So, you’ve been thinking about taking a trip to Pala Casino, Spa & Resort but haven’t? Well, just five miles east of Interstate 15 on Highway 76, it’s definitely worth the trip. The property is beautiful, the buffet is excellent and the poker room and staff, headed by manager George Arsenis, are terrific.
On April 28, Pala hosted the RiverCard Quest for the Cup VII, which featured a $150 buy-in, 20K chips and 25-minute levels. The 182 entrants brought the prize pool to $21,840, with Brandon Rupp of Oceanside, Calif., taking first and $6,726.
Their next RiverCard tournament is June 10 at Harrah’s Rincon to help celebrate the poker room’s 10th anniversary and has a $30K guaranteed prize pool.
SYCUAN CASINO: The following is a blueprint for filling up a 19-table poker room on a Saturday night.
First, show a world championship boxing match; second, have great promotions, such as a $100 rack attack to one lucky table after each round and 10 $100 rack attacks at the end of the fight; and third, try to make it fall on a holiday such as Cinco de Mayo … bonus!
Players had to arrive early to secure a seat at one of the tables because by 6 p.m., the start of the first fight, the waiting lists were long. By 8, the start of the championship bout, it was standing-room-only in the poker room.
Because of the efficiency and great attitudes of the ample staff, not only was the event a lot of fun, but it also went off without a hitch.
BARONA CASINO: If you’re one of those individuals who feels there’s no such thing as too much free online poker, add another one to your list: baronapoker.com, which is brought to you by Barona Casino & Resort. After the free download, new players receive 1K chips, which can be reloaded each day.
The site features daily tournaments with catchy names such as Tuesday Tune-up, Thursday Trouble and Sleepy Saturday, where, depending on the number of entrants, the top 10-15 finishers receive prizes ranging from T-shirts and free buffets to Kindles and free hotel night stays.
They are also featuring satellites for seats to this year’s World Series of Poker.
— LoriAnn Persinger is Ante Up’s Southern California Ambassador. Email her atanteuploriann@gmail.com.
