Greatest Mix Lineup Ever!

Labor Day.  A day of rest for some.  For others, not so much, especially those playing in the 20/40 mix game at Oceans-11.

On Sunday evening after the neighborhood block party, I moseyed my way up to the casino.   Visiting San Diego and the casino was on old friend of mine from Las Vegas.  I got into the game around 9:30pm.  The mix game usually starts around 6pm every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I had a great time chatting with my friend and booked a small loss and went home a little after 2am.  I wake up on Monday at a reasonable time, nicely rested.  Since it was a holiday my kids had the day off from school, and I reflexively checked out Oceans-11 on PokerAtlas.  I see that there is a 20/40 mix game going.  I just assumed with the Labor Day crowd they happened to get a game going spontaneously.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

I showed up around 3 pm after having lunch with the family to discover that the game has gone overnight and 3/8 of the game is made up of over-nighters.  These poor souls put in a marathon session, with each being in the game for over 24 hours before they finally quit.  These were the same people I left on Monday morning at 2am remember.  13 hours later, they were still there.  On a holiday.

And then cabbie Dave made an appearance, along with Mac.  For a while, it was the most glorious lineup ever.  I may never get to play in a mix game that good ever again. 

And I actually got to book a reasonable win to top it off!

Potpourri

Added a couple more casinos to my list.  Spent last week in Los Angeles with the family doing various things including Universal Studios.  I managed to sneak out to Hustler and the newly remodeled Bicycle Casino.

 

The newly remodeled Bicycle is very nice.  I remember the first time I was there.  I think it was season 2 of the WPT and I went up to play a satellite tournament.  That was back in 2003, so it's been a while.

While at the Bike I had an opportunity to catch-up with a friend.  He's sort of internet-famous.  He does commentary for live at the Bike sometimes.  He's also a comedian, at least he likes to think he is.  Here's a sampling of his material.  Comment if you'd like.  It would be interesting to see what others think.

In other news, Cabbie Dave made a late appearance last night in the Oceans mix game.  He ran hotter than the sun and cleaned out 3 players.  I made it out unscathed luckily, and won a little.  He's caught on to the games quick, although he still plays too loose and goes too far with his hands.   But on those nights when he's running hotter than the sun, watch out— he always seems to catch exactly what he needs.

We've added pineapple razzdugi into the mix.  This game is great.  Awesome action.  And I got to make #1, #1 against Dave last night.  I had A34569, all suits covered except hearts heading into 7th street.  I bet blind against Dave's board, which if I recall, I had him board locked as the best low he could have was like a 7.

He called and I showed my 6 cards and he asked if I had a badugi.  I answered it depended on my last card.  I sweated it in and revealed the deuce of hearts for the double pee pee scooper.

Fun game.

A new member of the Club!

Welcoming our newest member to the club.  The newest member had a great night at Oceans playing 8/16 and running over everyone at the table.  Wining 100 big bets at a limit game is a great feeling.  At a 9 nine handed table, winning 100 big bets at a 4/8 chip structured game is the equivalent of winning one rack from each player.  It's awesome.  Without further adieu, here's the documentary evidence as required.

 

Peace, Out!

I did it.  I finished law school!  It's been a very long and a very short 994 days.  Graduation Ceremonies aren't until Saturday, but I took my last final this morning.  It's a surreal feeling and I am having trouble expressing exactly how I feel.  I feel happy and emotionally drained for some reason.

Finishing law school is rather anti-climactic anyways.  While I have some down time, I still have this thing called the bar exam to worry about, and that's really the only exam that counts.  Preparation and studying for that exam will begin in earnest in a couple of weeks, but in the mean time, I will try and find something to do to keep myself busy!

Finally, a break-through!

It only took 6 tries, but I finally booked a win in the Commerce 40/80 game.  I don't play Commerce regularly.  According to my database, which unfortunately only goes back to January of 2011 due to a computer mishap, I played once in 2013 and then this year I got to play 5 sessions at Commerce 40/80.  'Bout time, I booked a win.

I played a fairly long session, about 13 hours, not including breaks.  For most of the session, I was within +- 1 rack of my buy in.  But from about 11:00pm til 1:30am when I left, I went on a huge tear and with one dealer, won like 50% of the hands she dealt out in her down.

Commerce 40/80 is much tougher than Oceans-11 40/80 for sure.  Very little open-limping, lots of 3-betting isolation plays, and lots of post-flop aggression.  One thing I noticed is for most of the players, they almost NEVER have it when they raise the flop.  I saw so many free-card plays and flop raises for cheap showdowns that I couldn't believe it.

I never had a session like yesterdays where I had to fold overpairs or top-pair top-kicker so many times on the turn or river.  I also folded pocket tens 3 times preflop.  One time incorrectly, and both other times correctly.  Wild and crazy game.  I also swear, that statistically speaking, I am running way below expectation at Commerce with respect to draws.  I've had so many straight draws and flush draws come blank blank, that I swear the next time I'm there, I better hit every stinking gutter ball to make up for it, plus hit every nut flush draw that comes my way.

Double Crush

Double Crush

What's Double Crush you ask?  Qualifying for Crush Club in back to back sessions.  Congrats DVD (not a complete idiot).

Best Poker of His Life!

My poker friend DVD (not a complete idiot) had a crazy roller coaster of a poker day yesterday.  I rolled up to the casino in the afternoon and got seated in a 20/40 game.  DVD who normally plays limit for some inexplicable reason was playing the 10/25 no limit game.  About 3 hours later DVD comes over to the 20/40 game having lost a mid-4 figure sum at the no-limit game.  I don't think he expected to be able to get even for the day, let alone, actual winner, but he did.

Soon thereafter we pseudo-kicked the stakes up, by reintroducing the kill back into the game.  For the next 7 hours or so, DVD proceeded to run over the table by playing the Best Poker of His Life!

Some examples of the Best Poker of His Life (I may trademark this, I like the way it sounds):

• AK call down against AQ on a wet board when raised on the turn against a guy who had already announced he wasn't going to try and bluff him anymore.
• KJ river bet, getting me to lay down QQ on a J74, one club, some random club on the turn, and then A club on the river, by donking the river, with me next to act, with the flop-raiser, EGT, (who I 3-bet on the flop), behind me.
• AK call against ?? on a board with a 4 liner straight with top-pair top-kicker after agonizing and showing the hand to the same guy who had already tried to bluff him three times (I thought this was an excruciatingly obvious call, but whatever).
• AA against my 99 and ??.  DVD capped pre-flop and then took a passive line against me and EGT, and successfully got maximum action by allowing me and EGT to hang ourselves, especially EGT, when he raised the turn with God knows what that couldn't win when the T paired the board on the river (I think, either turn or river, but I think it was the river).
• I'm sure there were others, but these are the ones I recall distinctly.

I left before DVD, but at the time I left, combined we were up over 167 bets.  In other words, the two of us were basically the only ones winning.  Now the strange thing is, I don't really recall who was the big loser.

In any case, it was a fun day slinging chips over the poker felt.