Cliff's Notes at the bottom for those of you that want the short version of the story.
I flew in to LAX on Thursday, got my rental car and checked in to my hotel in Rosemead. After getting some dinner from the mall, I headed to check out the Commerce casino.
Commerce is pretty big, considering that they only have poker and other card games. I wandered around the first floor before being told that the lower limit games were upstairs -- so up I went. The brush seemed to be somewhat preoccupied -- they were in the middle of a tournament and he seemed to be helping seat players. However, I did get on the list and was seated at a new table within 30 minutes.
The game was very good -- players tended to be very loose passive. Few players raise preflop and most players will gladly cold-call 2 bets incorrectly preflop. Also, flop bets for $2 tend to get 0 respect -- turn bets get a little more
. Perhaps one or two younger players showed up eventually, but they only raised occasionally preflop. Although I was playing squeaky tight, I was still able to get action on a lot of my hands. Also, I was running extremely well -- on at least 2 occasions I was able to flop either a nut straight or nut flush, and got paid by at least one player all the way to the river. Toward the end of the night, there was a player to my left that I will dub Mr. Loose-passive-aggressive. He didn't raise preflop, and would bet if checked to on the turn, but would tend to call down if someone else bet. Example: I raise with KK, Mr. LPA calls. I bet the flop/turn/river on a T high board and KK is good -- go figure. Apparently my tight table image meant nothing to him.
Best story:
Guy sits down to my right. He seems kinda noobish. Buys in for $40 (note: most players buy in for $20 to $40 -- they tend to suck). He's in the game for 30 minutes or so, and is in the hand on the turn with about $12 left.
Guy: I'm all-in.
Dealer: Sir, the bet is $4, this is a limit table
Guy: You mean this isn't $40 NL?
Me: !? (are you for real!?)
Other guy (in the hand): [chuckles] I raise to $8
Guy: I call.
They get it all in on the river anyways (Guy to my right check/calls and loses). He then gets up from the table and asks to be shown the $40NL table.
Me: You gotta be kidding me...
So, after crushing the $2/4 table for +$266 (I ran extremely well, couldn't stop making flushes, value bet at the right times, etc.) I decided that I would give $40 NL a try the next day at the Bicycle casino.
$40NL is a strange game -- they rake $3 immediately after the flop, which kinda kills the pot if it was limped. If 5 players see the flop, there's only like $7 in there. Also, the $40 min/max buyin makes it a little tough for weak-tight players like me to weather dry spells where we don't flop any sets and don't pair our AQ's -- it's easier if the loose players need to put more at risk. However, if you rebuy (after busting out), you can reload to $60. I did have a couple of good hands, but certainly passed on a few high-variance (but most likely profitable) opportunities. In the end, I was down $35 after missing the flop several times in a row with my AQ/AJ type hands (and of course, folding JJ on a 9 high board against an old lady who min-raised UTG).
Best hand of the morning:
Halfway decent player is down to his last $19 and open shoves UTG. New player cold calls $19. Folded to me in the BB, I push for $52 total. new player thinks and calls me with T6s. UTG shows AKs. board comes T868J and my two pair wins.
Hollywood Park has the odd practice of making the player on the dealer button post $1 -- so there's a SB, BB and dealer (SB). I'd imagine it's to encourage extra action from the button, but I don't see the point of it for a 2/4 game (too much action already). Even though it was a monday morning, the table seemed to be filled with very loose players, although their hand selection skills seemed to be better and the game played more aggressively than say, thursday night at the commerce. I didn't play because I had a plane to catch, but I was somewhat surprised to see how poorly the Monday morning regulars play.
Summary:
Went to Commerce, ran well, crushed 2/4 limit on a Thursday night for +266
Went to Bicycle on Friday morning, played weak tight, lost $35
Checked out Hollywood Park on a monday morning -- noticed that players play poorly.
Fun trip
Linear Mode
