I was raised in Gardena, California, which is about 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. We lived just north and west of Vermont and 135th Street. The nearest card clubs were five blocks south, at Vermont and 140th. I was born in 1947, and the clubs were “always there” when I was a kid.
Richard Munchkin and I were sent copies of the Gardena Poker Clubs book by the author, presumably hoping for an interview on our podcast. I read the book with interest, having already known a bit about the subject. Whether or not we eventually discuss the book on the podcast hasn’t been decided at this point. But the book is certainly worth discussing here.
For a significant period of time, Gardena had the only legal card games in greater Los Angeles. This book chronicles the rise of Gardena poker in the 1930s and the demise of the game beginning in the late 1980s because of bigger clubs being built relatively nearby. The newer clubs, The Bicycle Club and The Commerce Club among others, offered fancier premises, higher stakes, alcohol, and better security. Today, only two poker clubs remain in Gardena, both owned by Larry Flynt.
The decades of poker in Gardena were never without opposition. I remember as a boy in the 1950s being instructed in Sunday school on the evils of allowing poker clubs, and to make sure our parents voted against them in the next election. (Our home was two doors north of 135th Street, which was the boundary at that time for voting in the Gardena elections. Regardless of whether my folks were for or against the card clubs, they didn’t have a vote. I suspect they would have voted in favor, because the card clubs sold inexpensive food in their restaurants, so our family ate at them fairly frequently.)
Sometime after I turned 21, I tried my fortunes at the clubs — with no success. Although I had read every book in the libraries on how to succeed at poker, I was not a net winner. I learned early on that I couldn’t make it as a poker player. Players dealt the cards at these games, and there was probably cheating at the games I played, but I wasn’t savvy enough to detect it and/or protect myself against it.
The book traces the political battles for the clubs and the various compromises and deals made along the way. The book represents a major piece of scholarship in running this all down.
One of the movers and shakers of Gardena poker was Ernie Primm — the same guy who would eventually build Whiskey Pete’s along the Nevada-California border. Ernie was born in 1901, and it was his son Gary who expanded on his father’s dream in what is now called Primm.
The latest political wars around Gardena poker surround Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The churches who were against poker in general on moral grounds were even more opposed when there was a pornographer in the discussion. But money talks in Gardena, so Flynt was able to prevail.
Today, there are more poker games in greater Los Angeles than anywhere else in the world. Gardena remains a part of it, but no longer the main part.
If you wish to know more about the history of poker clubs in Gardena, this is definitely the book for you.
So what was the poker game back in those days at the Gardena Poker Clubs? 5 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud?
That’s interesting that the players dealt the cards at those games. My kind of card room. 🙂 That way a player can quickly size up their opponents in every phase of the game and especially when it comes to the deal.
A thing I’ve noticed in player dealt poker games is that the vast majority of people just roll over and give the game away because they are unaware of their surroundings and their own ignorance.
Perhaps the funniest part of playing in a player dealt game is the Billy Bad Ass at the table who talks a bunch of trash and then they give away a 2%-4% edge to every other player at the table when they don’t even realize what they are doing and just how horrible they really are.
I visited a card room there circa 1960, and seem to remember that lowball was the only game that was legal. I didn’t play because the stakes were too high for my very limited bankroll
I played there around 1970 and played 5-card draw.
That was a long time ago. 5 Card Draw was the first poker game I learned how to play. If the places were owned by Larry Flynt I’d be surprised if there wasn’t any 7 Card Stud action going on as I once read that is his favorite game, in which he has a cash in.
Flynt came into it, I’m guessing about 15 years ago. They tore down the Eldorado at Vermont and Redondo and Flynt built his Hustler Casino, a tacky looking place imo, which fits Flynt. Now only recently he bought the Normandie too. Only forms of Draw poker were permitted in the state, until around 1986 or so in Los Angeles. Slowly, town by town allowed holdem after that, with San Diego and Sacramento coming on quite a bit later. Pretty tough to find a lowball game anywhere in the state now, but I’m guessing a few still exist.
Those were refuges for every type of degenerate lowlife, and a cadre of pros who regularly took their money. The house take–“time” rather than a rake, which would have been impossible in a player-dealt game–was pretty high, but at least it wasn’t the ridiculously exorbitant rake you see in CA cardrooms now–the rake is taken before play even begins, and every pot has a maximum rake regardless of its size! I remember sitting down in a 3-6 game at the Commerce, there were actually three blinds, so $6 in the pot; I raised, everybody folded–and I got my bet back–the other $6 disappeared down the slot!!! Only a fool would play poker in California now.
The “time” games in Gardena were cheerless and nasty. Everybody smoked back then–it was allowed–and all the players wanted the game to be rushed, so they could get as many hands as possible before the time/rake was due. (They called it a “collection”–a cheap euphemism–and still do.) There wasn’t very much cheating by the player/dealers–though there was some–but there was a ridiculous amount of collusion: blatant signaling, whipsaw raising, and often, a table full of regulars would engage in a silent agreement to stay out of each other’s way so they could take turns carving up a lamb who had wandered in (a situation amusingly lampshaded in the awful movie, “Rounders”)..
Some people managed to beat these games, albeit earning about the equivalent of minimum wage. I even made money myself on the weekends. But it was a horrid experience, the people were absolute nasty lowlifes, and the environment was unhealthy and occasionally dangerous (that scene in “California Split” where Elliott Gould is robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot has a ring of authenticity to it). But you know what? In many ways the current SoCal cardroom environment is, in many ways, even worse. The games are certainly completely unbeatable now–the poker equivalent of 6:5 blackjack.
Regarding “time” collection, I am having trouble remembering exactly what it was but the $2-$4 Draw game in Gardena was something like $1.25 per half hour. Very reasonable. The $20-$40 Draw game, with a $5 ante, a loose structure that made great games, was only $5 per half hour. That is extremely reasonable. Same with the straight $20 lowball games in Northern Cal, just $5 per half hour. In San Diego, the limit didn’t matter, the collection in all games was $1.25 per half hour. Whether it was a small $2-$20 draw game, or a $5 lowball with over-kills and “buttons”, which was a good sized game, only $1.25 per half hour. It was Paradise.
So in a small $2-$4 game in Gardena, 8-players, the House was taking $20 an hour from the table. Compare that to today’s smallest hold’em games in LA, and they’re taking close to $100 an hour out of the game.
You mentioned California Split, it’s an old movie from about 1975, but the opening scene is EXACTLY what Gardena was. Perfectly portrayed. I recommend everyone look at it if they can, or if it’s been a long time, look at it again. To me Gardena brings back great memories. I loved the environment. To each his own, I guess. But that was my youth.
The consensus back then was that a good player could make about 1.5 small bets/hr and an expert 2 small bets/hr. So a time collection of $2.50 an hour in a $2-4 game would slash your earnings by more than half. This effect lessened, as you noted, as the stakes increased, as the time collection did not increase in proportion to the stakes. This meant that the house basically killed recreational players but that the higher-stakes pros could do OK. Back then, 20-40 was big money and I couldn’t possibly have afforded to play that high. You mention that $10/hr was “extremely reasonable” but I dunno—in 1975, I remember making $1.65 an hour at McDonald’s. The Consumer Price Index was 52, and now it’s over 240, so they were charging today’s equivalent of almost $50 an hour–PER CHAIR–to rent out a table, some chairs, and a deck of cards! No dealer. Pretty good racket, actually. I always wondered why there wasn’t more of a palace revolt on the part of the higher-stakes players who were paying 4-5 times as much for the exact same thing as the lower-stakes players were; the chips were just a different color.
Of course, at 20-40, somebody puts one “move” on you and there goes all your profit for the day. I remember watching a lowball game and one guy simply handed the deuce of spades (from his hand) to his friend, who then raised and showed down a 6-4. Apparently no one at the table saw it. Did I say anything? Hell, no, I was born with 206 bones in my body and didn’t need that number increased to 208.
You’ve painted a somewhat unfair and inaccurate picture of what Gardena was. Gardena was the nuts. And there were some very good players who did not cheat. And some very nice people.
I came across an old TV movie with Shirley Jones from the 70’s on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AiNPK5IBc
If you look around the 1:11:08 mark she goes into a poker club trying to win her money back. I think this must be the Gardena Club. They refer to it as the “clover club” in the movie and the old Gardena Club had a giant clover in front. Can anyone confirm?
it’s the Monterey Club.
Thanks for the correction/confirmation, nice to know some footage of one the actual clubs still exists. Enjoyed the documentary by the way; I can relate to it in many ways as my grandparents were in those camps and my parents were both born in them. I had heard stories of these poker clubs growing up but they were before my time.
Are you related to Harry Joe. I think he went to school with me. A christian grammer school in Hawthorne. Ut would have been in 60s.
Thanks Mark!
Yeah, that was the first footage I’ve ever seen of the Monterey Club. Amazing!
There’s a little bit of black and white news footage of the Rainbow Club interior in my short clip about Louis Koullapis. You can see it on my Facebook page for the book “Gardena Poker Clubs: A High-Stakes History”.
A high stakes history is pretty accurate. My father worked as a security guard at the Rainbow and my mother was a waitress in the restaurant. They met as co workers and started dating in ’67. They married that same year and I was born in ’68. While my dad was at work at the Rainbow, a patron there won a poker jackpot . As he was walking to his car in the parking lot 2 men approached him to rob him of his winnings. My dad intervened to stop the robbers and one of them pulled out a gun and shot my dad in the chest. My dad died in the hospital that night. The Rainbow Club tried to give my mom a settlement to keep her quiet but she refused and ended up going to court . My father was Arthur DuBry who died while on duty at the Club in July 1970. My mom eventually remarried in ’73 to Ron Griggs who also worked at the Rainbow Club as a valet and Ron actually was good friends with Arthur.
I lived in same house in Gardena from 1955 till 1974. My cousins worked dealing cards there. Ruth Anthony was there all of 60s till into late 70s that i remember. Then her son Martin Anthony was also a dealer there. Its funny cause my son became a card dealer in late 90s in Colusa Calif then in Louisiana for Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville until pandemic. I cant wait to read the book Gardena Card Clubs as it was my whole life growing up.
Hello Lorna, is your cousin Ruth Anthony still living? My dad was a floorman at The Rainbow club. Its now the Hustler casino.
Rodney
Hello all,
I’m looking for anyone who might have known my father. He was a floorman at the Rainbow Casino in 1967 and 1968. He also passed away in 1968. His Name is Leo Peacock
Thanks