Ron Carbaugh was born in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1941 and raised in Denver, Colorado. He attended Colorado University in 1961 but left after his first year to return to Battle Creek. Once back in his home town he went to work as a grocery store manager.
In 1968 he took a sales position with Kellogg's of Battle Creek Ron was immediately transferred to Los Angeles, California. In 1970 he was transferred to Santa Barbara, California and in 1976 he was promoted and transferred to Las Vegas, Nevada.
He received another promotion in 1978 and was transferred again, this time to Salt Lake, City, Utah. In 1979 they transferred him one more time to the Baltimore, Washington area and that was the last time he was transferred. With his family tiring of all the transfers he left the Kellogg Company and went to work for a Pepsi Cola Bottling Company in Baltimore as an area sales manager.
Six months later Ron resigned this position, moving his family back to Santa Barbara. He took a Sales Manager's position with a liquor and wine wholesaler. In 1988 Ron bought a market & deli in Lompoc, California then sold it in 1992 with the plan of semi retiring.
His retirement only lasted a short time and in 1993 he took a part time floor position in the poker room at the Player's Club in Ventura, California.
In 1996 he accepted a floor position in the card room at Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California and in January of 2005 he was promoted to card room manager.
DB: How many poker tables are in the Chumash poker room?
RC: At the moment we have 14.
DB: Does that mean there is an expansion in the works?
RC: There is a tentative plan to move upstairs but nothing has been finalized. The move would double the size of our current room.
DB: Have you made any major changes since taking over the room?
RC: No, the current facility has only been open for a little over two years so we continue to run the way we always have with the exception of some promotional changes.
DB: What live games are offered in the Chumash Casino Resort poker room?
RC: We spread two versions of no-limit, one with a $300 minimum buy-in and a $500 maximum buy-in and one with a minimum $100 buy-in and a $200 maximum buy-in. We spread a $3-$6 Omaha high-low with a full kill and our limit hold'em games range from $2-$4 to $6-$12 with a half kill.
DB: Are you offering any daily tournaments?
RC: Yes, we run daily tournaments at 10:15 a.m. and we add money to many of our daily tournaments. Sunday's tournament is no-limit with a $60 buy-in and a $10,000 guarantee. Monday is limit hold'em with a $25 buy-in, Tuesday is Omaha high-low with a $25 buy-in, Wednesday in no-limit with a $25 buy-in, Thursday is limit until the final table then it is nolimit, live money. Friday is no-limit with a $25 buy-in and Saturday is no-limit with a $10 buy-in and unlimited $10 rebuys for the first three levels, $6,000 guaranteed prize pool. We also run evening tournaments at 7 p.m. On Monday we have a $25 buy-in nolimit event with a 40 player maximum. The top four players from each Monday night for five weeks advance to week six to play for a $10,000 seat into the World Series of Poker plus $1000 in cash. On Tuesday it's no-limit with a $30 buyin, one $20 re-buy and one $20 add on. On Wednesday we hold a ladies limit event with a $25 buy-in that is limited to 50 players. We add $500 to the prize pool with a $1,000 guarantee. Thursday's event is a $30 buy-in with one $20 rebuy and starts with limit and changes to no-limit at the final table but with a twist, the final table is played with real chips.
DB: What incentives does Chumash offer it's poker players?
RC: We send out monthly mailers with incentives to play at Chumash. Some of our mailers have a coupon for a gas card and if the player shows the gas card he receives an extra $10 when he buys into a cash game. Other mailers offer players to get $60 for a $40 buy-in to a cash game. We also have daily drawings, on weekdays we hold a drawing worth $50 every half and hour from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and at 5:00 p.m. the drawing is for $100. We have the same drawing from 9:00 p.m. until midnight. On Saturdays and Sundays we give away $50 every half an hour from 4:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. and at 11:00 p.m., 11:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. the drawings are worth $100 each.
DB: Where do most of your player hail from?
RC: Most of our players are locals, we offer free bus service from Lompoc and Santa Maria every other hour. We also bus in from Santa Barbara and Goleta three times a day.
DB: How do you staff your poker room with dealers?
RC: We seldom hire dealers from the outside, we bring people in as brushes and we train them to deal in house but most of our dealers our locals and come form within the casino.
DB: Who is responsible for making your job a little easier?
RC: The supervisory staff I have is very competent. They do an excellent job of training new hires and seeing that tournaments and live games are properly handled.
