Portland OR Poker Scene?

[frommagio]

Hey folks. I'll be spending a week in Portland OR later this month, and wanted to understand the Portland poker scene. I'm especially interested in $1-2 NL in casinos, local NL tournaments or ring games, but perhaps some limit as well. If I could find stud hilo, I'd be in heaven - but I know better than to even ask for that. After searching these boards, I have a few questions:

- What are the closest casinos to Portland? Avoiding lots of travel is best, but I'll do what I have to do.
- Which casinos are most likely to have a reasonable number of tables going without an awful wait?
- I gather that all the reachable casinos have horrendous rakes; is that correct?
- It doesn't appear that $1-2 is spread anywhere in the nearby casinos, just $2-5; is that correct?

- And finally - It seems that Portland has a lot of poker happening in clubs, bars, etc. Is that an easy scene to get into? Could I maybe find $1-2 rings, or reasonably low entry fee tourneys in the local poker scene? Maybe the local scene is the way to go.

Thanks in advance to you Portland guys.