Best place to play and stay in California?
 

Hi guys!

Im a swedish guy that has made my living playing online poker the last three years.
Ive been to Vegas several times but now I want to spend a few winter months in California playing live poker.

Ive seen in Cardplayer that there are many many casinos and cardrooms so I need some help as where to stay and play.

I play fixed texas $10/20 up to $40/80, NL texas $2/5 up to $10/20 och PL omaha but I guess you dont spread that..
And of course some tournaments too.

So, if you know of any nice casinos with a cheap/+EV hotel (with internet) please tell me! What are your favorites?

Thanks in advance! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hi guys!

Im a swedish guy that has made my living playing online poker the last three years.
Ive been to Vegas several times but now I want to spend a few winter months in California playing live poker.

Ive seen in Cardplayer that there are many many casinos and cardrooms so I need some help as where to stay and play.

I play fixed texas $10/20 up to $40/80, NL texas $2/5 up to $10/20 och PL omaha but I guess you dont spread that..
And of course some tournaments too.

So, if you know of any nice casinos with a cheap/+EV hotel (with internet) please tell me! What are your favorites?

Thanks in advance! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

During the winter months, I think you might appreciate southern California's weather more. The LA area has a number of large cardrooms. I'd look into them. They spread more games at higher limits thatn Northern California clubs in those larger casinos.

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

[ QUOTE ]
During the winter months, I think you might appreciate southern California's weather more. The LA area has a number of large cardrooms. I'd look into them. They spread more games at higher limits thatn Northern California clubs in those larger casinos.

[/ QUOTE ]

Okay so I guess LA and maybe San Jose are places for me?
Do you know of a good hotel or something where I can stay?
Tyvm benkahuna.

One more thing, San Jose in Costa Rica is said to have good poker, anyone been there? Seems very interesting.

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

Hey Deelah,

Couple suggestions...as far as southern california casinos, you will find all your're looking for at a couple of places.

1. Commerce casino - spread low to high fixed as well as 2/5 5/10 and 10/20 NL.

2. Bicycle casino - same range as commerce

3. Larry Flynt's Hustler Casino

All these rooms offer limits you're looking for as well as tourneys.

As far as locations, these rooms are pretty spread out over LA so you will have to rent a car, with that in mind, I recommend you stay @ a hotel near downtown LA, something like a Holiday Inn or such since they will have internet and you will in the middle of the city cutting down traffic time.

Just a heads up, if you've been to Vegas, the only thing that will impress you with LA cardrooms is their size, they are quite dirty and congested so don't expect it to be anywhere near Vegas standards. Furthermore, most of these cardrooms are not in the safest of areas so it's pretty good to know your way around LA before you start going to some of these places.

PM me if you have any other questions...

-surf

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Deelah,


As far as locations, these rooms are pretty spread out over LA so you will have to rent a car, with that in mind, I recommend you stay @ a hotel near downtown LA, something like a Holiday Inn or such since they will have internet and you will in the middle of the city cutting down traffic time.
-surf

[/ QUOTE ]

Why not just stay at Commerce / Crowne Plaza The Bike is only a short hop from there and I think it is closer to Hustler than downtown LA too. Most of the LA cardrooms are in south LA around so staying at Commerce puts you right in the middle and they have a discount for players.

In fact check out Maps.Google.com .

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

San Jose is still Northern California, only about an hour's drive or south of San Francisco. LA is about 6 hours drive south. So, I'm recommending against San Jose. The only two big cardrooms in the Bay Area are Bay 101 (San Jose) and Lucky Chances (Colma, 15 minutes south of San Francisco) and I think you're they're still smaller than the big LA casinos.

I don't know hotel rates and such since I just stay with family or friends down there.

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

Thanks to everyone helping me out in this thread, very appreciated!

GL at the tables! /Deelah

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

I live in norcal by bay 101 and travel to socal a lot to play cards. I only play nolimit HE (and also plo but you are correct in assumning you cannot find a plo game around here).

The best place to stay in LA is either at the commerce or at the ramada inn accross the street from the bike. The room rate at commerce is $99 a night for the poker rate. You can get a rate at the ramada at the bike if you say you are playing at the bike for around $60 a night.

As far as no limit goes, the bike and commerce have the only uncapped games in LA as far as I can tell. The bike usually has a $5/$10 blind no cap $500 min game and sometimes a $10/$20 blind no cap $1000 min game. The commerce has a $10/$20 blind no cap $600 min game and sometimes a $20/$40 blind $2k min game and/or a $50/$100 $5kmin game. Both places also have a bunch of lower capped games. I did see a $20/$40 PLO8 game at commerce a couple of weeks ago. But the game was short and the lineup didnt look good so i passed. I told them Id rather play PLO and they said theyd be up for a game the next day but the game never went.

If you want to play small capped NLHE hawaiann gardens is a good place to play. They have $20 max, $40 max, $100max $300max and $500max NLHE games. Id say about 30-50% of the games they have are capped no limit games. I only went there once because i hate caps but it was crazy there.

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

If you are in San Jose, you could also drive over to Reno for a few days. I believe it was four hours or so. Nice scenery driving the Sierra Nevadas...

Gojacketz

Re: Best place to play and stay in California?
 

without a car you will spend over 100 bucks to stay near one of the major joints. not likely a player with three years only playing internet will make enough playing 10&20 and say 20&40 to survive. and doubtful you can beat the higher games with so little experience in live play.
if you can last awhile you may get the hang of it and do okay. tread carefully its not a picnic. good luck.