San Jose is the third largest city in the state of California, and the tenth largest in the country. As of 2008 just over 948,000 people called San Jose home. Located near the south edge of the San Francisco Bay area, San Jose was once known for it’s farming. Founded back in 1777, the city was the first town in a Spanish colony. Currently, San Jose has one of the highest costs of living in the country. The city has over 35% of all the venture capital funds in the United States. With those reasons, and others, the city is experiencing a boom in citizens enjoying the game of poker.
Popular Casinos
Although lumped in with other bay cities such as San Francisco and Oakland, San Jose boasts several top notch casinos. These casinos offer various levels of competition, along with varying buy-in minimums and maximum’s, along with blinds. Bay 101 in San Jose hosts a tournament each year called the Shooting Star. For this tournament, they bring in a professional poker player, and players seek to eliminate them from the tournament. Bay 101 holds regular tournaments of the $100/$200 level. They have a featured tournament daily. Garden City Casino is just seven miles down the road from Bay 101 and also has varying games. They also feature a daily tournament, with varying pay-outs.
Professional Players
Humberto Brenes lives in San Jose, and has been a regular in the game of poker since 1994. Brenes has not been heard from much since the early 90’s, but the Shark has two WSOP bracelets. Chantel Mcnulty is not just a poker player, but also an online favorite as a “poker babe”. Possibly known better for her good looks, Mcnulty, 25 years old, has pictures all over the internet, but has also been known to compete well in poker tournaments.