LA Poker Classic or Bay 101
Hi guys,
A buddy of mine who I coach has just won a WPT package on FTP. Now his choices are Bay 101 or LA Poker Classic.
Any ideas on which one you would rather play. I am thinking Bay 101 if you want a softer tournament, and LA Poker Classic if you want the spot light.
A buddy of mine who I coach has just won a WPT package on FTP. Now his choices are Bay 101 or LA Poker Classic.
Any ideas on which one you would rather play. I am thinking Bay 101 if you want a softer tournament, and LA Poker Classic if you want the spot light.
Comments
I would imagine the LAPC would have a MUCH softer field then the Bay tournament. And I dont think it would even been close. The tournament draws more random players into it then any other tournament not named the WSOP. Plus everybody has to play at Commerce casino once in their life...that poker room is massive. And if its a question of which town you want to go to...lets see Hollywood? or San Jose? How is this even close.
play both?
1. the mega satellite was super soft...although I didn't get a seat (top 32) I finished 58th out of 330. I think I got a little antsy and shipped off my stack with A7 from the cut off and ran into 99 on the button (blinds were 800/1600 with 200 ante and I had 14K in chips) but my table draw was so soft and we were all just playing really friendly poker hoping to all secure a seat.
2. Had dinner with the full tilt pros with my buddy who qualified. Gavin smith is hilarious and we hung out and drank all out. Heading to the clippers game on monday with him with box seats.
3. Playing cash game today, from what i have heard they are super juicy...more details to follow:)
Commerce cash game structure is retarded...
3/5 max 200
5/10 max 400
5/10 max 1500
weird weird weird..anyways...ran well in the max 400 game....basically fallsview players X 10000000....no understanding of hand values, 1 pair shippaments..I almost folded JJ preflop to a 3-bet but then shipped it and was called by A9s...sweet
Oh some other notes....
1.The food here sucks....
2.For some reason everyone hates me...I was told off by numerous players today and some floor staff, and really i had no clue why...I guess it was when I said I was from Canada that tilted them to ole hell..(not too mention I stacked several of them as they tried to make excuses for why they played badly...bad luck, river never comes...etc)
3. double tree is basically the LAPC home of 2+2 and pocket 5s...lol I am wearing my tinfoil hat as we speak
I actually played with Liv Boeree(sat beside for 3 hours) last night in the megasatellite, I didn't realize it at the time but all the fanboys were talking to her etc, I just thought she was a nice girl from England...well turns out she is some big internet pro...ah well...I guess she appreciated the fact that we were just able to carry on a conversation about something other than poker and the internet....
Other than that, putting in another 10 hour session at the cash games because I promised the one waitress that I would come back as she was going to make a special trip to buy sweedish fish for me (candy) as they didn't sell it here at commerce....LOL
So the cash games have been fantastic here, except for the fact that I am getting coolered beyond belief. Yesterdays big hand was flush vs flush and JJ vs 97 where we got it in on the flop (flush draws on the first hand) and then the JJ hand was a 9 high flop (I actually had gotten check raised on this hand...LMAO) and the rivers both completed hands flush gets there and then 7 on the river....
Today I will be off to play the games again the 5/10 NL 400 game seems to be the most profitable at this place as people have no concept of hand values or betting lines. Its actually fun to watch.
I did watch a bit of the 40/80NL and 100/200nL games yesterday and saw a lot of the internet kids going nutzo throwing around 1000-2000 live per street. I sit with 5 dollar yellow chips while they are sitting with mountains of 100 white chips and 5000 pink chips...lol must be nice....
therookieqq9 (a friend of mine) is still in going to day 3 with 20K...pretty gross as yesterday the dealer made a mistake costing him 50K in equity. They had to replace the turn card which made his hand and instead it cost him when a different card was flipped for the turn..
As for today so far here is a little summary....
Sat in the 5/10 again today....by now the floor knows me by my first name and hussle me to my seat like they want me to lose money....big hand of the day where I got stacked
Q6H mid position asian girl raises to 40....button who is a calling station calls and I figure why not give it a go...so I call too
Asian chick has 200 behind
I have 900
Old man calling station has about 1200
So flop comes Qs7h5h
I check, girl snap shoves all in for 200....old man flats.....I tank then re-ship 900 hoping that he has a flush draw as well and now is drawing dead....he tanks....then opens his cards....shows K3H...SHIT...lol....he eventually calls...turn 4s river 8h....gg me....
Asian girl had 77 and old man takes down a monster pot....
1st mistake Q6h
2nd mistake shoving
Lesson learned....ended up watching the team canada game in the tournament room with fellow canadians (my buddy and negreanu)...good times....came back to hotel shooting poker with bunch of internet kids and made some good money in PLO on Tilt....going back to commerce shortly to put in an evening session.....
Tomorrow night is the clippers game courtesy of FT box seats (free food and alcohol, no compliants) then probably tuesday I am going to play in a bicycle tournament....
Commerce being the action junkie it is had the tables filled again for an evening session. Got there and my table was full of old nits...great times
Some hands of interest to give people an idea of the calibre of play at commerce:
Heads up board is Jh 7H 5H
All in from two people:
Player 1 - 9h9d
Player 2 - Ac8h
Board runs 8 8 and A8 takes down the pot??? Don't ask me what the hell A8 was doing in the pot to begin with but it was worth 1200 by the end...
Significant hands for me last night included: KK on a K99AQ board where I flop the full house to AK (in the BB no less after I open to 35, he just smooth calls me...whoops I guess he thought he was trapping me) That brought in 1000 for me, then the monster pot of the night was:
33 on a 10 6 3 rainbow flop with 6 people in (60 preflop no less) where UTG leads out on the flop for 100 I re-raise for 300 and button re-raises me to 600 and I re-shove for another 1200 and get called by AA after he asked me if I flopped a set....??? (after thinking about my play I thought it was pretty obv I had a set I mean 3 6 10 board is so dry but its the commerce and these guys are pay off wizards)
From that point on I steam rolled my table basically opening in late position every orbit and just c-betting any flop. It's actually quite hilarious to watch people call your bet and no matter whether the board is A 10 5 or 7 7 4 if they don't have any piece they will not play back at you (I was the only one at my table check raising dry boards and calling the flop to peel an over and then smash the turn) I love old man nittyness.
Off to put in another session today, and then probably check out the bicycle casino tomorrow as they have a nightly tournament series...
On a side note I did see Sirwatts @ the 25K higher roller event, however his back was towards the rail so I couldn't grab his attention to get a few words about how he was doing in the event. Just checked lapcnews.com and it said he busted out....GG Mike definitely a tough field...
So today's session started off in the calm 200NL and progressively moved over to the nutty 400NL where I sat with a doctor and what seemed all of his friends. For the most part the game was the standard, shove AK, 1 pair shove, which was great poker because I was able to wait and pick spots.
Some notable hands:
quad 3s made a whopping 125 bucks in that hand on a board of 33446, and get who limped into this pot....AA...WTF, AA doesn't like raising yet makes a crying call on the river when he bets 25 and I re-raise him to 60...HAHAHAH....live poker is great
Made some huge lay downs against my fellow Doctor friend. Here is the hand,
We have effective stacks of about 1200 and he does his standard open of 75 preflop with his range of AX KX and any pair....so I am in position and we have been chatting about poker and I have gotten a good sense of his game. Basically smash when he thinks he is winning and have no consideration for the rest of the players in the hands or the value of their hands.
So here we go....after the 75 open I look down at 88 in LP and flat...(I think it was ok to do this because we are deep and I play way better post flop then he does...)
Flop is 992.....he fires out 100 right away..now at this point I run through the range of hands he could have...I automatically discount any pair...because to raise 75 and have me flat in position and if you are sitting with AA KK or any pair above my 88, there is no reason to bet as he knows I will gladly hang myself...(as the rest of the commerce knows that I enjoy playing big pots when I have a hand I think is winning, well except for when I get 2 outered which has happened a lot actually on this trip....weird...)
So I flat his 100 expecting to see undercards again...now I was discussing this hand with my buddy who was at the table and he said I should have re-raised at this point, but I figured because we were deep I wanted to grab more of his money...well it doesn't happen because the turn is a Q and well that completes a lot of his hands he would c-bet with AQ, KQ etc....and he fires out 200 now....I gladly muck announcing to him that he turned me and he flashes AQ and I avoid a serious train wreck...(I almost shoved...but the spidey senses went off saying that Queen helped him....hence the bigger bet...) Yeah I know weird logic but if you sit in these commerce games, people have no idea where they are at in the hand and they just bet like monsters when they hit a piece, so when you flop a set or some disguised hand you get paid....dumb live poker....
So after that debacle of a hand I end up scooping small pots here and there and I end up + for the session. Nothing too crazy after that hand, just standard small ball poker with 1 pairs etc....betting for value, making a few bluffs.
For the most part all the regulars know me now as the Tough Canadian and they respect my game as I have been able to hold my own against their idiotic form of poker and I have really put them to tests with check raising (its actually funny how often I can check raise people off their hands here at the commerce, its like the autonut when you do it)
Looking forward to putting in another session tomorrow and taking some more money from these folks...although on a side note I am starting to get sick of these 12 hour sessions and I will probably cut it down a bit...just cause its draining my brain....
So I am sitting in the regular NL400 game and once again sitting with a bunch of nuthuggers and other regulars....by this point every regular in the NL400 game knows me and for the most part respect my game, they like the fact that I play big bet poker and I am not afraid to put my money in on draws, or when I think I am good...they consider me an action player...I consider myself a poker player (big hand = big pot?? always thought that was a good rule to go by)
Anyways, today's session was rather quick because of the following hand:
Limped pot and I am sitting with 25 off in the BB....flop is 257.....
I check, MP bets 30, LP old asian guy raises to 75 and I jam my stack (just sat down so I am sitting with 400) as I really don't want to get outdrawn based on my hand....well asian man sits and thinks then makes the call....I open 52 and he flashes a 7....so I figure he has 87 or A7....
I jokingly say "don't worry the way I run you will probably hit it on the turn....." He just smiles and the dealer rolls the turn and river and then the man slides over the 7 to reveal a 5 as well...for top 2...
Now I stand up at that point and just explode....I could not believe the arrogance of this guy...i open my cards right away and he just flashes me a 7 and I was very polite at the table...so i throw the 5 blue chips i have (they are 1s) at the man and sound off "are you fuckin insane you slow roll me after all this knowing that i was drawing for 2 outers...."
Well at this point the floor is called over and I have 3 regulars telling me to calm down and 3 regulars telling me I am out of line....then the regulars start yelling at each other because they understood my point and realized why I was upset...I wasn't mad I lost the hand but I was mad that I opened my cards and he basically sat there with a smirk on his face as he flashed the 7.....
Well the floor asks me to leave for a bit and they go and talk to the asian man and let him know that what he did was "poor ediquette"
So now I am back at the hotel relaxing because I was ready to snap the table....that was the first time in 9 years I have gotten mad at the table....only at the Commerce....
1. Fulltilt does an amazing job catering to its players/qualifiers. Basically they are at your every beck and call no matter how big or how small. The event staff are really great and make sure you have a great time and that any questions you have are answered.
2. The fulltilt pros are all really nice and as expected just regular people and enjoy just shooting the shit. Gavin Smith was entertaining as always.
3. AQ is the nut online
4. Commerce is the mecca of poker, free food all day, anything you want, and the players are horrid.
5. Commerce is in the middle of no where so don't bring spouses or significant others that don't play poker...they will go looney.
6. I would go back in a heart beat, not for a week though unless it was another wpt event.