Lucky Chances' Gold Rush is More Like a Casual Stroll

The news is full of stories about how poker tournaments are growing in popularity by leaps and bounds, fueled by television coverage like that of the World Poker Tour. (Thanks to Love and Casino War, here is yet another such article, appearing in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.)

But you wouldn't have known it last night at Lucky Chances Casino, in Colma, California. This week is the week of Lucky Chances' annual Gold Rush tournament series, and the place has about as much buzz as a hive of tortoises.

Last year's Gold Rush was a stop on the World Poker Tour, and the big boys came to town. Local fixture Rick Chin partnered with Tom McEvoy in the partners tournament, to onlookers' amazement. In last year's stud tournament Debbie played at the same table as Phil Hellmuth and Diego Cordovez. I went up against Men Nguyen in a no-limit hold'em game (we wound up splitting the pot in our big confrontation) and railbirded a final table with Dan Negreanu.

But Lucky Chances' star tournament director Matt Savage moved on to Bay 101 in San Jose. By some coincidence, Bay 101's Shooting Stars tournament next April is a WPT event, and Lucky Chances is no longer on the tour. (The World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, in Connecticut, is this weekend's WPT event.)

Debbie and I both played in last night's seven-card stud event. The club was filled with familiar local faces, including a contingent of regulars from the Oaks Club (the best stud players in the Bay Area, not that this is saying all that much). The event was about as heavily subscribed as when the Oaks' monthly Saturday tournament is seven-card stud, with pretty much the same players. And away from the tournament, the club had about as much energy as it usually does on a Thursday night. (The big excitement of the night was their getting a 40-80 hold'em game down.)

I busted out of the tournament shortly after the first break, and proceeded to win my buy-in back in the 20-40 hold'em game. Debbie busted out rather later than I did, and we decided to head for home. Before leaving, I bought Peggy Stein's entry into tonight's tournament, the Hold'em Shootout.

Casino San Pablo, having the installation of slot machines being iminent, has ended its excellent tournament series. Lucky Chances feels like it has lost momentum since losing Matt Savage. Bay 101 in San Jose is a long schlep from Oakland. Poker tournaments may be growing overall, but here in the Bay Area they seem to be shrinking. I'm disappointed.