Hey all,

I hope I'm posting this is the right forum, but if not mods, pls feel free to move it. Thanks.

So, I'm looking to move to Southern California with the intent of playing a mix of online poker and live games. Since I'd probably be looking to play live a few times a week, I'd be interested in living a reasonable commute from a casino (ie. less than an hour drive) that has a good number of games (at least NLH and PLO) and different stakes. Does this basically limit me to the LA area (ie. Commerce) or would the San Diego area be worth looking into as well for a part-time live player?

I would also consider San Francisco, but would likely prefer the more consistently warm and sunny weather and lower cost of living of the other cities down south.

I'm probably gonna head down to check out the SD and LA areas next month, so I'm interesting in finding suitable living areas to checkout. I'm in my late 30s and would be looking to live in quiet and safe place.

Any suggestions on this topic would be great! Many thx :-)

You'll be fine in LA or San Diego, but there are more poker options in LA. As for the "where" part, it's way too broad a map to really answer (although if people respond, you'll start to hear about every single liveable area in a 20 mile radius of Commerce. Doesn't really narrow it down). In LA you won't be living very close to any of the cardrooms since you want safe and quiet, and anything more than about 15-20 miles can easily become a f***-me-in-the-head level commute. You're better off asking questions about specific areas.

And don't get your hopes up too high about PLO anywhere, it's few and far between.

Lucky Chances in Colma (just south of San Francisco) spreads both NLHE and PLO. Other NLHE venues in the Bay Area include Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno (a bit further south from Colma), the Palace in Hayward (across the bay), and the California Grand (on the other side of the East Bay hills).

I live in Cypress, 3 miles away from Hawaiian Gardens, and not all that far away from Bike or Commerce. We have better weather than SF or SD. We have a race track and a nearby beach. We're near Long Beach Airport, where you can hop on a flight to Vegas. My neighborhood is crime-free and quiet except for the sounds of chirping children and birds playing in the park. Equally desirable are Cerritos, Lakewood, or Long Beach.

hahahhahahaha......you said you have better weather than sd......good one.

carlsbad, san clemente, encinitas (cardiff, leucadia), oceanside seem to fit your description. oceans 11 is in oceanside (right off I-5) and has from 1/1 nl up to 10/10nl (no cap). there are usually several games of 5/5nl ($1500max) running daily and probably 5-6 2/3nl games daily. there is also a $500 max plo game that runs every friday and most saturdays.

well, if youre like most out of towners you want to live in or near hollywood. luckily theres a casino right there called, appropriately, Hollywood Park. theres tons of cheap housing nearby as well.

this is northern cali

but if you do the palace is the place to be. 1/2 unlim buyin on weekends there is at LEAST 10k in play

....yeah i know

Great 15/30 limit and $500 NL games too

This ^^^ is goofy advice. First of all, Hollywood Park is nowhere near Hollywood. Second, why would anybody want to live in Hollywood? It's an older, rundown, not-so-safe neighborhood; fun place to live if you're single with lotta money, otherwise sucky.

Also, the cheap housing near Hollywood Park is cheap because nobody who can afford to live anywhere else wants to live there.

hollywood park is in inglewood... not exactly the greatest area.

Inglewood isn't so nice, but parts of Westchester (which is close by) are decent places to live.

Although if it were me, I would probably be aiming my housing search to somewhere close to the Commerce Casino, or at least somewhere within a doable range if you time your commutes.

There have been some other threads on this precise topic, I would dig them up if I were the OP.

YOu don't want to live in Inglewood. What is your budget for rent?

San Gabriel Valley is pretty nice. You could look around the beach area like Torrance. It's near Hustler Casino and about 20-30 mins away from Commerce/Bike/Hawaiian Gardens. Also if you live in Los Angeles vs San Fran it's only 3 1/2 hours away from Vegas!

If you lived twenty minutes away from the Commerce, why would you ever want to go to Vegas?

Ummmm.....have you been to both?

Yes.

There are more, better games at almost all levels at the Commerce than anywhere else on the planet. Not even the Amazon Room at the Rio while the WSOP is in full swing offers game selection as good.

Just don't live close to Commerce. My god. I'll never make that mistake again

silverlake/echo park/los feliz are nice little towns close to commerce. about a 15-20 min drive in non peak hours ldo

Yeah, but the human selection is much better (from what I've been told).

Not to turn this into yet another Vegas vs LA thread, but game selection is only a fraction of the discussion. I can think of about eleventy billion reasons to go to Vegas, many of which have nothing to do with poker. Precluding a visit to Vegas just because there's better poker in LA is pretty narrow-minded. People can do both, you know.

Ok, thx eco. I came up with a (sort of long) list. See below.
And no worries re: the unavailability of PLO, as I can just get my action for that online. Gotta have accessibility to some NLH cash games and tourneys though.

Sounds like Commerce is the poker capital and I should seriously consider being somewhat close to that. I also see that the Bike and Hawaiian Gardens are not too far either from Commerce.

Hmm, SD would be great as I've got a great friend who will be moving there soon, but how many casinos are there running regular NLH games?

I'll do some searching on this Lopaka - thx. If it were you, what areas around Commerce would you be looking at?

My budget for rent is 1000-1500 but I'd prefer to be on the lower side if possible, though I know you get what you pay for generally. 3 1/2 hrs from Vegas is a nice plus :-)

Why's that? Did you never leave? LOL But seriously, why?

Sounds like what I'm looking for. Thx for the tips dwiele.

Thanks for the responses so far guys.

My rental budget would be up to around 1500/month for a one bedroom, but preferably less, like 1000-1300.

It would be great if I could get some comments on the places I listed below. I know it's a big list, but any comments would be useful.

I'm meeting a buddy in Vegas first week of June and want to hit SD and LA for a week before that to check out a few select areas, so I'm hoping to get a list of those places compiled real soon so I can book my trip and deal with organizing the logistics so I can maximize my time there. I'm only gonna be able to spend about 3 days max in each SD and LA.

BTW, this list is partially compiled from areas I could somewhat easily move to (assuming availability) through my current apartment complex company...

LA:

Mar Vista
Agoura Hills
Burbank
Chatsworth
Hermosa Beach
North Hollywood
Northridge
Oak Park
Santa Clarita
Stevenson Ranch
Valencia
West Los Angeles
Woodland Hills

SD:

La Jolla
Chula Vista
Clairemont Mesa West
Del Mar
Downtown
Mission Valley
Rancho Bernardo
Rancho Penasquitos
Sabre Springs
Solana Beach

SF:

Mission district
North Beach
Upper/Lower Haight
Cole Valley
Fillmore
Berkeley
Campbell
Colma
Concord
Foster City
Fremont
Hayward
Milpitas
Palo Alto
Pleasant Hill
Pleasanton
San Jose
San Mateo
San Ramon
Santa Clara
Sunnyvale
Union City
Walnut Creek

2+2 is the nuts. Thanks for your help everyone.
Cheers,
Dave

I would scratch off Agoura Hills, Chatsworth, North Hollywood, Northridge, Santa Clarita, Stevenson Ranch, Valencia and Woodland Hills off of your list. Those are pretty far from Commerce or any other major LA casino.

I would recommend Torrance/Lomita area. I live there and it's a very nice safe area with a lot to do. We have a huge mall, decent restaurants and it's really close to the beach, about a 10-15 minute drive.

Casino-wise

15 minute drive
The Hustler
Normandie
Hollywood Park

30 minute drive
Hawaiian Gardens
Commerce
The Bike

You don't want to live right near Commerce because Commerce (the area) just neighbors East LA.... which has the highest murder per capita in the US.

I live in the mid-Wilshire area (just south of West Hollywood), it's a nice area and the rent is pretty damn cheap. However, I'm in this area because it has easy access to the studios. I play online, and I've only driven past the Commerce at night, which I'd say was about 30ish minutes. But with traffic I'm sure it would be a lot worse.

There are definitely some nice areas Downtown as well.

California is a really big, and really diverse state. There is no Casino district, like Vegas or Atlantic City, instead there is poker all over.

But one thing is constant, "Nobody walks in L.A.", or in general anywhere else, to the card room. Driving will be necessary. When you add in pulling out of your cramped apartment space, getting on the freeway, getting off the freeway, parking, and walking to the casino figure everywhere will be about 30 minutes to forever away from from your apartment. And everywhere will be impacted by traffic, at certain usually predictable times of the day. It is just a matter of how much you like driving, and when you plan on doing it.

Los Angeles is poker capitol of the world. All eight card rooms in Los Angeles County are grouped south of the city proper, within about a 10-15 mile circle. You can actually get between them rather quickly. There are a ton freeways heading to this general area, so again depending on when you drive, you can get here conveniently from almost anywhere, including San Diego. As people have said, the general area isn't the best. It is mostly industrial, with a few real serious ghetto/barrio areas mixed in. However, every single one of the south LA County cities have several pocket neighborhoods which are as safe and nice as anywhere you could want. Ask around, ask locals. Being local really does matter a lot in Southern California. In fact, almost anywhere in metro L.A. which has good freeway access will work, depending on when you drive.

San Diego is not the quite the poker capitol of the world, but there is plenty of action. And Los Angeles is only 100 miles northwest, and Vegas 300 miles north if you get bored. North Clairemont (aka Clairmont Mesa West, I guess) is within a 30 miles of six casinos, 55 miles of twelve. All have NLHE, 1/1 40 max to 10/20 no max, depending on where you go. Not sure about the details in the San Francisco area, but I know there are several card rooms up there also, all a drive apart.

As I said, California is a really big, and really diverse state. It really all depends on where you want to live, which really should depend on what other places you need or want to go besides the card rooms. Your budget will be the deciding factor, it costs a whole lot to live here. Almost all of the places you mentioned are out of your price range.

Pick a place you want to live, that is convenient to whatever else you plan on doing, that has good freeway access to several card rooms during the hours you will be driving. Oh yeah... San Diego is nicer than Los Angeles.

If you want to live very close to the Two main Socal casinos ( Commerce and the Bike) and pay cheap rent in a decent neighbourhood your best option is Downey... remember this name and check it out on Craigslist.. "DOWNEY"
No need to use the freeways 5/710, save you a LOT of comuting in the peak hours.
Lakewood is second best as it's a nice area with affordable rents and is very close to the Bike/Commerce/Gardens.
Forget about everything with 818 are code let alone 805, Long beach is ok option as long as you stay close to the beach area, North LB is mostly garbage... Silverlake (where I live) and Los Felitz are good options but considerably more expensive, Downtown is ok if you don't mind the ultra urban setting... Sorry but I can't endorse East LA, Inglewood, South LA, Compton or Watts, that's on you..

Forget about San Diego if you are planing to drive up to LA Three times a week, are you nuts? It's a 2-3 hour commute EACH WAY!!