I played in it yesterday... 64 people total. Which has it's pros and cons. Mostly bad because of smaller prizepool but good because you can show up on time or for late reg without having to be an alternate and wait 2 hours like it used to be. $520 BI, $10k up top 7 spots paid 7th got $1.5k. I got 9th....

I know I've said this before, but with all of the money in the Seattle area, combined with all of the brainy types, I'm really surprised that there isn't a poker room that does huge business (20+ tables a day type of room). The Northeast, California, and Florida all have poker rooms that are still packed constantly with tons of action.

Relative to the NE and FL, it has to do with the historical development of the game here. There's been a tradition of little local cardrooms for I guess decades, which greatly diminishes the centralizing influence of one or two prestige rooms like in Philly, Pgh, Foxwoods (old but huge with little competition), etc. Why drive 45 minutes to an Indian casino if I can play at a small room literally three miles away?

CA has a similar trajectory to WA of local cardrooms predating the more remote Indian casinos, but CA also has enough population that the Commerce, Bike, and Bay 101 are the local cardrooms.

Note that this history is also why the %age of limit games is so much greater in CA and WA.

I agree. Imagine an Aria type poker room in Seattle or the Eastside.

Problem is the State's gaming regulations. For example non-tribal casinos are limited to something like 14 tables total. 14 total tables - poker plus the others like blackjack and paigow. Tribal casinos face the same table calculus but at much higher levels. Yet every tribal poker table in use reduces their inventory of other tables like blackjack. Another issue for non-tribals: the maximum wager of $100.

The Tribes have a monopoly on size and the higher spread. This advantage is not going away or be given up easily. Doesn't matter how much the Tribes decommit from poker.

Sucks doesn't it.

Correction. "Mini-casinos" are permitted to operate a maximum of 15 total tables.

The licensing and operation of Washington State card rooms are handled by the Washington State Gambling Commission, which regulates poker and other card games pursuant to Title 230, Chapter 230-15 of the Washington Administrative Code.

working M-F 9-5 and with traffic so bad really only leaves weekends as viable playing days at either the Muck or Tulalip.

if theres anyone here that works at MSFT, and is interested in car-pooling on weekdays or weekends, shoot me a pm

Interesting points. I don't live in WA state, but I'm considering moving there because of the beauty and the nice temperate year-round weather. Overall, would you guys consider the poker scene to be slowly growing or slowly declining? I'm far from a pro, but I do like to play 4-5 times a week for a few hours just to get out of the house!

First thing to clarify: By "poker scene" do you mean NLHE scene or all different variants?

Compared to poker's Chris Moneymaker inspired hay-day of 10 years ago, a precipitous decline for Hold'em. Both in the number of tables and spread. Just a couple of examples.. Parkers, gone; Sno and Tualalip - major reductions in tables. And what is being spread for Hold'em, smaller games in general.

I've heard that Diamond Lil's has a pretty thriving scene for limit games, all the way up to 20-40, which runs regularly. Is this true? Are there other places near Seattle that offer 20-40 limit or similar stakes consistently? Also, if a max bet is $100 outside of the tribal casinos, how do you 3-bet on the turn and river in 20-40 limit hold 'em?

its the max raise in that case.

Can you cold 3-bet $120?

Yes.

On saturday, someone bet "pot" on the flop for 150, next guy "re-pots" to 650, I max raise to 1150. Someone can then max raise to 1650, but thats the cap (3 max raises).

Works only in the Washington State Tribal poker rooms. The $500 max bet, the state limit, as per this example.

I understood the question to be about 20/40 limit poker and the answer to be about tribal casino big-bet, but the answer is indeed yes. In 20/40 limit player A can bet the turn or river, player B can raise, player C can make it $120 cold, and player D can make it $160 cold.

Bet and three raises is the max, even in big bet. Weird.

Other weirdness: For whatever reason, in non-tribal cardrooms Omaha is capped at a $40 bet rather than $100 for HE. For a while the bowling alley in Skyway was running $20/40 LO8 with a pseudo-kill that was really just a forced raise, since the stakes couldn't go up.

Sadly the Hideaway has put their Monday 15/30 LO8 game in jeopardy by starting Chinese poker the same night. Management there is generally very deliberate about planning out what games the market can support, so it's surprising to me that they aren't more sensitive to this. I've had a couple of conversations and been assured they don't think cannibalism is taking place, but they're pretty clearly wrong.

When multiple regulars go to play Chinese, or sit and wait in Chinese then don't want to leave, it creates a cascading effect that breaks games--it gets to 7-handed, then someone else leaves because it looks like the game is dying etc. etc. Probably 6 of the past 8 weeks the 15/30 LO8 has died Monday mid-evening, whereas in the summer it was often going until Tuesday noon.

I will bring it up again and see if I can convince the owner to take this seriously. She confirms that given the choice, the house makes more on LO8.

Doesn't help that the two big LO8 donors have been away for different reasons, but the games have still been good at times.

Hey fellow 2plus2er's of Seattle, I'm in search of a place to rent while playing full time in the Seattle area.

I've been grinding the LA Commerce games for awhile and due to unexpected circumstances I have moved close to family in WA for awhile. It's unfortunate due to the super "JUICY" LA games running and would definitely be still in LA if I could.

The place doesn't have to be over the top luxurious but close to Renton and nice restaurants would be convenient. Would be great if I could rent a room with fellow poker players for awhile.

Please message me if you know of any availability, price, etc.

Near good restaurants is going to be easy, but what type of price are you looking at?

I have yet to do research on sublets and temporary housing prices but ideally would like to start here first since renting to a full time poker player doesn't come off as stable as a MSFT software developer when it comes to looking for roommates.

Doesn't seem like you have done research on games available in Seattle either.

Quick glance at Commerce, it has 35 NL games of different stakes.

Muckleshoot has 3.

I'm highly aware of the games out here, don't remind me. It is what it is though (temporary)

Doesn't look like you read his post SeaUlater. He said he would stay in LA if he could...
TyCommerce look for a place near renton/Auburn for your best bet. It will be a lot harder and more of a grind to play full time in WA but still possible. GL

I don't think you understood my post.

Winning in Commerce and winning in Seattle are very different.

Say you need to be top 10% in a pool of 800 players to sustain full time, it's rather easy.

In Seattle, you might need to be top 5% of 80 players to sustain full time.

Nice conversation with yourself.

CommerceTy, suggest you check-out the Tulalip 5/10/ forced 25 straddle pot-limit omaha game. The average pots seem significant with lots of action. Typically this game is spread on Thursdays and sometimes on the weekend. I have only watched.

Good luck in your search for housing.