It is rather silly, but I did come across it at a table there. It wasn't being enforced by the dealer at that moment, but I was told by a couple of players that you cannot say how much you money you bet in a particular wager. At the time it seemed too silly to inquire as to why, but I'm assuming it has to do with a bad timed "verbal" bet maybe? Or it just could be another dopey rule at the Grand.

there may not be any collusion w/ the dealers but there is a lot of favoritism towards regulars, it's pretty annoying. My latest experience was when I was waiting for a 3-5 table and my name was next on the list. Then a regular comes in, Vito (who is a HORRIBLE player btw) talks to the floor guy, Phil, about the list and when a seat opens up, he gives it to him right away. I'm watching them the whole time and he just gave it to him when I was next.

But I don't see any colluding ever going on really either. Just favoritism towards regulars

@ cbo - one of the tricks is to bribe the floorman to push you to the top of the list at any casino. There is a whole set of underhandedness in a casino if you are a reg to get favors like bribing floor personel for being moved to the top of the list.

@ DonkeyDave - yea he explained it to me and I could grasp my head around 4-5 bad players all talking in a commited pot how they can win over a long time. It seemed weird. He was a good player too, knew his game theory.

I'm stuck with a meh situation.

Oaks is 35-40m away, a $5 toll, but real 1/2 with most players at least buying in $100-$200. Its a 3+1 drop and I get seated in 10-15m. 1/2 blinds with $2 limp. Larger stacks, players are bad. Fairly good dealers.

LCs is 20m away but when I get there I can wait upto 35m for a table @ 1/2 which is really 2/4. With the mountain of short stacks I feel while technically I can make more @ LCs per hour my variance is 2x what it should be with the high rake and the short stacks. And I think many of the dealers are bad. Some have actually cost me money where they dont call out actions or call attention to players who are hiding their cards (accidentally or not)

So my current choice is Oaks.

But when I move to 2/5 where is the better place to play?
My choi

What do you mean by "real 1/2"? You realize it's spread limit, right, which means there's a $100 cap on any bet or raise, and that you can only get 3 raises in a street?

I kinda get what he means. The 1/2 there plays more like 1/2 in terms of raise sizes, pot sizes, etc. where 1/1/2 or 1/2/2 at AJ's/LC play more like 2/3 or 2/4 because of the bigger opening size and subsequent raise sizes.

And due to ppl's buyin amounts and general passiveness of those lower stakes games the spread limit rarely changes the action.

Oh yeah as far as the 3/5 action goes LC's is fine, but theres a lot of regs. Still enough soft spots/ random gamblers to make it worthwhile. 5/10 there is pretty much all regs. I've been actually booking it down to Bay 101 a lot lately. The extra 1 hour plus driving each way sucks but the player pool is bigger so game never breaks, more gambooool type players. If I'm really set on putting in a good session I think the drive is worth it.

Oh, I see. It's like 1/2 blinds, but 4 to limp or something?

We should probably compile this information and make some kind of spreadsheet for the major casinos, then. This seems pretty crucial.

^^ not a bad idea. I can prob compile one, but I'll need help with Livermore and Napa Valley, two cardrooms I've never been to.

Can we just make a big spreadsheet of everything, while we're at it?

Limit games:
Room (e.g., Oaks)
Game Type (e.g., Texas Hold'em)
Small Bet (e.g., 15)
Small Blind (e.g., 10)
Big Blind (e.g., 15)
Minimum Buyin (e.g., 150)
Drop with flop (e.g., 4)
Drop without flop (e.g., 0)
Regularity (e.g., regular morning to night, occasionally overnight)
Other notes (e.g., can call in 1 hour in advance)

Non-limit:
Room (e.g., Oaks)
Game Type (e.g., Texas Hold'em)
Game Stakes (e.g., Spread Limit 2-100)
Small Blind (e.g., 1)
Big Blind (e.g., 2)
To Limp (e.g., 2)
Minimum Buyin (e.g., 40)
Maximum Buyin (e.g., 200)
Drop with flop (e.g., 4)
Drop without flop (e.g., 0)
Regularity (e.g., regular morning to night)
Other notes

Tournaments (I have the least experience with this so I don't even know what people are looking for in a database):
Room
Game Type
Game Stakes
Buy-in
Admin fee
Rebuys
Starting stack
Starting level
Level length
Registration starts
Start time
...?

Bingo to the above posts. Oaks is closest to 1/2 NL with its spread limit. The spread limit really doesnt make much of a difference for me.

Ok so Bay 101 when my roll is ready. Got to have around $10k to feel comfortable playing 2/5 for more than casual.

Ok so here goes. This is what I know. I dont know buy ins

Oaks NL (Spread) $200 1/2 blinds, $2 to bring in, rake = 3+1
Oaks NL (Spread) $400 2/4 blinds, $4 to bring in, rake = 3+1?

LCs NL 1/1/2 blinds, $4 to limp, rake = 5+1, they take less if there is no drop $3?.

Tournament information is freely available online at the cardroom's website... right?

I think so for all casinos

The buyin for the 100 max is $40-$200 and the max bet is $100.
The buyin for the 200 max is $?-$400 and the max bet is $200.

The rake for the 100 max is $4, and I'm actually not sure it's 3+1. I believe that the jackpot comes straight from the house, it's not a separate fund. This only matters in that when the rake is 3+1, the house is mandated to give a certain percentage of that "1" back (50%? 75%?), but when the jackpot is house-funded, they can make it whatever. I'm pretty sure that the $50k max cap on the jackpot is less than $0.50/hand and may be closer to $0.25/hand, and a dealer once mentioned the jackpot was house-funded. *shrug*

The rake for the 200 max is $5. Again, it may be 4+1 or just 5.

I'll fill in some blanks: min BI for 200max is $80. Oaks only has one rabbit hole per table so the format "house drop + jackpot drop" does not apply. It's a flat $4 drop for most games, $5 for higher stakes and omaha, and $3 for 1/2 LHE and 2/4 Stud.

I mentioned lowball in the B&M parallel universe...

Are you able to fill in any of the other gaps?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...2&postcount=17

What more is needed? I don't know the min BI for every game, but I assume it is 10 small bets. That rule seem to be nearly universal. I vaguely remember going to one cardroom where the minBI for 6/12 was 50 bucks, but I can't remember which cardroom it is.

Ok a little late but I finally made a spreadsheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...GdwMVdmMDFlYUE
url too long? try this: tinyurl dot com/BA-cash-games (yes I'm dodging the filter; mods, there's no spam)

• I recently went to Napa Valley so I got some info on that casino.
• Most of the information is based on what I remember so there might be some error.
• There's a lot of incomplete information, but, at the very least, the stakes available for LHE and NLHE are generally correct.
• I'm least familiar with non-hold'em games so that sheet is very incomplete.
• Artichoke Joe's advertise that they spread O8 and Stud, but the last time I was there (7/22/11) they weren't running. Don't remember if it was even on the board.
• Lucky Buck is a small cardroom with a few games. I've never played poker there, only double hand and blackjack. Lucky Buck's info is based on my memory of what I remember from the poker board.
• All three blind games are button blind, middle blind (traditional small blind), and big blind. I'll put that note in the spreadsheet whenever someone tell me a good place to put it.
• many thanks to this post for some of the smaller detail at Oaks
• many thanks to this post for Oaks' lowball info
• many thanks to this post for LC's PLO info

one more thing, am I missing a bay area cardroom?

Thanks for putting in the time Zak3nnay0. I wish more rooms had the buy in for deepest stack rule.

AJ 3/6 blinds 2/3 drop 4 (or 3+1)
AJ 6/12 blinds 2/6 drop 4 (or 3+1)
Bay101 3/6 drop 4 (there's no BBJ at Bay101)
Bay101 6/12 drop 5
Bay101 8/16 drop 5
Bay101 20/40 drop 5
Bay101 40/80 drop 6

We should also put in promos

Oaks BBJ: min $10k, max $50k, quad 2's beaten, both hole cards must play
Cal Grand has a Super BBJ, but I'm not sure what the qualifier is.
Cal Grand has HHJ, but I'm not sure what the qualifiers are.
Cal Grand has some royal flush promo, but I'm not sure how it works.

brainfart. of course San Jose doesnt have a jackpot drop.

You should enable comments on your spreadsheet.

Some corrections about buy-in limits at Bay 101:
2/3/5: 200-500
5/5/10: 500-3000

Garden city:
2/3/5: 200-500
2/3/5 deep stack: 300-1000

I'll look into it. Thanks for the corrections. btw, I know about the 2/3/5 deep stack game at GC but I didn't include it because it never runs, just like how the 10/20 never runs. When was the last time you've seen it run?

Also AJs has a kill pot that usually appears 1/2 the time making the game play much higher

Where is the action for nl games in the city at?

From all the info I have gathered?

Best rake/place for 1/2 is Oaks Card Room in Emeryville (next to Oakland) and they have 2/4 occasionally

best 2/5 action Bay 101 (San Jose)

BBJ both hole cards Quad 8's or better beaten.
Seeded at 70k +$200/day

HHJ Every 4 hours (12-4, 4-8, ect) $100

I believe royal promo is both hole cards and suit rankings determine $$