his hand), he gets to spin the casino's wheel for a chance to win $250 or other prizes.

For more information, visit www.morongocasinoresort.com or call (800) 252-4499.

Normandie Casino
The Normandie Casino features a 50,000-square-foot casino, restaurant, bar, and showroom.

Open around-the-clock, it offers a variety of games, including blackjack (California- and Vegas-style), poker (Texas hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, seven-card stud, lowball, Mexican poker, three-card poker, easy poker, and Caribbean stud), and Asian games such as Pai Gow poker, Pai Gow tiles, 13-card Chinese poker, baccarat, and super pan 9. The Normandie also offers card craps.

Café Michelle offers an extensive Asian menu (Mandarin, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, and Mid-Eastern) along with a standard continental menu. The Normandie also features two high-limit gaming sections - the Red Dragon Room for Asian games and the newly built VIP blackjack room - and a new high-limit poker section is under constrution. The Normandie's Las Vegas-style showroom hosts concerts and shows, everything from comedy to rock 'n' roll.

Michael Pak, player development director, and Robert Turner, who brings 30 years of poker experience to Normandie and coordinates the top-section poker games, both recently joined the Normandie team.

The casino is now spreading $100-$300 buy-in and higher no-limit hold'em with a jackpot of more than $30,000. It also spreads $15-$30 and $20-$40 limit hold'em with a $25,000 jackpot. For the smaller buy-in no-limit hold'em player, a $40 buy-in game is available. Also spread is $15-$30 lowball, with a 6-4 beaten by a wheel jackpot. In the bottom poker section, $2-$4 to $6-$12 kill hold'em and $2-$4 and $3-$6 seven-card stud are offered.

Sunday is the big tournament day at the Normandie. At 11 a.m., the weekly high-hand $2,000 freeroll poker tournament is held. At 3 p.m., there is a $3,000-guaranteed no-limit hold'em tournament. Every Friday at 7 p.m. is Ladies Night Out, hosted by three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Barbara Enright. This no-limit hold'em tournament has a $50 buy-in ($10 registration fee) and one $50 rebuy. There are also additional prizes such as free dinner specials and three $50 gift certificates to Victoria's Secret. Midnight Madness poker tournaments are held nightly, Monday through Saturday, with regisration beginning at 10 p.m. This no-limit hold'em tournament has a $50 buy-in, $10 registration fee, no rebuys, and $2,000 guarantee. Free breakfast for players is served at midnight.

For more information, visit www.normandiecasino.com or call (800) 9-Winner.

Ocean's Eleven Casino
Ten years of uniqueness in the heart of Oceanside is Ocean's Eleven Casino. Located next to the Pacific Ocean, off Interstate 5 and Mission Avenue, the casino is located just 30 minutes from downtown San Diego, SeaWorld, and the Wild Animal Park, and around the corner from Legoland, and carries a resort flare.

Ocean's Eleven has the rare distinction of having more than 20 percent of its original employees still working there. Dan Dreger, one of the owners of Ocean's Eleven has seen it grow from the original Jerry's Place of five tables. Bob Moyer, the general manager/partner, said, "We attribute our early success (before the World Poker Tour became popular on TV) to our dedicated employees, who treat everyone like they are part of our family. Our employees are as friendly and professional as it gets." Ocean's Eleven has been a pioneer of the "no-abuse" policy since day one. This is another reason why customers enjoy playing in its non-intimidating, friendly atmosphere.

The casino is nonsmoking and boasts as many as 45 tables, with choices of hold'em and Omaha; no-bust blackjack played with insurance, splitting aces, double on any two cards, double after a split, surrender after hitting, and bonus hands; three-card poker with 200-to-1 odds on a royal flush; Caribbean stud with 100-to-1 odds on a royal flush; Pai Gow poker with no collection and no 5 percent collection on wins; and Pan. Liberal complimentary meals can be found in the higher-limit games. In the Rat Pack lounge, Ricky Rivas and Ruthie entertain Wednesday through Sunday nights.

Tournaments start at 10 a.m. every day. Sundays feature a $100 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, the buy-in is $35 with a guarantee of $2,000. Wednesdays offer a $3,500-guaranteed no-limit hold'em tournament with a $55 buy-in. Fridays feature a limit hold'em tournament with a $35 buy-in and a guarantee of $2,000. Saturdays offer a $65 buy-in, $5,000-guaranteed no-limit hold'em tournament.

In the coming months, Ocean's Eleven will host a variety of events. The Oceanside Open tournament is scheduled around July 4, and the casino's premier event, the California Ladies State Poker Championship, is set for Sept. 27-30. Memorial Day and Labor Day feature tournaments as well as the casino's famous barbecue. In October, the Haig Kelegian Classic is held.

In full swing currently is the Racing for Dollars promotion, in which Ocean's Eleven pays players to play poker. Several poker players have already cashed out $5,000 for their participation in this promotion.

For more information on Ocean's Eleven Casino, call (888) 439-6988 or visit www.oceans11.com.

Pechanga Resort & Casino
The Pechanga Resort & Casino's poker room, located on the second level above the impressive Round Bar with its stained-glasslike centerpiece, features a large spectrum of games, stakes, and tournaments. Open around-the-clock, the poker room offers daily tournaments and features its First Chance tournaments the first Thursday through Sunday of every month. A guaranteed $40,000 prize pool is up for grabs in these no-limit hold'em events. Later in the month, a $100 buy-in ladies event is held that awards the winner a $1,000 buy-in to the ladies event in the World Series of Poker. During the last full weekend of every month, four Last Chance tournaments are held. From Thursday to Sunday, players have the chance to win their share of more than $35,000 in cash prizes, including a $10,000 buy-in to the championship event of the WSOP.

Additionally, multiday tournaments are held throughout the year. The new Pechanga Poker Championship, a four-day event in April, features an estimated $500,000 prize pool. More tournament events are scheduled through the end of 2007.

The Pechanga poker room features 54 tables, personalized game sign-up, tableside beverage and dining with its own poker room chef, a smoke-free environment, and a friendly, courteous staff.

The resort also offers 522 luxurious guest rooms and suites, and eight restaurants with everything from gourmet to casual buffet dining. For other gaming and entertainment action, there are 2,000 slots and video poker games, 154 table games (not including poker), a brand-new Improv Comedy Club featuring comedians performing Wednesday through Sunday nights, the Pechanga Theater with headline acts performing weekly, and the ultra-chic Silk nightclub.

Pechanga Resort & Casino is located in Temecula, California, about a one-hour drive from San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Palm Springs. For more information, call Pechanga Resort & Casino at (877) 711-2WIN, or visit www.Pechanga.com.

San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino
Now in its 21st year of operation, San Manuel, located in Highland, a city just outside of San Bernardino, is all about making its guests feel comfortable. Before hitting the floor when hired, employees undergo a rigorous orientation program that stresses the importance of customer service.

"We have made our niche by providing an enjoyable gaming experience," stated Steve Lengel, San Manuel executive director of operations. "And that begins with making our customers feel they are important to us."

San Manuel offers today's favorite poker and table games around-the-clock, seven days a week: Omaha, stud, hold'em (including no-limit), Let It Ride, three-card poker, four-card poker, mini baccarat, blackjack, and Pai Gow poker. Additionally, it recently added San Manuel craps with cards. This game offers everything playing craps with dice does.

San Manuel's beautifully appointed, wood-paneled, smoke-free poker room has 32 tables. Also, 73 banking tables (that is, mini baccarat, blackjack, Pai Gow poker, three- and four-card poker, Let It Ride) dot the casino floor, including six tables in the casino's VIP high-limit room. Drink service is provided throughout the table games area; drink service and table-side dining are offered in the poker room.

Every weekday, special promotions are offered. Hourly from midnight to 6 a.m. on Monday, and every other hour on Monday and Wednesday between noon and midnight, jackpots are doubled. Every hour between noon and midnight on Tuesdays and Thursdays, holders of the high hand of each hour in stud and hold'em are awarded $250; $50 for Omaha players.

San Manuel wraps up its weekly bonuses with its Money Wheel. From noon until 10 p.m. every Friday, players with a full house or better (tens full or better for Omaha players) each hour are entered into a special drawing to see who gets to spin the wheel that hour. Lucky spinners win from $250 to $1,000.

For more information, visit www.sanmanuel.com or call (800) 359-2464.

Spotlight 29
Every Friday at 6 p.m., Spotlight 29 Casino's poker room guarantees $5,000 in its no-limit hold'em tournament. The buy-in is $110 plus $10 plus $5, and the top 10 players are paid.

The Big Deal tournaments take place daily at 11 a.m. and on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 p.m. The buy-in for these no-limit hold'em tournaments is $20 plus $5 plus $5, with two optional $10 rebuys and one $10 add-on.

On the last Saturday of each month, the Super Saturday no-limit hold'em tournament takes place. The buy-in is $250 plus $40 plus $10. Saturday also features the $2,000 Poker Payout; beginning at 5 p.m. and continuing until midnight, players have a chance to win cash prizes ranging from $100 to $1,000.

Sundays at 6 p.m. features the $85 plus $10 plus $5 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament. Players receive $5,000 in tournament chips. There are no rebuys or add-ons in this tournament.

Spotlight 29 Casino is sending five players to compete in the World Series of Poker. Satellite tournaments are held every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. The buy-in is $125.

In addition to the tournaments, the poker room offers plenty of no-limit hold'em games, as well as many varieties of structured games. The poker room opens daily at 10 a.m.

For more information on Spotlight 29, visit www.spotlight29.com or call (760) 775-3355.

Sycuan Resort & Casino
Sycuan Resort & Casino has offered great poker action, a friendly staff, and an elegant smoke-free environment for years, but it's determined to raise the bar even higher by making dramatic improvements, both in atmosphere and poker action.

Most notably, Sycuan Resort & Casino named David Lloyd director of poker. Lloyd has been in the poker business for almost 30 years, and worked as a dealer at the Cal Neva Casino in Nevada and Sycuan, when poker and bingo were the only games offered. He also has directed the opening of two poker rooms in Tunica, Mississippi, and most recently was poker room manager at Sandia Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Physical improvements to the room are set to arrive in early summer, including repainting the room, comfortable new chairs, new table felt and rails, and improved lighting and décor.

In regard to games and tournaments, the poker room will offer higher buy-in tournaments and higher table buy-ins. Games that are spread in the 24-table poker room include limit and no-limit hold'em, stud, and Omaha eight-or-better. Sycuan also offers live sports action on big-screen plasma TVs, table-side dining, and daily tournaments.

Players can play for the chance to win a seat in the World Series of Poker in weekly qualifying tournament rounds every Sunday at 6 p.m., through June 10. The buy-in is $33 with no rebuys. The qualifying final no-limit hold'em tournament will be held on Sunday, June 17, at 6 p.m.

Sycuan recently introduced its International Buffet, and a new, convenient 2,000-space parking garage is just a few months from completion. Sycuan Resort & Casino is located 30 minutes from downtown San Diego.

For more information on Sycuan, visit www.sycuan.com or call (800) 2-SYCUAN.