Bay 101 Casino Card Room in San Jose

Bay 101 Casino is a card room located in San Jose, California. It’s situated near the San Francisco Bay and provides some of the best poker tournaments and Cal games in Northern California. Below, we provide detailed information about this card room in case you want to visit.

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Popular Card Room Events At Bay 101

There’s plenty to enjoy at Bay 101. It offers a handful of staple poker games and tournaments, plus a selection of Cal games that feature modified rules to comply with the state’s gambling legislation — which, among other things, outlaws sports betting in California.

Bay 101 is best known for the Shooting Star, a World Poker Tour tournament that first began in 1997 and still runs every year. It’s one of the only major bounty tournaments listed on the World Poker Tour, so it draws thousands of people.

The Shooting Star takes place every March and uses a No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em format. Players get 40,000, and starting chips and buy-ins are usually around $5,000 total. Games or levels are played in 40-minute periods, with breaks in between every one or two periods. Later on during the tournament, games go up to 60 or 90 minutes and culminate in a final 90-minute level with blinds between 125,000 and 250,000.

It’s an extremely popular tournament for both poker fanatics and casual entertainment seekers. The main website updates the results of the tournament every year, and you can also watch it on TV. It’s quite popular since the prize pool is dictated by the number of entrants. The 2020 prize pool went over $1,300,000.

You can also stop by Bay 101 in August to enjoy the Open tournament. Players of all skill levels can enter this tournament and potentially win big prizes. 

Poker Games

Bay 101 offers a variety of poker games. Texas Hold ‘Em, the most popular poker game in the world, is available and can be played in limits that range from $1 all the way up to $160. The card room also occasionally offers no-limit games with blinds that go all the way up to $50, along with accordingly high buy-ins.

The card room also offers Omaha High-Low Split. This is a variation of classic Hold ‘Em, although the highest and lowest hands end up splitting the overall pot. Players begin with four cards and use two of the cards with three out of the five community cards to create an ideal hand. Games feature high low splits with limits that range from $4 up to $20 in certain tournaments.

Poker Tournaments

Beyond the other big tournaments mentioned above, Bay 101 features tons of daily tournaments and a printable calendar on the website where players can see what’s coming up next. You can register for these tournaments fairly quickly, as 90-minute windows are available each day of the tournaments. Buy-ins range from as low as $30 all the way up to $1,100 for special events.

The majority of the daily tournaments also start in the morning, usually, around 10:00 am or 11:00 am, although a few begin in the evening at around 4:00 pm. The daily tournaments pay 100 percent of the prize pool, which can be paid in cash or also in Bay 101 proprietary chips that you can exchange at the cashier’s cage.

Bay 101’s daily tournaments are popular since they provide frequent opportunities for poker enthusiasts to test their skills in competitive environments.

See our complete Guide To California Poker Tournaments.

Table Games

Bay 101 offers a significant collection of modified table games, or Cal games, including:

• Fortune Pai Gow
• Ultimate Texas Hold’Em Bad Beat Bonus
• No Bust 21st Century Blackjack
• Three Card Poker
• EX Baccarat
• Pai Gow Tiles
• Casino War
• Crazy 4 Poker

Table games are additional options at Bay 101 for those who want to venture away from traditional poker games. These games use slightly altered rules but still carry the spirit of the original games.

Like most California card rooms, there only are a handful of available tables at which you can play Cal games. Most tables are reserved for traditional poker variants.

Poker Room Facility

Bay 101 is well known in part for its fantastic facility. The entire casino is spread across two floors and offers 49 card tables, with most of the daily and major tournaments taking place on the upper floor in a specific section of the casino.

The gaming floors also feature several large screen HDTVs, which showcase extra entertainment options and casino information.

Beyond the general elegance and aesthetic of the casino floor, visitors will also appreciate the excellent dining choices attached to the casino. There’s the Province, a culinary forward restaurant that specializes in Asian cuisines, and also the Satellite Bar, which offers American classics and snacks.

You can even order table-side dining at any of the gaming tables 24/7. Bay 101 also lets you grab food on-the-go by ordering it ahead of time.

Card Room History

Bay 101 actually began as an inn in 1929. In 1961, it became a club with poker tables. 1992 saw the club closed because of financial difficulties with the original owner. It wasn’t long before new owners and developers turned Bay 101 into the card room it’s known as today. It reopened in 1993 and was built for an overall cost of $15 million.

Aside from a licensing issue that December, the club has been open since. It received a provisional gaming license in 1994. In 2017, Bay 101 relocated across the freeway to be closer to the San Jose Airport Hotel. This is where most casino visitors stay for the night if they’re in town for an extended visit. 

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