Fresno Road Trip, Part II
By Debbie Burkhead (with a little help from Susie Isaacs)

In our last article, Debbie and Susie had decided to visit poker rooms in central California for the first time. In our last article, we toured Club One in downtown Fresno and Palace Indian Gaming Casino in Lemoore, California. Now we headed up to Table Mountain Casino in Friant and thought this was our last stop.

The drive from Fresno to Friant is a pleasant one, up a mountain which overlooks a dam, past a dam restaurant (that is the name of it, the Dam Restaurant,) and through lucious green rolling hills with a beautiful 18-hole golf course off to one side, surrounded by custom homes for the rich. When we arrived at Table Mountain we put our names on the board for the no-limit hold'em game that was about to start. Debbie jumped into a $2-$4 hold'em game that played like a $4-$8 game (for her to sit and wait for even ten minutes if there is a seat open in any game is against her religion). The action was good and chips were flying but when they called us for the no-limit game she had to bid them farewell as well as a farewell to the $20 in chips she left behind.

The no-limit game had a minimum $50 buy-in but most players bought in for $200 or more and we witnessed one player buy-in for $1,000. The blinds were $4 (on the button), a $2 small blind, and a $4 big blind. The $4 posted on the button was live. The unusual twist to this game was that it cost you $8 to call so the big blind never got a free ride nor did he ever get to pick up the blinds, not to mention no chops. We adapted to this fairly well and thoroughly enjoyed the game but the best part was the steak dinner with all the trimmings. It's their specialty and it is special. We cashed out winners again and we were beginning to like this traveling from one card room to another.

Ron Barrera oversees the nine table cardroom at Table Mountain. They offer low limit hold'em games daily, bad beat jackpots, high hand cash giveaways and royal flush jackpots based on suit. The no-limit game begins every Friday around 4 p.m. We must have looked like live ones because they got it started at 3:15 when we were there.

Well that was supposed to be the end of our poker playing trip and we were going to spend Saturday and Sunday doing touristy stuff, but as life would have it we ran into a little car trouble on the way to Sequoia National Park. We were on our way to see the giant redwoods when one of the fan belts decided to break. Doesn't sound like a big deal, after all it was Saturday around noon. How hard would it be to find someone to fix it and we'd be on our way? Not if you find yourself in Reedy, California on Saturday after 12 p.m. on the 4th of July weekend.

Thanks to a gentleman by the name of Pete who works in the Chevron station, we were able to find a tow truck driver from another town to tow us to a dealership in Selma about 10 miles away. There we found Arnie, the service manager from Royal Buick, who gave up most of his birthday to see to it our car was fixed so we could continue on our journey to the redwoods. He and his crew fixed our problem and again, we were on our way.

Along the way we kept seeing fruit stands and we could no longer resist the urge for fresh fruits and tomatoes. We stopped and low and behold found the best tomatoes and peaches since moving to Las Vegas. They actually had samples of peaches, tomatoes and plums for tasting and one taste of any and you were definitely going to buy something. It reminded us of a friendly bar, folks were hanging around and having another taste, joking, laughing, and having another for the road. Right after our fruit stand stop, we headed up the mountain to Sequoia. If you have never visited this part of the country, you cannot imagine the beauty and the size of these giant trees. It is breathtaking and a true natural beauty which you must see to believe.

On our way back to Vegas, on the outskirts of Bakersville, California, we discovered our "surprise" casino, The Golden West Casino. We were on the cell phone, talking to a friend (we had talked to everyone we knew as it's "free on weekends!"). When our friend found out where we were, he suggested we stop by the Golden West and see if Randy Watkins was still the casino manager. We did and he was. We decided that the Golden West is the best kept poker secret in Bakersville, California, or surrounding areas. Their $7.99 16 oz. New York strip steak dinner was the nuts and the $6-$12 hold'em game with a full kill was action packed. Lower limit hold'em and Omaha games were in progress and a $2-$10 seven-card stud high-low split was jumping. A freeroll tourney is offered every Saturday. Oh yeah, we made our third score before heading back to the motel.

It was a great five day poker adventure mixed with a bit of sight seeing. If traveling this vicinity, tourist and family stops are plentiful and don't miss the old time roadside veggie and fruit stands. Excellent!

If you are in this area, stop by and see our new friends: In Fresno at Club One, Cardroom Manager, Indy Turner; floorman Billy Blackman at Palace Indian Casino in Lemoore; Ron Barrera, cardroom manager at Table Mountain in Friant; and Randy Watkins cardroom manager, and a very friendly dealer by the name of Eric in Bakersfield at Golden West Casino. Tell 'em Susie and Debbie send you.