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TR Oceans 11 (8-24-14)

5K views 29 replies 9 participants last post by  Doctor_XXX 
#1 · (Edited)
Been a while since I've written up a legit poker trip report, but given my recent move to the San Diego area, checking out a new card room, and a handful of interesting hands, I figured why not. A coworker who is a big holdem player has been pestering me to go play cards with him for a while so we decided to meet up at Oceans 11 card room in Oceanside CA around 11:30am on Sunday. I checked with DocXXX to see if he would have time to meet up for lunch or to joint for a session but he and Mrs. XXX had other plans for the day. We’ll be getting together for a mini M&G soon I’m sure, and hopefully Hirize can join once he’s moved from Hawaii as well.

Arrived at Oceans 11 a little early and put my name on the lists. They run some strangely structured games here for NLHE, but that’s somewhat common in the southern CA region. The games they run (that are in my playable range) include a 1/2 NL with a buy in range of $20 - $60 dollars, a 2/2 NL game with a buy-in range of $100-$200, a 2/3 NL with a buy-in range of $100-$300, and a 5/5 NL game (couldn’t tell what the max buy-in was but many people had well over $1k in chips at the table). My target game was the 2/3NL but I also signed up for the 2/2. Of course while I’m waiting they open a new 1/2NL table, and I’m bored so I sit down for a bit. No hands to report here, paid a few blind and won one hand, blinds only, but the rake is devastating. If the pot gets over $10, they take $4+1, 4 for the drop and 1 for the jackpot. Just in playing for 1.5 orbits, the only winner at this game was the house. Completely unbeatable game, period. I will never play it again, regardless of how bored I am. The only way to make money on that game is if you happen to hit a bad beat jackpot. I came to find that the 2/2 and 2/3 games drop $5+1 in larger pots which is too much, but has become the norm in SoCal I guess.

I shortly was called to the 2/3 NL game and took seat 3. Bought in a bit light for $200. Most of the stacks at the table ranged from $200-$400 although 2 people had $100 or less and one guy had around $1100. I came with my usual strategy of playing tight/aggressive for a few orbits to feel out the table and adjust my strategy as the table dictates. Folded several hands, limped in once or twice but folded preflop to a raise. Most hands were raised preflop between $10-25. The first notable hand I was in early mid position and limped with :Ah:2h. The guy with $1100 (lets call him Joe Cool for his sunglasses) raised to $12 and a couple others called so I came along as well. Flop was :8s :5h :2s giving me the lovely prospects of bottom pair and a backdoor flush draw. I checked and Joe bets $20, and everyone folded to me. I called thinking he could easily have two overs or a flush draw. The turn was a brick, something like :7c, I check and he checks behind. Now I really think he’s on a draw taking the free card. That board is way too coordinated to not bet a big pair or other made hand. The river is a :5d pairing the board. I check he bets $45 which is the usual I missed and have to bet to win move. I think for a few moments and call with my pair of ducks. He says good call and turns up AJ rainbow for just two overs. Had the guy muttering for a while after I tabled my hand and picked up some credibility with the rest of the table.


Now I’m up to about $300 in chips and a few orbits later get into it again with Joe Cool again, who I would soon find out was a loose cannon and just the type of player you want to have with a huge stack at a table you sit down to. I look down at :Ac:As in late position and make it $15 to go. I get 3 or 4 callers including Joe in seat 5. The flop comes :Kh:6c:3s pretty much the perfect flop for me my hand and Joe opens for $35. Folds around to seat 1 who shoves all in for $65. This is plenty of action for my one big pair so I go ahead and make it $165 all day figuring to isolate against the all in guy. Joe goes into the tank big time. After much hesitation he flat calls and I see this as a crying call with a big K, not a great acting job holding a small set. I start to shove the remaining $140 of my stack even before the turn comes out :5h. He thinks a long time again and eventually calls and tables :Ks:Jh. The river is a :9d and I show my bullets but alas, the monkey in seat one shoved all in with 93 (bottom pair no draw on the flop!!!) and takes the ~$250 main pot with a rivered two pair. I have to be content with the $500 side pot taken off Joe Cool.



Over the next 90 minutes, I watch a pretty nasty array of wild play, bad beats, and crazy action, mostly involving Joe Cool, in some form or another. His stack goes from the $1100 he had when I sat down to as low as $400 then back up to $1000 when he stacks a guy after flopping a set. Then back down to $300. This entire time I’m just drooling hoping to catch anything to play against him, but alas I’ve gone completely card dead. Also since he’s to my left and raising many hands, I can’t limp in a see flops. Eventually he gets down to about $140 and has gotten completely reckless shoving with anything. He shoves preflop and I wake up with JJ in the hole. He tables :Qc:3c and spikes a Q on the flop to beat me out of a $300 pot.

Down to about $350 I play a couple hands a miss everything or win a small pot now and then but nothing to report. Then this hand which I’m still on tilt over. I look down at :Kd:Qs in the big blind. The action is raised to $16 which I call then the player UTG raises to $70 after limping in! Joe Cool calls and one other player calls as well and as much as I want the action I make what seems like a no brainer choice to fold thinking UTG could easily have AA or KK and made the standard limp reraise play with a huge hand. Flop comes :Jd:10s:9h. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. And to make matters worse, Joe Cool goes all in for a hundred, gets raised, and called by the other two players. Fuck my life. I don’t recal the exact hands but I think UTG had AQ (open ended nut straight draw) and the other guy had AJ (for top pair). If I’d called the $70 pfr I might have more than tripled up my $350. I played a short while longer and ended up cashing out $304 for a $104 profit.

Overall this is an excellent room. The place is clean, the outside and inside feels safe, there are probably nearly 100 tables with every game you could want, and the action (at my table at least) was excellent. The downside is the high rake, but what are you going to do about that. If things had gone a bit differently in either of the two big hands I played, I could have been cashing out $600-800 more. You can’t ask for a better spot that that. I'll definitely be heading back to this room in the future. Another bonus was that for signing up for the players card as a new member, I got a free meal which I made the most of. The food was surprisingly good too. I’ll leave you with this gem.

 
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#10 ·
Fuck yeah! :shipit:

Great trip report!

I drove by this place once years ago on a business trip to Carlsbad but the guy from work I was with had no interest in playing cards unfortunately.

I'm heading to San Diego for another work trip in January. Last time in town I played at some indian casino outside of town. This time I'll hit this place up.

If any of you guys are around in January I'll buy a few rounds of beers somewhere. If Swanky is in town maybe we can hit KC BBQ.
I'm definitely in for a M&G and a session when you are here, I'll be around I expect.

Just noticed - I'm kind of surprised chips aren't in Cali colors. Everywhere I played in LA used them.
You know it really varies. All the big card rooms in the LA area use the Cali colors but the indian casinos usually don't and some of the smaller card rooms up north use the traditional red/green or even custom color schemes.

Your goddamn photos are upside down on my iPad.

T
Try turning it upside down...

and again...

and again...
 
#5 ·
Excellent TR! I love these things. The only poker I played at home was either my game or Irish's (once), none of my buds host them, but since I started working in Chicago I played at Syklopz's once, I think. I love to read these things. I'm so deskilled, I'm almost afraid to play again, but either Syk will have a game or I'll run up to Milwaukee to play at BG's place soon, I hope.

Frustrating as hell playing with a maniac like that. Eventually good play will win out, but eventually can take a hell of a long time. Must have been torture for you.
 
#6 ·
Great trip report!

I drove by this place once years ago on a business trip to Carlsbad but the guy from work I was with had no interest in playing cards unfortunately.

I'm heading to San Diego for another work trip in January. Last time in town I played at some indian casino outside of town. This time I'll hit this place up.

If any of you guys are around in January I'll buy a few rounds of beers somewhere. If Swanky is in town maybe we can hit KC BBQ.
 
#9 ·
Your goddamn photos are upside down on my iPad.

T
 
#14 ·
I played at Oceans 11 last night. Got there around 6:45 for a 7pm daily donkament. The structure was probably not much different than most casino low buy-in daily tourneys. It's basically a turbo, with blinds increasing fast every 15 minutes. Re-entry was allowed once. We had 80 runners on a Monday night. Some of the regs said the tourney was normally pulling about 100 players later in the week. Prize pool was $2700+.

There was multiple add-ons, so if you used them both the buy was $55 for 7000 chips. Blinds started at 25/25, so 280x bb to start which isn't bad especially with the fast moving blinds. I was surprised to see a decent amount of the squeakers at this place didn't immediately add on the 3000 chip add-on for $20. You were allowed to use it anytime in the first hour of play. Kind of -EV play IMO to not use that immediately, especially to not use at all.

Play moved slowly - there were a couple guys who would sit and Hollywood almost every hand they were in. One guy preflop was taking half a minute preflop, if it had been just called once in front of him and he's in mid-position. Dood... it ain't that hard. One guy who had to speak through his whole thought process when heads up for small bets. I think some people use this as a strategy to try and get info, but sheesh its a $50 tourney. I'm running on basically 10 hours sleep over the past three days so I'm fighting sleep off at the table it was moving so slow. Frustrating. I played really tight for the first hour and hit a few premium hands. Also took down several pots in position with continuation bets. Busted one guy with :Ks :Kc over his :Jc :Jd, won a couple other large hands without having to go to showdown. At the first break, I'm big stack at my table and continued to chip up after the break.

So I'm sitting there and I thought, I'm going to snap a picture of my chips. I'm about to do this, and I think, "if you do this, this will be your high water mark." I do it anyway.


White: 5k, Green: 1k, Purple:500 GaryH: 100

So here's my questionable play after this point. I'm a rec player, no delusions.

Just shy of two hours into the tourney, I'm in a hand with :Ks:5d in the big blind. Three callers preflop, I checked through and flop comes out :10c:8d:5h. Checks to the turn. :Qc. First to act checks, then a guy who was just moved to table pushes all in, with a bit of strength to it. He's short stacked. next guy folds. Its t3700 to call, pot has 3200 in it. I could easily call and not be too hurt to be wrong, and I'm pretty sure the guy has air. I sat and thought for a minute and looked to my left. I'm thinking I have this guy beat even with just bottom pair, but I don't know about the guy in EP. Thinking about this now, if the guy in EP had me beat, he wouldn't have checked flop or fourth street. But at the time, that guy had showed he was going to fold almost every hand before action got to him by picking up his cards. And now he looked interested and was not touching his cards. So I think he's going to call, and probably has me beat. I reluctantly fold. EP has to think about this for a minute too, and finally calls. EP shows :Ah:Jc. All-in guy shows :As:9c. River doesn't help either. FUCK, I should have called.

Bit later, we're playing 400/800 blinds and I've been card dead for a while. I'm in the small blind and it folds around to me with 4c:4d. I make a bad joke, "want to chop it?" while I throw out a call. BB sits there for a second, says "No, but I'll play for all of my chips" and pushes. Its about 8000 to call. If I call at this point, and lose, I've got about 16000 left. The blinds are moving up pretty fast, people are busting pretty quick left and right at this point and others are starting to get some pretty decent stacks. I'm thinking its worth a risk if he's got just a decent ace to basically flip for the pot and gamble. So I threw in a call and he turns up :Ah:Qs. I was right on where he was, unfortunately the flop has an ace.

Later on, blinds have increased to 600/1200 with a 100 ante. I'm getting short now, sitting at about 14bb. This hand comes up. There's a caller from EP, one call from the hijack, and I've got :4d:5s on the button. I never know what to do in this situation when I'm starting to get low on chips. I want to play the button, especially in an unraised pot with a few early limpers in case I hit a possible hidden monster, but I don't have a lot of chips to speculate on unsuited connectors. I took a couple seconds thinking I should call and hope to see a cheap flop, but I reluctantly folded. If this hand doesn't hit, of course I'm not going to mention it here. Flop comes out :10d:4s:5h. Bet, two callers. Turn :5d. First to act bets, takes it down. So I'm a bit peeved on the missed full house, especially because my stack is getting low, but is this a place where I can't let the result fool me, and I should make that fold everytime? Should I be playing that? I would think that its going to hit so few times and my "M ratio" is getting too low to speculate. Not sure. Thoughts?

Anyway, blinds get up to 800/1600, 100 ante. One raise in front of me, I push with :As:Qs, with about 10bb left, and get called by original raiser with :Ah:Kh, and don't hit a queen. Out 20th. To the cash tables I go.

I walked into the other room, tired as fuck but want to try a cash game. I'm tempted to just buy a couple chips at the cashier for my display and take off, but there's an open seat at 2/2 so I take it. Brush walks me to the table and I'm wondering if he's taken me to the wrong place as it looks like a 2/4 limit table with nothing but stacks of blue in front of every player, not a red chip in sight. Weirdest NL game I've ever sat at. Played like a weird limit/nolimit hybrid. Just calling preflop was normal. If there was a raise it was usually to 5 or 6, lots of passive calling, min-raises preflop... wacky. Rake was insane. I took down a 3 handed pot on the flop at one point and I swear I got the same amount back I had started the hand with. There was a giant stack at the table that was hitting everything, had three sets in the short time I was there, several straights. Overall I don't see how anyone could win in this game, especially in the long term. Basically, avoid this game. I'd have to think 2/3 would be a bit better, maybe.

Got some chips to put in my display case at home with the rest of my collection.



Overall, not a bad room, and worth a trip if you're in the area. Was very well run as far as I could tell when I was there, but I'd avoid that 2/2 game or anything under it just like Timsta said. I would think the 2/3 would be much better based on his TR.
 
#17 ·
Nice TR. I agree with Nooner you made the right decisions given the circumstances and just didn't catch any breaks. There's nothing that tilts me more than making the correct fold preflop (like your 45o) and then having it get there in spades and everyone else in the hand is betting like their chips are on fire.

The 2/3NL game is much better but the rake is still a lot. You need at least one very bad player to make the rake beatable even at the 2/3NL.
 
#22 ·
We were there last night, from about 10-12:30 I think?

Is that the place on El Cajon? It USED TO BE a complete s*&^-hole! Is it a decent place now-a-days?

Good luck! :cool:
Umm...not sure if it's changed much. When was "used to be", last week?

I walked in and the first thing I noticed was there was a lot of white chips - which I was surprised by, because I'm thinking HOLY SHIT this place, this tiny spot, what 25'x40' room with six or seven tables has that large of a game going where guys have stacks of Cali white $100 chips... and then I realized that the yellow $5 chips are so freaking worn out that they're white, and you can't see basically anything that used to resemble a print job on the faces or edges. (Ok I'll be honest, I didn't think they were really stacks of hundos). By the way, GaryH would be pissed that $100's are white in Cali. Dude would rage quit the state if he came to a cardroom here.



There were four games running when we got there. So we walked back to look at the lists and the brush stands up from the seat he has at what looks to be the 3/6 limit game right next to the desk, puts our name on the wait list for 2/3nl and sits back down at his game. I've never seen the on duty desk guy actively playing a game before.

Seems like everyone in this room knew each other, and it was a pretty friendly place. People were ordering food left and right too, which the waitresses were calling in from nearby places. They'd walk by with menus and ask if anyone wanted to order.

Anyway, had about a 20 minute wait, took my seat at the table. Like I said, friendly people. Especially the two vietnamese pals to my left who were chatting it up in their native tongue. Kind of annoying but I didn't say anything. Big sign on the wall about english only, but definitely didn't seem to be followed at all.

Game played very similar to 1/2nl or 2/3nl I've played elsewhere. Standard raise preflop would be to make it 10-12 to go. Action was fairly loose. I folded for a good couple hours and only got a couple decent starting hands. Played only a few pots outside of my blinds. Left up $10! Hells yeah making rent this week!

Got another chip for my collection of places I've played. Didn't take a $5 this time, for obvious reasons. $1s were in better condition.



If you don't want to drive 45min+ to Oceanside, and you're jonesing for a game, it works. I'd play here again if the mood fit and I was local.
 
#23 ·
Thanks for the TR, wouldn't have worked last night, I few back into town pretty late and was too tired to put a session in. I'll have to check the place out at some point soon, but it sounds like probably not the most +EV option in SD.
 
#26 ·
Maybe people were just in a good mood last night. I'm not the most talkative person at a casino room table, so I personally didn't really carry any conversations. At home games I chat it up, but I usually do not talk much when playing with people I don't know. Seemed like I was playing with a table full of regs, so they did know each other for the most part. Doubt that place gets much traffic from out of towners.

I did sit on the immediate left of "Instant Replay Guy". You know, the one that almost every time a hand gets tabled at show down with a decent pot, he does the telecast instant replay for the rest of us at the table, in case we didn't see it. He didn't talk much, but when the cards were shown, he'd look for a moment and then "wow, he had AQ and then rivered it." Or this one gem when a bit pot was won, "oh, he played ace four, and bam, ace four ace flop. Nice."

Thank you, Instant Replay Guy.
 
#28 ·
I love to start arguments with those guys after the third or fourth time they do it. Once the dealer scoops the cards, "No, the flop was 8 2 9. You're thinking of the hand before."
There's always at least one other guy at the table who will back me up just to annoy the fucker.
 
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