Oaks Card Club at a glance
About Oaks Card Club
Oaks Card Club is a California-licensed card room at 4097 San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville, California, operated by John Tibbetts and operating since 1895. The property runs 25 poker tables and 15 table game positions on a 24/7 schedule, with a restaurant, self-parking, and valet on site. Gaming is regulated by the California Gambling Control Commission and the Bureau of Gambling Control. Phone: (510) 653-4456; email: contact@oakscardclub.com; website: oakscardclub.com.
Emeryville is a small city in Alameda County between Oakland and Berkeley, at the I-80 and I-580 interchange. The San Pablo Avenue address is in central Emeryville, accessible from I-80 via the Ashby or Powell Street exits. For the East Bay gaming market, Oaks Card Club is one of the primary destination poker rooms on the East Bay corridor, drawing from Oakland, Berkeley, and the surrounding Alameda County communities.
Venue photo
Oaks Card Club
Emeryville, California
Poker Room
Oaks Card Club’s 25-table poker room spreads Limit Hold’em, Low Ball, NL Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo Split, Pan Poker (Panguingue), Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split, and tournament events.
Pan Poker (also known as Panguingue) is a rummy-style card game played with eight stripped decks of 40 cards each — a total of 320 cards in play simultaneously. Players draw and discard to form specific melds with point values, similar to gin rummy but with a much larger deck and more complex scoring. Panguingue is historically one of the defining California card room games, deeply rooted in the Mexican-American and Filipino-American communities of Southern and Central California. It is now spread at very few Bay Area venues.
Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split (8-or-better) deals seven cards per player with betting rounds between each card, splitting the final pot between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand of eight-high or lower. Stud Hi-Lo is part of the standard H.O.R.S.E. rotation and requires significantly more working memory than Hold’em; it is played at a small number of Bay Area card rooms.
Low Ball at California card rooms is California Lowball (Ace-to-Five), in which the lowest hand wins and the joker plays as the lowest unpaired card. Omaha Hi-Lo Split splits the pot between the best high and the best qualifying low hand in a four-card Omaha game.
Table Games
Oaks Card Club spreads 15 table game positions including 3 Card Poker, Baccarat, Double Hand Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Pai Gow Tiles, and Pure Blackjack.
Pai Gow Tiles uses a traditional 32-piece Chinese domino set rather than playing cards, predating Pai Gow Poker by centuries and considered the more skill-intensive variant by experienced players. It is spread at a small number of Bay Area card rooms. Double Hand Poker is a two-hand poker format common in the Bay Area gaming corridor. Pure Blackjack is a California card room adaptation of standard blackjack under the player-banking model.
Games at Oaks Card Club
- 3 Card Poker
- Baccarat
- Double Hand Poker
- Pai Gow Poker
- Pai Gow Tiles
- Pure Blackjack
- Limit Hold'em
- Low Ball
- NL Texas Hold'em
- Omaha Hi-Lo Split
- Pan Poker
- Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split
History
Oaks Card Club has operated in the Emeryville-Oakland area since 1895, making it one of the oldest continuously operating licensed card rooms in California. The 1895 founding predates statewide gambling regulation entirely — card rooms in this era operated under city and county licenses in the Bay Area’s East Bay industrial and working-class communities.
The San Pablo Avenue corridor in Emeryville and West Oakland was historically a transit and commercial hub connecting Oakland to Berkeley and the larger East Bay. Card rooms in this corridor served dock workers, railroad employees, and the area’s diverse working-class communities for over a century before the modern California Gambling Control Act of 1997 established the current statewide licensing framework that the Oaks Card Club continues to operate under today.
Contact
- Phone
- (510) 653-4456
- Website
- oakscardclub.com
Location
Oaks Card Club is at 4097 San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville, California. I-80 and I-580 meet in Emeryville; the San Pablo Avenue address is accessible from both. Oakland is immediately south and Berkeley is immediately north. Self-parking and valet are on site.
4097 San Pablo Ave, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA
Emeryville, CA 94608
Open in Google MapsWhat the directory data shows
Strengths and gaps inferred from games, features, and peer count in our directory.
Strengths
5- Operating since 1895 — one of the oldest continuously licensed card rooms in California
- Pan Poker (Panguingue) — extremely rare in modern Bay Area card rooms
- Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split alongside Omaha Hi-Lo and Low Ball
- Phone, email, and active website with 24/7 East Bay location
- Valet and restaurant on site
Watch-outs
4- 25 tables — mid-scale; smaller than the major South Bay rooms
- No hotel — overnight visitors need nearby Oakland or Berkeley lodging
- No sportsbook — not legal at California card rooms
- No loyalty program data in our directory
The Bay Area's 1895 card room with Pan Poker and Stud Hi-Lo
Oaks Card Club's 130-year operating history is the most distinctive fact about the property, and the poker menu backs it up: Pan Poker (Panguingue) and Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split are both formats that have largely disappeared from the Bay Area card room landscape. For players who want a rummy-style traditional California game or a split-pot Stud format, the Oaks is one of very few accessible venues in the East Bay. The table game floor includes Pai Gow Tiles, which is equally uncommon. The San Pablo Avenue location in Emeryville puts it at the midpoint between Oakland and Berkeley on the I-80 corridor.
Licensing & Rules
- Age Requirement
- 21+
- Sportsbook
- Not legal
