The Gardens Casino

The Dinning area is horrible. No waiters or service. Second time this happened. Constantly ignored. Only come here to gamble food impossible. Or go to other casino

Review #200 to bring 2012 to a close, someplace that never lets me down!

This place is awesome, and for a number of reasons.

For one, it's in a giant tent. No foo-foo this or that. I can live with the tent since it has heat and air conditioning. No foo-foo also means that people aren't so uptight here. Except for the occasional jackass or douchebag, it's a generally fun and friendly atmosphere.

The food. Yum. If you only came for the food you wouldn't be disappointed, trust me. Not every single thing on the menu is built to perfection, but most things are very well prepared, and dirt cheap too!! Especially any of the Asian dishes. The servers are super friendly and go out of their way to accommodate you. Kick them down a buck or two and they are happy...where else does that happen these days?

The game. Not bad. There are some good players and there are lots of bad players. If you come at the right time, it can be pretty profitable. Most of the fish frenzy happens after dinner time. I guess that's when people try to escape from their house for a few hours for some fun and to try their luck. It's perfect, they usually come ready to blow off 4-5-6 buyins, and always think they are going to recoup what they just lost. Yup...perfect. Just sit around and friendly chit chat with them and they will stay until they have no more money to give. Tell them they are great players. Agree with their complaining about other players's play or whatever they think is a concern. Keep them happy I say!

Sometimes things get a little wild, and then it really becomes no fun. Bloated bets and asinine risk takers really rock the boat. Just wait it out or move to another table is all you can do really. The worst is losing to this nonsense when you are 4.5:1, with some English as his third language guy taunting you - I AWW IN! I GAM BOH! I BEET YOO! (Note that these guys usually don't have a first or second language either).

Staff and armed security are more than adequate here. If you really think there's an issue they will gladly escort you to your car I'm sure. They have regular patrols in the parking lot and a manned watchtower - better than every other casino around these parts.

Decent prices on stuff at the bar too, all in all whatever you do here is a bargain in the cost vs. fun ratio department!

Wow. Stepping in this place immediately gives me explosive diarrhea.
Its like stepping back in time when the 80's were still in motion. When Madonna was still relevant, where teased hair, leg warmers, jelly shoes, and acid washed reigned supreme. I'm going to refrain from using the world ghetto because that's disrespectful to the tragedy that the Jewish people had to go through...So i'm going to use the word appalling and atrocious and disgusting. This place is the slums of all casinos. There was a definite stench of BO in the room, which was probably from no ventilation. It reminds me of a cafeteria that just so happens to have some gambling in it. I saw all the asian food I grew up eating. Including ca ri (curry), boba drinks, and what looked like bun chay gio.
Probably to cater to all the asians that frequent and fill this place. I feel like i'm at an uncomfortable family gathering with all the gross skankster relatives I'm not friendly with. All the vietnamese and asian people with bad hair and even more disastrous fashion sense. Just overall slimy.
Apparently a lot of California casinos charge a dollar ante per hand which kind of sucks especially if your playing 5 dollar minimum blackjack...trying not to empty my already dwindling bank account.
The dealers here barely speak English and don't really vocalize whats going on which is kind of confusing and frustrating, especially when they are taking away my money. While I was walking around to find a table I saw training of the dealers, and she seemed to know nothing about the game. All very sketchtastic. I will definitely not be back. On a good note though is that we ended up going to Boiling Crab afterward.

HGC is the most ghetto fabulous place to play poker in LA. At the same time, it has one of the sketchiest parking lots. When our hero met a female friend of his here, she called him to ask if he could walk her from her car to the front door because there were so many shady looking characters in the parking lot.

Inside, the structure looks a bit shoddy, as it is pretty much two huge tents connected by a smaller lower limit card room in the middle. Carts roam around selling candy and cigarettes, sandwiches, and boba tea (for the ridiculously low price of 75 cents!) frequently. A good 95% of all the dealers are Asian, and the majority of players here are Vietnamese, Korean, or some other type of Asian. Signs on the auto-shuffling machines even ask players to speak only in English when a hand is in session.

All of the no limit hold 'em games are fixed buy ins for either $20, $40, $100, $300+. It's not really clear why the demand for the $20 buy in games is so strong, because at a rake of $3 + .50 jackpot plus tips on each hand, the house essentially bankrupts 1 out of 9 players at the table every 5 or 6 hands. Winning over a long period of time at $20 tables is near impossible due to the large slice of rake that's taken off and the frequency at which players need to reload just to keep the money in play at the same amount.

HGC is a place where you can feel like a baller for having more than $100 to your name and you can even eat for free at the table if you're playing with over $300! Even if you're playing at low stakes tables, food is a steal with soda and coffee being free and a good sized basket of fries being only 75 cents.

PROS:
- Wide range of games including , NL and Limit Hold 'Em, Omaha, Stud, Blackjack, Pai Gow.
- Ridiculously low buy in games of $20 available. There's always a wait list for these games too and no shortage of soft competition.
- Cheap food and drinks available.

CONS:
- Most poker players at this casino take poker a bit too seriously for low limit games.
- Packing almost 200 game tables into such a space makes it seem quite crowded.
- They have the most antiquated floral cocktail waitress costumes in LA.
- The chips feel really dirty and sticky. What have the HGC players been doing with their hands?

"CAAAAAAANDY...CIGARETTE CAAAAANDY!"

Ah good ol' Hawaiian Gardens or 'HG' as the locals call it (although I think they changed the name to 'The Gardens' to try and make it sound classier...yea not gonna happen HG!)

Let's dive right in. Yes, HG is a tent...get over it. Once your inside you barely notice it...unless your starring at the ceiling. Stare at something else like your cards, or chips, or the pretty cocktail waitresses that work there.

Poker: I've only played the No Limit Texas Holdem tables.
$20 NL TH- Horrible. Straight up bingo poker. As in if you push $20 pre-flop be prepared for everyone at the table to call. The rake is retarded. These tables are designed for degenerates.
$40 NL TH- Decent players. Bluffing here works half the time. More people respect raises preflop. People here actually think twice before calling. Sometimes you'll get pissed off people coming from the $100 or $300+ tables that are just tilting hard and looking to punk people. Cha-ching. Rake is still retarded.
$100 NL TH- Most players are pretty good. Beware of the tricky smooth calling locals. Still a ton of idiots with money here. Always remember at HG the flush draw is the best hand ever. GAM-BUL GAM-BUL!
$300 NL TH - FREE FOOD! And you can bring a date with you and get her some free food too. Talk about romantic.

They also offer 500+ cash games, but I never play em. The limit games are good, mostly old people just killing time before they die (yea i said it).

I heard the tournaments are decent, especially the ones on weekends, but again I never played any so I wouldn't know.

They offer jackpots on all poker tables. I've actually hit one, so yes it is possible to win. I guess anything is possible at HG...muhahah.

Blackjack/PaiGow/All the other games I don't play in the other room- You gotta play $1 to play black jack. They offer a bonus. You shouldn't be playing black jack tho. Stick to poker.

Food: Excellent. They got all types of food, mexican, white, asian, and italian. I recommend the house fried rice, bulgogi with rice, pepper steak, steak and blue cheese sliders, there's more but I'm getting tired of writing this review.

Non alcoholic drinks are free. Alcoholic drinks are cheap. Blue label is like 10 bucks. Beers are three fiddy. Go nuts.

Overall friendly staff, sometimes friendly dealers, security rolls out with the quickness so don't be afraid to start shit with the retarded drunk guy that gets pissed about you check raising him all the time. Yea I come here a lot, probably too much, but what can I say. I love playing poker and HG is right down the street.

Of the three casinos that ive been in the LA area(commerce, bicycle, hawaiian gardens), this one is my favorite.

They have a bunch of the standard card room games including my favorite, texas hold em poker. They have tables for all levels. I usually just play at the 20 dollar no limit table. You can only start with 20 dollars at this table.

The dealers and staff at this casino are surprisingly nice and helpful. Most of the people i've played with here are also nice. Really really strange for a casino in my experience.

They have food that you can order at the tables where u play. Like most casinos, the food is super cheap in price. The quality isnt horrible either. They have all sorts of food ranging from steak, to chinese to club sandwiches to korean bbq.

I have since quit going to local casinos(i dont wanna become a gamboholic) but would recommend this place to anyone that is interested in this soul sucking game.

Good for what it is. Yes, it is ghetto and horribly decorated, but it adds to the feel of it. Nice place to feel gross and win or lose some money. Many of the dealers I've had have been pretty rude, but once in a while you'll get a semi-friendly one. The security guards are super nice, for the most part.

One bad experience here... More often than not, I use my passport as ID. The first time I tried to go here, they wouldn't accept it. Argued that it's a valid, government issued ID... But they weren't having it. I was really annoyed by that, but brushed it off and went to Commerce and had a nice time there. It's too bad though; now I have to avoid this place or avoid getting carded when I only have my passport. I really dislike that and find it unnecessary. So. What would be a four star review becomes three stars.

Best part about this casino... The double-deck blackjack. Lots of fun. The poker here is really good too. Plenty of tables. Some of the regulars here are friendly and seem to get a kick out of anyone that doesn't fit in to the scene... Went here with my friend from Australia. One of the Vietnamese regulars heard his accent and started chatting with us. Then he started talking about baccarat. Went to the baccarat table with him and he taught us how to play. Had such a good time.

Some people have dreams of winning the WSOP and becoming respected and famous. Other people have dreams of sitting at the big cash game in Vegas with the Brunson's and Ivey's and the lot.

Me, on the other hand, has always had the dream of going heads up against a guy on meth. I liken it to the Jeopardy equivalent of going up against the Watson computer system. Can you imagine how many calculations must be happening in a matter of seconds in one of those dude's heads?

Well today I finally crossed that illusive little guy off my bucket list. Now I wasn't totally convinced at first by the guys erratic behavior and REM like eye movements, considering the characters who frequent HG on a daily basis. However, after losing a fairly large pot, PMH (Purported Meth Head) left the table with flair and flourish, and hurried himself out of the building.

10 minutes later he was back, fidgeting around in his seat like he knew the answer in math class and really wanted the teacher to call on him. But this was all the same as before, except for one new variable; his friend had come with him.

Friend to PMH: "Maaaaaaa ming a waaaaaaa baaaahhhh men ja HAHAHAHAHAHA."

I guess it's hard to form English sentences when you've only got one tooth in your mouth (seriously), and MEEEEEETTTTTHHHH!

So what did I do when I finally cornered him into a heads-up hand? I took a page from his playbook and sucked out a nut flush on the river that put him all in, somewhat akin to what he was out doing in the parking lot.

Moral of the story: You have justifiable cause to be worried when you come here.

It's funny because we all come here to gamble. And the worst thing about this casino are the dealers. They are horrible, and refuse to run the game. Us players have to do everything for them. Getting tired of this, gonna look elsewhere..

Are you here to play blackjack? Or play poker perhaps? The latter is a better option. At least the odds (for poker) isn't as screwed up. Blackjacks are paid 6:5, and guess what? You gotta tip every hand. I asked the banker and dealer why that is. All I got was this... "You are betting against a company... so.... you gotta tip 1 dollar per hand... but hey you are having fun right?" Yeah, I sure am.

Go to Vegas.