I will have a car. As for environment I don't care ... cardroom or casino ... just want to go to a nicer place, you know, no puddle of bodily fluids on the floor.....

The best cardroom in the county is probably Oceans11 in Oceanside. The issue is that on a Friday evening, you're probably talking at least an hour's drive with traffic to get there unless you leave Mission Valley after 7PM. There are a couple of smaller cardrooms close to where you're staying (Palomar and the Lucky Lady) - but they are both decidedly more ghetto.

If casino action is more you're style, Barona is probably the best closest to you. You're still talking about 30 minute drive on some winding roads to get there though.

To be honest, I live about a hour and a half north of San Diego, in Orange County, so I never make it south of Oceanside and the North County. Here's a spreadsheet of typical games/drops for those rooms (pretty standard in all of California): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...ZIMmc&hl=en_US Any of these rooms would be a signficant drive (1 hour or so) from Mission Valley.

I've never been to Lucky Lady but there is nothing ghetto about Palomar, FYI. It's like 2 minutes away from where you're staying they have a valet and it's free ($1-$2 tip or something.) The downside (for recreational players) is that you can't drink alchool there.

Oceans is a good drive from Mission Valley and you have to carefully choose your hours to avoid traffic on the 5 which can be a nightmare. I live in Mission Valley and it took me more than 1 hour to reach Oceans quite a few times when I picked wrong hours to drive.

Thanks guys

+1 to everything busto23 said, I'd recommend Palomar if you're in mission valley. Barona or Ocean's might be better if you weren't practically next door to Palomar.

They have 2/3NL ($30 to $300 buyin) and 3/6 LHE, both with a $5 drop per hand (LOL) but they're both beatable anyways. And a $5 foodcomp for playing 90minutes. Plus friendly dealers and floorstaff.

I'm biased on account of playing at Palomar every single day, but they don't pay me anything hehe :P

Palomar used sunlight for lighting and pencils/paper for keeping track of player balances.

It was about as muggy as a jungle but the 5/10 was pretty good but then sundown came and it was time to leave lol

Yeah I don't know why people bad mouth the palomar it's about the most fun place to play cards I've ever been !!

From time to time a dealer gets strangled but beond that there is very little violence , some of the regulars are hilarious ! Coupled with that it's it's a 15 min drive from any nice area of San Diego beaches included

I'd have to say the 2/3 is a little tougher than the 1/2 games at the sychaun or barona most all regulars are somewhat competent even if they are total gambling addicts !

haha I was there that night when it happened (dealer getting tackled by insanely tilted big game regular), good times

just found this thread for the first time today. looks like i got some readin to do.

Hey guys I know this has been asked +1000 times, but just wanted to clarify b/c I am possibly moving to san diego next month and I am kinda a one trick pony and play NLHE.

So Oceans 11 is by far the biggest poker room in SD, does it run $5/5 every single day usually?

However, Palomar is much closer to where I want to live and where I possibly might be working. What is the biggest NLHE game that runs there daily? Only $2/$3 NLHE with $2/$5 only running on the weekends??

O11, just seems far from where I was looking to settle, but I'd really want to be closer to bigger action.

5/10 NL runs just about everyday at palomar.

oh ok cool thanks man.

zomg busto23 tapping the glass and saying twoplustwo outloud at the 2/3NL at palomar

*me slaps busto23 with a big trout

So theres a chance I will be moving out to San Diego for a job, any poker players looking for a roommate?

Palomar never spreads a $2/$5....only $2/3 and $5/$10 daily.

Which dealer and what the heck happened?

None of those guys at the table had any clue of what I was saying Fun times though, can't wait to build up the roll and take your monies at 5/10

BTW man you know I was in top 64 worldwide on Bnet at Starcraft 1 (use to compete etc.) Maybe we should game sometimes.

my old roomie JonnyCosmo used to be on a broodwar clan, & he's masters-league in sc2. im just gold league X_X PM me battlenet ID imo

also pm me your actual name cuz i dun wanna call you busto at the tables :O

it's pretty much as I said. a player known for throwing tantrums pulled some shenanigans on a dealer while he was dealing, the dealer did not take kindly to the things the player was doing and told him as much, and then the player tackled the dealer. then the player got 86'd.

doesnt seem like the names of the parties involved should be shared over the internets.

Ok. Back from my trip. Since I didn't make the Padres game do to Alamo car rental not understanding the concept of a reservation .... I decided to visit Palomar.

I had never been in a california card room before and did not know what to expect. I was quite surprised. Somebody here referred to it as "ghetto" thats not how I would refer to it..... more that it felt like it was just thrown together. Though the place could use a little bit of a scrubbing down. It reminded me of my days in underground rooms.

Thats not a bad thing, but I was surprised.

I came on a friday night probably about 9:30 or 10 ish and the place was busy. All tables (except a blackjack table) were going. I was immediately greeted by a floorperson who was propping a game and got my name on the $3-$6 list. A little while later the no limit game that the floor had been propping broke down and they opened a new $3-$6 game. We filled up pretty fast, but as players kept being moved to the main game we had two floor people moving in and out of the game to prop it. The woman who greeted when I came in as pleasant ( i can't remember her name) the other guy JB kept grumbling on and on about his bad beats ..... I don't think he likes to play $3-$6 and it showed.

The game was good. A lot of action and I was surprised at how bad the play was. I'm not very good at poker but they made the game seem easy. Even the players who identified me as playing tight kept giving me action when I made a hand and bet. I left about 1 AM ahead $45.

There was one thing I don't get. I understand the law doesn't allow them to take the rake as a percentage of the pot....and they take $5 flat. But since there is a no flop no drop policy ..... why do they take the blinds .... why not just wait until there is a flop and then take $5 out of the pot? It seems so confusing not having the blinds out there when the action comes back around.

didn't see any problems at all. Players seemed reasonably pleasant to the staff and other players. Sure there was grumbling about beats and the such and whining about how the other guy called a preflop hand with crap .... but none of it was over the line stuff. Dealers were a bit passive about running the game but seemed to be what i am used to seeing in vegas. Most of them were not very chatty but one of them wouldn't shut up.

I was a little shocked that at 12:15 AM the valet came in and gave everybody their keys. I understand a place like that doesn't need a 24 hr valet (in fact i could argue they don't need a valet at all), but it seems that was a bit early on a friday night to end the service. I noticed players tipping the valet when he returned the keys. I gave him a couple bucks when I left the car, and I would have given him a couple more when he got the car .... but i can't tip a guy for not getting my car.

I would certainly go back if I was in the area.

This is a casino by casino policy. Most leave the blinds out and then drop post flop. BTW - no flop no drop is a San Diego County thing. All the rooms in L.A., Temecula, Palm Springs, etc. take a "modified" drop - usually a $1, but as high as $2.

Crazy stuff. I've been playing there for years and have seen a few near fights but never a dealer attacked. I didn't care who the reg was but had just been wondering which poor dealer got attacked. I can understand if you don't want to post that though. Dealers at Palomar take more abuse than most places imo. I actually called the floor a few weeks ago after one reg was giving a dealer a particularly bad time and kept throwing his cards at the dealer after taking a beat.

I like the bold one who says "Chakala-boom!" whenever someone goes all in. I tip him just for that

Yea...he is good and he always keeps the game moving.

MAGANII oh !! SHAKA LA BOOM !!! Noooooooooooo !! MAG AN III !!!!!!

I got carded tonight. I'm 28 and I play everyday almost and got carded. LOL!