San Jose

Just got back from a business trip to San Jose/Bay Area. Got out to play poker on Wednesday night with a buddy of mine from Canada, who also happened to be in the Bay area on business. We went to Garden City casino in San Jose after work, getting there around 7:00 pm or so. We sat together in the 6/12 game there. It was a fun little table, smaller than I usually play but I was just looking to have fun and get a chance to talk to my friend. I did end up 115, actually 116 dollars up, but one of those is the 1 dollar chip I took as a souvenir. I have a dollar chip from pretty much every casino I have ever played poker at.

Overall I was not impressed with Garden City casino much. It was a fairly large casino, but it seemed dirty and grungy. Texas Holdem games being spread were 2/4, 3/6, 6/12, 8/16, 20/40 and 40/80 along with some spread-limit games. No-limit games are not allowed in San Jose by law, apparently. I've been to the Bay 101 before, which I much prefer to Garden City. Next time I go to the Bay area, I'll probably go back to the Bay 101 before I visit Garden City again.

As far as actual poker play goes, nothing significant really happened. I forgot how bad the low-limit players as far as starting hand selection was. I saw some crazy hands being played in awful position. I made a couple of mistakes, but overall I thought I played pretty good, especially considering that I tend to play on the loose side before the flop, as the bet sizes are considerably smaller than what I usually play. 5-7 suited for a raise, ok I'll play. Normally in the 20/40 or 40/80 I would muck that without a second thought. Last night, I played it and won a fairly large pot. I flopped a flush draw, raised the flop, turned an open ender, bet it, and rivered the flush, bet it and got paid off.

I know that the bet size really shouldn't dictate whether or not you should play a hand. But I felt that I could afford to play some speculative hands since I figured I definitely played better than just about everybody at that table post-flop.