Need to know drop for 1/2 blind NL games in LA for eTable analysis!

[Rick Nebiolo]

During the last week or so I've played the eTable 1/2 50-100 buy-in at Hollywood Park four or five times, usually after cashing out of the bigger games on the main floor. I enjoy the speed of the game and believe it "feels" far closer to a B&M game than an Internet game. Done right, it has promise (Hint: If this gets in at Mohegan Sun, it's almost a slam dunk.)

That said, it really hasn't caught on at Hollywood Park if you subtract the props, hosts, and quasi-props. Obviously the $4 plus $1 drop is a huge problem, especially when the game isn't a donkfest, which is the usual case with so many experienced players checking it out. As an aside, I actually had the morbid curiouty to stay in a tight game and personally witness a $5 pot where everything was dropped, but decided it wasn't funny enough to modify this story I posted a while back. Had I done so, I could have exchanged the human dealer for a computer dealer, and made the pot $0 instead of $1. Unfortunately I just watched and grinned at the PokerPro tech guy (we had a previous discussion regarding the problem). Besides, I wasn't the player involved. I wanted to be that player; it would have made the rewrite so easy (BTW, is it possible to plagerize yourself?).

Of course sometimes the game is a donkfest (obviosuly a 1/2 NL game with $5 taken each pot needs to be to survive). Unfortunately, I and a couple others may have come close to busting one of the few remaining super-donks who seems to play the eTable on a regular basis late last night).

Now let's get serious. I'm not sure the PokerPro people are aware that Hollywood Park is on the high end of the drop scale for this game. I already know that the Bike is $3 + $1 jackpot on a full game all the way up to the $100 fixed buy 2/3 blind games. I play bigger at the Bike, Commerce, Hawaiian Gardens, and the Hustler but won't be going to these clubs (except the Bike) for at least a few days.

Within the next week I plan on writing a detailed essay regarding my observations and analysis of what they are doing right and where they are going wrong. I've been in touch with management at PokerPro and at Hollywood Park; despite the usual obstacles I believe there is a reasonable chance that a far better collection system may be put in place with a little prodding (e.g., perhaps a 25 cent per hand drop).

Right now I need to complete my research. I need to know the drops at the other clubs for baby NL in LA (especially the games with 1-2 blinds). If you know please include buy-in (or buy-in range), the blinds (also curious about the super tiny game at Hawaiian Gardens), and drop for a full table. If you know how the drop changes as the game goes short please include this info too.

Once again, the clubs I'm interested in include The Hustler, Commerce, and Hawaiian Gardens. It would also help if you include an estimate of the number of games going at this limit on a typical weeknight, weekday, weekend or whatever. Keep in mind I already know the collection for 1/2 blind NL games at Hollywood Park, The Bike and Crystal Park.

Thanks in advance for any help.

~ Rick

[Bulbarainey]

Hustler 1/2 is $50 max buy-in, $3 drop + $1 jackpot drop, and the rake goes down $1 when it gets to six players, but im not sure if it drops more than that when it gets 5 handed.

I actually dont think commerce does have a 1/2 NL, i think its 1/1 $40 max, but either way the 100 game is 2/3 and 3+1.

HP has the worst rake in town on just about every game, and that's why I don't play there. Even though its the closest place to school, I drive extra to go to hustler or normandie.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Hustler 1/2 is $50 max buy-in, $3 drop + $1 jackpot drop, and the rake goes down $1 when it gets to six players, but im not sure if it drops more than that when it gets 5 handed.

I actually dont think commerce does have a 1/2 NL, i think its 1/1 $40 max...

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, I always assumed the games upstairs are 1/2 blind. Next time I need a free cop of coffee and I'm not in a game I'll trundle upstairs just to confirm. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]



[ QUOTE ]
HP has the worst rake in town on just about every game, and that's why I don't play there. Even though its the closest place to school, I drive extra to go to hustler or normandie.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think this is the case in the bigger games but it appears to be true in the smaller games. The PokerPro people need to understand this. Real customers aren't often exclaiming, "Wow, we save a buck not tipping in this 1/2 blind $5 total drop ePoker game!" unless they are delusional or "perhaps" on somebody's payroll.

~ Rick

PS I believe the Normandie 8/16 kill holdem is one of the better games in town around this limit. Even if you don't agree, it's goofy fun to experience an old time cardroom once in a while.

[Bulbarainey]

i just confirmed with a friend of mine the commerce 40 is a 1/2 game... i mustve been thinking of oceans, which is 1/1

[AlienBoy]

Oceans?? What/where is Oceans?


AB

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Oceans?? What/where is Oceans? - AB

[/ QUOTE ]

Other than the big one between LA and Japan I think he means Ocean's Eleven in Oceanside just East of the 405 off the Mission Avenue exit. It's on the right hand side right after passing over the freeway going East behind a gas station right next to the motel.

IMO it's one of the better run card rooms in Southern California. My friend and I made four or five trips in the last couple months and I played several times a few years back.

I've heard they take a reduced drop on small pots in the small stakes NL room (the old tournament room with about eighteen tables). No flop no drop (including jackpot drop) in the main room (about twenty tables). They might have the best food of all the card clubs and it's very reasonably priced.

~ Rick

[fishyak]

The Commerce $40 buy in NL is a 1/2 blind. Drop is 3 + 1 as mentioned. But they take it in 50 cent increments so smaller pots pay $3.50. I played it Sat. night for the first time. Our table was an all in fest. I saw a guy go all in 3X, 23s, and 24o twice. The 23s got him fired up. He hit a full house. I was card dead and OOP to this guy so other players wound up with his $. It was quite a show.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The Commerce $40 buy in NL is a 1/2 blind. Drop is 3 + 1 as mentioned. But they take it in 50 cent increments so smaller pots pay $3.50.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wasn't planning on playing today but this is so important to any rake/drop analysis regarding eTables and other games I've ranted about over the years that I need to check this out first hand and get the details right. I may even go tonight and goof around upstairs (normally I just go up there for exercise climbing stairs and to steal an occasional cup of coffee [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]). I'll be drinking so expect some real bad play on my part.



[ QUOTE ]
I played it Sat. night for the first time. Our table was an all in fest. I saw a guy go all in 3X, 23s, and 24o twice. The 23s got him fired up. He hit a full house. I was card dead and OOP to this guy so other players wound up with his $. It was quite a show.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've had the pleasure of playing super donked tiny NL games where you can win some decent change and the pain of watching the entire pot (or almost the entire pot - shameless plug again) dropped. You definitely need two loose donks (it it OK for an old guy to use that word?) for every reasonable player to fade the drop/collection. How long this will last is uncertain but I'm reasonably sure it won't last forever.

Quick story. In the 1/2 blind eTable game at HP very late at night last weekend I had gotten fairly deep in an hour or so (about $300). Very tight player $60 deep makes it $15 to go UTG. Next guy folds and I have JJ. I'm considering folding but decide to make it $45. Super-donk spending the last few weeks blowing off a smallish tournament win goes all-in for $120 or so. All fold to tight player who folds. I insta-call. My jacks hold up against his pair of sevens. Later he was mentioning he's gotten creamed so bad he might not be able to play anymore. If he goes busted, so does half the action in the eRoom. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

~ Rick

[Rottersod]

I just called and found out that the Hustler and Commerce for their 1/2 NL games are 3+1. The $20 NL at HG ($20! what a fest that must be) is $2 + .5 for 7-9 players; $1.5 + .5 for 6 players and $1 + .5 for 5 and below.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The $20 NL at HG ($20! what a fest that must be) is $2 + .5 for 7-9 players; $1.5 + .5 for 6 players and $1 + .5 for 5 and below.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the info.

I actually played that game for a couple hours a year or so ago after racking up in a much bigger game.

It was around 1:00 am on a weekend night and I look out to see fog so thick that you couldn't see your hood ornament (if you had one, I don't). So I decide to kill enough time to get the drunks off the road and wander behind the bar into the "donk party" section. I sit down in a mixed-sex game where I look like the creepy old man by comparison. I buy in for the fixed $20 and triple up on one pair shortly after. I double up again after spewing off a few chips. Now I have some chips and the table is crazy; there is an average of one rebuy every hand (this is why the chips don't disappear due to drop). So I have one beer but otherwise play my more or less "A" game, to the extent I have an "A" game. I walked out two hours later with about $300 wondering where young kids get so much money. When I was in college even the trust fund types didn't spend like this. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

~ Rick