CARDS IN COMPTON
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
Crystal Park Casino - Compton, CA
I seem to be heading out west a lot lately and this gave me the opportunity to play poker in one of the most beautiful cities in America…yes I’m talking about Compton, CA. Now before you think I’ve joined either The Bloods or The Crips the truth is is that I was in Compton to check out the Crystal Park Casino. Having already checked out the likes of The Commerce and The Bike I thought it was a good idea to see what the other LA poker rooms had to offer. I thought that for all about the time it took me to walk from my rental car to the front doors of Crystal Park. Whereas upon entering “CP” I immediately thought, “What the fuck am I doing here?”
Now don’t get me wrong, The Crystal Park Casino and Compton itself isn’t as bad as “Boyz N The Hood” or N.W.A make it out to be. I mean compared to Camden, NJ and North Philadelphia I really didn’t feel that threatend at all as a white man in a unfamiliar area. Did I get out the car between the highway exit and the casino parking lot? “Hell NO!” But that’s besides the point. The Crystal Park Casino is literally right off the 91 Freeway and located right next to a Best Buy shopping area so it isn’t exactly “The Hood”. However, once inside the casino you realize right away that you’re not in a very affluent environment. There’s small stakes gambling everywhere from the bingo, blackjack, and the whopping two poker tables running. The poker room was small and the two tables with players at them were both $1-2 No Limit Hold’em. The casino and poker room really reminded me of The Normandie Casino that I had visited weeks early. Filled with dirty and degenerate gamblers, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion, but just not exactly what I was in the mood for after having run really well at a posh place like The Borgata lately. I only played for like an hour, won $62 and headed out the door to find somewhere if not cleaner at least more appealing. I headed over to The Hustler.
You’d think that being in LA that there would be plenty of hot women hanging around and working in casinos, but honestly only The Hustler has any kind of decent looking women within their establishment, and even they have nothing on The Borgata Babes, but I digress. The Hustler definitely isn’t as big or as well regarded as The Commerce or The Bicycle Club but for some reason I just like the feel and atmosphere of the venue. Maybe me and Larry Flynnt have a lot in common. Well, let’s see poker and porn…there’s two things. But one thing I don’t dig about The Hustler or LA poker in general is their retarded cash game structure (please refer to previous blogs below if you want even more complaining about this) where the max buy in for a $1-2 NL Hold’em game is a measely $100 and for $2-5 its $200, which results in absolutely no play and just coin flips and shoving matches. It also doesn’t help that night that I couldn’t hit anything on the board or that any kind of moves that I did attempt ran into good hands. But whatever, LA Poker I don’t hate you, but I see you more as the same way as I see Donovan McNabb; you’re still hugely over-rated but you do occassionaly have some bright spots.