Sadly, it looks like I’ll no longer be playing poker at the Oaks Card Club, where I made my start. No, it’s not going anywhere (at least, not as far as I know). But one of the few reasons for making the trip over there is no more.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the Oaks. It’s the only club in the Bay Area that I know of that spreads a $1/$2 (limit) game. It meant I had to risk a lot less to get started and to learn the game. I learned how to beat that $1/$2 game, and then the $2/$4 game, and then the $3/$6 game, which is there level where most clubs start. It’s also where I won my first tournament.
Ah, and it’s tournaments about which I now speak. Ever since I began playing, the Oaks ran a wonderful Wednesday night tournament. It was one of the only limit tournaments in the Bay Area, and it provided a good stack for the buy in and had better round length than most places (20 minutes vs. 15 minutes). To top it off, it had on of the best tournament directors I’ve seen in Allan Wasserman.
For most of the last year, I’ve been taking evening classes that happened to include Wednesday nights, which meant that I couldn’t get there. Know, too, that “getting there” is a significant effort unto itself; from Mountain View, where I work, to Emeryville through rush-hour traffic along one of the worse corridors at that time meant at least an hour fighting traffic.
But being between quarters, with a Wednesday free, and with a good day’s work under my belt, I decided to make the trek last Wednesday. I double-checked the tournament schedule on the website for the start time, and there was my first mistake: not noticing the change.
I got there only to find that it was no longer a limit tournament. About a month earlier, they changed it to a no-limit tournament. Worse, I found out that Allan had been promoted. Good for him, of course, but his replacement just isn’t the people person that Allan is.
Well, I’ve never had any success in no-limit tournaments, but having made the effort, I decided to give it a try. And desipte both my disappointment and my inexperience, I did pretty well. No money, but I finished 46th out of 111, and with one exception, I think, I made good decisions.
That it got more than 100 entrants was likely a significant factor in the switch, as the limit tournaments, while popular (including with the club’s manager), drew “only 70-80 entrants, typically.
I began slowly, not only because I was trying to find out how to get my feet wet, but because I was getting horrible cards early. That did allow me to see the early, crazy play of some people, most of which were gone by the time the rebuy rounds ended.
My first significant action (I had taken own a small pot or two previously and had gotten it all-in with pocket 10s against a loose caller with a naked ace, only to see the ace hit on the flop, necessitating my taking the rebuys) was when I was in the big blind. An EP player who I’d seen was somewhat loose and aggressive had made a pretty standard raise, and two other players cold-called. I found J-10 offsuit and saw this as a good pot odds/Daniel Negreanu-style call.
Bingo! Trip 10s on the flop. I slow-played. The flop was checked around. A blank came on the turn. The initial raiser bet after I checked again, and was raised all-in. I reraised all-in myself and took down a nice pot, putting me in 2nd ship position at the table.
A short while later came a sequence of hands where I got involved with a specific player, mostly. I had been able to show down a couple of strong hands that I’d hit, and in one hand where I had pocket 9s and had raised preflop, he had been the only caller. The flop came with all undercards. I bet out, he raised, and I re-raised all-in. He hesitated a long time, then folded.
A few hands later, I was in the small blind. He had raised, and I found pocket 6s. I re-raised, and he started stewing and finally folded, commenting alter than he folded pocket 7s. I was beginning to feel I was getting into this guy’s head, and he was flinging his cards away in frustration. The final straw, for him anyway, was when I opened in EP with a raise with pocket 8s. Everyone esle folded and he re-raised all-in. I thought for several seconds, and began to think that, after all that frustration, that there was a good chance he was trying to push back. I called and he turned over K-8 offsuit. He didn’t improve and stomped away.
My mistake, I think, came a short while later. There had been 3 limpers and I found AKo in the small blind. I made a raise of about 4k, or about 7x the big blind. I got one caller, someone who hadn’t been at the table too long, but who had seemed relatively solid. The flop came 8-high rainbow. I bet 3K and he raised me all-in. I felt I had little choice but to fold. I did not believe he would raise if he didn’t hit. I think I should have checked the flop.
I still had an OK stack, but that hand had taken its toll. I got moved to another table and, although I picked up a couple of small pots, found my swan song with pocket 10s. One player, who seemed to be pretty loose, had limped, and the cutoff raised all-in. I had slightly less, but when I found the 10s in the small blind, I had to call. Unfortunately, the big blind also called, someone who was even newer to the table, but someone I recognized as being a loose caller. The original limper hemmed and hawed for the longest time before folding (he claimed later he folded A-J.) Probably the worst case scenario for me, other than an overpair. The initial all-in bettor had A-Qo, and the big blind caller had K-J offsuit. It would be hard to avoid all the remaining overcards. I did on the flop, but a K hit the turn and I was gone.
When I walked out of the Oaks that night, it was for what might be the last time, if not ever than for a long, long time. It’s too far to play cash games regularly, and with no limit tournaments anymore, that incentive is now gone. It was a good run, but this will have to be my farewell to a great place.