11/3/99 - wednesday
ten miles outside the city is santa ana star casino, in bernalillo.
it's a nice little room, with 5 tables for stud and flop games. in the morning, they give $35 in chips for $20 to the first twelve players, so there's often a line! they've got a 1-5 stud/8 game and a 1-4-8-8 hold 'em game in progress. gimme that ol' flop game, anytime! };)
the room is separated from the rest of the casino, so it's quiet. :) the rake is 10% to a maximum of $3. seats next to the dealers are not no-smoking. cash doesn't play in games less than 10/20. on weekends, they often get a game that size, and frequently spread a pot limit hold 'em game with blinds of 1 and 2 ($100 buy-in). everyone in this room knows each other, but they *still* always ask to see the other guy's hand. note: even when the winner asks to see the unshown and mucked hand, the loser's hand remains dead. the laughter never stops. :D they use the dead button rule.
the game runs all afternoon, and the quality of play is worse than at cities of gold. we're shorthanded most of the time, but off-duty dealers usually fill in the empty seats and play (quite loosely) with their own money. when in the box, most of the dealers are pretty good.
stoney tells me that, due to the intricacies of the compact which allows gambling, the casino operators may not offer any comps to players - even at the table games in the pit. free drinks are all you can get. so i bought a baseball cap as a souvenir. you'll be able to tell which casinos i liked; check out my collection of baseball caps!
the best part of santa ana star casino happens when you leave. you get into your car, leave the parking lot, and turn left onto route 44, heading back towards interstate 25. you are suddenly confronted by this massive, huge rock structure, basking in the glory of a cloudless sky and direct sunlight. wow! whatta sight!! the highest point of the formation, sandia crest, is over 10,600 feet! and there's a tramway which goes there from downtown!
and it's time to check out casino sandia!
stay tuned!
tiger
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Kenneth R. Churilla