Lake Forest Trip Report

[drewjustdrew]

Someone suggested I post a trip report, so I hope you enjoy:

I flew into Santa Ana airport on Sunday night. There were high winds and the landing was extremely choppy. A girl two rows back shrieked at one point. It wasn't THAT bad though. Stayed in Foothill Ranch at the Hilton Garden Inn. Decent hotel, with one of the dirtiest pools I have seen. I hope it was just dirt blown into the pool by the high winds.

Worked on Monday. After warnings on this site, and from people at the office where I was visiting, I waited until 7 to head to the Commerce. It took 45 minutes to get there, which wasn't bad at all. I got into a 20-40 game expecting tons of fish based on all the conversation I see on this site. I was unpleasantly surprised to find all the players at my table at least adequate at poker, with no enormously glaring flaws. One player might have been a little too loose, but I have seen much worse. I played for 3.5 hours and booked a solid $20 profit! Mental note: request table change next time. One memorable hand: I had Jc6c in BB with a raise and several callers ahead of me. I call and flop top pair with flush draw. It's checked to aggressive cutoff and raised by the button. I three-bet and am called by only those two. I turn the flush and bet out getting called by both and by one on river when blank hits. Nice pot.

Also, at one point, a deck ended up with only 51 cards???? I wonder who pocketed the ace?

Tuesday night, I wanted to try a tourney while here. The best option I found was the Bicycle Club tourney at 7. $50+10 with one rebuy. To get there on time I figured I should leave around 5. I got a little late start, and there was a vicious sounding accident near my on-ramp which grinded the commute to a halt. I didn't get on the expressway until 6 and was writing off the tourney based on the "legendary" LA traffic. Once I got past the accident area, traffic was slow, but no worse than Chicago. One problem is the ridiculous carpool lane. It causes too much lane switching across multiple lanes. I can't imagine it resulted in many more carpoolers based on the congestion in the non-carpool lanes.

I got to the Bike about 10 minutes after 7. It reminds me a little of the Gold Club in Atlanta from the outside (ask Patrick Ewing!). I still got in the tourney, and I was card dead for 2 hours and was bounced. During the tourney I participated in one of my biggest pet peeves. I ordered dinner at the table. I was starved, so I wolfed down a club sandwich and probably looked ridiculous doing it.

After the tourney I went looking for side games. The 20-40 list was long, so I sat in the 8-16 game. I did well with AA 4 times and KK once, winning all of them. The problem I have with eating at the table reared its ugly head when the guy next to me was slurping down a wreaking asian dish and the guy next to me on the other side was chowing on some disgusting smelling sausage-type meal. Falafel?

After he left, an attractive female prop player sat next to me and we talked for a little bit. She said she did some announcing on Live at the Bike at some point, so maybe you know who she is (not Shirley). I have crap for interpersonal skills, so I did not get her name, but she is originally from Minnesota. She was a good player, but, at least for me, it was brutally obvious from the first hand she played, so she never got my business. I finished a couple hours later up a little over $200. So for the trip, I was up a little over $100. Live play is too damn slow.

I was surprised to find that I liked the Bike a lot more than the Commerce, since everyone says Commerce is the Mecca. It might have been because I was in a friendlier game at the lower limit, but I also thought it was a little cleaner, brighter, and a lot more open. The staff at both casinos were very friendly and helpful.

The winds have died down, so hopefully I will have a smooth take-off tomorrow.

[FishNChips]

I'll start with "Welcome to the OC, bitch!" just because its so much fun to type.

nice report...

Santa Ana airport is actually "John Wayne Airport", don't diss The Duke!

I'm quite certain the dirty pool was due to high winds.

Glad traffice wasn't brutal on you.

table changes are pretty important -- took me a while to figure that out and to be comfortable enough to ask for them. Now I don't have an issue asking within the first 2 orbits if needed.

hope your flight home is better.

FishNChips

[IronDragon1]

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After he left, an attractive female prop player sat next to me and we talked for a little bit. She said she did some announcing on Live at the Bike at some point, so maybe you know who she is (not Shirley).

[/ QUOTE ]

That would be Nicole

[jonnytone]

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Decent hotel, with one of the dirtiest pools I have seen. I hope it was just dirt blown into the pool by the high winds.


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I think we all know that it was you that dirtied that pool!