`Casino Royale` inspired casino opens its doors in Sacramento
18-Dec-2008 • Bond News
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The Capital City cardroom evokes luxury, and evokes the 2006 James Bond film during which 007 played high-stakes poker in one of Monte Carlo's finest gambling establishments.
This was no accident.
"There are quite a number of card rooms here in Sacramento, so we figured we had to do something to differentiate ourselves in a big way," says gaming manager Buddy Albrecht, who admittedly doesn't drive an Aston Martin or wear a tuxedo to work - yet. "We've tried to create a luxury experience like the kind you'd get in Vegas or another upscale gambling destination."
Despite its status as Sacramento's new kid on the card-room block, Casino Royale has a palpable connection to the past in Faye Sterns. Sterns, one of its current owners, was an owner at a card room named Duffy's, one of Sacramento's oldest gambling establishments until it burned down a few years ago. Following that fire, Sterns was one of three local businesspeople (the others are Jim Kouretas and William Blanas) who invested $2 million into renovating the old Sacramento Joe's restaurant into Casino Royale.
The new facility opened Sept. 17, and while I have yet to experience the swankiness first-hand, other gamblers are raving about its attention to detail.
This focus starts with the chairs. Instead of the stiff, banquet-style chairs that most card rooms put around their poker tables, sources report Casino Royale has invested in big, cushy leather chairs that recline and roll around on wheels.
The tables - nine in all - are brand new, too. Randall Rapp, publisher of The Card Room, a monthly magazine that covers poker venues in Northern California, reports the facility "is very attractive, both inside and out."
Albrecht says there's a host of flat-screen TVs so players can watch all of their favorite Bay Area sporting events and an on-site restaurant with affordable happy-hour specials ($1 draught beers and free hors d'oeuvres) on weekdays from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
But the biggest draw at Casino Royale is the gaming. Currently, the card room features six tables for poker, two for blackjack and one for pai-gow poker. An expansion in the works for early next year will add four tables to the mix.
Poker is still the most popular game by far. Dealers mostly offer Limit and No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Poker, though they can fire up a game of Omaha if players insist. A bad-beat jackpot, which pays losing hands of aces over kings or better, starts at $5,000 and goes up $200 for every day it's not hit. The jackpot paid out $13,200 earlier this month, according to Albrecht.
The card room also sponsors daily morning tournaments with varying buy-ins, including a $220 buy-in contest at 10 a.m. Saturdays with a guaranteed $5,000 prize pool. Arrive early to claim one of those cushy seats.
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