where can I play 5/10 or 10/20 NL and what days/times does the game run?

It's Spread Limit at Oaks, I believe. I play limit, so someone else would have to kick in with specifics

Percentage rake in California is illegal.

They dont take like $1 per $10 in the pot? They just take $4?!?!?

Correct, a $4 drop is taken out of the pot on the flop.

When does O8 usually run at AJ's?

Also to fill in one of the blanks above, last I checked the drop is $6 for $4/8 O8 at Bay 101, no BBJ. It's been a long time since I've seen a good enough game there to make it profitable w/that drop.

Always on Monday afternoon/evenings, though it has been dying earlier. I've seen it on other days similar times, too. I've never there before 3p or so. Doesn't seem to last much past 6-7p.

Oaks 1-2 is indeed $4 drop with $2 limp. Chopping the blinds is allowed. No flop no drop. Max buy-in is $200 and the max bet or raise is $100. So if someone bets 60, the max you you can make it is 160, he can make it 260, etc. There IS a BBJ. It's quads beaten. Both holecards from both hands must play. Was at 44000 yesterday, maxxes out at 50k.

Ok, wow. Im from Florida where its 10% + $1 for BBJP. So if the pot is $10 they take $1 not $4.

Bay Area players have a crap deal.

So if you end up all in vs some bad player preflop with a $40 stack you are only making $34 ($4 rake + $2BBJP) for your $40. That sucks considering the number of players that buy in short.

I gotta reconsider my places to play then.

I live a few blocks away from AJ, but I still drive to Bay101 to play 2-3x a week.

AJ - no games, 1 or 2 NL games running sometimes but it's mostly limit joint.

Lucky Chances- used to frequent, but is not that great. physically dirty place, white chips are sticky grey and I got ring worm on my arms before where they rest on the table.., lots of short buying(50%+ of players), angle shooting, grumpy old players.. ie the regular degens. Profitable, but miserable.

Bay101 - cleaner room, more social(rich) players- lots of silicon valley business guys, IT guys and dotcoms. Hugely profitable, and acceptable considering my sessions are usually long.

Almost 17 BB/Hour winrate in live poker? Seems crazy if true.

It's definitely cool that you can buy in for as much as the biggest stack though—I'm sure this helps beating the rake when you are properly rolled to buy in for 200+ BB.

I live near AJs too but the 1/2 game plays much higher with all the damn kill pots and the $5 limp.

So at Bay 101 they buy in for more? No shorties like LCs?

there definately are shorties, but not nearly as much as LC. most ppl buy in for 100 or 200

Last time I was at AJ (Friday April 29th), it was running at noon. Can't speak for how long it ran.

There is a 1/2 LHE game (as in yes they play with $0.50 chips) as well as a 5-100 spread limit game (called "100 max") with 1/2 blinds and plays like 1/2 NL. Don't confuse the two.

I'm not certain about the 100 max game, but the 1/2 LHE game is definitely eligible for the BBJ. I'm also 70-80% sure that the 100 max game is eligible for the BBJ but I'll defer to anyone who's actually played it more than a few minutes.

I think the player skill at the LC 1/2 make it very profitable. They play some of the worst poker I have ever seen. I realize the rake is brutal and a lot of shorties play...but there are many situations where you are just given the chips. Also, you can combat shorties by table changes. I also fail to see how a 4 dollar open makes it harder to play the game and can only make it more profitable...same with the game's voluntary kills.

The 3/5 is also a pretty good game. Players are pretty bad, although still worlds better than the 1/2 players.

Also, for city dwellers without cars: BARTable/pub transit card rooms.

LC is super easy...you just get off at the COLMA BART station and they run a free shuttle every half hour (there is also a taxi stand)

I've taken a bus from the transbay terminal to get to Oaks.

Are any of the other bay area cardrooms accessible without cars?

You can also take the BART to the Macarthur/40th stop and take a free shuttle called the Emery-Go-Round to the Oaks. There are three different shuttle lines; you can take either of two of them.

The Oaks is located between red stops #2 and #19 on this map.

http://www.emerygoround.com/schedule-maps

They've been changing the routes every once in a while so if you're reading this post in the distant future check carefully.

I readjusted my strategy for LC. Play VERY tight, no stealing, limp with decent hands on the cutoff/button in a big limped pot (Q9s, 76o for example), rely tell reading for most hands, play simple odds, and basically throw poker theory out the window.

Hey wait a second thats how I used to play 4 years ago when I was a mediocre player and was crushing the game for a ******ed amount of money.

I realized the $4 limp and rake makes not much of a difference when you play tight, lets tons of players in the pot, and account for it heads up. It punished loose play. With good players tells are 10% the value of a hand but with these players it seems tells are 65% of the hand, if not more. Tell reading is completely and utterly overriding my poker theory 90% of the time and its right that often.

Like this hand...
EP raises, MP calls, BUT (JJ) calls.
Flop: 974 rainbow - EP bets 3/4p, MP calls, BUT calls.
Turn 3 rainbow - EP bets pot, MP folds, BUT folds.
Online this looks like ok this is a fold, EP has a set or at least QQ+.

Same hand live... last night
My radar went off like a million dollar slot hit in LV. I was the one with JJ and EP was doing every (strong means weak) tell, I knew of, on the flop and on the turn. Slamming chips, making strong eye contact, aggressive posturing, making comments at the pot but keeping himself distant in the conversation.... Math made me fold but I my reads screamed "CALL, CALL, CALL, he has TT or AK at best QQ"

I talked him into show his hand... TT. Tells were right and I was sad.

So far I found this @ LC as a general play
#1 Players limp-coldcall AA/KK OOP even when there are 3-4 people left to act behind them. Then donk bet into the crowd.
#2 Players limp AK 1/2 the time and dont raise even in position
#3 Players slowplay every strong hand, no matter what MOST of the time
#4 Players call huge 3 bets with medium pairs thinking you always have AK
#5 Shorties shoving is an easy call/fold if you just watch their body language quiet=AA/KK, spazzy=just about everything else.

Man Ive been out of the loop a long time with live play.

I agree about how important tells are there. I think the overall biggest weakness is the propensity to call a 12-20 dollar raise OOP, not playing medium strength hands correctly AT ALL, and not understanding pot size vs bet size vs stack size ratios.

Oh...and this is me on 04/30/11...had to post...

LOL wow, i once built $40 into $1100 at the LC spread limit, but that sir, is a huge 1-1-2 stack. well done.

They let you take a picture in there? Im shocked.

I take pictures of my stack all the time all over the Bay Area and I've never even gotten a verbal warning.

It's not like you ask your stack to stand and say "cheese" . Just take phone, snap pic. Usually no one can even tell. I take them all the time, when stack is large or just with beer in photo to rub it in to buddies that I'm at card room and they're not.

explains a lot. I played in Florida and A/C. The dealers are much better and they are very strict on policy. An LC dealer cost me an extra $30 the other day. I was pissed.

An actual good player bet on the turn and I figured out his hand, I waited for a while thinking what to do and raised him. Then this girl to the right of the dealer puts in $15 after my bet. I ask the dealer whats going on, dealer says she called. I never heard her, no one every heard her, and she had her hands over her cards. I thought she had folded because it was such a long time before I made my raise. In Florida or A/C the dealer would have said "call" for the girl if no one heard her or at least told me to wait my turn. I was stuck with $45 I put in the pot which would have turned into a call for $15 instead if she called. LC's does have some good dealers but not many.