Commerce in LA - first live play

[CaptainCrunch]

So I finally wandered over to Commerce last night after work. The idea being to check it out and see how my newbie butt adapts to live play.

Overall I found the place to be interesting, not bad, but not Vegas. At least as far as the card room itself was put together. Place was full enough on a tuesday night that it took 10 min. at 8:30 to find a parking space.

Found the play at the 1/2 to be resonably loose, with a number of folks who assumed they know the game giving very generous advice about how to play as they reached for their wads to rebuy for $20 (over and over). Experienced the joy of the annoying retiree player who bosses everyone around while acting out of turn (every damn hand! Actually put the dealer on tilt, she called him stupid [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ) Learned that fatigue creeps up on me and causes me to..well, not exactly tilt, but lean strongly. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Once 1 am rolled around, the table got down to 6, and everyone rocked up. They started taking a blind from the button as well, and the rake just devoured every pot. Who wants to fight over $.5?

Overall liked it, but will definitely be checking out the other rooms the LA area has to offer before I return.

[Hellmouth]

[ QUOTE ]
So I finally wandered over to Commerce last night after work. The idea being to check it out and see how my newbie butt adapts to live play.

Overall I found the place to be interesting, not bad, but not Vegas. At least as far as the card room itself was put together. Place was full enough on a tuesday night that it took 10 min. at 8:30 to find a parking space.

Found the play at the 1/2 to be resonably loose, with a number of folks who assumed they know the game giving very generous advice about how to play as they reached for their wads to rebuy for $20 (over and over). Experienced the joy of the annoying retiree player who bosses everyone around while acting out of turn (every damn hand! Actually put the dealer on tilt, she called him stupid [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ) Learned that fatigue creeps up on me and causes me to..well, not exactly tilt, but lean strongly. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Once 1 am rolled around, the table got down to 6, and everyone rocked up. They started taking a blind from the button as well, and the rake just devoured every pot. Who wants to fight over $.5?

Overall liked it, but will definitely be checking out the other rooms the LA area has to offer before I return.

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I played commerce 1-2 for about a week in march. There is a tradition there to chop the pot and give the players back their blinds if no one else comes in and the blinds agree. That way the $2.50 rake doesnt eat it all up.

There were a few decent players there when I was there. There is a big black guy (I think named Tony or Robert) who is nice but seems to play every night. I also noticed some older asian guys who seemed to get pretty good reads of the cards.

The weirdest thing about that room is how no on will buy in for over $20. Then they keep throwing $20's on the table to rebuy. I think it is because you cant take money off the table without voiding the Jackpot so no one wants to put their whole roll out.

Greg

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Overall I found the place to be interesting, not bad, but not Vegas. At least as far as the card room itself was put together.

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In what way was it lacking?

[CaptainCrunch]

oh, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply it was "lacking" it just... didn't have that razzle-dazzle always in motion feel that vegas gives off. I've never been in a card room there, but I've been around the casinos more than once!

Actually, the only "Lack" was the lack of free coctails! I kinda missed that.. but then, there aren't thousands of slot machines to subsidise that either.

On another note, because it occurs to me, on more than one occasion, I'd get beaten by a slightly better hand (my Q flush busted by the A) and the winner would tip the dealer, then roll me a chip "for luck" Nice, but I was hardly short stack at the table.... is this common? Of course I graciously accepted this free money!

[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
On another note, because it occurs to me, on more than one occasion, I'd get beaten by a slightly better hand (my Q flush busted by the A) and the winner would tip the dealer, then roll me a chip "for luck" Nice, but I was hardly short stack at the table.... is this common? Of course I graciously accepted this free money!

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I played at the Commerce $9/$18 game for the first time last weekend and saw a lot of this going on there, too. I've never seen it done anywhere I've played (Vegas; AC; Gary, Indiana; Albuquerque), so it struck me as odd. I actually always thought it was illegal; that you weren't technically allowed to give chips to other players at the table.

It only happened to me once, when I got my queens full beaten by quad tens. I thanked the guy but told him to give the chip to the dealer instead. But it happened quite a bit, particularly among players who appeared to be regulars.

I wonder if it's a California thing?

-McGee

[onegymrat]

I wonder if it's a California thing?

Yes, most likely. It is prevalent in these games. It is highly irritating, especially when they expect the same senseless gesture in return.

[Hellmouth]

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if it's a California thing?

Yes, most likely. It is prevalent in these games. It is highly irritating, especially when they expect the same senseless gesture in return.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was happening all the time at the $1-2 tables. The first time I saw it there were two guys both hispanic at my table and whenever they busted each other on a fairly big hand the winer would throw the looser a dollar. Soon it was like every hand there was a $1 chip being pushed to the looser.

So in my experience it is a Cali thing not an Asian thing. Just a friendly little, "sorry I just took a ton of your money, but we're all still friends" kind of thing.

Greg

[Klepton]

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I thanked the guy but told him to give the chip to the dealer instead. But it happened quite a bit, particularly among players who appeared to be regulars.

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the reason they do this is to spite the dealers. people at commerce (and other LA casinos) are extremely rude to dealers, and this is another way of showing them hatred.

Instead of tipping the dealing 3 $3 chips, they throw them to another player, basically saying "i'd rathe give it to some schmuck then the person that gave me the winning hand"

I never do this, and usually whenever someone throws me chips, I throw them to the dealer, and then they never throw the chips to me again.

I have seen this being done at the 20-40, but not the 40-80

[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
the reason they do this is to spite the dealers. people at commerce (and other LA casinos) are extremely rude to dealers, and this is another way of showing them hatred

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Interesting. This was not the case in my situation, as the guy who threw me the chip was extremely nice and generous to the dealers, often tipping a full $3 chip -- or more -- per pot. But I don't doubt you that dealer spite is the motivation for many.

Actually, I was really surprised at the lack of dealer and player abuse I saw in my weekend of play there. I know it's a small sample size, but I was really expecting the worst from everything I had heard. I only saw one player really throw his cards, and he was kicked out after he did it several times and somebody complained. Everyone else was very civil.

-McGee

[onegymrat]

Hi K,

the reason they do this is to spite the dealers. people at commerce (and other LA casinos) are extremely rude to dealers, and this is another way of showing them hatred.

You 20/40 guys are ruthless!! Seriously though, your view may still be correct, since many Commerce players are rude and obnoxious. But most who "push" are also dealer tippers. It's just some unusual gesture to show some sort of whacked respect.