It was starting to snow pretty heavily as we left for the airport Friday night. We had a flight to catch at 8:20 that was going to take us where white flakes falling from the skies just wasn’t a possibility. In a few hours we would be arriving in Los Angeles, where warm weather and new places to play cards awaited.
Unfortunately thanks to the previously mentioned poor weather our flight wasn’t getting off the ground in a hurry. Shiva was busy enjoying the book he picked up in the airport based on my recommendation… I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell. As usual my idea proved brilliant as throughout the flight about every three minutes he would close the book and be laughing so hard to himself that he was shaking our row of seats.
When we finally landed in LA we had to catch a bus over to the car rental place where we rented a 2010 Mustang convertible (pictured below) . I learned quickly that Shiva can’t tell the difference between a Sebring and a Mustang, which I find hilarious. While we were walking outside to pick it up off the lot we were greeted by beggars asking us to buy them food. We were planning to hit an In-N-Out burger, but we decided that two homeless guys wouldn’t make the best company and opted to leave them behind. We drove off to our hotel in Whitter, checked in and headed to In-N-Out.
Our rental for the week
This was the first time I was going to an In-N-Out and I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things. So my expectations were pretty high going in. And based on how busy the place was at 1:00 am I was expecting the best burger in existence. What a huge disappointment that was. The burger was average at best. The meat patties are super thin and it takes a double just to get close to the size of a normal burger just about anywhere else, and the meat quality was only slightly better than McDonalds. And then there was the fries, which are quite possibly the worst fries in existence. They are dry, and have zero flavoring. Eating them was about the equivalent of eating the batter drippings from Long John Silvers, just with less flavor. In-N-Out better hope Culver’s decides not to branch out west and compete with them or they are in trouble.
After just getting some sleep Friday night and avoiding indigestion from overrated burgers, we went over the the Bike to play in the second starting day for the main event of the Winnin’ o’ the Green series they had going. The weird thing about this tournament besides that it sounded very Irish while being in LA, was they were starting the play each day at 7pm, which was crazy late for a weekend tournament. While waiting around we saw Sam Simon (of Simpson’s and HSP fame) and Eskimo Clark who had been on a few ESPN poker broadcasts. We also got the bad news that the bad beat had finally been hit at our local card room, which means 70k neither of us were getting a piece of. We made a prop bet on the number of entries for day two, I took under the day one total of 307 and was right when the number announced was 289 or so. The late start times really weighted the entries more toward the first day.
The tournament itself was sort of uneventful. A few hours into the day I got moved to the same table as Shiva which sucked since we swapped a piece of each others action. I lasted longer than he did, but eventually my KK ran into QJ all in preflop and he caught a running QQ after a 9 high flop to send me out. Meanwhile Shiva took a shot at 5/10 and discovered that there was some pretty bad collusion in the game and we decided we would not be returning to the Bike.
Saturday was a bit of a loss for both of us.
That night Shiva found out the Hustler was running a new deep stack tournament series event starting Sunday with a great structure, so we headed over to play that Sunday afternoon. For the buy-in it was the best structure I had seen. $200 entry fee, 25k starting stack, 40 minute levels, no insane jumps and a pretty soft field. They were allowing late registrations so we didn’t show up on time, and because of that we ended up seated at the same table again. Shiva was table chip leader pretty early on after knocking out two people, but I had to play more creatively for the most part to accumulate chips.
A couple levels in I played a pot where there were several limpers to me on the button. I decided it was a good squeeze spot regardless of my cards and made healthy raise. Everyone folded except one player. The flop came Tc-7c-7s and he checked to me and I put out a continuation bet of about 2/3rds the pot. At this point I didn’t even know what I had yet because I had only pretended to look and was playing blind. He called my bet so while he was looking for the turn card I checked my holdings, and discovered I had 54 offsuit. The turn was a 5h, and he checked to me again. I thought his range was a big draw of some sort, maybe some ax type of hands who just didn’t want to give up easily, or a complete monster who was trying to trap me. Him being on a draw felt like the strongest possibility considering the limp-call preflop. It also meant I was probably ahead having made a pair on the turn. I wanted to maintain my aggression in this hand, and fired out about a half pot sized bet which he reluctantly called. The river was a small red card that didn’t change anything, and he checked again. I didn’t think there was any value in betting at this point because he wasn’t folding anything that had me beat, so I checked back and he showed me Jc-9c for a missed straight flush draw. I showed my 54 and took the pot down with two pair. My tight image was sort of ruined. Shiva got a kick out of it.
I only played one other big hand before the table broke where I flopped top two pair against a guy who flopped the Clay (bottom 2 pair) and I doubled up through him. Shiva and I were sent to different tables finally, he had about 90k in chips and I was near 50k. I went card dead for the next 4 hours, though I managed to steal enough blinds to stay even with my stack. I doubled up in a few key spots to keep me alive and make the money (top 23 paid) and when we got down to playing 2 tables and were getting close to a final table I ran really bad with getting hands or even having spots to steal or try to double. With the blinds at 10/20k and 3k antes I ended up getting it in on my big blind with A6 against AQ when I had just under 100k in chips left. I never improved and busted 11th just before the final table. Twelve hours of play, $500 dollar profit. Meh…
Went and found Shiva who was playing in a decent 2/5 game, and he had grinded out a nice win so we both headed back to hotel and called it a night with the intention of hitting the Commerce the next day.
Sunday, small win.
The problem with traveling with a guy who plays cards for a living is he has no concept of a normal sleep schedule, so the next day when I got up around noon he was still out and I ended up hitting the Commerce by myself. I got there and wandered around the high limit area, got a players card, talked to some people about the games and ended up jumping in a 20/40 limit game. After I was there for 2 hours, Shiva called and wanted me to come pick him up. I left that game up $1300 in about 2 and 1/2 hours, and picked him up. We went back and I got back into a 20/40 game while he went to play 5/10 NL. The Commerce is pretty fantastic about how they treat players. The menu is expansive, and everything is comped aside from alcoholic beverages which is no big deal. The first night there I ate some Asian dish with chicken and had some chocolate cake that was fantastic, and left up about 2k on the night.
Monday, nice win.
Tuesday was similar, except that I took a shot at 40/80 while Shiva went off to play 5/10 again. After a few hours I had doubled my buy in, but then I got coolered in a few hands and decided it was time to jump games because things just were not flowing well for me. I went over to check on the 5/10 action and Shiva told me there were a few good tables and a couple of bad ones, I ended up getting seated at a bad one.
The table was really tight and there wasn’t much action, so I was playing a little more loosely than I normally do and trying to build pots in position and steal small pots here and there. One hand I looked down at 88 on the button and raised a few limpers making it $60. I got called by the small blind and a guy in the 3 seat. The flop came T-9-7 with two hearts giving me an open ended straight draw along with my pair. Both of them checked to me and I bet $90, both of them called. The turn was a 3 that didn’t complete the flush, so when they both checked to me I made it $190. The small blind tanked for a bit and called, while the guy in the 3 seat got annoyed and mucked unhappily. The river was a 9, making the final board T-9-7-3-9 and the small blind checked to me and I checked back. He showed me an 8 and said he missed, and I showed him my pair of 8’s and scooped the pot. The guy in the 3 seat gets furious and tells everyone he mucked J9 and would have made trip 9’s. This set up my next confrontation with him.
From then on, every pot I played, the 3 seat played. He was clearly targeting me so I was looking for a spot to play a big pot with him and it didn’t take long to come up. I picked up pocket aces under the gun and made it $40, the only person that called me was seat 3 from his small blind. The flop came Jh-7s-3h which is a pretty safe board for my hand. He checked to me and I bet $65, he called. The turn was a 7s, pairing the second pair and putting a second possible flush draw out. This time he lead into me for $140. I had already decided I was at least calling the bet, but I waited a minute to just reason through his possible holdings and debate raising. I really thought the 7 was unlikely, and was putting him on a range of hands like JT or J9, a combo draw like a gutterball that just picked up a flush draw, maybe some medium pocket pairs and against me I didn’t think complete air was out of reason. I also was factoring in this guys irritation with my play from the previous hand and decided that raising wasn’t the best option because since he likely has a worse hand than I did I would get more money letting him lead at me on the river. About the only river card I absolutely didn’t want to see was a J, so when the Ks peeled off and he shoved all in for $605 more I had to decide if he in fact picked up the backdoor flush. I ran through his possible holding again and decided that I was good against this guy probably 80% of the time with aces up, and called. He showed pocket tens, and I stacked his chips.
Tuesday, another nice win.
Wednesday I played a bit more 5/10 during the day and had similar results to Tuesday though no interesting hands came up. Then I left to go out to visit a pal who lives in Long Beach while Shiva went back to the hotel to get some rest. My friend took me out to dinner at a BBQ place called Lucille’s which was decent, and then I got a tour of the cities various neighborhoods and tourist attractions. Even got to see the World Famous VIP record store featured in Snoop’s old video from his debut album. Overall it was a pretty good time. I headed back to the Hotel to pick up Shiva, but he was still asleep, so I played a bit online waiting for him to get up, however I ended up passing out too.
Wednesday, another nice win.
I woke up at like 5AM that morning with a message on my phone from Shiva saying he went to the Commerce, so I called him and he said he was in a sick game and to come check it out. I get there and he is playing a 5/10 NL game with where they decided to ante $10 per hand. Normally ante’s are 1/3rd the small blind or so which would be a 1-2 dollar ante, so playing with huge antes like this really changed the way the game played. I got on the list and waited for a seat for about 45 minutes before I could get into the game. I can’t even explain the way the ante’s changed the play, everyone was getting it in light and looking to gamble, lots of limp reraising and ridiculous bluffing. The bet sizing was way out of normal proportions because of the inflated pots, and it just made for some insane action.
The cast of characters in the game was interesting too. Sitting to my left was Steve, a musician who was from New York, who sounded like he was from Jersey, looked Italian, and lived in Nashville where he claimed to be starting work on his debut album he was just signed for. He also had a large collection of designer sunglasses with him which he switched between randomly. He turned out to be one of the biggest trash talkers I’ve ever seen in a poker game. Then over in seat 6 was Jenny, a cute married Asian girl who was trying to give off the innocent tight player vibe, but after watching her play for a hour it was clear she had some maniacal tendencies. Next to her was Eddie?, a relatively young Asian professional player. In seat 8 was Douchy, aptly named by Steve. It was a middle aged white guy who was clearly the worst player at the table and he never stopped letting us know how bad he was with his running hand commentary. And then there was some french euro guy in the 9 seat who apparently just had a hard on for Shiva because he didn’t like how loose/aggressive Shiva was.
The table banter was incredibly hilarious, mostly driven by Steve. Shiva was constantly commenting how this would be a great television table, and he was right. Steve was constantly asking Jenny to make out with him which made for some uncomfortable moments and and ripping on the guy in seat 8. “Hey douchy, you gonna call this time?”. It sounded rude, but Douchy actually was really annoying. He limped 82 one hand and told the table “I have to limp any two cards because I’m already getting 20-1 so it’s the correct play”. Basically the guy was a functional retard when it comes to game theory. So Shiva and I got quite a kick out of Steve going off on the guy every 15 minutes. Steve however was the guy Shiva and I were making most of our money off in this game.
When I got there Shiva told me about the first hand he played at the table with Steve who had recruited him to play in the game from another table. Shiva opened in first position for $60 with K9, and Steve was his only caller. Flop came KQQ with a flush draw, Steve checked, Shiva Bet, Steve check raises, Shiva calls. Turn was a offsuit 9, Steve leads out, Shiva calls. The river was a ten that missed the flush, Steve puts Shiva all in for another 1k and Shiva calls. Steve flips out when Shiva tables his hand and it was good. This was useful info for me later when I got involved in a big hand with Steve.
For the most part, I the times I had raised to this point had been with hands like AQ, or JT, big connected hands because I wasn’t seeing any pairs. I picked up AA in the small blind and there were a few limpers and I made it $110 preflop and Steve was the only person to call. Flop came J76 rainbow, and I bet out $180, and Steve called. The turn was an 8, and I bet $450ish leaving myself about $650 behind at this point and Steve decided to ship it all in. I called and the river was a semi scary ten, and he gets frustrated and tells me my over pair is good. I show aces, he mucks, I scoop a 3k pot and he gives me the “that board is horrible for aces” lecture to which I just agreed and kept stacking.
Modeling some of Steve's designer glasses
The other funny part about this table was the other 5/10 table had guys making a list asking too get in the game, but one by one they would come over and sit down to see some insane hand play out where some guy make it 300 preflop with A5 and win a 2k pot and decide they couldn’t handle the swings, so they would get up and leave shaking their head.
When the day time floor staff got there, they killed our game saying we couldn’t use ante’s because of some jackpot rules, so after the table had been doing this for 5-6 hours they ended it and the game immediately broke.
We came back later in the day for another short 5/10 session where I finally booked a small loss in a cash game there, but it was only 1/3rd of a buy-in so no big deal. Later that night I played a $501r1a tournament on Stars that I cashed in and finished up another good day.
Thursday, more nice winning.
Friday I slept in and relaxed while Shiva went to take a shot at 10/20 NL at the commerce. When he got back we headed out to the airport and flew home. Overall, great week money wise for both of us on the trip, and definitely a place we will both be coming back to play again. If I didn’t already have two trips to Vegas planned for this year I’d probably be planing a trip back already.
