Players Casino in Ventura

I have been living in Ventura for several months and on Friday night finally decided to stop in and take a look around Players Casino which is just off the 101 Freeway. Like other non-Indian casinos in California this is a "card casino" and the games are limited to no-limit hold'em poker, Omaha 8s or better poker, Ultimate Texas Hold'em and Blackjack.

It's a small casino with about ten tables for poker and six tables for other card games. This is not an exact count.

There is a small restaurant attached to the casino with casual dining like burgers and fries in baskets. I didn't stop in to eat.

It's not a luxury casino either. Hustler Casino is still the most luxurious of all the non-Indian poker casinos in Southern Cal, with Pechanga the second nicest. Player's casino is cleaner than Commerce, but a step below The Bicycle.

The restroom was okay but nothing worthy of my web page of the best public casino restrooms. Link: http://alanbestbuys.com/id223.html The Bicyle Casino which is a hands-free, touch-free restroom is still tops. Players Casino is certainly cleaner than what Commerce Casino has on it's main floor.

There are no "limit hold'em" games at Players and the No-Limit games start with $1-$2 blinds with a minimum $50 buy-in.

It really is a locals casino and during my first visit there I could tell that nearly everyone there was a regular. During the course of the evening one player came to our table who moved from Colorado to Oxnard and it was his first visit also.

I played at the $1/$2 no-limit game and played very tight. About half of the players were tight and two players were very aggressive. One of the aggressive players bought in four times for a total of $400 (rebuys are limited to $100 unlike other casinos where a rebuy can be 150% of the first buy-in), and the other aggressive player at one time had close to $500 but lost all but about $200 by the time I left.

I bought in with $100 and left with $241. At my peak (photo below) I had $308. I played for about 4 hours. I promised Linda I would bring home a profit and for that reason on the last hand before I was the big blind again I did not play 6c 8c after two players raised the big blind to $12. I was too cheap and didn't want to lose $12 of my $241 playing 6 and 8 of clubs. My blunder. The flop came 668 and I would have won a pot north of $500 had I played. But, you can't play every hand.

Free parking and the parking lot is relatively small, and well lit because the casino is in the Auto Mall. Lots of security. The security guards inside the casino wear handguns which is something common in the poker casinos in California but something you will never see in Vegas.

In Vegas they wouldn't risk a shoot out with robbers because they don't want the liability of a patron getting shot. In California we patrons aren't worth that much, I guess.

I saw a couple of players get food service -- I think they had tacos. And there was a lot of drinking and starting at 1:30am the drinks must be removed from the table.

The casino is open 24/7 except for a couple of nights when it closes for several hours for cleaning and there is a daily tournament schedule on their website www.pcventura.com.

I thought the dealers were fast and friendly and knew what they were doing. No complaints. There was no trouble with patrons either -- no arguments, no fights, no yelling, no bullying, no one abusing dealers. About 10% of the players were women.

The Omaha game is played every day, I was told, and the table was full.