Las Vegas or So. Cal. ?

[snakehead]

bankroll has to be your biggest consideration. if you can afford to play at 15-30 and higher without ever stepping down, then la is the place to be. there are more games to choose from, and lots of opportunity to move up. but if you had to play lower than this, the rakes would eat you up.

if you can afford $1000-1500/mo for an apartment and don't mind driving 30 minutes to the casino, la is the place. if not, try vegas, or better yet, some other smaller poker location where there aren't as many pros.

[Clarkmeister]

There are a few critical questions you must answer before making a decision.

1. Do you, or do you plan to own a car?

2. How much a month do you plan on spending for living expenses?

3. How important is commute time for you?

4. Having the Ocean nearby is wonderful! IF you will actually ever go there. Are you actually going to take advantage of the non-poker things that LA has to offer?

5. Do you have a lot of friends and family to visit, or who will want to come and visit you?

[raptor]

Clarkmeister; (1) Yes, I have a vehicle. (2) Do not want to rent a dump, but do not want to spend more than needed. (3) Commute time is very important, would prefer not more than 1/2 hour or so one way. (4)The ocean itself is not that big a deal, but there are probably a lot of other things in LA that I would enjoy (5) No family, all by lonesome.

[Dynasty]

the heat in Las Vegas bothers me a lot less than the cold of Massacusetts did.

[AmericanAirlines]

Hmmm... Ok, my rationale on "more pros in LA" was based on the idea that there'd be lots of locals who play a lot.

Perhaps I should've said, "more regulars who might just be decent players having played a lot" rather than "pros".

Do recall that all my comments about LA are speculative. Haven't been there.

Commute time in Vegas is minimal as long as you don't drive straight down Las Vegas blvd. (You shouldn't have to either, plenty of cross streets named after the casinos on them.)

To be honest, I was glad to get out of Vegas, but might have felt different if my vehicles weren't getting nailed and lived somewhere really good, not just "OK". But there were definitely even worse spots, to be sure.

Cost of living is lower there than here. (Denver area). No doubt rents are 20% lower in LV.

I'd say, rent room in both places for a month. It's about a 300 mile drive between LA and LV.

One plus for LV. If you get down on your luck, going to dealer school and working the other side of the table isn't to hard to do. (Might be different now that it's Post 9/11 and economy isn't so good... but was an easy thing to do circa 1998-2000.) And you really can live on even a dealer's income in some of the not-so-new casinos.

Sincerely,
AA

[AmericanAirlines]

Hi Snakehead,
What sort of appartment do you get for you 1500 in LA?

For say $800 in LV a 2/2 was possible in say Summerlin, which isn't too bad of a place.

Just trying to see what the comparison point is.

Sincerely,
AA

[D.J.]

I've just been reading some of these posts and laughing my ass off at how you guys are talking about Compton, gangs, and crime. First of all, none of you have ever been to the CPT(short for compton) besides maybe driving through, and gangs are not a problem any more than anywhere else. From a person who grew up in the CPT when it was bad, just mind your own business and no one will bother you. I don't think you have to worry anyway, no one is gang banging outside the commerce casino. The people you have to watch out for are in both LA and LV and those are the broken down gambling degenerates w/o a care in the world and a penny to their name, those are the dangerous ones, not the gangs. Only "bad" area around a casino would be Hollywood Park, so if it makes you feel better just don't go there, and I don't think you'll be playing at Crystal park or Normandie anyway if you're a pro. Your main 3 places will be Commerce, Hawaiian Gardens, and the Hustler. LA is definitely a little more expensive than LV, but not much for a single guy who will have an apt. When I lived in LV, last year I stayed at the Paradise Bay Club apts. which were pretty nice, and located behind the Hard Rock Hotel on Paradise and Flamingo, I paid 850/month for a 2/2, and all the places around there were about the same, 1/1 was about 650 I think. There's a lot to do in both cities to keep you busy, and if there's no family involved you're fine either place, I prefer the LA weather though and sincerely believe one can make more $$$ playing in LA, but that's just me. Good Luck w/ wherever you go. I'll see you in either city at the tables.

-D.J.

[raptor]

Enthusiast; thank you, that is the kind of info I am looking for, from someone who lives out there. I can handle a 1/2 hour or so commute, not crazy about the 1000-1500 a month for rent. If I can get moved out before WSOP, I will go to LA for a couple of months afterwards, and then figure out which way to go. I pretty much only play HE, 20-40 and up, prefer pot limit as long as bankroll allows. Any further comments are appreciated.

[D.J.]

Raptor,
Playing 20-40 in LA, it's very possible to pull six figures in a year. Also, Pot limit goes every night at commerce either 10-10 or 10-20 blinds, you might be hard pressed to find a PL game in vegas outside of world series time. Also, I'm not saying you can't handle the game or anything, but you said 20-40 and up, so I'm assuming you spend a lot of time in the 30-60 area. The 30-60 at Bellagio can be summarized in one word, tough, there are many pros playing in those games and it's usually not very soft except for maybe on the weekends where you'll still have 2 or 3 fellow pros at the same table w/ you. I'm still leaning toward LA for you b/c the 20-40 to 40-80 range is pretty hot there and I'm thinking you'll be able to pick and choose your games better. Not that there aren't plenty of tough pros in LA playing these same games, but it's a little more spread out than LV I would say. Really I think your best bet is to try a month or so in both cities and decide for yourself, this way you'll be able to make a better decision, oh and by the way during the wsop vegas will be much better than usual so don't let that influence you too much, just like during the LAPC, LA, is much better than usual also. You might want to give it a shot in the summer months. Good Luck again.

-D.J.

[AmericanAirlines]

Hi D.J.
OK, then here's some objective data from:

http://www.bestplaces.net

Unfortunately Vegas listed all crime rates as "0"... intersting how Vegas manages to keep it's crime rate hidden.

Here's comparison of my home town in Florida with Compton and national averages. Interesting that it looks to be about 2-3 times the national average. Funny how Oakland up north looked about the same demographically and has been having riots over the fricken Super Bowl.

I often wonder if anyone would care if the teams were named "Macdonald's" and "Burger King"... like the *franchises* they are rather than named after towns. God people are stupid when it comes to this.

<pre><font class="small">code:</font><hr>CATEGORIES
crimes per 100,000 pop.
Murder 57.7 3.2 3.9
Rape 32.0 15.9 32.8
Robbery 565.0 117.9 116.3
Assault 949.6 274.1 293.0
Burglary 1,225.2 924.3 761.4
Larcency 1,409.9 3,448.6 3,037.8
Auto theft 956.0 443.0 361.8
&gt;
RACE White 21.6% 94.2% 81.8%
Black 44.3% 4.0% 10.4%
Asian 5.4% 1.2% 3.6%
Amer. Indian 0.3% 0.1% 0.8%
Other 28.4% 0.5% 3.5%
Hispanic 53.9% 4.6% 11.0%</pre><hr>

You do the math.

Sincerely,
AA