The Commerce Casino

In this article Commerce Casino's Development Manager, John Griffo, talked about the Commerce's beginnings and its plans for the future.

What expansions has the Commerce gone through?

We opened in 1983 with poker on one side of the casino. In 1992 we expanded and added additional tables for our California poker games because we realized the growth of the California section games. In 2002 we opened the hotel and our high-limit poker section because of the explosion of poker. Our dream here was always to have a hotel, so we've added the 200-room hotel.

What are the accommodations for out-of-town poker players?

We give them a player rate. If they are playing on the casino floor, we will give them a VIP player rate, which is $89 or $99, depending on what limits they play.

How has the Commerce become the largest card room?

With the explosion of poker TV, we have always been the largest brick-and-mortar card room in the industry. Since the explosion, now we are adding more. We are going to add another 100 tables. It will eventually bring us up to 347 card tables, which it the largest in the world. Currently, on Friday and Saturday nights we run out of tables. What happens is that we end up spreading Hold'Em games on the blackjack tables. We have these no-bust blackjack tables. It's a little bit different from Vegas. But the interesting thing is you'll come here Friday and Saturday night, we'll spread Hold'Em games on the blackjack tables, but not necessarily on all of them. But on our pai gow poker tables, we'll use any table we can to get a game going. Hold'Em is so popular right no. It's hot.

What players do you have coming in?

The month of February we get them all. We have the WPT invitational, which brings all the celebrities out. Ben Affleck played a couple of years ago, he didn't play last year. We have Jennifer Tilly and all the top celebrities who play poker. One of our regulars down here in our weekly tournaments is James Woods. He's here; Maurice Chestnut is here on a regular basis. We don't like to really publicize it, though, because when they comedown we like to treat them like any other player. We put security around them to make sure that nobody goes up and bothers them. We don't want people bothering them when they are at the table. We really don't publicize who comes down and plays. As far as the poker players, in February they are all here: Ferguson, Seidel, Ivey, Antonio, Phil Laak. They are all here for our big tournament. As far as the tournament in September, some of them will show up for that, some won't, depending on what tournaments are going on. It's on a $5000 buy-in for our big event for the California State. On a regular basis we have more choices in high-limit action here on a daily basis than anywhere.

What limits do you have?

Everything, we have everything, depending on the players, like, in February, we'll spread any limit if they want to play. So as far as on a daily basis, we go from ½ Hold'Em all the way up to no limit, but we have an 80/160 regular game here all the time.

What games does the casino offer?

We have stud, Omaha, Hold'Em, we spread pineapple, but very little. On the other side, we have a no-bust blackjack, Caribbean Stud, 13-card poker, pai gow poker, super 9, and a California baccarat.

What WPT events do you host?

We host our LA Poker Classic, which is a WPT event, and then the invitational. That's the one that is a $200,000 free roll. The only way to get into it is to be invited by the casino, or be one of the charter members of the World Poker Tour, or pay your $25,000 entry fee for the WPT Championship tournament at the Bellagio. Those are the only ways to get in it. It is strictly an invitational. The invitational is usually the day after our final event of the LA Poker Classic. We also film the PPT here.