Where I live I have serveral options on where to play. Although I play recreationally I also play for profit and the money matters to me and helps pay around 30-50% of my bills. My bankroll isn't huge either, so I prefer to keep varience low and grind it out.

Anyway, here are my options:

Room A: Smokey casino that is open 24/7. 6-8 tables of 1/2 during most hours. Mixture of demographics. Floor staff and dealers are the most competent. Very busy during holiday weekends with long waits but otherwise no problems. Dealers average around 20-25 hands per hour. Most players are loose passive but maybe half are willing to reload. Straddles are rare and are only $4 allowed UTG only but can restraddle which is even more rare. Rake is $6+1 for BBJ. BBJ is consistently over 100k for quads beaten by better. Free snacks and non alcoholic drinks for players but no comps. Others food selection is crap except for a $20+ buffet that closes at 10pm. Room is also about 30 min from my house.

Room B: Charity room that is about 15 minutes from my house. Very good dealers who deal 25-30 hands per hour. Often button or UTG straddle between $5-$10. Players are more white, middle easterners, or indian with deep pockets. Tables are sometimes less than full as games break and there is not room on other tables or charities get low on chips. Most games begin to break around midnight or 1am and most players have families and jobs. Some players also come from their cheap daily tournaments. Not quite as busy on weekends. Rake is $6 max with no BBJ.

Room C: Casino. Mostly a weekend room with drawings on Fridays that attract players where you can win between $50-$500 if your ticket is drawn. You get a ticket for every half hour played but you basically have to come back within the next few weeks to be put in the drawing. Dealers average around 20 hands per hour. Button or UTG straddle is allowed up to $5 which is somewart common and max buy in is 300 instead of 200. Players are typical loose passive and a lot of the same people. Also a 30 min drive with pain in the ass parking and long walk to poker room. No comps but decent snacks and soda free. Rake is 6+1 with a small BBJ.

Room D: Nice casino with a nice room, free snacks and $1/hr comps with good food. Only busy on weekends. 30 min drive. Dealers are mostly horrible and slow and average more like 10-15 per hour and they don't control their game are even know what beats what sometimes. Floor is also very incompetent and has no clue how to rule on things. Player are especially horrible, but the slow place of the dealers really tilts me to where I can't stand it. One person told me " this is the best 1/2 game in the country" which really made me laugh because the first thing I want in a room is good fast dealers that don't kill my hourly rate. Rake is 6+1 with a decent BBJ.

So what would you play and why if you were me?

Room A sounds like your best bet.

Don't know what a charity poker room is but Room B sounds great: loose players with deep pockets, short handed, fast dealers, no BBJ drop, and only 15 minutes away. If the games there aren't running you can go to Room A instead.

+1

I kind of skipped over this one because I didn't know what a Charity Poker Room was. After re-reading it, this one sounds a lot better than option A.

I don't think you should be playing solely at 1 casino...mix it up some. Start off with poker room B...if you start running bad, change it up.

If you're keeping records (which you should be), you can start finding out what your hourly rate is at the different casinos. Once you build up a good sample size at each casino, you can decide which is the most profitable for you. If you're playing solely 1/2 and playing for profit...you should be factoring in gas as well just as you would the rake.

It can't be the best game in the country because my game is the best in the country.

I play at two of these rooms 90% of the time and at the end of the year I will do a comparision of both win rate and standard deviation/variance. I'm very curious to know.

Room B ainec. Lower rake (forget the BBJ, you won't hit it), faster play, bigger stacks, lots of gambling with the straddles.

For those who don't know, live gambling is regulated at the state level. Some states allow poker to be played in a room where a charity (like the Red Cross) gets a cut gross revenue. The people who run the game keep the rest and pay their expenses out of it. Because of the money going to the charity (which the % is closely regulated), they don't have money for comps. The closest charity room to me is very well run, with the owner/floor extremely competent. I've found the prices for food and drink to be comparable to outside the room and the portions larger (especially for the drinks). I'd play there regularly if the state would allow them to offer NLHE.

Almost sounds like Michigan. Maybe listing the specific rooms would get some more feedback.

In general I'd think Game B is the best, then Game A. If you can stop at B on your way to A you could bail if the room looked dead and head to A instead.

I don't see any major benefit to games C or D.

I have a similar situation where there's a really juicy game close to home, and an assortment of slightly less attractive Casino options between 40-60 mins away. Most of my time is at the really juicy game, but I do like to change it up and play at a variety of rooms around. Just the change of scenery and new players helps keep my game sharp and prevents me from falling into complacency.


Can confirm. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing in a mental institution or the dorms in the special Olympics in that game.