John Steinbeck was around poker a lot. His books, such as Wayward Bus, mention the game frequently. More importantly, his milieu – the California working class of the mid-1900's – made it impossible for him to avoid it.
The farmworkers, small businessmen, and dock workers of his stories were the humus where a poker game could thrive.
I've written a lot about the spread of regulated live poker across the United States. I love getting to visit a new region (or an old familiar one), take in everything it has to offer, then spending a few companionable hours at a poker table after the sun goes down.
I've done this all over the US, but I didn't have to wait for regulatory expansion to find poker in California. I imagine most of John Steinbeck's poker experience was in homes and the back of bar rooms, but while he was plying his writing craft in the canneries and orchards, pots were being pushed in clubs nearby.
Marina Club Casino
It's a two-hour drive, and a million miles from Bay 101 to the Marina Club Casino (aka 'Monterey Casino'), in Marina, California.
And note that this is 'Marina, California,' not 'Marin, California' or 'Marina Del Rey, California.' Marina, California is a tiny town just up Route 1 from Monterey. It's a 20-minute walk to Indian Head Beach on the Pacific Ocean, but it leans into the agricultural feel on its eastern flank.
For years it supported, and was supported by, Fort Ord, which served as a training base up through the Vietnam War.
The Marina Club is in the center of downtown – one long room jam-packed with tables and a bar.
It's the sort of place where the staff act as prop players, so the line between them blurs quite a bit. All the regulars know all the other regulars, and in some ways, it's a social club filled with poker tables. Half the room is devoted to the 'California games' that are at the heart of a big legal battle right now. That leaves 3-4 tables on which to play poker.
During the day, the usual game is a $2-$6 spread-limit game, which is about as common these days as a slide rule. But (and I speak from experience here) if you raise preflop, flop a set, then just bet-bet-bet and get three callers on the river, you can win a couple of dollars. They do spread a 'traditional' no-limit game at 4:30pm on the weekends.
But honestly, you don't come to the Marina Club Casino to make a bunch of money. What you do is you go hang out in Monterey for the day.
You visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, then you walk two kilometers to Lover's Point, pausing to admire the harbor seals, pelicans, and (if you're watching carefully) sea otters.
With 2.5 miles under your belt, you've earned a nice dinner at any of the gazillion great restaurants in Monterey and its surrounds. Only head down to Carmel for dinner if your bankroll is overflowing.
Then call the club to get on the no-limit game list, drive the 20 minutes up Route 1, and finish out your evening flopping sets.
Bankers Casino
Bankers Casino is 18 minutes from the Marina Club Casino (or 35 minutes from the Aquarium). But it's a significant 18 minutes.
Bankers Casino sits in the heart of Salinas, which sits in the heart of the California produce and ranching central valley. I mean, Salinas has a rodeo. When you see people in cowboy boots, that's their job attire, not a fashion statement.
You can't see it in the above below, but parked immediately next to the front door is a tomato plant. It was well past tomato season when I was there, but I promise you that in August, it was heavy with fruit that would bring a tear to your eye. Name another casino where there's fresh produce growing by the front door.
Bankers is much bigger than the Marina Casino. It has 5-6 poker tables, plus the requisite California games nearby. Then it has a full-service bar and restaurant – I get the sense that it's a go-to place in Salinas when people want something other than fast food at 10:30pm. Tuesdays are karaoke night. In all honesty, 'poker players' and 'karaoke night' are not two phrases I necessarily want in the same sentence.
The games at Bankers are almost solely $1/$2, but full-on unlimited Texas hold-them. You can match the largest stack of any $1/$2 table in the room, so if 3-4 tables are running, you can literally scan them all, find the largest stack, and buy up to that. Yes, the games get deep.
While Bankers is bigger than the Marina Club Casino, there's certainly a sense of community there – like you're playing poker at Cheers.
I was there on a Sunday morning, which is when they have their tournament. During the tournament break, the club set up a free taco bar that was open to anybody who was playing poker at the time. They left a tip jar for the servers at the end of the bar, and the guests filled it up.
Did I mention the multiple dozens of doughnuts which had been there earlier in the morning?
Culture and history, with a side of poker
I'm not going to do the litany of specifications about the poker rooms. Both of them have automatic shufflers, Bankers Casino has USB-A chargers in the tables, Marina Club Casino doesn't. Bankers Casino has recently brought in an entirely new set of chips, and new felts – the felts are super-fast, and the chips are beautiful, if a bit slippery.
But the point is they're both dealing poker in the heart of a county dripping with physical beauty and historical richness.
If you take a trip there, be sure to load Cannery Row onto your Kindle. Before you head out for your evening of cards, stroll down Cannery Row in Monterey. It's all kitsch and Bubba Gump now, but just squint a little – it's 1946 and there's an oil lantern-lit game of five-card draw in one of the wooden flop-houses.
"You wanna pull up a chair, stranger? You gotta put $3 on the table, nickel ante, jacks or better to open. Suicide king is wild. If you get hungry, Chang will bring you a bowl of noodles for two bits."
You startle yourself awake next to a doughnut shop. It will be grand playing at Marina Club Casino or Bankers Casino, but wouldn't it have been something to sit in that game?
