You can basically turn the points into cash. I'm pretty sure you can go to VIP services and order items from Amazon.

Thanks for all the info. I am planning to make a trip to LA for a week or two just to play every day/all day. Considering either the commerce or the bike.

Unfortunately none have written back to me , was hoping I could get discount on the hotel, especially if I play 10/10 or sth.

Nice, thanks, that's good to know.

Yeah np. Good luck and you should probably check out both places if you're visiting from out of town. They are like 10min away from each other. And I don't think they have player's discounts for the hotels. The Bike has less action and you might have to wait to get into a game so it may be better to visit there during peak times. They also have a deeper structure, the 5/5 is 1k max buy-in versus the Commerce 500 max buy-in for 5/5.

Rake is $1 for admin fee, $1 for BBJP Drop.

Then as soon as you get to the flop they up the Drop to $5 no matter how much is in the pot.

Same rake for 5/5 and 5/10 at Commerce. 5/5 is $500 Max, 5/10 is $1500 max buy in.

I played the $1100 tourney here a month and a half ago or so. Sketchy stuff all around. And maybe I had a good table but there were 3-4 players who were absolutely terrible and only one who I'd say I have no edge against (and I know I'm not that good). Like so bad you fold a straight when there's a 4-straight and a flush on board to multiple streets of strength and she proudly turns over her slowplayed set of Ks. Never even occurred to her she might be beat on that board.

But the sketchy stuff:

1) Quiet kinda hot chick is at my table playing for a while. Seems solid and fairly active. Cheeseball reg sits down next to her and starts chatting her up - obviously they know each other. Reg proceeds to make fun of just about every other player at the table to her - in semi-poker code but completely obvious. On the surface he's saying good hand and being nice to the bad players, but then obviously making fun of them in low tones to her. Like we can't hear you dude. When he's discussing the hand he just had with me in low tones - I chime in and he looks at me like "this is a private conversation" lol. Don't be that reg.

Anyway I get in a hand with her and c-bet a K-high flop and he starts making a grrrrr sound to her as she starts to fold. WHAT THE ****. She folded anyway. Then he did it again when she started to call a nitty old guy's UTG raise. She called that anyway too lol. Then she ran a crazy 3-street bluff on a paired board in a 5-way pot. Otherwise nitty guy called her down with trips obviously. She seemed shocked at his hand. Clearly she needed the help the reg was giving her.


2) Later I get in a hand with my new buddy to the right (the nitty guy from the trips hand) who's been amassing a big stack by playing super tight and getting monsters (I always try to make friends with a bigstack on my right). A-hole reg bets turn, bigstack calls, I have KQs for top pair and turned flush draw on two-suited board and I'm short stacked. My new buddy starts moving his leg and nudging me under the table. Twice. He'd never done that in 3 hours of playing with him. He was clearly trying to tell me he had a big hand and to get out of the way. What the hell am I supposed to do there? It's not like he did anything provable - but I know what he was doing. I think he just didn't want to play a big pot but maybe a little was being nice to me.

To my credit I guess I shoved anyway - obviously I'm never folding that. A-hole reg shoved over me, bigstack called with his set but wasn't happy about it. A-hole reg had the other flush draw and got there. Bigstack who was not big stack anymore - was apoplectic. He just really didn't want to play big hands w/o the nuts.


Commerce man - shady stuff. Is this kind of stuff normal for medium-high buyin tourneys at Commerce?

Pretty sure I saw some coke deals go down to from this one giant fat guy who was snorting like he just did a gram in the bathroom - that everyone probably knows who I'm talking about. He railed (lol) our final table at the Gardens last week.

I wouldn’t say it’s all that unusual but also wouldn’t call it common at that level of tourney (I played the same one). I’ve certainly had scared old nits flash their aces at me to get me to fold before, that’s the same as your kick under the table. But the guy making audible noises to affect action- I would have called that out.

Yeah I should have. I was shocked the first time he did it and I hate table confrontations. But next time I will for sure. He'll deny of course.

He’ll deny, but he’ll also stop doing it.

question regarding the comps. at 5/10 and above. ive heard that you get $3/hr AND free food. the $3 per hr is reedemable for hotel rooms. how true is that, and is it only redeemable against the full rate, or the poker players rate? whats the players rate anyways? thanks!!!!

There is no free food @ 5/10. You get 3/h that you can use for food or anywhere around the casino in the shops. You can also transfer your points to some type of vip card so they don't expire. You can use your points for different items but there is a process in place where you need to request the item before hand. Once you do that, their promo office sends you an amount for how many points it will cost (at a varying markup that they choose) then you can choose to purchase the item. Promo office has bizarre hours and isn't open at the posted times they say they will be. You need to go to the promo office in person to facilitate many aspects of the transaction which can make it a nightmare. Hopefully they have since improved their process.

Looking at Bravo to check out the game selection at Commerce. I see "10-100 M - Omaha H/L W/KILL"
What is the stucture of this game? I understand the Omaha Hi/Lo aspect and kill. Is this a spread limit game, no limit game, or limit game? Or is the 10-100 refering to the buy-ins?

Thanks!

Knowing they use scans to track your wins , Is it worth it to scan card for comps to pay max tax winnings?

Not sure what you're talking about. Unless you cash out more than 5k at the cage I don't think anything gets reported to the IRS. They don't use scans to track your wins.

I’ve been seeing a 0-$600 NL table on the list. What is that game?

$600NL is 10/20 and it's played in the hotel section. $600 minimum buy in and no cap. Doesn't normally run.

Hi, I see on Bravo, Commerce pretty regularly gets multiple tables of "4-8 L BIG O" I presume this to be limit Big O. Just to confirm, is this hi only or hi-lo? Also, as an above poster asked, what does "10-100 M Omaha H/L" mean? I'll be down there in a few months and am (obviously) a Hi/Lo player. Thanks!

2.30 and 7.15 on how the use video software and tracking from when you enter the casino

fyp.
just put the 11 digit id (hAoABuvzOZM) between the youtube brackets.

Also just because the casino is tracking your movements doesn't mean they are reporting your winnings to the IRS. Try a simple experiment. Cash out $4800 at the cage. Then try cashing out >$5000 at the cage. Only one of these times will they ask you for your ID.

I'm not sure what that is supposed to prove.

They absolutely track how much you win and lose at table games, since that goes directly to their bottom line.

It's at best unclear whether they track anything at the poker table. All they get is rake, they don't care whether you win or lose beyond that. But who knows, maybe they are tracking your buy ins at the cage and from chip runners. I definitely agree they have the surveillance technology to do this.

None of that means they are reporting it to the IRS though. There are certain things they are required to do for the IRS or for FinCEN, and you better believe they are doing them. (This is where that $5K number comes from, casinos are required to report cashouts of $10K in a day, so to make sure they catch structuring throughout the day they look for cashouts of $3-5K instead, and monitor if people hit the cage repeatedly in a day. But this reporting is to FinCEN, a part of Treasury looking for money laundering, not to the IRS for tax purposes.) Beyond that, though, there is no benefit to them of reporting things. They want you to keep as much of your money as possible, because that is money they have the chance to take from you again later. Money that you have to pay the Feds is no longer money a casino can earn themselves.

As far as we know, casinos don't report anything to the Feds which they are not legally required to report. That includes your wins and losses at the poker table in cash games. All they are required to report are tournament wins over a given size and promo and jackpot wins over a given size. And if they do track it, then there is a chance they will be asked to report on it later, which is just additional liability for them if they do it wrong. If they don't track it, there's nothing they can report.

Yeah I asked a bunch of regs at a different LA casino if the casino ever reported tourney winnings to the IRS and they all said no.

They will report any tournament win over 5k.

Right - and you have to fill out the W-9 form. But otherwise no.

It’s a W-2g and you’re not filling anything out, they’re collecting your info and doing it for you. And it’s hit or miss that you receive the W-2 itself in the mail later in the year. BUT they are sending those $5k+ wins to the IRS, so with or without the actual form the IRS will know about it and bust you if you don’t report the income.

And lol at asking a bunch of (presumably) daily tourney regs about it, who have never sniffed a $5k win.

You're right I was remembering it as W-9 for some reason. It's W-2g. Gardens gave it to me on the spot. So now I have to keep receipts of my entry into other tournies to offset it.

I was specifically asking the regs what was reported outside of this form. I knew the form was going to the IRS.

I do the same and always recommend to others (and save losing sports betting tickets, lotto tickets, etc). You won’t need them when you report, but you sure as hell will if you get audited.