Funny you should say that because I have never felt unsafe in Vegas and the last time I left Hollywood Park I was pretty scared. Commerce too. Never at The Bike though.

Every time you win $500 or more at Hawaiian Gardens, there is a 43% chance you will be followed home and beaten and robbed.

I never had any issues at the Bike or Commerce. Both places were fine, and I had some decent size cashes playing at Commerce. Now Hustler's was another story. I was not comfortable at that place. I made almost a $2,000 profit in a 2-3 NL game one night after having a good day playing 5-10 NL at the Commerce and I was QUITE NERVOUS leaving the Hustler. I actually never went back. When I cashed out the girl in the cage at the Hustler asked me if I wanted to go to a bigger game and my response was something like no I want to get the heck out of here. Hawaiian Gardens can be rough as well.

Great article, LVM, I think you hit on most of the differences really well. One thing I noticed--especially when I was playing 2/4 LHE or their entry level NL game--in general, the "class" of the clientele is a lot lower at the L.A. casinos than in Vegas. I've seen some pretty reprehensible behavior at the L.A. places that I know would not be tolerated in Vegas. Also, the dealers are, generally speaking, a whole lot better in Vegas than in L.A.

Regarding the "safety" factor....remember that the L.A clubs are generally located in the poorer areas of town. They're not in Beverly Hills or Malibu. I've never gone to any of the L.A. clubs at night--intentionally so--and if I stay there past sundown, I am a bit nervous leaving the casino going to my car.

One of the two times I went to Hollywood Park--and this was in the daytime, mind you--I did get hustled by a homeless guy inside the casino. I suppose that could happen in Vegas but I've never experienced it.

I've posted a few threads here (and even more on my blog) about my experiences at The Bike, the one linked below might actually be considered fairly typical of what I've encountered there, player-wise, so anyone thinking of playing in L.A. might find this thread useful.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=16179

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Another thing.....for limit players, I mean low limit players like 2/4, I was always annoyed that they are always 9 handed in L.A., not 10 handed as in Vegas. For NL, it's not much difference, because a lot of the Vegas rooms have gone 9 handed for their 1/2 games.

And it does matter, because I think you find that more players are more often away from the table in L.A. than in Vegas. So when I was playing 2/4, it was actually rather rare for 9 people to get cards more than a few hands in a row.

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