The Oaks Card Club
If a heat-detecting satellite were to turn its sensors on Emeryville, the hottest place in town–the vital nucleus–would have to be The Oaks Club, the oldest established card lounge in Northern California. Like a human magnet, The Oaks draws from all sectors of life: the Diamond Jims and Dragon Ladies, the down-and-out and up-and-coming, masters and mistresses of Lo-Ball and draw poker, Texas hold ‘em, PAN and Pai Gow. For some of those that visit The Oaks Club, card playing is a diversion. For others, it is a very serious way of life.
Open 24 Hours
“We’re like Denny’s,” says John Tibbetts, owner of the venerable institution. “We never close.” Around the clock, seven days a week, The Oaks entices throngs into its plush, newly renovated and expanded parlors. Three hundred full-time employees keep the place humming. The Oaks Club is the largest taxpayer in the City of Emeryville. Tibbetts says 5 1/2% of the Club’s gross, about half a million dollars a year, enriches the City’s coffers.
“Gambling has never not been allowed in Emeryville,” laughs Tibbetts. In the 1990s as in the 1890s, business is flourishing. There is no comparable club between here and the stateline. Thirty-five tables, No waiting? You wish! Any time, day or night, the floor can be packed with 400 people scrutinizing their hands and dozens more waiting to see how their luck will be treating them. Of the thirty tables in the main room, three are reserved for Pai Gow and eight for double-handed poker. Big T.V. monitors high above the frenzied salon keep the players apprised of the happenings of the outside world, a world that is otherwise unheeded. Days pass on into night and on through to the new day and the players hold their ground. Some only leave their seats to attend to nature. Others make the circuit, schmoozing with the cognoscenti of the gaming floor.
The House of Tibbetts
This is the House of Tibbetts and everybody here knows it. He’s treated with deference when he makes his rounds. After all, he lets them play cards in his house, and they’re not playing against him. The Oaks Club only provides the venue for the games. They come around the tables and collect for their services every half-hour. The rates start at three bucks and go up from there. You’re not playing against the house, you’re playing against your neighbor. That’s what distinguished Emeryville from Reno and keeps The Oaks on good terms with the EPD. Tibbetts, a staunch advocate of the industry, went to court and won the right to play Pai Gow and Texas hold ‘em. “You please the public by giving them the games they want to play,” he says.
Congers Tavern
Tibbetts has been around the Oaks since being carried in as a baby. As a teenager, he worked keeping the outside tidy, sweeping the gutters in front of the club until, at the age of twenty-one, he could legally work inside. Tibbetts says the building, which dates back to the 1890s, has always been a drinking and gambling establishment. He represents the third generation of his family involved in running the club. Founded by Harry Tibbetts, John’s grandfather, and Jack Conger, the club was originally called Conger’s Tavern. Later, John’s father and his partner Cliff Seagraves took over the club’s operation. After they died, John took over, and has been in charge for the last five years.
Women Finally Admitted
The Oaks survived not only the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but the 1906 San Andreas quake with remarkable integrity. Though the card rooms have expanded, the bar, reminiscent of the old San Francisco Bowery, with pressed metal ceilings and brass rails, approximates the original decor. In the 30s, the club consisted of two tables, a bar and the Hofbrau. By 1974, the gambling parlor had grown to 14 tables, and the establishment was served by an adjoining barbershop and shoeshine stand. The barbershop has disappeared, but the shine stand was just reinstated. The Oaks first admitted women in 1967; today they constitute nearly 20% of the club’s clientele. Rumor has it that back in the bawdier days of old Emeryville, there was a network of underground tunnels. With the council chambers at old City Hall as the hub, one tunnel dove under the street to the corner bordello. The other ran the length of Park Avenue, emerging at the card tables of The Oaks Club. “I don’t know about that first one, but the other tunnel comes up right into my office,” says Tibbetts with a smile. An imposing vault now rests where the hatch of the tunnel would be. “I’ve never been brave enough to explore it.”
Six Clubs
In its card-playing heyday, Emeryville had six clubs. “That was back in the 30s and the 40s, before the days of TV, when people went out for entertainment,” says Tibbetts. Many have faded into obscurity. Now only the Oaks Club, the Key Club and King Midas have valid licenses. The Vegas Club became The Sands Club. The Santa Fe Club became King Midas. Gone and perhaps forgotten is the Avalon.
Colorful Characters
Tibbetts says the Oaks has enjoyed its share of colorful characters, the likes of “Swinging Door” Les (he always kept the door swinging), El Dorado Bob, Shakey Pete and “Stubby” (because all his fingers had been cut off). “I knew Stubby 20 years and didn’t know his real name was Horace until he died,” says Tibbetts.
There hasn’t been any trouble during Tibbetts’ tenure at the club. But back in the 1940s, two AWOL GIs came into the card room and fired a shot in the ceiling to let the players know they meant business before robbing the whole parlor. On their way out they killed a security guard.
“The card playing clubs have experienced an image upgrade.” says Tibbetts. No longer does the card playing Joe have to surreptitiously slink off to a dingy speakeasy. “After their wives see the Oaks Club, they’re glad their husbands are off the streets and in a decent place and not out with another woman.”
The club’s clientele really is not easily stereotyped he says. “We have a good cross-section of people here: doctors, lawyers, and even a superior court judge and a prominent local DJ along with the low lives. The Oaks is one of the few places where you’ll find sitting next to each other, truck driver, housewife, the bums and the rich people who would normally not get together.”
This story originally published in 1996 for the Emeryville Centennial Celebration and compiled into the ‘Early Emeryville Remembered’ historical essays book.
