Editorial:
HG has some improvements over Commerce, but still trails Hustler in my book. It's not as cramped as Commerce, and the dealers actually do their job and alert the floor staff regarding new players sitting down. I haven't put in enough mileage to know whether it's populated by tons of dealer and player abusing *******s like Commerce, but I didn't see any (not even any swearing, which is just weird when you're used to Commerce).

I think it's pretty ridiculous that you have to kill the pot even if you just steal blinds. If you steal the blinds you win $11 (because of the $1 drop), but then have to post $12. At Commerce you at least have win some chips besides the blinds. At Hustler the pot size has to be $42, not counting uncalled bets/raises, in order to make it a kill.

The $10K jackpot seed seems stingy, but when you consider the $100K super every other hour, maybe not so much. And they don't drop for the jackpot if there is no flop, so that's a huge improvement over Commerce.

The player rewards are paltry. Nothing like the accumulation of cash equivalents like the points on the Commerce or Hustler cards.

If it weren't so far out of the way for me, I'd definitely play here as a backup to Hustler when the wait is too long there.

I really like the 25 at Hustler, but still prefer the 40 at commerce due to the profitability.
I wish the dealer abuse wasn't what it is though. I also wonder if the abuse is a result of a lot of errors that I see, or if the errors are a product of the abuse.

Can anyone give info about which LA area poker rooms do or do not have free wifi available? Thanks!

Hustler does in theory, but I can't get it to work on my phone. My acceptance of the Terms and Conditions doesn't seem to register.

I think there is WiFi at Commerce as well. It is intended for hotel guests, but you can still get a weak signal on the main floor.

I just found out I get good wifi reception in the high limit side at Commerce, but gambling sites are blocked, including 2+2!
Hawaiian Gardens also had it available.

the Bike also has WiFi

I am at the Bike right now; they have the slowest wifi I have ever used. I'm over the 4g data cap in my plan, but my throttled to 3g service is faster than the wifi here.

Get more gigs?
Or focus more on the game?

Not sure if there is an Orange County thread, but anyone know what the closest casino/poker room to Newport Beach is, and is there public transportation to get there? (I'll be in Newport Beach for work, and probably will not have a rental car.)

Thanks in advance.

There are no legal poker rooms in Orange County. The closest room the the north (probably closest for you) is Hawaiian Gardens. The closest to the south is Oceans 11.

I was wondering about this. When I played at Commerce I'd frequently run into people from behind the Orange Curtain and figured so many wouldn't be driving up here if there were other options.

Also, not to burst your bubble, but Public Transportation in So Cal is non-existant. Any attempt to go to L.A. to play would be 3 to 4 hours by bus. Even to get to O11 in Oceanside would require cabbing to the Amtrak station in Santa Ana and picking up a train for an hour plus ride to Oceanside.

Unfortunately, your best option is to rent a car.

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flightcar is a relatively inexpensive car rental service in LA, if you need to go that route.

Hey guys. I'm a TV writer from Toronto planning out a move to, where else, LA. My agent, my network, everything is up here in Canada - so I do not expect to be a paid writer on Mad Men right away. What I am, however, is a damn good poker dealer. I used to throw cards to get me through my most starving of starving artist days and finding a club in LA that's looking to try out a new dealer would be perfect. I'm fast, experienced, and because I'm Canadian you know I'm polite.

If you are familiar with the underground scene and are open to passing on some info, I'd really appreciate a PM. I know it's always suspicious talking to a random on the internet about "gambling dens," but I got my first dealing gig in Toronto this way - and that led to thousands and thousands in rake for the club and speedy, competent sessions for the players.

I see all the casino card rooms posted throughout this thread, but unfortunately my working papers will be specific to the film and TV industry, so I can't take any other over-the-table work, ya know?

For the sake of contributing and not just mooching the forum for advice (but seriously, help me out!), Rent-A-Wreck is an incredible service. The car is like $10 a day. It might die on you, but then you just leave it on the side of the highway and walk away*

*Cannot verify. Attempt at own risk.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Very helpful. I had been assuming OC would have something, even if small, just because LA has so many. Guess not.

Ha ha. What will California think of next?!

Wait until you get to Newport Beach. You'll see first hand that much of OC is super conservative and very nimby. The card rooms here in LA are not in the type of neighborhoods a lot of OC wants, if you catch my drift.

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A mini, slightly off-topic primer on why card rooms tend to be where they are in CA:

A. Card rooms have to be allowed in by the cities they're in. The cities that are more willing to accept the "stigma" (in quotes for a reason) that a card room brings are the smaller ones that need the money and don't have a lot of pesky residents who argue at City Council meetings. Note that there are no card rooms in the city of LA. Cities that have rooms: Commerce, Bell Gardens, Gardena, Inglewood, Compton, Hawaiian Gardens. I'll be charitable and call them all "working class."

B. There has been a statewide moratorium in place on new non-tribal card rooms for quite some time. This was legislated in at the behest of the card room owners themselves, who were struggling and didn't want more competition. So, even if someone wanted to build a new room in a receptive city, they currently cannot.

In other words, no card rooms in Orange County.

Very interesting. Completely opposite of NJ, NY, PA, many other eastcoast states, where it is controlled state wide, and has been, forever I think.

It is still controlled and regulated statewide, but there are also local rules that need to be adhered to. Not terribly different for any other business, just more regulated- if you want to open a donut shop you have to meet state and local standards, can't imagine that's different anywhere else.

Let me rephrase my question: Are there underground poker clubs in LA, as there are in Toronto and NYC?

Part two: How would I go about getting referals to these clubs when I arrive in LA? Best to visit all the legal card rooms that are frequently written about on this forum? Or are there postings somewhere online or even someone on here who is a Canadian sympathizer and would be willing to PM me some contacts?

Thanks, guys.

Are you talking about high stakes private games that occasionally make the news, or actual unlicensed card clubs? The motivation to have the latter decreases greatly when, unlike in NYC, there are legal options readily available. They may exist, but good luck getting someone to give out details to some guy on the Internet.

High-stakes, mid-stakes, low-stakes - but yes, unlicensed is what I'm thinking. Perhaps there aren't as many in LA because of the existence of legal card rooms, but I'd be interested to hear from those in the know.

Yup, totally fair, so any suggestions for how to track these games down offline would totally be appreciated. I would suspect, as is usually the case up here, just going to the legal games and chatting with the players is the best method.

there are a lot of home games that you can find on Meetup.com . These are going to be low stakes that are geared to be more recreational, but are easy to find if you don't want to go out to a card room. I've seen a pretty fair amount of local options on there. The good news is that often there is no rake or a small amount to chip in for snacks.