So Cal's BEST Poker Venues
Share 2021 Gene Murphy Golf Classic - THE LAST TOURNAMENT with your friends. Save 2021 Gene Murphy Golf Classic - THE LAST TOURNAMENT to your collection. Mon, Mar 8, 12:30 PM. Entering our weekend San Diego poker tournaments is a great opportunity to learn how to play in a live casino setting with minimal money risk. So, if you are ready to have a good time, come and play weekend poker game tournaments with us at Sycuan Casino Resort. Plus, enjoy exclusive promotions and bonus events to win big and earn a cash prize! Tournament Director Wade Vickery coached varsity boys and girls basketball at Santana High School. In 5 years he had a 74-48 record with the boys and in his 26 seasons with the girls, he compiled a record of 610-119, with 19 league championships and 9 CIF-San Diego Section titles.
If you're from San Diego, you won't have to go far to get your poker tournament and live game fix. There are a lot of great venues in the area that host daily games and events. It doesn't even matter what your skill level is at most of them. Even if you're a complete beginner, there are venues that would gladly teach you everything you'll need to get started – which brings us to the first casino on our list:
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Sycuan Casino
This venue has an 18-table non-smoking poker room that prides itself in its topnotch service and beginner-friendly environment. Everyone on the Sycuan team – from the dealers all the way to the managers – is always eager to help aspiring poker players get better at the game. And with morning tournament buy-ins of just $21, newbies definitely need not worry about risking tons of cash just to experience playing in a live event.
But the casino also offers higher stakes games for people who are looking to play for bigger money. You can see Sycuan's updated schedule of events here.
Now, as for the games you can play here, the casino hosts the following:
- $3 – $6 Texas Holdem
- $4 – $8 Texas Holdem
- $1 – $2 No Limit Texas Holdem
- $1 – $3 No Limit Texas Holdem
- $1 – $3 Hi-Lo Stud
- $3 – $6 Omaha
Pala Casino Spa & Resort
This award-winning venue has a 15-table, non-smoking, wi-fi-enabled poker room with a $1 an hour comp rate. Tableside dining is also available so you can enjoy a great meal while you play. You can view Pala's updated tournament and live game calendar here.
Pala Casino also regularly offers a host of exciting poker promotions so there's always a reason to come back. A full list of ongoing ones is available here.
Finally, even though the venue is not advertised as being beginner-friendly like the first entry on our list, it still does its fair share of helping newbies understand not only poker, but also other casino games better through its free game guides.
Barona Resort & Casino
Another venue that features tableside dining, Barona's non-smoking poker room has 15 tables that host games like Texas Holdem (different variations) and Omaha. It also accepts call-in reservations so you can have your name put in the waiting list for any game more conveniently.
Speaking of convenience, there are also several ATMs scattered across the casino, in addition to free check cashing and easy credit card advances, to make sure that you won't ever have to worry about running short on funds while you play. And as soon as you're done playing, you can easily request for a copy of your win-loss statistics.
You can check out Barona's updated event list here.
Casino Pauma
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Home to one of the biggest gaming spaces in San Diego (at 35,000 square feet), Casino Pauma is the ultimate place to check out for all things gambling. Aside from its 1,000 plus slot machines, the venue also hosts live Ultimate Texas Holdem, among other exciting table games, every day from 10:00 am onwards.
But aside from the games, Casino Pauma also prides itself in its topnotch food, drink and live entertainment offerings.
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Visit the official Casino Pauma website to learn more about the venue.
Playing Smart Online Poker
Now, in case you can't find the time to drive to an actual casino (or you're the type of player who's just not comfortable with joining live games), then you should try playing real money poker online instead.
The good thing about going this route is that is allows you to play anytime, anywhere. The only downside to doing so is that traditional poker websites usually charge their players split pots and percentages – that and some of them use house-biased card-dealing algorithms so you have smaller chances of winning.
Well, you won't have to worry about any of that at www.safeclub.com. It works more like an Escrow account than a traditional house or poker website so you not only get to keep every single cent you win, you can also rest assured that you won't be cheated in any of the games.
We protect you in three ways:
- Human-like card-dealing algorithm (i.e., perfectly random)
- Proprietary Safesight™ Firewall to keep anyone else but yourself from seeing your cards
- No SafeClub employees playing in any of the games
We also reward our members with exclusive access to the useful tools below for simply playing more games:
- Card Counter
- Pattern Identifier
- Opponent Tracker
Intersted? Sign up for a SafeClub account and start playing today!
The January running of the 2020 Card Player Poker Tour Ocean's 11 San Diego Classic kicked off on Thursday, January 23. This marks the eleventh time that the CPPT has made it's way to beautiful Oceanside, California to for this $250 buy-in main event, with more than 8,200 entries made and more than $2.1 million in prize money awarded in the prior ten events.
The tournament features a $150,000 estimated prize pool this year but has previously drawn as many as 949 entries to create a prize pool worth nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The most recent running of this tournament drew 926 entries back in July of 2019. Brazilian poker pro Mateus Lessa emerged victorious in the end, earning $43,120 as the champion.
Thursday saw the first two starting flights of the six on offer for this event held, beginning at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time. Flight 1A attracted a total of 114 entries, while flight 1B added another 115. With 229 total entries so far the prize pool has already grown to $45,800 with four starting flights still available to play.
Players will also be able to take advantage of the popular Quantum Tournament structure of this event and buy-in on Day 2 for $1,500. Those who exercise this option will receive 210,000 in tournament chips, with the blinds starting at 2,000-3,000 with a 3,000 big blind ante for the beginning of day 2 at 12:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, Jan. 26.
From the 229 entries in flights 1A and 1B, only 28 players made it through to day 2, with Tai Reyes-Purpero bagging up the largest stack of 526,000. Other top stacks include Frank Benchanan (398,000), Tim Steeves (373,000) and Brandon Strickland (342,000). The top 12 percent of players from each starting flight qualified, locking up at least a $400 payday in this event in the process.
Here is a look at the complete chip counts of those who survived flights 1A and 1B:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Tai Reyes-Purpero | 526,000 |
| 2 | Frank Benchanan | 398,000 |
| 3 | Tim Steeves | 373,000 |
| 4 | Brandon Strickland | 342,000 |
| 5 | David Lesse | 333,000 |
| 6 | David Icke | 319,000 |
| 7 | Britton Scheibe | 315,000 |
| 8 | Roberto Sanchez | 303,000 |
| 9 | Steve Potashnick | 253,000 |
| 10 | Timothy Mahoney | 253,000 |
| 11 | Lauren Coker | 246,000 |
| 12 | Roberto Sanchez | 240,000 |
| 13 | Rich Spirra | 238,000 |
| 14 | Jim Dages | 200,000 |
| 15 | Alan Ho | 177,000 |
| 16 | Reza Yazdanshenas | 172,000 |
| 17 | John Pedicini | 137,000 |
| 18 | Jeff Chapman | 124,000 |
| 19 | Terry Favish | 120,000 |
| 20 | Chase Besuden | 118,000 |
| 21 | M'lis Edwards | 83,000 |
| 22 | Jonathan Magal | 82,000 |
| 23 | Anthony Bland | 82,000 |
| 24 | William Glasser | 81,000 |
| 25 | Adrianne Hall | 78,000 |
| 26 | Mikella Pedretti | 72,000 |
| 27 | Patrick Mitchell | 68,000 |
| 28 | Bush Allison | 10,000 |
Ocean's Eleven is Southern California's only casino located along the Pacific Ocean on the Interstate 5 freeway. It sits less than a mile from some of the area's most picturesque beaches. The casino first opened in 1997, and in the two decades that followed it has become the place to play in the San Diego area.
The property boasts 50 tables of the best poker and table games found anywhere in California with all the favorite poker games, including no-limit and limit hold'em, Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better and pot-limit Omaha. Popular table games available include Blackjack, Baccarat & Pai Gow Poker.
Haig Kelegian, the Ocean's Eleven owner known as 'The King of Clubs,' notes that, 'It is not enough to be the largest poker room in the region. We have to offer the best action and the best service day in and day out.'
With its exciting array of games, amenities and promotions, Ocean's Eleven Casino is the place to go for poker in the San Diego area. Check out the casino's homepage to learn more. For additional information about the Card Player Poker Tour, visit the tour's homepage.
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The tournament features a $150,000 estimated prize pool this year but has previously drawn as many as 949 entries to create a prize pool worth nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The most recent running of this tournament drew 926 entries back in July of 2019. Brazilian poker pro Mateus Lessa emerged victorious in the end, earning $43,120 as the champion.
Thursday saw the first two starting flights of the six on offer for this event held, beginning at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time. Flight 1A attracted a total of 114 entries, while flight 1B added another 115. With 229 total entries so far the prize pool has already grown to $45,800 with four starting flights still available to play.
Players will also be able to take advantage of the popular Quantum Tournament structure of this event and buy-in on Day 2 for $1,500. Those who exercise this option will receive 210,000 in tournament chips, with the blinds starting at 2,000-3,000 with a 3,000 big blind ante for the beginning of day 2 at 12:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, Jan. 26.
From the 229 entries in flights 1A and 1B, only 28 players made it through to day 2, with Tai Reyes-Purpero bagging up the largest stack of 526,000. Other top stacks include Frank Benchanan (398,000), Tim Steeves (373,000) and Brandon Strickland (342,000). The top 12 percent of players from each starting flight qualified, locking up at least a $400 payday in this event in the process.
Here is a look at the complete chip counts of those who survived flights 1A and 1B:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Tai Reyes-Purpero | 526,000 |
| 2 | Frank Benchanan | 398,000 |
| 3 | Tim Steeves | 373,000 |
| 4 | Brandon Strickland | 342,000 |
| 5 | David Lesse | 333,000 |
| 6 | David Icke | 319,000 |
| 7 | Britton Scheibe | 315,000 |
| 8 | Roberto Sanchez | 303,000 |
| 9 | Steve Potashnick | 253,000 |
| 10 | Timothy Mahoney | 253,000 |
| 11 | Lauren Coker | 246,000 |
| 12 | Roberto Sanchez | 240,000 |
| 13 | Rich Spirra | 238,000 |
| 14 | Jim Dages | 200,000 |
| 15 | Alan Ho | 177,000 |
| 16 | Reza Yazdanshenas | 172,000 |
| 17 | John Pedicini | 137,000 |
| 18 | Jeff Chapman | 124,000 |
| 19 | Terry Favish | 120,000 |
| 20 | Chase Besuden | 118,000 |
| 21 | M'lis Edwards | 83,000 |
| 22 | Jonathan Magal | 82,000 |
| 23 | Anthony Bland | 82,000 |
| 24 | William Glasser | 81,000 |
| 25 | Adrianne Hall | 78,000 |
| 26 | Mikella Pedretti | 72,000 |
| 27 | Patrick Mitchell | 68,000 |
| 28 | Bush Allison | 10,000 |
Ocean's Eleven is Southern California's only casino located along the Pacific Ocean on the Interstate 5 freeway. It sits less than a mile from some of the area's most picturesque beaches. The casino first opened in 1997, and in the two decades that followed it has become the place to play in the San Diego area.
The property boasts 50 tables of the best poker and table games found anywhere in California with all the favorite poker games, including no-limit and limit hold'em, Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better and pot-limit Omaha. Popular table games available include Blackjack, Baccarat & Pai Gow Poker.
Haig Kelegian, the Ocean's Eleven owner known as 'The King of Clubs,' notes that, 'It is not enough to be the largest poker room in the region. We have to offer the best action and the best service day in and day out.'
With its exciting array of games, amenities and promotions, Ocean's Eleven Casino is the place to go for poker in the San Diego area. Check out the casino's homepage to learn more. For additional information about the Card Player Poker Tour, visit the tour's homepage.
San Diego Classic Softball
