Casinos and Card Rooms

I love casinos. I like to gamble - something I have done since being a little kid. Fortunately I have always had a good enough income that I can afford to continue my enjoyment. As a kid in England I played slot machines at fairgrounds and carnivals. When I got older I played slot machines in snooker clubs and pubs that had bigger jackpots. Then in my twenties I would go to small English casinos and play blackjack and roulette. I bought books on these games and educated myself on strategies but always knew the casino had the edge and you would probably lose all your money.

I came to the USA in 1994 and in 1996 lived close enough to the casinos in Atlantic City to visit there occasionally. The books suggested CRAPS had the best odds for the player so I watched that game for a while and figured out how to play it. For me this is the most fun you can have in a casino - throwing dice on a CRAPS table. I also visited Foxwoods casino several times and played the slot machines there. Eventually I took a trip to Las Vegas and loved it. When I moved to California I started making trips to Las Vegas 2 or 3 times a year and always had a great time. But the drive was a slog - surely there was something closer to home.

In 2005, I drove past the Commerce casino on the 5 freeway with its bright lights and glamorous exterior. I had finally found a local casino and decided to visit. When I went in the room was huge and full of poker tables. There were loads of Asian players with huge stacks of chips on the tables. I only had $500 and everyone else in the casino seemed to have thousands of dollars worth of chips. I was intimidated beyond belief. I understood that not all casinos would have slots, roulette and craps but a casino with ONLY poker tables - how pointless was that! Everyone was so much richer than me I was obviously out of my league. So I left. I was disappointed and had left without gambling a penny.

I started hosting a small home poker game for my friends in 2006 and enjoyed it immensely. I thought I was ok at poker and when my brother came to visit we suggested trying to play in a game at a casino. I was convinced it was too rich for us (remembering my Commerce experience where everyone playing seemed to be rich beyond belief) but I still wanted to try it. After researching on the internet we decided to go to Oceans 11 in Oceanside. This is much smaller than Commerce and less intense. We watched players for a while and then found courage to join a game. We played the lowest limit possible and had a fantastic time. Of course we lost all our money! A few months later I visited Oceans again with some out of town friends and played on the same tables. Again I had a good time. This led to us all entering a tournament where for $50 I played for 2 or 3 hours, ate some really good subsidized food and generally had a great time. I was hooked - poker tournaments were to become my new fun hobby.

My younger brother came to visit me early in 2007 and we decided to play some poker in a bunch of other casinos and card-rooms in California. So we entered tournaments in Oceans 11, Hawaiian Gardens, Pechanga, Commerce and other local California casinos. We had a great time but never won anything. Also we met some arrogant players who repeatedly criticized our play and told us how crap we were at poker. I started to pick up on a whole new language of poker terms without knowing what they meant. I decided to do some research on the internet to understand what these other players were talking about. Also in the card rooms there were poker magazines available for free to read. So I read some of these articles trying to learn the lingo. I also started to watch the poker on television - again mainly to understand the terms players were using. However I learnt something else as well.

I concluded from the magazines I read and the television I watched it appears there is a small set of 50-100 players who dominate this game and win massive amounts of prize money. It appears this is a game of skill that can be mastered. The prizes in tournaments seem so huge when compared to the entry fees. What is special about this small group of people? And how do I join their club.....