An “Only in LA” Story - The Dealer Stall and the $1 pot!

[andyfox]

First hold-em hand I ever played I flopped a full house, didn't lose the pot, and lost money. My big blind, all fold to the small blind who called. I had Q-J. By the river the board was Q-J-J-2-Q and he had Q-7. We chopped, but with the rake, we both lost a few chips.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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good story, the rake here sucks and I hope one day someone opens a percentage rake casino... but

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Any rake/drop based on pot size is definitely illegal under current California law. But I believe you can get around this a bit by triggering the drop on an event not directly related to pot size. If you feel you need to take the full drop all at once, I'd make that trigger a called bet post flop. But it may be possible to take the drop in pieces (e.g., a called bet post flop takes half the drop, a second called bet takes the other half). The Normandie actually did something like this a few years ago.



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this is the only 1/2NL game ive heard of around town that has a 100$ cap. also in cardplayer I saw an ad saying that for just 5 hours of poker play you get a free room. why is this place not packed?

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I believe Crystal Park has some potential. They need to do just about everything right but the market for this type for place is there. The ownership led by Haig Kelegian is pouring money into restoration, and the card room looks nice. They have some very good people who are trying hard. But given the past history of CP, they have a lot to overcome.

I think the cheap/free hotel rooms will help as long as they go to action players and their girlfriends rather than busto poker players (as was the case in the past).

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

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good story, the rake here sucks and I hope one day someone opens a percentage rake casino... but
this is the only 1/2NL game ive heard of around town that has a 100$ cap. also in cardplayer I saw an ad saying that for just 5 hours of poker play you get a free room. why is this place not packed?

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It's a tiny room in the middle of the ghetto. - AB

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Regarding tiny room - The card room has about fifteen to twenty tables and they have a tournament room at least that big. The other downstairs area is quite large for other table games, a nice bar (undergoing renovation) and large meeting and banquet areas.

Regarding ghetto - Although it is Compton, the room is off the freeway in an unused light industrial area with good parking lot security. There is no loitering on any street between the club and freeway. I'd say it is as safe (or unsafe) as most clubs. Use your head and you will be OK.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

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PS This casino (Crystal Park) has to be commended a bit for being the only one in LA having a no flop, no drop policy (not even a jackpot drop).

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I'm in the process of linking to this post from another thread and I just noticed this is no longer true as of a week or so ago. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

As an aside, the OP in this thread was a true story, lightly embellished. Given the $4 + $1 drop at Hollywood Park's 1/2 blind NL e-table, I'm thinking about re-writing this true story as a HP e-table story (which would only need to be slightly more embellished).

Imagine a story similar to the one in the OP with nothing in the pot after the five dollar drop, and the computer dealer devilishly trying to disguise the fact the pot disappears no matter how long I stall in the big blind. The reality is that's the way it is actually programmed! [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

~ Rick

[goodguy_1]

awesome thread very entertaining but depressing that these rooms have to rape the players so badly.

Rick are you the same guy that used to post under the pseudonym of speedracer on rgp 5-6 years ago...This guy was my favorite poster on rgp ..he knew everything about LA rake in detail.

I recall he played mid/high LHE at the time. Anyway this thread made me think of speedracer and rgp.

If you arent speedracer is he or was he ever a 2+2'er?

[RR]

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awesome thread very entertaining but depressing that these rooms have to rape the players so badly.

Rick are you the same guy that used to post under the pseudonym of speedracer on rgp 5-6 years ago...This guy was my favorite poster on rgp ..he knew everything about LA rake in detail.

I recall he played mid/high LHE at the time. Anyway this thread made me think of speedracer and rgp.

If you arent speedracer is he or was he ever a 2+2'er?

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Rick is not speedracer.

[thirddan]

i do remember a couple speedracer posts here from a couple years back...it might have been a special appearance in response to something though...

[Rick Nebiolo]

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awesome thread very entertaining but depressing that these rooms have to rape the players so badly.

Rick are you the same guy that used to post under the pseudonym of speedracer on rgp 5-6 years ago...This guy was my favorite poster on rgp ..he knew everything about LA rake in detail.

I recall he played mid/high LHE at the time. Anyway this thread made me think of speedracer and rgp.

If you arent speedracer is he or was he ever a 2+2'er?

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To the best of my knowledge Speed Racer only started one thread on 2+2 I worked at the Bike at the time and was active in the thread. If you read this it's obvious we aren't the same person but we know and respect each other.

Also, if you use Google's Advanced Newsgroup Search you will find that I was involved in many of the Speed Racer threads on RGP (rec.gambling.poker). There's some great stuff there and believe me Speed Racer got on cardrooms management's nerves. Too bad they don't have the sense to listen a bit more.

Speed Racer also posted on RGP under at least a couple other names (I'm not sure he would want me to give them away but it would only require minor sleuthing to figure them out). To the best of my knowledge he isn't that active on newsgroups or poker discussion forums anymore; I think he decided it wasn't worth having a laser scope targeted on his forehead every time he entered a cardroom.

Anyway, if you look at the old RGP threads you will find that Speed Racer and I generally agree, but I would get on him for using hyperbole and often question his math and assumptions. His posts also tend to focus on collection practices mostly in the higher limit games, while I also focus on what these practices do to the smaller games, the games that are the backbone of the cardroom business.

I'll post this link to one the last Speed Racer RGP threads I was involved in just because the title and content is so hilarious.

~ Rick

[VORP]

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Any rake/drop based on pot size is definitely illegal under current California law. But I believe you can get around this a bit by triggering the drop on an event not directly related to pot size. If you feel you need to take the full drop all at once, I'd make that trigger a called bet post flop. But it may be possible to take the drop in pieces (e.g., a called bet post flop takes half the drop, a second called bet takes the other half). The Normandie actually did something like this a few years ago.


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I know I’m kind of reviving an old thread here but I’ve seen Rick talk a number of times about how to improve LA rake and I just had a thought that might help. At Ocean’s 11 they have a separate low limit room with 1/1NL and 2/4 limit. They have the standard CA auto rake except that they don’t take any drop, other than the jackpot, until the pot reaches $7. So if 4 people limp in the 1/1 game and check it down to the river, no drop is taken.

This contradicts what you said above and I’m not sure whether what they are doing can be structured legally or if they are simply doing it anyway. I believe it's been set up this way for a while though so I would tend to think it's legit.

[RR]

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[ QUOTE ]

Any rake/drop based on pot size is definitely illegal under current California law. But I believe you can get around this a bit by triggering the drop on an event not directly related to pot size. If you feel you need to take the full drop all at once, I'd make that trigger a called bet post flop. But it may be possible to take the drop in pieces (e.g., a called bet post flop takes half the drop, a second called bet takes the other half). The Normandie actually did something like this a few years ago.


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I know I’m kind of reviving an old thread here but I’ve seen Rick talk a number of times about how to improve LA rake and I just had a thought that might help. At Ocean’s 11 they have a separate low limit room with 1/1NL and 2/4 limit. They have the standard CA auto rake except that they don’t take any drop, other than the jackpot, until the pot reaches $7. So if 4 people limp in the 1/1 game and check it down to the river, no drop is taken.

This contradicts what you said above and I’m not sure whether what they are doing can be structured legally or if they are simply doing it anyway. I believe it's been set up this way for a while though so I would tend to think it's legit.

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I believe the LA county DA's office holds a slightly different position on what is legal forcing the LA county clubs to not do that.