Just arrived in San Diego... Looking to play everynight this week and not sure where to start... Looks like I am going to try to play at Palomar tonight since its closest to my hotel downtown then make the drive to O11 tomorrow...

Any recommendations or ideas for either place... I have a rental car so I am driving but I know traffic leaving downtown after 4pm sucks so just curious if any recommendations..

You have to give us some idea of what game you're playing. Palomar runs one game of 3/6 lhe, 2-3 games of 2/3 NLHE, and one 5/10 NLHE game with the occasional 10/20. Oceans runs just about everything.

I'm assuming you're looking for lower stakes, of which oceans has more selection with $40 and $100 bi games up to $10k+ bi games, limit and no limit.

Ended up drinking too much at YardHouse and didn't go to the casino.. I am actually looking for 2/5 or 5/10 games... I think O11 is the plan for tomorrow!

^^ the yardhouse is great.

Any word on LO8 games in san diego?

before black friday almost nowhere had them running but I played yesterday at barona for about six hours (insanely passive game where they constantly played middle cards) and they said they have it all the time now. Besides driving all the way out to oceans 11 does anywhere else spread LO8 that you have noticed? Sycuan, lucky lady, viejas, palomar?

edit: I think Barona's holdem jackpot is over 36k right now if i remember correctly

How does Barona compare to O11?? I am in downtown San Diego so it looks like the same distance drive from my hotel.. just curious..

Only reason to play Barona over O11 is if you want to play their awesome golf course before you sit and play NL.

I know some poker players have problems with grammar, metaphors, hyperbolas and other complex constructions of the English language, but I didn't expect it would take so long for someone to even think about this -- that I might be talking figuratively.

I do not play cash games (anymore). I had about 2.5k roll for cash games which I depleted, mostly running really bad (I posted some of the hands in the NL-LS live forum.) I play donkaments, and I'll keep playing them forever since I do have other income (unlike some folk here which after Black Friday have nothing better to do than to wait for FTP to give them a roll and post on this forum.) and so far for live I'm +$500 after some 45 donkaments (so really ****ty hourly.)

If your idea of restaurant is Denny's and the like, ya probably that's what you're going to find. I know for a fact (cousin is a Chef at a high-end restaurant in La Jolla) that not all restaurants in California have mexicans in the back. As a matter of fact this particular one has 0 mexicans working in the kitchen (and I believe 0 waiters are mexican too.) If it's a Mexican restaurant (adn there's only a few that are good in town) then by all means have a Mexican chef. When you're selling sushi that's prepared by mexicans then you have an issue IMO.

First of all it's not even comparable with Outback. Or rather it is comparable, but the comparison is O11 < Outback.

But Outback is not a good restaurant. That's what I'm saying. The food is not bad, if you have really low standards. If you're a virgin a truck-stop hooker that'll give you a blowjob for $20 is a great deal, whereas someone who is dating a playmate will probably not think it's a great deal at all.

Funny that you mentioned that. At the Cali state championships there was one guy who was playing all the HS donkaments and had shoes that were ripped apart, a $5 t-shirt from Old Navy and 20-yo jeans. Guy was playing for tens of thousands constantly, but he was backed so he was effectively getting $10 / hour. He couldn't even afford shoes For him O11 food is probably the best thing he can ever hope for, unless he binks a WSOP or something

5/5 game tonight at O11 was very interesting... overall little action and some odd plays by many... bitter about a slow roll but not sure if the guy even realized he slow rolled me... Might make another run out there thursday but wasn't impressed or turned off...

it never got off the ground. lots of people go to church on sundays i guess.

the offer stands that if the game ever gets going on sunday, it would be rake free that day.

Barona only has 15 tables and at busy times will have a long wait to be seated. However the players from my experience are very very loose and bad all around, even the regulars.

Sorry you didn't find good action. The action on the 5-5 is variable depending on the mix of players. Can be wild, can be grinding. Weds is Ocean's slowest day. Thurs will be better. Tues & Fri are best, and they spread an uncapped 5-10. Good luck.

Correction: tues / fri is uncapped 10/20 nl.

Triple Draw at Ocean's Eleven

Yesterday (Wednesday), we got a 20-40 Triple Draw game going at Oceans Eleven. Game started at 5 pm and broke at about 1:30 am. Was always full (6 or 7 players seated), and quite a few new players tried out the game and had a great time.

We've been lobbying real hard for different games at Oceans Eleven pretty hard the last few months, and finally got the game going. Several recreational players had a great time and want to make this a weekly thing.

The plan is to get players familiar with the game.. possibly increase stakes if there's demand, but 20/40 is a comfortable limit for people to try the game for the first (real) time. Once triple draw manages to make itself a fixture then we introduce another draw game (Badugi)... and slowly and surely we'll start having a mixed game at Oceans too... (I'm optimistic).

It hasn't been easy and it's only been once, but here's to hoping.

I will be out of town next week, but tentatively folks that played yesterday have agreed on trying again on Tuesday and make Tuesday the reoccurring weekly Triple Draw day (although still strong support for Wednesday from the randoms that sat down).

I think we will be able to get the mix off at Palomar this Sunday. this go around we will have 4 people definitely interested. aiming to start it at 2pm.

Andy I'd be down for triple draw, who do I talk to to see if the game gets off the ground Tue/Wed?

I'm out of town this Sunday or I'd probably come try to help you start the game. While I'm gone this week, HOWMANY will probably be your best contact.

1/3 is not the same as its always been. The 1/3 at barona is probably the best 1/3 game to play in due to the fact its a 500 max buyin. You can play this game really deep and it plays more like a 2/5 with much weaker players. The 1/3 at barona went from 40-200 to 1-300 to what it is now.

The 5/10 runs probably 3-4 days/week and plays fairly big as well, however it is the same cast of characters.

So last night I hit up Palomar Card Room...

First off as someone who has only been to 1 "card room" before I didn't really know what to expect but was too lazy to drive to Oceans11 like I had other nights of the week..

From downtown it was very easy to find and although like others had said the area is rough and parking is an issue I didn't think it was that bad. (Arrived 9pm Thursday Night)

The building looks like they took a Fast Food building gutted it and put bright lights and tables. Security guards were walking outback and posted at the front door. Walking in you go up to the girl by the desk and it was easy to see what games were playing and they were very friendly. They had 2 5/10's and 3 2/3's going and the room was booming.. I was able to ge ta seat right away at the 5/10 game and there was some confusion with getting me chips as people were on break but to me thats just what you deal with at a non casino place...

As for the poker... felt as though it was a very locals type place and most people play were regulars and knew each-other and the dealers but I didn't feel like I was out of place or not welcomed as someone from out of state... The guy managing that night played at our table when there was an open seat which like others had said I thought was odd but really not that big of deal to me...
The huge buy in spread for the 5/10 game (300-1500) made the BB ratio odd to me as many people bought in for the minimum and even saw two short rebuy's for 60 bucks.. We played 6 handed w/straddle on the "must move" table for about an hour which I wasn't a huge fan of because 1 or 2 guys would miss a couple orbits so it was almost like 4 handed... Once moved to the main 5/10 table the poker was much better and although everyone seemed to know each-other the play seemed good and not too stupid. Overall I thought that the play was similar to the 2/5 or 5/5 games I normal play. The idea that you could run it twice was interesting to see in this type of group but once I asked for the exact rulings it worked pretty smooth.
I took a rough beat at the end of the night as a guy went runner runner straight when trying to draw to the flush that I was drawing to the nut version and he didn't realize he hit the st8 till the dealer called it out but thats poker….

Pro's:
Area not near as rough as I had pictured or read about

Really close to downtown San Diego

TV's were nice & using seating software which I didn't expect for a card room

Regulars seemed friendly and willing to pay off anyone who knew what they were doing.

Con's:

Chip colors & Chips were really beat up and the blue ($1) were super simliar in the light to the black ($100) chips.

Closes at 2am which makes it hard for a business man who goes after work dinner to get a long session in.

2/3 & 5/10 NL is a pretty big game of play from what I could tell

**Recommendation… For a card room and being so close to San Diego if your looking to play 5/10 I like Palomar better than Oceans11 but looking for more games a BBJ thats huge Oceans11 is nice..

Thanks for the review. I'm going to be out there next month and I've been trying to read all the current info I can. If you check out some other rooms I would be interested in another review. Oceans will be a little farther than the rest of the rooms so I'm trying to figure out if it is worth the drive.

I've been thinking about playing at Pala, but I haven't heard much about it. What are the busy times, how's the play there compared to O11, and what types/how many NL tables do they run?

I play there quite a bit. In general, games/players are softer. With a few exceptions, most players are loose/passive, but some are pretty nitty. Average age of players is probably around 40.

The issue a lot of times is lack of action. For example, last night there were 3 1/2 tables going until 10PM, 2 until about 11, then one table that ended up shorthanded about 1AM. We played three handed from 3:30 until it broke at 5AM.

Friday and Saturday evenings are the busiest times. Last Saturday night, there were 5 1/2 NLHE, one 2/5 NLHE and two 3/6 LHE-Kill tables going when I left about 1AM.

Other than weekends, about the only game playing will be 1/2 NLHE ($40-$200 buy in). Some Thursday evenings and most Friday/Saturday evenings, a 2/3 (or 2/5) table will get going.

Other positives are the seats are incredibly comfortable and the tables large enough that everyone has room. The floor and dealers are very friendly and go out of their way to make sure everyone has a great time.

If you have any other questions, PM me.

Thanks, that's very informative. I know Pala offers a nice rakeback sort of promo if you play 80 hours in a month, but I wasn't sure if it would be busy enough/bad enough to justify trying to get it. When I finish the current "Racing for Dollars" promo at O11, I may come to Pala for a month to check it out.

Here's the deal with that promo - it starts again on August 1. It is capped at $15,000. Play 30 hours for $75, 50 hours for $200, 80 hours for $499. This month, the promo had a $10,000 "budget" that was spent by the middle of July.

The also have a cash drawing (kind of like Ocean's Sunday drawings) where you get entries for an A high flush or better. Amounts are from $150 to $500, but unlike Oceans, they draw until someone gets the cash. The final drawing for this promo is this Saturday, and I haven't seen whether they are continuing this next month.

They also have a high hand (Tuesdays through Thursdays 9AM - 5PM), and lately have been having promos like this is the evenings on an ad hoc basis. The downside is the BBJ is pretty small ($15K or so). Not that I play somewhere for the BBJ....

Correction: Palomar 5-10 max buy-in is $3,000.

re: Palomar, its rare that 2 games are going at that time of day. usually theres a feeder game from 5pm to 8pm'ish and thats it.

the people working the floor who play in the games are basically propping just to keep games afloat.

also they have a valet in their parking lot so parking should never be an issue. valet returns keys at around 9'ish.

3highnodraw is correct that the buyin spread is 300-3000. If there's one thing I could change at the Palomar it would be the buyin limits. You have way too many people ratting it up, mostly the props. I wish they'd make the 2/3 a 150min-500max and the 5/10 500min-3k max

It was fun, hopefully we can add more games and make it a bit bigger as time goes on.

PM me your number. DeathDonkey said he'd play I think. We should be able to get the game pretty easily on Tuesday. About 100% chance I'll get wasted and be playing horrible so you have that to look forward to as well.

whats the 10/20+ half and half action like at palomar these days? once i believe i can actually win again id like to play it a bit

also an oceans reg has expressed interest in having a 10k cap buyin 25/50 plo/nl game, min buyin 10k max buyin 10k, u can reload if u get below 5k or something. its his idea but id sort of like to play, dunno who would be interested. my warning to anyone interested is that if the game looks like its going to go but ur good at poker i prolly wont be telling u about it.