Commerce Casino

So I made it to Commerce last night. It's as big as I've been told. Seemed as big as a medium size Vegas casino, with almost all of it dedicated to poker! I played 40/80 for about 4 hours and took a 1k loss. Battled my way back after being down 2 racks. Big, noisy, dirty were my first impressions of the place. Game selection was finally available as when I was there on a Wednesday night, there was 5 40/80 games running and 2 60/120 games going, along with a 100/200 game.

Nothing extraordinary in terms of players. I saw some tight play, but for the most part, the table was loose and not too aggressive. Lots of players, playing any two suited, any two paint. Lots of people cold-calling 2 or 3 bets with hands that should have hit the muck. Only two real "bad" beats I took. I called a raise out of the big blind with A5c, 4 way action. Flop comes 2c 4c rag. Ends up capped on the flop. Turn is a rag, called all around. River is a red queen. I check-fold the river. Pre-flop raiser, and river bettor had KQc, for a rivered top-pair that took it down! Come on club! For sure I get 2, maybe even 3 bets out of her! Other beat I took, I ended up chopping the pot. I raise UTG with pocket kings. Get called by the small blind with AQo. Flop comes 6 7 9. check-bet-call. Turn comes an 8. check-check. River 5. Check-check. Bad flop call by her, but with the way she was playing all night it was not totally unexpected by me. I just wish she would have rivered a pair, instead of a chop. Lots of women playing at my table. At one time, I think we had 5 women and 4 men playing. Highly unusual for me. At Oceans-11, at most there's usually only one or two women in the game.

While I was checking the place out, I saw Tuan Le playing a 400/800 mixed game. In real life, he's much buffer and more ripped than you see on TV. Didn't really stick around to see how he was doing. Other than that I didn't run into any other "famous" poker players, nor anyone I know from San Diego.

All in all, I would say Commerce was just okay. If I happened to be in the area, had some bankroll and free time, I might stop in and play. Don't think I'd make a special trip for Commerce.

Itching to Play

Just checked in to my hotel here in Beverly Hills. Family is getting settled down, and I am getting ready to go out to play at Commerce Casino!

Pilgramage

I'm going to the poker Mecca of the world. Yep, that's right Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California. Home to world's best, up-and comers, wannabes, scum, hos, and other dregs of life. And oh yeah, they have the biggest poker room in the U.S. and the most poker action anywhere. At least, so I've been told. I've never set foot in Commere casino yet, in all my poker playing. But I will be in LA December 26-28 with my family and my wife has already said that I can go out and play at least one night, if not both.

I'm juiced up and ready to go as well, as I've been running pretty well the last month or so. Let's hope it stays that way at Commerce. Wish me luck. I'll be sure to pray to the poker Gods!

Running over the Table

Played in the 75/150 last night at Oceans-11. It was a weird night. I got there about 9:30pm, a little later than usual since my kids didn't want to go to sleep. When I arrived there was a short-handed 40/80, 2 full 20/40, and a full 75/150. I got seated in the 40/80 and only played like 45 minutes before the game broke. I then got in a 20/40 game where I only played for 30 minutes, and the only hand I played was pocket aces that got cracked by pocket eights. The original lineup in the 75/150 looked super juicy, but by the time my name got called the lineup wasn't as good any more. I was debating not taking it, but David T convinced me to play since he wanted my seat in the 20/40.

I ended up owning that table. I made $5650 in 4.5 hours. My big hands held up, and all my bluffs seemed to work, and more than my share of draws got there.

I made one masterful bluff (in my opinion) on Jamie. Jaime is a very loose aggressive player. 6-handed he raises under the gun, all folds to me. I call in the big blind with 45c. Flop is 4 6 7 all spades. bet-raise-call. Turn is king of hearts. check-bet-raise-call. River is 9 spades. I bet, Jaime hems and haws and starts complaining. He mucks 2 red jacks face up, and I take it down. Pretty good move, huh?

Happy Thanksgiving

Had an awesome rush last night, that pretty much lasted the entire session. I got started at 9:30pm in the 40/80 game and cashed out at 2:00 am for $7300, up 5300 in 4.5 hours of play.

For the longest time it seemed like every time I had a pocket pair, I would never flop a set. Last night it was the exact opposite. Every time I had a pocket pair, it seemed like it was impossible for me NOT to flop or turn a set. Even the pocket-pairs I ended up folding either on the flop or turn, seemed to make a set by the river. I don't know why I bothered to fold anything last night, as even the rags I was tossing were seemingly turning to gold, if only I had played. But I'm not greedy, I played my A game, and raked in the chips.

Happy Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble.

Thousand Dollar Scan!

Oceans-11 is having a promotion where your player's card gets scanned every hour and as you accumulate hours you can get cash back. It's sort of the Brick+Mortar equivalent to the rake back deal of on-line casinos.

So on Saturday night (really early Sunday Morning) at 1:55 am, I decide that I'm going to get the 2am scan and then call it quits and head home. At that point I had 3 racks and 2 stacks in front of me in the 40/80 game. I was up $1400 and was having a good night. Unfortunately, the girl who does the scans for whatever reason was inexplicably late doing the scans for this hour. Normally, the scan happens right around 5 to 10 minutes after the hour. In this case she came by at 2:25 am instead.

Don't worry in the half an hour I played while I was waiting for the damn scan only cost me a thousand bucks. I flopped a set of 4's on all spade board while I was in the BB. I called a raise from early position after a few other callers, including the SB. I think there was a total of 5 of us. In any case the flop came Qs 4s 8s. Long story short, many bets went in. I lost to the small blind's AKs who flopped the nuts and it held up. I was drawing totally live though. Then I lost a few other pots where I flopped TPTK, and ended up losing by the river.

So I still went home a winner, but not nearly as big as I would have if I had left earlier. I know that in the long-run it won't really matter as it's just one big long game, and I should be focused on performance, not results.

Jackpot!

I won the jackpot sort of on Wednesday night. I was playing the 20/40 when a player from a 4/8 game who had won a table share of the jackpot (about 2k) decided to take a shot at the 20/40 game I suppose. In any case he snapped me off in back to back hands where I had pocket queens (he rivered two pair) and ace-king where I flopped TPTK (he rivered a flush) when he first sat down. So I buckled down and before the night was over, he was felted and I was up about $1200. So I didn't win all of his money, but I got more than my fair share because it appears that he was gunning for me for some reason. This guy was in way over his head and didn't stand a chance in the 20/40.