Ocean’s 11 isn’t a traditional casino with rows of slot machines to navigate through while trying to a find a poker room that ends up being stuffed in a hidden corner of the casino floor. Immediately when I walked through the door, I knew I had found my live poker home. I made the 45-minute drive from San Diego up to Oceanside with much excitement as I prepared to play in a live tournament for the first time in years. On a recent Friday night I dropped by to play in their $5,000 guaranteed NL Hold’em tournament.

That’s as solid a reputation as they come. Moreover, big name poker tours and festivals that feature a stop at Ocean’s 11 Casino include the WPTDeepStacks San Diego and the Card Player Poker Tour. Ocean’s 11 stands out as the go-to poker room for San Diego players, with 50 tables, NL Hold’em cash games with limits of up to $10/25, PLO, Limit Hold’em, and daily tournaments on offer. With a handful of local casinos offering poker, I began looking into my options. There’s nothing like playing live poker, however, and after a few weeks of grinding away at the micro stakes online, it was time to venture out and find some live action I recently started playing online poker again after a three-year hiatus and realized how much I missed the game. When I started searching for poker rooms around San Diego, CA, all roads led to Ocean’s 11 Casino.

Oceans 11 casino.