Q&A #47: Las Vegas or Los Angeles – Where’s the Poker Better?

Interesting
have you played at the live at the bike webcast Ed?

Thank you – and from my limited experience – you are correct. Need I say more; except thank you.

The Commerce and the Bike and Hawaiian Gardens have increased numerous spreads in NL. They even have a NL $20 Buy-in; the blinds so small I can’t remember them. Riding those tables is like a roller coaster.

Aside from the “rake” issue (that is can the rake be beaten in the lowest of limits; different experts weigh-in differently on this one) it seems like playing the lowest tables is like walking on razor blades (straight up). OUCH!

Smoozing time. Hey Ed (Mr. Miller) you’re work is paramount; no disrespect to D. Sklansky because you made him readable. I am literally going through all your work and his with a microscope.

I eagerly await the next book – I find “No Limit Hold’em: Theory and Practice” good, but more like a chemistry course, rather than a Unified Field Theory. I have a feeling (I am hoping) the next one is more Einsteinian in nature.

Once again thank you for your reply,
See you at the tables,
The Scientist.

hi ed,

i agree with most of what you said, but a few years ago when i was playing a lot of limit in both los angeles and las Vegas, i preferred las vegas. this might be a grass is greener thing, but what i liked about las vegas was that the players were more predictable. the los angeles players were looser, though.

yeah, why exactly don’t you live in los angeles?

gabe

I can think of a couple of reasons. Traffic being #1.

That fixed buyin NL game is pretty standard at Commerce and HG. I’ve never played at the Bike or HP so I don’t know. The players are bad enough it’s still profitable, but it’s not a good way to play NL.

why is the $2/3 NL game a bad structure? Is it unbeatable?

As an East Coast Atlantic City player, it seems that all the good action seems to be on the “left coast”. What bugs me though, is that every time I hear discussions about game structures in LA, its always a ridiculous blind-buyin ratio.
2/3 $100 max? 2/5 $200 max? There are others, but these blind structures just dont show up anywhere where I play. 150 BB is the standard 1/2 max buyin anywhere in the north atlantic, and 2/5 games are either $500 or $1000 max. You wont find too many uncapped games at the lower blind levels, but generally the games are deepstacked relative to the LA games. I find that the players here are perhaps less affluent, but just as bad. There isnt much to do in AC but gamble or get killed at a motel, but for a part-time pro, it seems just fine. Ive been itching to make a Commerce/Bike trip at some point, but I really dont know if I’ll like those games as much…

$2/$3 blinds, $100 max buy-in and $3/5 blinds with $200 max buy-in are standard in Los Angeles county. The $4 or $5 drop (depending on where you play) is expensive, but doesn’t make either game unbeatable.

Going bigger, $5/$5 blinds with $300-$500 buy-in is available at the Bike. $5/$10 blinds at Commerce has a $400 max buy-in. That’s an awful structure but the game gets big fast. When I last played three players at the table had more than $2500.

Uncapped games are the rule going up from there, $5/$10 blind $500 min buy-in pretty much everyday at the Bike. $10/$20 blinds $600 min buy-in at Commerce continually.