With the cost of airline tickets in the stratosphere and the prospect of getting to the east coast to visit family for Thanksgiving dried up, I made the last minute decision–aided by the acquisition of a convenient hotel room cheaply–to spend a couple days of the 4-day holiday weekend in Southern California.
I was chasing limit tournaments, and the Bicycle Casino had one on Thursday night.
But before Thursday, because late Wednesday was pretty much a wash at work, I slipped out a bit early to hit the weekly Wednesday night limit tournament at the Oaks. And to be fair, the decision on taking the trip was going to depend on how well I did in the tournament.
And well I did, placing 6th in a field of 101 to take home a nice sum. When I got home, I booked the hotel across from the Bike, the Ramada, for just $50/night and hit the sack.
What I didn’t realize until I arrived was that this Bike’s tournament wasn’t a straight-up limit tournament, but a shootout. I suppose I recall that, but being focused on “limit” (rather than “no-limit”), I think I just blew it off.
Well, I’d never played a shootout before. Didn’t even know it’s format until after I paid and sat down. Once I found out, I had to change my strategy a bit because, rather than play up through the rounds, I was going to have to win my table to continue. I didn’t, finishing 4th at my table of 9, and walked away with nothing. Nothing, that is, but the long-sleeved t-shirt that came with entry.
That done, I set out to try and find other limit tournaments in the area. But this form of poker seems to be dying. Hawaiian Gardens apparently used to have one on Friday nights, but that’s no-limit now.
So I ended up trying the Nooner at the Bike. While it’s no-limit, which I’m not (yet) good at, it’s also a low buy in, just $20 + $10, with $10/$20 rebuys.
I think I did OK. I didn’t place in the money, but my focus was on trying to read players (tough for me) and situations, and I think I made good decisions. I busted out with about half of the field of 215 left when with a short stack I went all-in under the gun, everyone folded around to the big blind, who called and turned over the exact same hand: A-8 offsuit. I couldn’t help but laugh when the flop came up with all cards the same suit as his ace. He made the flush on the turn and I was out. Even though I didn’t place in the money, I left happy because I think I played well.
If anything were to tempt me to spend more time in southern California, it was the juicy $4/$8 limit games at the Bike. Over the 2 days I was there, I spend 12 hours at those tables and wound up with a net profit of $400.
On Friday night I sat down at a table in the #7 seat (they play 9-player tables here). In the #3 seat was a kid who was way wild, raising and re-raising pre-flop, often raising post-flop, laughing tauntingly when his actions got people to fold, the typical obnoxious, immature child. Within the first 15 minutes of watching this behavior, which was encouraged by a player next to him in seat #2, a player who was calling all the raises, I was seriously considering asking for a table change.
But for some reason, I decided to try and wait it out. I played very tightly. I entered very few hands, and when I did, I played only premium hands.
At the Bike, they allows players to play out of racks. At one point, a little while after I sat down, this kid had 5 racks (of $1 chips) stacked in front of him.
Meanwhile, my tight, conservative play meant that (a) my stack was falling very slowly, only on blinds, and (b) the occasional win meant my stack was growing overall. Actually, interestingly, during this 3 3/4 hour session, I never went to the river and lost, either in a showdown or by mucking to a better hand. In some cases, my bets to the river resulted in a laydown by the other player.
One of my biggest pots came when I limped in with a pair of 10s and hit a set on a flop that also had 2 clubs. It was raised to me and I slowplayed by just calling. A third club hit on the turn. It was checked to me and I bet, and then I was check-raised. I was sure then that the check-raiser had made his flush, but I called because by now the pot was big (many players had limped in pre-flop) and it would be just one big bet to try and pair the board. Interestingly, one other weak player had been calling all along, increasing the size of the pot even more.
Well, the board did pair (two queens on the board now), the player who I was sure had the flush bet, the other player called, I raised, he re-raised, she called, I re-raised again, whereupon he finally slowed down and just called. He did have the nut flush, but my full house was good and the pot was, I think, well over $100.
Meanwhile, the kid down at the other end wasn’t winning quite so much. In fact, within a couple of hours, not only was the stack of racks gone, he was reaching into his pocket for $100 bills. I saw him do that at least twice.
Such is the strength of a solid, conservative game being played for the long run.
I actually thought I might leave SoCal with a losing $4/$8 session because I was down a bit when I sat down to play for a few hours on the day I was leaving. I had made the decision to go when the big blind came around. On my second-to-last hand, I got pocket aces. Despite the laments of those who say they hate the hand because it always gets cracked, I played it straightforwardly and took a nice pot that allowed me to stand up with a net profit for my 3 3/4 hours there.
Back home Saturday night, I hit the sack somewhat early to take in the Bay101 Sunday morning limit tournament. It was a slow morning there and I busted out near the bottom. I headed to the Oaks for limit Sunday afternoon.
There I scored a big win in the 4th round when I came in with A-J offsuit, an ace came on the flop, a jack on the turn, and another ace on the river, then I got another player going back and forth until I eventually was all-in. I knew I had the nuts and he had only trip aces. I’m not sure what he thought I had where I kept re-raising his raises.
But although I had one of the bigger stacks, I busted out a couple of rounds later when I got too attached to pocket kings. The player next to me re-raised my pre-flop raise. I capped. The turn was all blanks. I bet, he raised. The levels were big enough that all this betting and raising took most of our stacks. I finally slowed down on the river, checking and calling with my last $500 chip. By then I was pretty sure of what he had, and sure enough, he turned over pocket aces.
Looking back, I think I should have recognized this possibility earlier and slowed down. I’m not sure I could have folded, but I could have had a few chips left with which to try and hang in. I dind’t slow down and placed well out of the money.
And this was tremendously disappointing because I had been doing well in this series of limit tournaments. Up to then, I had entered 9 and had cashed in 5, a pretty doggone good record.