Late Night Pechanga Trips

When I was a strapping young lad of 18 I began to experiment with cards. Unlike my previous experiences with LSD, cards actually offered a way for me to entertain myself with my friends while also challenging the limits of my mental capabilities. Suddenly I understood what all the hype was and why all the Filipino guys at my work watched the World Series of Poker for hours on end every day. I did not quite agree that their excessive “classroom sessions” in front of the television were healthy or necessary, and I agreed even less with the fact that a bunch of guys working at a Cold Stone Creamery felt comfortable gambling with hundreds of dollars a night at their underground poker circuit which they ran out of an apartment in Pomona.

It was playing at parties with friends and learning from the card sharks at my ice cream dispensary locale that I began a love affair with the poker game known as Texas Hold'em. I had a core group of about 3-4 friends and we would get together to play poker nearly every single night. It was in their smoky downstairs living room that, between beers, I learned the finer points of card playing.

Although I shall always remember those $5-$10 buy in tournaments that my friends and I played on a nightly basis, such games tend to get a little old after a while. When you play with the same group of people over and over again it almost becomes a game of chance more than poker because you learn to read each other so incredibly well. Every breath, hand movement and eye glance becomes telltale signs that make the face down cards appear transparent. It’s when these familiar tournaments become yesterday’s news that somebody inevitably utters the word that strikes both terror and joy into every Southern California poker player’s heart: “Pechanga.”

Almost every week there would be a night where somebody would inevitably propose going for a Pechanga run, and although everybody initially called them a “quack” or an “addict” everybody eventually gave in. Pechanga is an Indian Reservation casino and the drive takes anywhere from an hour and a half to four hours depending on driving speed and traffic. Unfortunately my friends and I always found it of utmost necessity to plan a Pechanga with about ten minutes notice, meaning we often left for the desert while the clock was already racing towards midnight.

Longtime Pechanga aficionados have seen the casino go through a complete makeover. It originally was a fairly short and ugly building with not much going on inside: they had some blackjack and poi tables, some Texas Hold’em tables and finally a small tournament room where the most hardcore players would test their skills. Personally, I have years of fond memories going to the old Pechanga with my friends for reckless late night blackjack and intense Limit Hold’em. It was those moments when somebody uttered Pechanga at 10 o’clock at night and everybody knew the time had come to stock up on Red Bull, cigarettes and gas to make the trek out to the Indian Reservation.

The new Pechanga has quite a different vibe and a completely new look. Pechanga is now more of a resort than a dive casino. I truly miss walking into the scummy Pechanga of old when there wasn’t one hundred security guards patrolling the premises and telling you to take off your hat because you look like a gangster. The feeling is now much closer to Vegas which is what they were shooting for. Congratulations Pechanga, you have found a way to almost replicate a Vegas experience at half the distance! Although this is just the opinion of one writer, I truly wish that they’d bring the old Pechanga back although the likelihood of that happening is about as high Josh “JJProdigy” Field winning the WSOP this year.

So what do players from Orange County do after a long night of (hopefully) winning money at Pechanga? Well that all depends on who came up big and actually left the casino with more money than they came with. The first and most important thing is to get gasoline at the massive gas station next door which I’m fairly sure the casino owns because they have slot machines right there inside of the cashier area –one last chance to come home with a million dollars. Restocking on Red Bulls is also immensely important for the lonely trek back home through the windy Interstate Highway-10.

There is only one way to properly end a Pechanga trip, especially for those who live in LA or Orange County. Anybody who has gone to this casino late at night will tell you that nothing is more satisfying after winning or losing at Pechanga than biting into a double-double animal style from In-N-Out with French fries at four in the morning. Washing down the delectable morsels of food with a neapolitan shake can be the crowning achievement for a player that has won lots of money, or a tasty consolation if you just blew all the money you were going to spend on a gift for 20th wedding anniversary. Either way you will leave this burger joint bursting with a sense of happiness. One thing is certain; there is no better way to finish a trip to Pechanga.