From what I've heard, the max buy-in at commerce's 1/3 game is 100 and 2/5 is 200. Is this true? It's a terrible structure for a live cash game. I'm gonna be in L.A. in early August and was hoping to play there.

Yes it's true but the blinds are 2/3 for 100 and 3/5 for 200.

does the commerce spread 1-2 at all?

i usually play 1-1, or 2-2 at Oceans 11 in Oceanside.

what else around spread 1-2?

commerce has 1-1 upstairs but rake is more than O11 as far as i remember.......... rake so high its barely profitable since the buyin is capped at $40.

normandie casino has 1/2NL that goes sometimes, i would call before you go over there.

theres also 1/3NL at the bike, i think its $80 or $100 buyin.

Unfortunately, Commerce is one of the best places to play poker in the world, but if you like NL Cash games (esp low limit) it is one of the worst due to max buy-in structures (LA is bad in general, but there are better buyins at casinos other than Commerce). Luckily I love LHE ring games and Commerce is the Tops.

Here is Commerce current NL Cash Set-Up:

NL Hold'em 1/2 40 min/max
NL Hold'em 2/3 100 min/max
NL Hold'em 3/5 200 min/max
NL Hold'em 5/10 400 min/max
NL Hold'em 10/20 600 min/no max
NL Hold'em 20/40 2000 buyin
NL Hold'em 100/300 30k-no max

As an example here is Bike Set-Up:

NL Hold'em 1/2 40-40 max
NL Hold'em 1/3 80-80 max
NL Hold'em 2/3 100-100 max
NL Hold'em 5/5 300-500 max
NL Hold'em 5/10 500-no max

Hustler:

NL Hold'em 1/2 50-100 max
NL Hold'em 2/5 100-300 max
NL Hold'em 5/10 300-500

Hawaiian Gardens:

NL Hold'em 1/2 20 min-max
NL Hold'em 1/2 40 min-max
NL Hold'em 1/2 100 min-max
NL Hold'em 3/5 300 min-max
NL Hold'em 5/10 500 min-max
NL Hold'em 10/20 1000-no max

above post is slightly dated
commerce has a 5/10 with 500-1500 buyin
bike has a 5/10 with 500-1500 buy-in as well
Hustler has a 5/10 with a 500-2500 buy-in

I've heard about this before (the low NL caps), but never played there.

What is the reasoning behind doing this, not scaring away potential player?

and hawaiian gardens 5-10 is 500-1000 and 10/20 is uncapped and goes half PLO sometimes.

The Bike has a very popular 2/3 100-300 max game. There is also a 3/5 200-200 max game.

Hollywood park has an uncapped 5-10 on weekends.

It might still be popular but it appears the the 2/3 100-300 max game has almost eliminated the 3/5 200 fixed buy game and reduced the amount of 5/5 300-500 games. It also eliminated the 100 fixed buy game with 2/3 blinds. My observation is the Bike has suffered a net reduction in business near this level on top of what would be expected by the economy.

FYI to the OP:

Note that the blinds in LA have to be higher relative to the buy-in spreads or limits primarily due to the "drop all on flop" law/policies. If I wrote this old story today I think I'd have to rename it "An “Only in LA” Story - The Dealer Stall and the $0 pot!" since (I think; I'll check in the next few days) the card clubs drop $4 + $1 jackpot on most $1/$2 blind games.

Anyway, welcome to LA. At least the drop sort of "nitproofs" the game.

~ Rick

The link to the story in my other post would explain most of it.

~ Rick

I'd also try The Hustler. The ambiance is terrific and the spread buyins are somewhat higher for a given set of blinds (see my correction though under the other post). Food is also very good and inexpensive and/or comped.

~ Rick

Oops, need to make a correction for Hustler:

NL Hold'em 1/2 50-100 max
NL Hold'em 2/5 100-300 max
NL Hold'em 5/5 300-500 max
NL Holdem 5/10 500-2500 max

There may be some mistakes for the other locations but I'm 100% sure on the above. Note the 5/10 blind game doesn't go all that often.

~ Rick

For 1/2, I definitely recommend Hustler, it's a very nice room, and the 100 max buy-in is among the best in town.

For the record, in both Commerce and the Bike's 1/2 40 max games, you can re-buy for $60 after your first buy-in. Most times I'm there if I bleed from my original $40 buy-in for a little bit the dealer lets me top off to $60.

I have to take a break from the $5 blind games and find a tight 1-2 game (actually, this is the hard part) to rewrite my story. Drop at Hustler is $4 plus $1 9-7 handed, dropping a dollar at a time at six and five handed. You do get to look at several gorgeous $10,000 plus wall hangings (one is a tapestry or rug) in that area. Last night every table appeared to be having fun. Highly recommended despite the drop.

~ Rick

Try not to play 1-2NL in L.A. The drop is way way way too big.

I have been working in Cali the last 2 weeks and playing at the commerce. I played the 1/2 or better known "40". They actually increased the rake this week. Now it is even harder to beat the rake.

The games are the weakest I have ever seen. You will get killed by the blinds and rake if you are too nitty. 20 BB is not much. If you can push your big hands and run ok, you can build a deeper stack pretty quick.
Then, you can play more tight and grow your stack. From my experience, your stack will go up and down a lot because of the high number of callers and 40 stacks getting allin with draws.

If you want to have fun and drink, this is a great game. If you want to make money, move up.

yes, the buy-in structure and rakes make it impossible to win regulary at 1-2NL (the 40), 2-3NL (the 100) and 3-5NL (the 200) at Commerce (and HP)

I'm guessing anyone willing to spend some time with an ICM training calculator to learn push/fold ranges would kill the 2/5 and bigger shortstack games here.

I know the 100/100 plo game only runs during LAPC usually, but what is the min buy in when it runs?

Should be 5k but could be as low as 2k.

Agree i know for the 200 if you get stacked you can reload for 300 and for the 400 5/10 you can go 600