The Palace is by far the most luxurious/upscale card room in the area. Honorable mention to NVC.

Last time I was at Lucky Chances, about five years or so ago, I thought it had gone downhill substantially, and felt fairly seedy to me. Not "dangerous," but just a bit dirty around the edges, like someone had stopped caring.

The Oaks isn't as fancy, but is kept up better. (Says the man who would complain bitterly every Tuesday morning when the carpet cleaners disrupted the all-night 30-60.)

Better as a description of poker players than poker rooms IMO.

It's called The Palace for a reason

I dunno, anywhere people are eating off a covered up poker table as a cafeteria table is a bit questionable in my book.

I probably waited way too long to post this. I'm in SJC later in the week then usual and I've checked atlas and bravo, haven't been able to find any PLO. Is there any PLO running on a Thursday night around here?

I know that M8trix started running it on Tuesday, anywhere I might find it without driving an hour around here on a Thursday night?

Thank you

Too late for you, but Lucky Chances in Colma has 5/5/10 PLO every Thursday and 90% of Tuesday nights. Typically 2 tables on Thursday and 1-2 on Tuesday

Jackpot futility at AJs continues - the 1p-5p mini (AAAJJ beaten, $10k total) has only been hit a handful of times. Main reserve (8888 beaten, 100k total) is north of 1.2M now, so the main is any quads beaten as of this morning.

Which poker rooms in the Valley have the shortest wait.
I tried Bay 101 on Friday night, but the wait was hours and couldnt get a table.

When I lived in the South Bay my experience was that Bay 101 was bad and M8trix was worse. I just played low stakes NL, though. This was two years ago.

With M8trix you can call ahead to get your name on the list early, even for the small games. This let me get in pretty quickly on weeknights, but weekends was still a big wait.

M8trix is sometimes shorter, but on Fridays you often can't even find a parking space if you arrive past 5 pm. Artichoke Joes in San Bruno isn't really in Sillycon Valley but I imagine wait times would be shorter.

M8trix runs more NL games than Bay101 does, so even if the list is longer, the wait may be shorter.

Friday night is tough anywhere. Lucky Chances is in Colma, Artichoke Joe's js in San Bruno (FYI NL is rare there). You could probably call ahead and ask for the table/list ratio and whether they take callins.

Good luck.

So I may have 2-3 hours to kill before a flight tonight out of SFO, whats my best best? Preferred game is LHE in the 6/12-8/16 general range, but I'm OK donking around smaller to sample a room.

Apologies for not reading through the forum, but here on work, and time slot just potentially opened up so will be busy with work all day and only can peak at 2+2 occasionally.

I don't have a car, so I will ride-share my win in from Emeryville and then to the airport. Oaks was FUN last night ($370 in 1 hour of 6/12--hit pretty much every flush draw I had).

Probably the only place in range is Lucky Chances. Don't know if they have those limits though, I haven't been there in years. Search the site for the name to find the transportation options.

Artichoke Joe's is hands down the best option. It's like 5 minutes from SFO so there's no variance in how long it takes to get to the airport (if you play at Oaks and then someone crashes on the Bay Bridge you are ****ed). It's super acceptable to play with a suitcase beside you.

And Artichoke Joe's is basically LHE only, whereas LC may be spotty.

Fantastic. Hopefully dinner obligation ends by 7 and I can get a couple of hours in at AJ.

Made it to AJ for a couple of hours. Very convenient to catch a ride share to the airport. Security volunteered to check my bags behind the counter.

Good game (6/12). Friendly players. No dealer errors. Decor is pretty dated and I didnt like the Asian food smell, but I was there for the pokerz so I was a happy camper. Much better than sitting in the airport.

LA. Not much PLO in the bay area.

The information that pig4bill gave you is somewhere between questionable and downright wrong.

There is definitely a regular PLO game at Napa Valley Casino. I think the stakes are 1/2-ish. The game is organized by one of the players, and I hear to get on the waiting list you need to contact them directly. But this is all hearsay and you should just call NVC and ask whats up.

There are semi-regular PLO games around, ones that go but less than once a week, and others that run once or twice a week for a few weeks/months. Lucky Chances has a 2/5-ish game that ran for a while, as did M8trix and Graton.

I would call those 4 places before deciding.

I don't know much about southern California but I wouldn't be surprised if the total number of hours per month that PLO ran isn't within twofold of the SFBA. The advantage of LA is that it'll likely be concentrated in 1-2 big casinos rather than spread out over 3-4 small ones like it is here.

Can't say enough about Casino M8trix. Had to settle for an AM/ Early afternoon session Last Thursday.

Great crowd, sociable players, competent dealers with a sense of humor, and man is the place nice. Plus, they have happy hour (4.50 beers, even good ones) from like 3 to 6 pm.

Going to be in Milpitas for work from 4/12-4/27, can't wait to check out some Bay Area poker action!

I plan to play mostly 2/3/5 and 5/10/10. Maybe a little PLO if I am in the mood.

1.Any places I should check out besides Bay 101 and M8trix?
2. I've heard rumors it can be really hard to get seated, especially if it is busy -- and that the brushes will seat people they like ahead of unknowns. Does greasing the floor work? How do I do that and make my intentions known? What's the minimum amount that is likely to get me seated quickly?

Not for 2/3/5 (which is kind of everywhere) and 5/10 (which is only at M8trix).

I would suggest labeling as morons whoever you heard these rumors from.

With the caveat that I've never played 5/10, I've never seen any preferential treatment, either as a recreational player or as a regular.

Bribing the brush to give you a better spot would make you the outlier on the ******* end of yhe spectrum.

Both Bay and M8trix have their 2/3/5 DS, which is a 2/3/5/10. This runs daily.
They also both feature a 5/5/10, which is played as 5/5/10/20. This runs on Mondays in M8, and weekends in Bay. Maybe some other days, too.
Wednesdays and Fridays feature bigger games at M8 (10/25 and sometimes 10/25/50).

Great, thanks for the reassurance. I don't want to bribe, but would gladly do it if it was basically required in order to be seated without getting screwed.

Last couple of Fridays it seems more than a handful of Bay 101 regs have ventured to AJs to play 6-12. Not sure if it's the jackpot, the intimate setting lol, or the fact that you can get a free soda.