Lucky in Love, Unlucky in Cards

For the third straight time, I’m doing a multi-part post.  I guess I can get a little long-winded. Why hasn’t anyone every told me this?  I expect to get this done in two parts.

Since I just reported on what I did for the Labor Day weekend here in L.A., I thought this would be a good time to tell you about what I did on the 4^th of July in Vegas.  Because that’s how I roll.

My Vegas trip was coming to a close.  The 4^th was on a Monday and I was going to be heading back home on Wednesday.  So just two days of poker in Vegas left.

Honestly, I would have loved to have played a tournament on the 4^th.  In theory, all of the summer series should have still been going on, as the main event over at the WSOP was still a few days from starting.  But in fact, there was nothing available.  A few of the series had already ended (Including the one at the Golden Nugget), and the others had their big ticket tournaments, or their main events, going.  All out of my price range.

I suppose I could have just worked during the day and played cash in the evening, but no.  It seemed un-American to me to work on the 4^th of July.  What better way to honor this nation’s birth than by playing the all-American game of poker?

I did write a blog post before heading out, so it was late afternoon when I finally found myself in a poker room.  I ended up heading over to MGM.  I hadn’t really played there much this trip, certainly not nearly as much as I usually do.  I figured by getting there in the afternoon, maybe I could see some of my daytime dealer pals that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

It wasn’t really my plan going in, but it turned out this session was all about the MGM promo they had running at the time, so I better explain it.

Recall that at the beginning of the year, MGM got rid of all their old promos (cash drawings, football promo, and the freeroll). The promo that replaced them all in January was one I really, really liked, and it proved very popular.  In fact it was so popular they were actually giving away too much money.  You can read about that promo here.  Basically you had to make five different types of hands and when you got all five, you won $100.

After just a week or two, they were giving out so much that they had to make it tougher to fill out a card.  So the pot had to be $40 instead of $20 to qualify, and you had to use both cards in your hand to get that hand stamped instead of just one card.

That promo lasted through February, and as I mentioned here, they went back to a variation of the drawings in March.  Somewhere along the way they brought the freeroll back and tied it into the drawings.  They might have had something else in between that I’m forgetting, but by the time I got back to Vegas in late June, the “Poker Parlay” cards had returned, and it tied into the freeroll.

They made the parlay card a bit tougher to complete than when they had it going early in the year.  You now needed six hands to complete a card (thus they could no longer call it the “Drive for five.”).  They added a second flush.  You had to make both a black flush and a red flush.  Also, when I got to town, the full house had to be 10’s full or better or it didn’t count.  Yeah that made it a bit tougher, for sure.  I mean, it’s hard enough to get any full house, right?  In fact, the first time I played the new promo in June, I got a “small” full house, presented my card for a stamp, and was informed by my dealer pal to “read the fine print.”  Yep, deuces full of 7’s (or whatever it was) just wasn’t good enough!  The other hands you needed, by the way, were two pair, three of a kind, and a straight, to go along with a black flush, a red flush and a 10’s full or better boat.

I didn’t get more than two stamps on that first card I had, but that was at the end of that period.  Since the parlay card promo tied in with the freeroll, and the freeroll took place once every two weeks, the parlay cards were only good for two weeks.  You had two weeks to fill out a card, and if the period expired with you only having five of the six stamps needed, you were out of luck.

I believe I had only played once at MGM after getting a new card for the new two-week period when I arrived there on July 4^th.  I had my totally blank card with me.  Since I was only playing in Vegas two more days, it sure didn’t look good for me to fill out a card and get a hundred bucks before heading home.  My card would expire long before I set foot in Vegas again. And that promo was once again discontinued shortly after I returned home anyway. Although there’s a version of it that ties in with the NFL games, along with some other promos they have going, but honestly, it’s a bit complicated for me to keep track of.

The one improvement they made with the second card I got (the one that was valid for the session I’m writing about now) is that they made it so that any full house qualified.  So yes, a crappy deuces full of three’s boat would get you a stamp.  Phew.  Nice to know such a puny hand is worth something, right?

I didn’t really go to MGM with the expectation of completing a card, but I did at least consider it a possibility.  I was thinking, if I could get four stamps in a long session, maybe it would be worthwhile to return then next night and play my last session there to try to complete it.  But I wasn’t really counting on it.

I got into a 1/2 game, late afternoon.  I may have won a small pot early, but I was down to about $175 or so from my $200 buy-in when, pretty early in the session, I looked down at—stop me if you’ve heard this before—the dreaded pocket Kings.  I was under-the-gun and made it $8.  There were a couple of callers and then a guy made it $30, and it folded back to me.

This guy was a pretty loose player.  I remembered a hand earlier where he had played pocket Queens very aggressively.  He three-bet with them and shoved a big stack on a low flop with two hearts on it (he didn’t have a heart).  So I knew his three-betting range was probably wider than it is for most 1/2 players.  I did what I always do in that situation.  I re-raised.  I made it $90.

The other players folded and the guy who had three-bet me went into the tank.  So I figured he didn’t have Aces.  Finally he called.  We saw a total nightmare flop, Ace-Queen-x, two hearts.  Both of my Kings were red.  I checked.

He almost immediately announced “all-in.” His stack was roughly the same as mine.  What to do, what to do?

It seems so obvious that “fold” is the correct answer, doesn’t it?  I mean that flop is right in the fat part of his range.  And I’ve got Kings.  Shouldn’t I fold them routinely any time I don’t flop quads with them?

But I looked at my remaining chips.  I had less than $90.  In other words, I had put over half my stack in the pot already.  Didn’t that make me pot committed?  Haven’t I read a dozen poker books telling me that?

Plus I did have the back door flush draw.  With more than half my chips already in the pot, was that enough?  Probably not, but for some reason, I thought so at the time.  I called.

We didn’t show.  The turn was a heart.  Nice.  But the river was a brick.  He showed his hand….pocket Queens.  I was a bit surprised.  I expected Ace-King, maybe Ace-Queen. Whatever, those would have beaten me too.  The dealer counted the stacks and I had about $6 left over. Awesome.  I rebought $200, and then took a walk to clear my head.

After a good walk, I sat by a slot machine and wrote down the hand.  I thought about it.  It was a bad call, regardless of half my stack already being in the pot.  It was, right?

Then I started wondering about his play.  Was his shove there a good move?  I mean, although I hadn’t been there long, he had to figure I’m (normally) a pretty tight player.  How many hands am I four-betting with?  Aces and Kings, right?  And that’s assuming I’m four-betting Kings.  Plenty of players would have just called his $30 with Kings.  I’ve seen it many, many times.

If I did have a set of Aces, I very well might have checked to induce a bet.  So when he shoves there, isn’t there at least a 50/50 chance I’ve got him crushed?  Do you like his play?

On the other hand, he’s never folding his set of Queens, and he wants to protect against a flush (maybe, just maybe, I have Ace-King of hearts). So perhaps his play is correct. 

It’s my play that sucks.

When I got back to the table after trying to clear my head, a new dealer was pushing in.  It was Michelle, the dealer who “never pushes me a pot.”  That’s a bit between us going back years, as I’ve mentioned many times before.  But I haven’t discussed Michelle lately because she switched to day shift, thus I rarely see her anymore. I had just missed the big blind, so she asked me if I wanted to buy the button.  For reasons that are unclear to me now, and probably were then, I said yes.  Actually what I said was, “Sure, why not?  You’re my lucky dealer.”  She chuckled and said, “Yes…starting now.”

A few hands later I raised to $10 with pocket Jacks.  The flop was 10-6-6, I bet $20 and got one call.  The turn was a 10 and it went check check.  The river was a 5 and I folded to his $35 bet.  He showed 6-5.

I raised to $8 with Ace-6 of spades. Three of us saw an Ace-high flop.  I bet $15 and took it, proving I could drag a pot with Michelle dealing.

Now, there was this really young kid at the table, and his wife was sitting behind him. Somehow I learned that they had just gotten married.  And they both looked too young to be in a casino. I’m sure they couldn’t walk anywhere inside for more than five minutes without getting carded. 

And boy, were they in love.  How do I know?  Because of the public display of affection they were treating us all to whenever he wasn’t in a hand. Now you know how you might see a couple out in public and they just can’t keep their hands off each other?  And it is so obvious they both really want to go at it but can’t because they’d get arrested?  And you just want to yell at them, “Get a room!”

This wasn’t like that.  It wasn’t the “super-horny” couple scenario.  No, this was the “No two people have ever been this much in love” scenario. They were just giving each other tender, romantic, soulful kisses whenever they got the chance.  But really passionate. And when they separated, they would gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes. I dunno if I am describing it properly.  I am pretty sure they were whispering to each other how much they loved each other before and after each kiss.

Anyway, he announced they were taking off.  I have a pretty good guess what they were planning to do next.  I think he had said the last hand was his last hand, but he got dealt another hand and decided to play “one more.”  He raised to $10.  I had Ace-King and called.  We were heads up. 

The flop was King-7-7.  He bet $20 and I called.  The turn was a blank; he bet $45 and I called.  The river was an Ace and he checked.  I bet $60 and he tanked.  But eventually, he called.  I showed my hand, he just mucked in disgust.  He said, “Man, I guess I should have left already.”  The player next to him said, “Yes, whenever you say you’re gonna leave, leave.”

It was not only a nice pot, but it got me my first stamp on my parlay card (for two pair, the easiest to get).  Hey kid, you know what they say, right?  Lucky in love, unlucky in cards.  Or do I have that backwards?

Just a few hands later I had Ace-10 in the big blind.  There were a bunch of limpers, no raise.  The flop came Queen-Jack-4, rainbow.  No one bet.  The turn was a King, giving me Broadway.  Since it was a limped pot, I led out for just $5 and had 3 callers.  The river was 9.  No flush was possible, I had the stone-cold nuts.  I bet $20 and got one call, fortunately.  The caller didn’t show his hand when I tabled mine.  The call put the pot over $40 and thus I got a stamp on my card for a straight; if he hadn’t called, I wouldn’t have gotten the stamp.  Now, if I had been playing for the stamp, I would have bet smaller.  A $10 bet would have put the pot over $40 if he called.  But I wasn’t playing for stamps at the time.

The very next hand, in the small blind, I completed with Ace-8 of hearts.   Seven of us saw the flop, which had two spades, one heart, and an 8. I called $15 and there were now just two of us. A second heart hit the turn and I called $20.  A third heart hit the river, completing my back-door flush.  I wasn’t sure if I should bet or hope he would keep firing so I could raise.  I decided to bet and put out $30.  He called, but said nothing and didn’t show when I showed the flush.  I not only took down the pot, I got another stamp on my card, this time for the red flush.

It was rather amazing.  I had been playing for a considerable amount of time and hadn’t come close to getting a stamp, and suddenly I earned three within a matter of minutes.  The last two on consecutive hands.  One of my neighbors said, “You’re filling up that card of all of sudden, huh.”  Indeed I was.

I had actually planned on taking my dinner break, but I decided to play a little longer to see if my rush continued.  I wanted to stay at least until this dealer was pushed out (this was many dealers after Michelle, in case you’re wondering). 

But the rush was over and I was ready to get some food.  Remarkably, I had worked that second $200 buy-in up to $430, so even with the disaster with the Kings, I was up $30 for the day.

And that’s the perfect place to end part 1. The follow up is now here, so check it out and we’ll see how the second part of my July 4^th session went

Hanging In at Commerce (Part 2)

This is the second, and final, chapter.  See here for part 1. We pick up right where we left off, after winning a hand with pocket Aces at level 4. 

I didn’t make a note of a single hand for the next two levels, I was that card dead.  But let me pause to make another comment, something annoying that was made worse by not being used to playing 20-minute levels.  There were a number of really slow players who held up the game at my table.  It got me pretty frustrated.  With the quick levels, it was more important than usual to get in as many hands each level as possible. One guy seemed to want to get into an argument with the dealer over the change he did or didn’t get for every ante and every blind he posted.  The dealer had to keep stopping to explain to him what the ante or blind amount was and how he had gotten the right change.  Then there was the guy next to me, who not only took his sweet time to make a decision but then would make an elaborate show of betting.  Like he’d count out the exact amount and then carefully stack his bet neatly by denomination.  And then do that thing where he’d use his index finger to flick one of the chips forward from the smallest denomination stack,  And if he decided to call a short-stack’s all-in, he’d never just say “call”, he had to count the chips and make sure he put the exact amount out there and we all had to wait while he did that.  Another player liked to throw his bet out in front of him instead of neatly pushing or stacking his bet. He wasn’t splashing the pot, he was too far from it to do that, but with the chips all strewn about you couldn’t see how much the bet was and the dealer would have to neaten it up to count it.   All these things were infuriating when time was of the essence.

So we’re now at level 7 (50/200/400) with $12,300.  I opened to $1K with Queen-Jack offsuit and didn’t get a call.

That was it for levels 5,6,7.  I reached level 8 (75/250/500) with $12K.  After two limpers, I made it $2,500 with King-Jack off.  No call.

That was it for 8.  You see, with 20-minute levels I was lucky to get one hand to play each level.  Got to level 9 (75/300/600) with $13K. By this time I was pretty sure my tournament was nearing an end.  Getting no cards, the levels going up so fast, it just didn’t seem like it was my day.  I was kind of resigned to busting, honestly.  So when a short stack raised to $1,500 and I had Ace-Jack, I shoved.  I guess he had around $6K and I thought he might fold but if not, I had a decent hand to gamble with.  He snap-called and showed Ace-Queen.  Nothing hit and I was now really short-stacked. 

There was a break after level 9 and I figured I’d shove and bust out soon after we came back from break.  My stack was down to $6,400 and the blinds were 100/400/800.  After a limper I shoved with Jack-10 off.  I was called by two players; one had pocket 5’s and the other had Ace-Queen. They both had me covered. The first four cards were blanks for all of us.  The river was a Jack.  I had just scored a triple-up and was very much alive.

Next hand I called $2K with Ace-10 of hearts but had to fold on the flop when it missed me by a mile.

So I had $13,700 to start level 11 (100/500/1000).  I shoved with Queen-Jack off and didn’t get a call.

Last hand of the level I shoved with Ace-2 of spades. I was called by a smaller stack with 9-8 of clubs.  Ace high won the pot.

That got me to almost $22K for level 12 (200/600/1200). I open shoved with Ace-10 off and no one called.  That was the only hand of the level I could play.

Level 13 (200/800/1600), $20,800, During this level, they broke our table.  My first hand at the new table, I posted my ante of $300, which is what we were posting for this level at my old table.  The player next to me corrected me and told me it was only $200.  “Really?  We were posting $300 at my last table.”  Obviously that dealer at my original table had made an error. Hmm.  Should I have said anything?  I considered calling the floor and insisting that the entire tournament be replayed from the start, but decided not to.  On top of that, I had just posted the blinds at the original table and had to post the big blind immediately upon arrival at the new table.

Another one hand level.  I shoved with Ace-10, no call. 

Down to $19K at level 14 (300/1000/2000).  After a normal raise, I shoved with pocket Jacks.  The raiser called.  He had Ace-10 off.  My Jacks held.

That got me to nearly $44K.  Just a hand or two later I opened to $5K with Ace-Jack of spades.  There was one caller. The flop was Ace-high, I bet $8K and took it.

Very next hand, Ace-Queen off.  I opened to $5K again, this time I had three callers.  The flop was Queen-high, two clubs.  I bet $15K.  A lady shoved for around $24k, the others folded.  There was no way I could fold for that, easy call.

She had King-Queen, both clubs.  The turn was a blank but she caught her flush on the river and I took a big hit.  Ugh.

The fellow next to me said, “Nothing you could do.”  Yep.  We both played it right.  That, as they say, is poker.

Level 15 (400/1200/2400), $18K.  I shoved with pocket 4’s, no call.

I think the break was after that level.  I finally got a chance to get close enough to the clock to see the pay schedule.  Because we were in an area not normally used for tournaments, there was only one clock, and though I could see the time, I wasn’t anywhere near close enough to see the payouts.  So I had to walk over to the clock to see pay schedule.  Now up until this point, I really hadn’t been paying any attention to the payouts anyway, or paying attention to how many players were left.  Honestly, this entire time, I never really considered that I would cash in the tournament, let alone make it to day 2.  It just didn’t seem like a real possibility to me, I was so card dead and so short stacked pretty much the entire tournament. 

But after my table broke, and I could see that there weren’t all that many tables left, I wanted to check it out to see just how close I was to the money, as unlikely as my cashing was.  And of course I wanted to see the prize distribution, and in particular, what the min-cash was, since, with my pathetic stack, I couldn’t possibly hope to get any more than a min-cash.

Thus, the pay structure, or how close we were to the bubble, had never factored into any poker decision I had made up to that point.

This was the final day 1.  I knew that they had gotten approximately 220-240 players each for the first two day 1’s.  I was sure this day would be a lot bigger and it was.  There were 390-some odd players.  The math was easy.  The top 20 spots just showed a “$” sign and no amount.  That meant they’d go onto day 2 and fight for the biggest portion of the prize pool with the survivors from the previous day 1’s.  There were 30 spots after that with actual dollar amounts. And I swear when I first looked at the numbers, I read the board as showing all those final 30 spots would get the same amount.

And that amount was…..(drum roll please)…..One hundred and twenty-five dollars (U.S.).  Yes, that’s right, the min-cash—which was (I thought) for all thirty paid spots—was $125.  A cool $25 profit! 

I was actually more amused than upset.  Actually, I wasn’t upset at all.  I was familiar enough with this format (all day1’s have their own individual money bubble) to know that the min cash on a day 1 would be nowhere near the “double the buy-in” amount that I have been campaigning for here on the blog (see here).  I was mentally prepared for the min-cash to be really small.  Although I have to say, I was a bit shocked that it was that low. I suppose if I had had to guess, I would have figured it would have been at least $140-$150, although now that I think about it, I should have known that was too high.

I really wasn’t thinking of that min-cash when I decided to play in the tournament.  No, what I really liked about the format—that 12% of each day 1 got paid and that 5% made it to day 2—was that if you made 2, you were in the money.  That return trip to Commerce the next day would be to pick up some cash—and oh yes, play some more poker, too. 

So now, seeing that rather modest payout, I knew there was really no reason at all to worry about the min-cash.  I mean, once we got down near the bubble, there was no way I was going to tighten up just to get a little bit of cash.  It made no sense.  I would use whatever chips I had the best way I thought possible to try to get to day 2, and not worry one bit about whether I got that $125 payout or was the bubble boy.  And in fact, I can assure you, I never made one decision all day based on trying to hang on for the min-cash.

I think when I first saw the payouts, we were down to about 72 or so players, so not that far from the cash.  And with the blinds going up every 20-minute, the players were dropping like flies.  But I had no intention of passing on a single opportunity—even when were down to 51 players—to get more chips and try to survive to play a day 2.

So I started level 16 (500/1500/3000) with $20.5K and got to play one hand.  I shoved with Queen-10 of hearts, didn’t get a call.

Near $27K to start level 17 (500/2000/400), and the tables were breaking fast. I couldn’t see the player count, but I figured we must be nearing the bubble, especially when, early in the level, they broke another table—mine.  I got to see the number of players when I moved…..it was 52.  But as I was getting situated, they told all the dealers to stop.  They were going to go hand for hand, it appeared we were down to 51.  The action stopped for quite awhile—they must have been double checking the player count.  And when they were done, guess what?  We had only 50 players left.  We were all in the money, and we had avoided going hand-for-hand. A win-win.

I shoved with Ace-7 off and was called by a shorter stack with Queen-7 of diamonds.  No Queen or Ace came, but four cards of one of the suits I had did.  I didn’t even notice which of my cards had caught the flush, I actually thought I won with Ace-high.

Then came some levels (I think it was more than one) where I just couldn’t find a place to shove.  My cards were just too bad and I pretty much never had the chance to open a pot.  There was a shove on just about every hand.

While I was waiting for an opportunity to move all-in, we were discussing the payout structure and the fact that anyone busting then would make a $25 profit.  I said, “Yeah, well at least it pays for the gas to get down here.”  Another player said, “Yeah, and it will pay for parking.”  Huh?  I thought this was Commerce, not MGM.  I hadn’t paid to self-park.  I asked him if he had used the valet, and he said yes. “They charge you to valet here?”  He said yes, $5.  “Plus you gotta tip the guy.”  So remember, if you ever drive to Commerce, self-parking is free but the valet will cost you five bucks, plus tip (if you’re so inclined.)

Anyway, when we were talking about the $25 we’d “all” get if we didn’t survive to day 2, someone said something about $75.  He was implying that there were actually two different pay outs for those that didn’t go onto day 2….$175 and $125.  I said no, it was all $125.  He insisted that there was another pay jump.  So, between hands I went over to the clock again.  Sure enough, he was right, and I had just missed it.  Hmm…I wonder if it’s too late to get my money back on that cataract surgery?  Turned out that 21^st-35^th did indeed get $175, and that 36^th-50^th got the $125.

I believe there were still over 40 players left when I learned of my mistake.  And it really didn’t make any difference to me.  The fifty bucks didn’t really matter, my only goal was to somehow, someway try to last to day 2 so I had a shot at winning some real money.

But the blinds and antes were just eating up my stack and as I said, I wasn’t even getting the chance to steal.  I actually got down to under $10K.  I lost track of what level we were at, but the blinds went up when I was under-the-gun plus one and for sure I would be pot committed for the rest of my stack when I posted the big blind.  So my shoving range was a mile wide. I believe the antes were up to $1K so even that was a significant hit to my stack. 

Turned out my UTG+1 hand was King-9 of clubs, which was more than good enough to shove with, considering my situation—even though I would have zero fold equity.  Under-the-gun raised to more than my entire stack, and so I just put it all in.  No one called the original raiser, so we tabled and he had Ace-Queen.  At least I had live cards, plus the clubs.  The flop was all blanks, but one club.  A Queen hit the turn and it wasn’t a club and only a King could save me.  Instead, it was an Ace.

Well, I was done.  I hadn’t been paying attention but as I got near the podium and saw the clock, I realized I had somehow made it to the $175 payout.  It showed 31 or 32 players left so I had just passed the pay bump without even realizing it.  It was about 6:45 so I I had played nearly 7 hours and somehow cashed—and not even the min-cash—even though I hadn’t really had a workable stack for hardly any of the tournament. Somehow, I had just kept hanging on.

It was late enough for me to take advantage of the $7 food coupon they’d given me.  I got a hot dog (which came with fries) and a diet Pepsi and still had $1.50 left over.  Unfortunately I didn’t see anything on the menu for a buck and half.  I just forfeited the buck and change.  But the meal I had probably would have cost over $15 at a Vegas strip casino.

Before I took off, I checked the tournament.  It was close to 7:30 and they still had three tables going, and 23 players left, fighting for 20 spots to day 2. I later learned the day 2 min-cash was $300 and first place got $12,000.  I settled for $75 and a free dinner. 

Oh, and free parking.  Go that too.  It wasn’t a bad way to spend a holiday weekend that I couldn’t be in Vegas for.

Note: the picture above has absolutely nothing to do with my post, or poker, or Commerce. But I just came across and I rather like it, so I decided to go with it.  Hope you don't mind.

Hanging In at Commerce (Part 1)

Over Labor Day Weekend, I went down to Commerce Casino to play in a $100 tournament.

This year I couldn’t make it to Vegas for the big weekend, as I usually do.  I was recovering from minor surgery—cataract surgery, to be precise.  I’m happy to report it went very well, and my vision is much improved in the eye they worked on. I asked if they could give me X-ray vision while they were at it, but apparently that is still only in the experimental stage and hasn’t been approved by the AMA.  Note: The only reason I wanted that was so I could identify the cards from the backs in order to improve my poker game.  It was not for prurient reasons. Get your minds out of the gutter.

I had the procedure the week before, and by Labor Day weekend I was well enough to resume normal activities. For me, that meant playing poker.  It was too late to head to Vegas, but fortunately there is poker in Southern California.  You can look it up.

Originally I figured I’d just head to Ventura.  But then I noticed that Commerce Casino was just starting a tournament series heading into the long weekend.  That made sense.  The Bike just completed one of their bigger series of the year.  In fact, that weekend before my surgery, they had a big multi-day event at the Bike that I was thinking of playing in.  But it turned out that Day 3 of that event would take place the afternoon of my surgery.  Now of course I’d be a long shot to make it to Day 3 of that tournament for sure, but you can’t enter a tournament knowing that, if you do have a great run, you won’t be around when the big prize money is awarded.

Anyway, I checked the schedule at Commerce and saw an interesting sounding tournament taking place Labor Day weekend.  It was a multiple day event.  It had a $100 buy-in and had a $50K guaranteed prize pool.  That’s a very nice guarantee for just a hundred buck buy-in.  One thing I really liked was that the pay bubble burst on Day 1.  The final 12% of each Day 1 were in the money, and then the last 5% of each starting flight would come back for Day 2 (which was the final day in this case).  I’ve talked before how much I like that format—I mean you are only making a second trip to the poker room if you are guaranteed to pick up cash no matter what happens on Day 2.

That’s nice anywhere, but it’s really especially desirable for me when I’m playing in L.A.  I stay 10 minutes (really less) from the Aria when in Vegas, so making a trip back there for a day 2 wouldn’t be that big a deal.  Same for most any other poker room in Vegas, really.  But a drive back to Commerce, or the Bike, for a second day, only to bust on the first hand of Day 2 and have nothing to show for it would be a real pisser.  Especially if that return trip was during the week, as they frequently are.  I would have to give myself at least two hours to make it down there in weekday traffic.  So it’s not very convenient.

But this $100 tourney had its day 2 on the weekend as well, so that wasn’t an issue.  And of course, if I made it to day 2, I’d know for certain I’d be leaving that day 2 with more money in my wallet than I got there with, so it’d be worth the return trip.

I took a look at the structure sheet for it.  It was good—actually, it was very good—except for one thing.  It only had 20-minute levels.  It’s been a long time since I played a tournament with less than 30-minute levels.  Obviously, that’s a huge difference.  But I did like the structure and I couldn’t help noticing it resembled the structure of the Aria WPT 500, which I played this summer and just wrote about (here). That’s not surprising.  The tournament director at Commerce is Matt Savage who also happens to be the T.D. for the WPT.  Matt actually designed the structure for the WPT 500. And of course, that pay format (12% cash each day, 5% go onto day 2) is also the same.

It sounded intriguing.  My concern was the 20-minute levels.  I wanted to compare the structure to one I’m familiar with, while taking into account the shorter levels.  I’ve heard that there are formulas and/or apps that evaluate a tournament structure, but I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know where to find one. Does anyone know? So I decided to compare the structure of the Commerce tournament to the regular Aria $125 tournament I play in frequently (and not the WPT 500 structure). Both tournaments have the same starting stack, $10K.

To take into account the shorter levels, I just looked how many chips you’d need to have a tournament “M” of 20 at various points in the tournament.  But I didn’t compare level to level, I compared time to time.  In other words, at the end of two levels of Aria, you’ve played on hour.  It takes three levels of the Commerce to play one hour, so you’d compare start of level 3 at Aria to start of level 4 at Commerce.  I was actually thinking that the structure was so good at Commerce that it might be better by the standard I was using throughout the tournament.

But it turned out, that wasn’t the case.  Those 20-minute levels eventually catch up with you.  After four hours of each, you need the exact same $88K chips to be at an M of 20 (that’s start of level 9 for Aria, start of level 13 for Commerce).  But an hour later, you only need $170K at Aria as compared to $190K at Commerce.  And the difference keeps expanding to Aria’s benefit the longer you survive.

BTW, it was easy for me to do this comparison, as I keep a spreadsheet with all the structures of each tournament I’m going to play and am likely to play, complete with the M’s at each level.  I print this out as a cheat sheet to use live so I know when I am approaching (or have arrived at) shove-or-fold mode.

I decided that the difference wasn’t a deal breaker for me.  It was only a $100, tournament, so I couldn’t really expect it to have a better structure than Aria’s $125 tournament.  And it did have the great $50K guarantee, an incredible amount for that price point.  Aria’s tournament doesn’t have a guarantee but the prize pool for the afternoon event is usually around $10-$15K.  And I figured that it having the same or even better structure for the first four hours (when most of the real poker is played anyway before it becomes a shove fest), was good enough for me.  And the plus about the shorter levels is that you wouldn’t be playing 10 plus hours on that day 1.  I inquired on Twitter and got an estimate of day 1 wrapping up around 7:30pm for the flight I wanted to play (which started at Noon).

One other note about the tourney that made it a bit different than what I’m used to: there was only one entry per day.  You could enter a maximum of three times, one each day.  And if you made it to day 2 more than once, you’d forfeit the short stack and would get paid minimum day 2 money for it.

Now, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve been to Commerce Casino.  For some reason, I’ve always preferred The Bike.  Commerce is a fine poker room—hell, it’s the biggest poker room in the world—but if you live in Southern California, you likely either prefer the Bike or your prefer Commerce.  It’s like some people like Coke and some like Pepsi.  So I was a Bike person (until I discovered Player’s Casino in Ventura).

In fact, I’m pretty sure the last time I was at Commerce was before I started the blog—and before I started playing No Limit!  Yeah, I played 2/4 limit at Commerce a few times.  I even played 1/2 limit there when I was just getting started (dunno if they still spread that).  I know for sure that I’d never played a tournament there.

So I wanted to get there early.  I knew I needed to get a player’s card to register for the event, as I never had one. I also wanted to get the lay of the land, so-to-speak, Find the tournament area, see where the restrooms were, etc.  I was surprised when, ready to leave my house, Google maps told me that traffic was lighter than usual and I should reach my destination in 44 minutes.  That made me stop rushing.  And of course, by the time I drove thru downtown, some congestion had developed and it took longer than promised to get there.  Thus I felt I was late, even though it was around 11:30—I hoped to be there no later than 11:15.

I have to tell you, I had forgotten just how freaking big Commerce is.  It is really, really huge and I know I didn’t see all of it on this trip.  I didn’t remember the table games section being as big as it was, and I know I didn’t see all of the poker tables.  Feeling I was running late, I broke with my standard personal rule and actually asked someone for directions to the tournament registration area. 

There wasn’t a long line when I got there.  I had been told that I could get the needed player’s card when I registered.  Although that was true, it turned out that I had to see a different person at the registration desk to get a card since I never had one before (I think the original person I spoke to would have been able to do it if I was just replacing an existing card).  Then the process was delayed even further when the printer that was printing the tournament entry tickets broke down and everything came to a complete halt.  Fortunately, someone from IT showed up very quickly and got the issue resolved.  Good thing—by the time I had my ticket in hand, the line had grown considerably, and the tournament was only minutes away from starting.  One nice perk: with the seat ticket they gave me a coupon good for $7 off food at the various eateries in the casino.

I was directed to where the tournament was being held and I was surprised, it didn’t seem like an ideal location to me.  Part of the main poker room floor was clearly reserved for tournament tables but the area I was at was on sort of a mezzanine a few steps up from the main poker room.  It looked like it was a temporary set up for a bunch of tables.  Turns out I was right.  I later learned that the tournaments (at least when they run a series like this one) are usually held in the ballroom, but they had to give up the ballroom for this day as it had been reserved for a wedding.  I hope the groom wasn’t getting married to pocket Aces.

I put my stuff down in my seat after finding it and couldn’t help noticing that the dealer looked very familiar.  I figured out where I knew him from almost immediately.  “You’ve dealt to me before….in Vegas, right?”  He said he probably had. “The Golden Nugget series this summer, right?”  Indeed, I had this dealer several times during my Vegas tournament endeavors, always at the Golden Nugget.  He must have been a travelling dealer, not a Commerce full-timer.  I asked him where the nearest restroom was and he directed to one that was quite a good walk from where we were playing.  I later discovered there was a much closer one that he apparently didn’t know about.

One observation (criticism?) of Commerce before I get to some actual poker.  I immediately recalled once play was underway one of my issues with the casino.  I’ve never been able to figure out how to get a drink there.  I’m just talking about my usual diet Coke (tho I think it’s Pepsi there).  They have cocktail waitresses but they only serve booze, not soft drinks.  I guess there are both food servers and porters who maybe can bring you a coke or coffee, but I almost never saw any of them in the area, and when I did, I could never get their attention.  They don’t just come around like a cocktail waitress in Vegas does.  I managed to order one diet Pepsi but after that I was pretty much on my own. And by the way, they charge half a buck for the soda. Fortunately I discovered the gift shop was very near where were playing and bought a bottle of diet Mountain Dew on one of the breaks.

One odd thing I discovered after I connected to the casino’s Wi-Fi.  It refused to let me access my own blog!  It said my blog’s web address was blocked because it was a site that promoted gambling!  This was, I repeat, while I was in the Commerce Casino, which I have reason to believe wants you to gamble.  Weird.

I was a little surprised they didn’t delay the start of the tournament a few minutes to make up for the snafu with the printer. I thought they should have since a lot of folks got to their seats late through no fault of their own.  And what with the levels only being 20-minutes, it was more impactful missing hands than it would be if the levels were 30-minutes as I’m used to. 

Speaking of those 20-minute levels, it didn’t take me long to realize how big a difference that made.  Every time I looked at the clock, it seemed like the levels were about to increase.  There just didn’t seem to be any breathing room. For someone like me, who likes to play tight in the beginning and was also fairly card dead, it made things very tricky.  It didn’t take much time for me to get the feeling I wasn’t likely to be playing very long.

First level (25/50) I had pocket Queens and raised to $125.  One caller.  The flop came 9-8-7, all hearts.  Yeesh.  I had no hearts, but I dutifully c-bet $200.  My opponent made it $600.  I folded and he showed Jack-10.  His cards were both black though.

In the big blind I called a raise to $125 with Ace-10 off.  It was just heads up and the flop came King-Jack-x.  I called $125.  The turn was an Ace and I called $350.  It went check-check on a blank river and my Ace was good.

Level 2 (50/100) with $11K. First hand of the level, in the big blind I had 10-6 off but no one raised.  Five of us saw a flop of 10-6-5, two diamonds.  I bet $300 and had one caller.  The 2 of spades on the turn put a second spade out there. I bet $1K and he called.  The river was a third spade and I checked. My opponent showed just a 10 and I took it.

Before I could blink it seemed like I reached level 3 (75/150) with $11,400.  After a limper I made it $525 with Ace-King, the limper was the only caller.  I bet $800 on an Ace-high flop and took it.

The antes kicked in on level 4 (25/75/150) and I had $11,700.  There was an interesting hand where I limped in with 9-8 of hearts and it was five way.  There was no betting any street.  The board read King-King-2-2-Queen.  It should have been a five-way chop since no one had anything that connected with that board.  But one of the players folded when he saw his neighbor’s hand (which I think was Jack-high) not realizing that we were all playing the board.  So it was only a four-way chop.

I opened to $400 with pocket Aces and had three callers.  The flop was Queen-high, two diamonds and my Aces were both black.  I bet $800.  The first guy thought for a long time before folding, the other two folded immediately.

And that’s where I’ll leave part 1.  But the fact that I need to do this in two parts is kind of a spoiler that my tournament life lasted longer than I had originally anticipated.  And now you can read the conclusion and see how I did right here.