Thanks. I'll mostly be playing 1/3 or 2/5 so it sounds like CDS will have the games I'm interested in.

In Washington we have a $500 per bet limit so I'm used to that. It's weird though that it's different in Tucson than Phx

It is weird and never had a definitive explanation, but just glad to have the higher threshold. I'm JimR on the board at CDS. Say hello next weekend.

It'll probably be 2 weekends before I play. I'm in Vegas next weekend. I'll be sure to say hi

Don't judge what Talking Stick has by this weekend. It is the State Championship and the poker room has been off the hook. Last night I counted 8 'high' limit games.

2 - 20/40 Holdem
2 - 20/40 OE
1 - 40/80 Holdem
1 - 40/80 Mix
1 - 100/200 Mix
1 - 10-500 Omaha High

Hope the 10-500 omaha high game is back for good. The last couple of times I drove up it did not run, just the 3-5-500 omaha short handed was going.

What are the blinds for the 10-500 game? Sounds like the equivalent of 1/3 PLO other places?

Any Omaha in Tucson?

At CDS they always have 1-3 PLO on the board but does not run often. There are a few of us in Tucson that will play if we can get a quorum.

5-10 at Talking Stick. But remember it is spread limit with a cap on bets, so in essence it usually turns into straight 500 limit by the turn if there is action. Not the same as PLO obv.

What are the minimum and maximum buy ins for the 5-10 PLO at Talking Stick? I'll play 1/3 anytime at CDS

Not sure what the minimum is, but normally 5-10 is 2500 max. Although that is not rigorously enforced at least IME.

There is no PLO at Talking Stick.

Its 5/10-500 spread Omaha High

1000 min 2500 max

hey all my name is ryan, 30 and living in downtown phoenix. i play almost all online but have no friends who play, looking to make some buddies who also play online, im also intrested in playing live occasionally. message me if youre in the area, serious about poker and looking to make some friends.

Getting sick of the MN winters and thinking about putting in for transfers for my wife and I to the Phoenix area sometime in the next couple years.

She would be at Mayo in Scottsdale and my office would be in Chandler.

Where would be the best place to look at places to live? Would like these criteria to ideally be met:
1. Decent public schools for our soon to be born daughter
2. Not too long of a commute for either of us (right now we both commute about 5 minutes, so wouldn't want longer than 20-30 minutes)
3. Within a half hour of the poker room, the closer the better (another reason for moving, no more 1.5 hour drives to play poker!)
4. Would be willing to buy a decent place for around 200k, or really nice place for around 350-400k
5. Ideally I would love to live somewhere with a gigabit fiber internet connection, but willing to live with anything 60 Mbps or higher for a reasonable price

Doing a quick search it seems Mesa fits most of these requirements? Any other suggestions of places to look? TIA, I look forward to one day being a fish in the Talking Stick pond.

Tempe or Mesa is your best bet to be between Scottsdale and Chandler. Mesa is cheaper but (obviously) Tempe is nicer.

I've lived on McClintock my whole life except for 2 years at the ASU dorms on Rural. I've lived as far north as Broadway and as far south as Ray. So yeah, I'm pretty much the perfect person for you to ask more questions of.

Also, look at where Mayo is on the maps, it is pretty far north.

While I can't offer insight on all of your mentions, I can offer a little bit of help. For context, I have posted in both the Canterbury thread, and the Talking Stick Thread (grew up/went to school in MN, moved to Scottsdale 3 years ago).

First things first, GET OUT OF MN. Outside of family, there is literally no reason to endure those winters. I was born into it, and as soon as I was done with school I was out. Yeah, it gets hot here in the summer, but IMHO its not as bad as the cold, and you never have to shovel your driveway/dig your car out.

1. Not educated on the public school system here, can't offer insight.
2. Mesa is not a 20-30 commute to Mayo. There are two Mayo campuses here, neither are within that range from Mesa. I live near Fountain Hills, but more towards the 101, and its a beautiful/more quiet area, and is fairly affordable for Scottsdale. If you moved to this area, you'd be 10 minutes to Mayo.
3. Really no matter where you move, if you're trying to be 20-30 to Mayo, you'll be 20-30 to Talking Stick. I'm 15 minutes away and its a hell of a lot better than the hour I used to drive each way to Canterbury.
4. 350-400 is more than enough for a nice home around here. Your money will go further on the outskirts, but if you wanna be near Mayo its going to cost a little more. That budget will buy a nice home in my neighborhood right by Mayo. Again, I live in a beautiful area of Scottsdale that would be a great place to raise a family.
5. Sorry can't help here...I'm locked into whatever my complex has for internet.


PM me if I can help you with anything! As a MN native, and Scottsdale transplant, I love living here. Good luck with your search.

You want to live in Scottsdale but depends on what you mean by really nice. You can be 10-15 min from mayo, 15/20 from chandler and 10 minutes from casino, but 400k will get you a nice 1800 sq foot house in a good neighborhood. Money will go farther in Gilbert/chandler. It it's a long commute for your wife and still no shot at a decent place for under 300k

If you are dead set on public school rather than private, Scottsdale has open enrollment and you probably want your kids to go to Cheyenne (101 and cactus). So you can try to get close to there or be willing to drive. Can't speak to other places but I think Gilbert has pretty good school system and may be better than Scottsdale overall.

If it were me I'd hate the commute from the Mayo area to Chandler. It's a longish drive and we have a rush hour style commute now (tyvm, ppl moving here!). Look into Tempe's schools and if you're satisfied w/ them I'd look for a house there.

I can add that if you are going to work in the East Valley (or really like poker ) then live in the East Valley, ditto for the WV. Mesa is the butt of a few local jokes, but it has nice neighborhoods if you look around, consider renting for 6 months here. I agree that crawling from too far south up to N Scottsdale in rush hour will make her life very stressful.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

From what I gather from most of the posts, Google is misleading when it states that the drive from Mayo Scottsdale to my office in Chandler is only about 30-35 minutes? I had figured we could live somewhere approximately halfway in between and be no more than 20-25 minutes away each.

As far as housing goes, right now we live in a 4 bedroom 3 bath 3 car garage ~2300 sq ft split level on a nice flat 0.2 acre lot that we bought about 5 years ago for 190k and would go for about 260k now. Good chance we would want something a little nicer than a split. Some quick googling found this place in Mesa for 385k that seems pretty nice. I have no idea if this is in a decent area though. Something similar to that around that price range would be great, although we could definitely be fine with something smaller. I see that this place is actually longer to get to Mayo by itself than Mayo is from my place of employment, and is still 20 minutes from my place of employment. Looking at a map can be a bit deceiving I guess.

I would definitely prefer public schools, but perhaps that's just because the public schools here where I grew up are awesome. Are public schools around Phoneix bad? I am a believer that what a kid gets out of school is just as much about the parents and the child than the school, assuming the school is safe and not absolutely awful.

Google time changes depending on time of day. Check at 8:30am and 4:45pm to get rush hour maxes.

Yabut people want OUT of MN and IN to AZ. You're going to get hammered wrt housing costs. I don't know where some of these commute times are coming from unless there's a secret tunnel from Scottsdale to Chandler I don't know about. I've been caught in that commute traffic a few times and it's pretty bad. The good thing is that AZ builds highways BEFORE they become absolutely essential. California builds them 20 years AFTER. So there are lots of good, huge highways all around Phoenix.

Luckily for you the housing near CAZ/Scottsdale is more expensive than in Chandler, so at least there will be some discussion on who suffers the worst commute.

Some of the public schools in the valley are in a tight spot educating students without English speaking parents and getting the shaft from funding by the state. Others appear to have broad support, I was at one up on Shea bvld just last week and thought I was in a small college. But you are right about parental involvement being the key, I knew plenty of really smart kids from the jumbo sized high schools.

I suspect your soul read from walking through any neighborhood, or looping on our highways, will be very clear; so I double down on my suggestion to rent a modest place for a little while. Consider the Mesa Riverview area as it is a locus for several nearby neighborhoods [as opposed to your linked listing which is deep within Mesa].

I highly recommend PV Charter schools. Sonoran Sky FTW, open enrollment.

In Tucson for the night n was looking to play some 1/3 maybe 2/5. Del sol the best option or any games run in town? Thanks