TR Oceans 11 (8-24-14)

[Doctor_XXX]

Dang. Sorry I missed it...although, I did hit a 14-to-1 shot for $5 at the track and had that going for me, which is nice.

I still prefer the local Injun casino over at Pechanga for poker, even though O11 is so close. Honestly though, wherever there are players like "Joe" is a winner, for sure!

Catch ya next time!

[Richard Cranium]

I think I played at Sycuan when I was there.

[Doctor_XXX]

Originally Posted by Richard Cranium

I think I played at Sycuan when I was there.

Yeah, that's one of the closer ones to "downtown". I think Shadow & I played in a tourney there during one of his trips. It is OK, just not quite as comfortable as some of the other poker rooms. But if you are downtown and looking for a game (as well as all of the other casino-type stuff like slots, buffets, etc.) Sycuan ain't a bad choice.

[Richard Cranium]

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 over his , 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 in the big blind. Three callers preflop, I checked through and flop comes out . Checks to the turn. . 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 . All-in guy shows . 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 . 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 . 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 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 . Bet, two callers. Turn . 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 , with about 10bb left, and get called by original raiser with , 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.

[Nooner]

Hindsight is 20/20.
In my opinion, you made the right decision on all counts, except maybe you shoulda shoved on the short stack BB with your 4s. (He would have called anyway with AQ, but you didn't know he had that).

[Doctor_XXX]

Nice report on the "local O'Side room". Didn't Quads used to deal cards there in the past...or something?

Sorry I missed you. Work has been a real treat so far this year.

Catch you Friday!

[timsta007]

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.

[Richard Cranium]

Might hit Palomar with a couple old college pals tonight

[timsta007]

What time? I could probably join for a couple hours. That place is only 10 min from my house.

[Doctor_XXX]

Originally Posted by Richard Cranium

Might hit Palomar with a couple old college pals tonight

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!