Noob's first live outing, complete misfire at The Bike

[DeadLily]

I suppose perhaps this should go in the Beginner's Forum, but this one seems more appropriate. Mods, move it if you must.

I finally decided to play live casino poker after playing online and with friends for about a year. I set my sights on NLHE 1/2 with no straddle. NLHE because that's the game I know, and 1/2/no straddle because that's what I can afford. I live in LA, so with the help of this page it seemed like The Bike was the place to go. I've been to a tournament at Hollywood Park, but the place is kinda seedy, and I'm not interested in going back.

So on a Sunday afternoon, I trot out to The Bicycle Casino. A helpful staff person pointed me to the lowstakes counter to sign up. I step on up, and tell the guy I want to play 1-2 no limit hold-em, and he looks at me like I asked him where they frosted the donuts. He says the 1-2 tables were limit, and that there's a 40 no limit game [over there somewhere]. There's no 1-2 NLHE. I asked if there was *ever* 1-2 NLHE, and he says no, just the 40 NLHE [over there]. That seemed to be the end of it, so I left.

So that's my first outing in LA to play live. What went wrong? Is there in fact no 1/2 NLHE at the Bike? Did I say it wrong? Is there a password? Wrong time of day?