Yeh, I guess so. It was a nice sunny day in late afternoon on a Sunday, and I expected to be able to see at least major landmarks, but all I saw below was fog/smog.

They chose the location for the observatory for looking up, not, down, afterall.

I think it's called "skid row".

It's called...wait for it...downtown.

Basically the big cluster in the middle with all the tall buildings, the crux of it has the 10 freeway on the south border, the 110 on the west, 101 on the north and the 5 on the east. The parts of downtown where hotels and other liveable spaces are typically nearest to where the 110 and 10 meet, which is where the convention center, Staples Center, LA Live and the financial district all are.

So I guess this poker trip is going to be a bit non-standard since the LAPC is going on. Can I expect all the games to be much tougher?

If you play mid limit holdem LA is has so many more options and tables than LV. If you are coming in from outstate and don't know the area I would just stay at the Crowne Plaza at Commerce. The traffic in LA is crazy and I like the fact that I can just drive up, valet my car and have a nice home base.

Definitely take day trips and drive around to see the sites like Santa Monica, Malibu, Hollywood, downtown and the beaches but It's nice to have a home base to come home to that is easy and has many poker games to play when you get there. Also, not a long drive from Commerce to The Bike and Hawaiian Gardens which I would also try along with the Hustler that is a bit farther but worth the drive because it's the nicest poker room in LA.

Hey guys, how long is the commute from long beach to commerce, just curious

What time of day makes about 100% difference.

best case and worst case maybe?

Im looking at vacation property rentals in other spots, but we have friends that chose long beach

Thanks for all the help!

15 minutes to 1 hour max. Depends where in long beach. Most of the time in under 30 minutes.

if you like culture, you may want to visit olivera street in downtown la, and also the chinese-american museum at the end of olivera street. the 'soul food' restaurant 'roscoes chicken and waffles' in hollywood on gower and hollywood blvd has really good food too. there's a nice original adobe and museum on olivera street that features homes from when los angeles was still controlled by the country of mexico. there's also the japanese-american museum in downtown l.a. and the african-american museum by usc in l.a.

if you like playing in the AM then you may want to go to hawaiin gardens. it's located off the 605 fwy and carson st. (head east on carson). a lot of action here. hollywood park casino also has a lot of action in the morning. the tournies at hollywood park are really cheap and are over in about 4.5 hours. my favorites are the hustler and commerce. the food and decor at the hustler is the best. okay action but the smallet card club in southern california. the normandie is okay but not much poker action. the crystal park casino is located in the city of compton right next to compton college (bet you didn't know that compton had both a college AND airport, huh?)

i wouldn't suggest you go there though. not to sound racist or anything, but the time i went there some of the clientele seemed a bit tough and intimidating. it's just kinda hard to play your best when you're worried that a big raise will cause the extremely large and muscular guy across the table to want to beat your ass inside the club. i would say the same if the place was filled with rough looking white guys too. overall, i prefer playing in l.a. than in vegas. hope that helped a bit.

not trying to jack this thread but ive got a few questions. im going to the commerce in august. while im there i want to check out the bike and the hustler. ive read that the bike is about ten minutes from commerce, how much for a cab ride? same question for a cab ride fron commerce to hustler?

So I just got back, I'm still trying to put together all my thoughts on this.

First Commerce was awesome. It's amazing how they treat their players. Sort of sucks you can't phone yourself on to a list (I was told), but the food players can have is amazing. I thought the massive downside was the players bank. I must have had awful luck, I consistantly had to wait 30+ minutes to get my money out. I think next time I'll just chance walking around with the money. Also I thought the parking lot was well lit, safe, and had a guard all the time.

L.A. itself....I have mixed feelings about. Obviously all around Commerce sucks large. And so much of L.A. was like that. I went to Hollywood and Santa Monica, and those were ok. Although most of Hollywood was like a massive porn shop. I did like the bottom-less drinks on the sunset strip for $10. Lol the scandelous chicks that come out to get wasted before 3pm. But overall, I think if you took out the 80 degree days mid Feb, really I thought it mostly was...so so. The traffic and polution are awful. The public transpo is shameful. The people are just a little too cool for school. Btw staying at the W in Hollywood via priceline is so worth it. Lol when I brought in my rental car they didn't believe I was staying with them. Got the room for 1/3 the price.

I was rather surprised at how nice a lot of people were with me. I was expecting it to be different. Strangers were really nice with me. I was also really struck by the racism, and how the hispanic people are such a race of servants there. It's depressing.

Btw the spa at Commerce is amazing, best $20 you'll ever spend. Overall I think if I had to do it all over, I'd spend Mon-Thu at the beach, Fri-Sun at Crown Plaza, and repeat. More than 3 days in that hood around Commerce is just too depressing. Although it made for some funny stories.

You thought the food was amazing? Where do you normally eat, 7-Eleven?

And yeah, not sure what the problem was with the player bank, I've always gotten in and out in under 5 minutes on mine.

Would be interested if you elaborated on what you perceived as racism...obviously it exists but I wouldn't think that just because there are so many Hispanic people here and many of them work in the service jobs means "racism." Unless we're both defining the word in different ways.

I've lived in LA for 15 years, and yeah it ain't amazing. A lot of it is pretty ugly to look at, but that's going to be true for any big city. I'd suggest in the future staying anywhere but Hollywood, which is among the ugliest parts of LA (even though they do have that fancy new W).

I'd never been to a place that would custom make any food I want and give it to me totally for free. Man I made the most insane salads. There are other poker rooms in the world that do that? Where?

I guess it was more the massive disparity in the racial and social classes that I was talking about. But all the Hispanic people I talked to said there was rampant racism there compared to Canada.

As for all big cities being ugly, that's really not true. Berlin, Paris, Prague... they're gorgeous and have way less depressing parts of town despite having some bad hoods.

And agreed, no more Hollywood.

Yea, I love Commerce food