Seeking Advice for my first trip ever to Commerce Casino LA

[Sandwich]

I'm an east coast Limit Holdem guy and I'll be in L.A. for a few days, with some free time either Sunday night or Monday night -- was thinking of heading to the Commerce this coming Sunday or Monday evening to play some Limit Holdem.

Looking at Bravo... Considering the 8-16 limit game with kill or maybe the 20-40 limit game.

Any advice or tips about the Commerce in general? Or about these limit holdem games in particular? Like, how they generally play, what types of opponents I can expect? The rake pretty much sucks at the Commerce, right?

Oh yeah, I'll be driving -- how does the parking work there? non-valet, preferably.

Thanks.

[jacosta24]

Never played the cash games but the tournaments get packed so arrive early. The surrounding area isn't the nicest, I recommend valet parking your car.

[VegasJim]

I have never been to the Commerce and can't attest to this for myself, but I have heard/read several stories about angle shooters. My buddy was there right before WSOP and made it sound like its the wild west of poker and angle shooting. He said angles are treated by staff like its just part of the game and found it odd how most of the players were so calm and used to it.
You won't have to worry about this in Limit, his big issue happened while "running it twice" which we can't do on the East Coast and he got burned when the guy who proposed the option to him claimed that it wasn't agreed upon after the 2nd run out. Ill invite him to this tread to see if he can write about his experience first hand.

I know this isn't exactly the help that you are looking for, but just be extra alert of all players actions as anyone should do when entering a new playing environment.

Have a good time and make sure to write a trip report when you get back.

[Dan Druff]

I'm an east coast Limit Holdem guy and I'll be in L.A. for a few days, with some free time either Sunday night or Monday night -- was thinking of heading to the Commerce this coming Sunday or Monday evening to play some Limit Holdem.

Looking at Bravo... Considering the 8-16 limit game with kill or maybe the 20-40 limit game.

Any advice or tips about the Commerce in general? Or about these limit holdem games in particular? Like, how they generally play, what types of opponents I can expect? The rake pretty much sucks at the Commerce, right?

Oh yeah, I'll be driving -- how does the parking work there? non-valet, preferably.

Thanks.

Area isn't as terrible as jacosta is making it out to be. You can self park, just be aware of your surroundings. There are various lots surrounding the building.

The rake is bruuuuuuuuuutal at Commerce. It's so high that I think it may actually be unbeatable below 60-120 (where it's a time charge, and is more reasonable).

They have an obnoxious jackpot drop, as well as a no-flop drop.

If you have the roll, might as well go for 20-40 instead of 8-16. From what I've seen the players are pretty bad in that one (a lot of limping and chasing). Better players at 40-80 for the most part, as that game tends to be hit and miss whether it's good or not.

They have some weird thing with earning food credits as you play (see other posts about it in this forum), so make sure to get a players' card.

As was already pointed out, watch out for angle shooting. Do not let anyone do any bullshit such as checking it down after you fold, toss chips back to each other, or any nonsense like that. If anyone does, speak up.

Also the dealers are horrible (and rarely speak English), so keep your eyes open that they don't make mistakes, including with collecting rake.

[Sandwich]

Thanks, guys, for the insight.
I'm back from my trip... visited the Commerce on Monday evening. Self-parked, got a players card and got put on the 8-16 kill and 20-40 lists, which games happen to be in two different rooms. Got called to the 8-16 kill game first, which was in the crappy cavernous room, so I ended up staying there all night. Yes, the rake is absolutely horrible... raking the small blind preflop was downright offensive. But there was a Monday Night Football promotion going on... each team was assigned one of the two teams playing, and if that team scored a field goal, they drop $20 on the table before the next hand... $50 for a touchdown. Unfortunately my table got the Detroit Lions, so not too many bloated pots at all. Oh well.
The game played pretty much how you'd suspect. Reminiscent of the 2-4 or 2-4-6 games in AC. Played for a few hours and booked a miniscule win.
In retrospect I should have played 20-40 -- but it was my first time there and once I was seated, I didn't feel like going through the effort of switching tables, different chip denominations, etc.

One funny thing -- at 9pm, as they were changing out all the jackpot drop boxes with new empty boxes, the security guys were having trouble removing the box at the table next to mine... they tried different sets of keys, ended up calling in a dude with a powerdrill to drill the lock open... after drilling the lock to shreds, they still couldn't pry the box from underneath the table, so they tried a knife, a fork -- they tried tugging at it, kicking it loose. It was quite a scene and took them approximately a half hour to get the thing removed. And then when they finally did, the new box wouldn't fit. Quite an entertaining scene to watch.

Not my favorite place to play limit holdem by a long shot, but when I'm back in L.A. again, I'll probably visit again.

[Dan Druff]

Was just at Commerce on Sunday. Food situation is a JOKE.

I don't know why Commerce did this. They turned a nice benefit (which didn't cost them much) into a frustrating mess.

Before, if you were playing in the high limit room, you could just order what you wanted, and they would bring it to you.

Now you have to earn $2/hr on your players' card, and "spend" that money. There are also bugs in the system where sometimes your name/card falls out of the list, and you have to keep checking that you're registered.

Furthermore, they have gotten a lot more hard line about things like substitutions. I wanted fries instead of the rice/salad as part of my chicken kabob plate, and at first they refused and said it wasn't possible! I have done this for the last 10+ years at Commerce with NO ISSUE.

So after a lot of refusing to "buy" the fries separately, the server finally said, "Okay, I'll ask the kitchen" and got permission.

They even charge $1 for Commerce brand bottled water!! WTF?!?

WHAT A PAIN.

Whole thing was so unpleasant that I didn't bother to order a second meal, even though I played like 20 hours.

They charge so much rake (way more than Bellagio), I can't see why they had to cut corners with the food.

Everyone at the table agrees that the new system sucks. The servers also lose out, as there are far fewer orders nowadays, and they just stand around, instead of making tips.