new york city poker room reviews east

New York City Poker Room Reviews -- East Side

[Ed. note: This is the second in an ongoing series of reviews of the

major New York City Poker Rooms. Due to the quasi-legality of these

games, no room will be mentioned by name or specific address. While I

realize these restrictions limit the usefulness of the reviews, I also

respect that most of these rooms are trying to operate without drawing

much attention to themselves. Anyone interested in learning more

specifics about any club should contact me directly.]

[UPDATE -- 08/21/04: The NYPD raided the East Side club last night.

Word through the grapevine is that it will be closed indefinitely,

though I'd expect it to pop up again somewhere in a few months.]

[UPDATE -- 09/29/04: My sources tell me the club is back in business.

Not sure if it's operating in the same location though.]

The first room to be reviewed in my series of NYC Poker Room reviews

is, naturally, the poker room of choice amongst the Above Malibu Co.

Located on the East Side of Manhattan, somewhere between 42nd St and

96th St., the club occupies the fifth floor of a non-descript office

building on a block of similar non-descript office buildings. A lobby

directory informed me that I was indeed in the correct building

without giving any indication of what goes on in the club.

What goes on in the club? Poker, of course! Although this particular

club likes to bill itself as a "social club" or a "backgammon club",

and although there were chess sets, backgammon sets, and various other

games scattered around the front of the club when the elevator opened

at the fifth floor, the only game that anybody was playing was poker.

(Funny, the club's web site promotes backgammon while completely

omitting any mention of poker.) Ten, oblong green-felt tables were

spread across two rooms of the club. During the several-times-a-week

tournaments sponsored by the club, most of these tables fill up. In

fact, they're currently running wildly popular satellite tournaments

for the Borgata WPT Series in September. A bookshelf along one wall

was stocked with instructional poker books that were, of course, for

sale. And a tall man behind a desk near the elevator stood silently,

surrounded by racks of poker chips, waiting to cash someone in.

A friend I had pre-arranged to meet got up from one of the tables and

came over to say hello. He led me to the desk where, without so much

as signing my name to a piece of paper, the tall man ("Alan") cashed

me in for $100. "Shockingly easy," I thought as I sat down at a baby

NL holdem table.

The NL game at this particular club is structured with a $100 minimum

buy-in, $250 maximum buy-in, and blinds of $1 and $2. Time charges are

$4 per half hour and are collected when the new dealer pushes into the

box. Two decks are in play at all times; the player on the button

shuffles the secondary deck while the dealer shuffles, cuts and deals

the primary deck. This keeps the game moving at as brisk a pace as

anyone could hope for. It was a bit odd being handed the deck on my

first orbit at the table, but as a new player, I quickly and easily

fell into rhythm with the system.

The dealers are a pretty friendly bunch, and it's as clear that many

of them are players as it's clear that many of the players at the

table are regulars. I found the play to be about what you'd expect: a

couple of solid players, a couple of terrible players, and a bunch in

between. I'm told that some nights the action can get pretty crazy,

and I don't doubt it; there were one or two maniacs that sat down

while I was there. Get three or four of them at the same table...

The club provides complimentary snacks (oreos, pretzels, etc.) and

beverages, served by waitresses young and old. Be particularly on the

lookout for Ali, a young, petite blonde who has been known to sit at

the table, flirt with players and take their money with the nut flush

while serving them cokes. The club will also gladly accept food

deliveries from local restaurants on behalf of anyone who wishes to

order, sometimes pooling food orders of several players. There's even

a mini-lounge at the front of the club, equipped with flat-screen TV

and a computer terminal. Somebody just spike a 2-outer on the river to

take your whole stack? Go watch some TV in the lounge or hop onto

Party Poker at the computer terminal until your nerves have settled

down a bit.

Overall, the atmosphere in the club is nothing like what I was

expecting for my first time in a NYC poker room. There was little

security or secrecy; the staff were friendly and helpful; the club has

a sustainable playerbase, spreading multiple tables most nights of the

week; and the players weren't the degenerate hooligans, armed to the

teeth, that I had expected to be playing against. Although the club is

a bit further east than I'd like it to be, the nearest train isn't

THAT far away -- probably about a ten-minute walk. Overall, I would