Trip Reports - Noob tours the Bay Area

[donking]

Is it a real 2/5 nl or 2/3/5 spread-limit?

They have 2/3/5 spread limit at Bay101. $2 on the button, $3 small blind, $5 big blind. $200 max buy-in. Bets range from $5 to $200.

Garden city has a 1/3 spread limit. $1 small blind, $3 big blind, $100 max buy-in. Bets range from $3 to $100.

[Arbitrage]

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Go to the Grand, they will give you $50 for $20 if its your first visit (2hours min play).
GL!

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Where is the Grand? What games/limits do they have? The $50 for $20 sounds like a good deal, is it?

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The Grand is on Grand ave in Pacheco (Concord), the 20 for 50 is a good deal. All they do is check your ID to make sure you haven't done the promotion before.

they have 3/6, 6/12 and 12/24 hold 'em

1/2 and 2/5 nl

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When did they spread 2/5? I haven't been in months but last time I was there it was only 2/2/3?

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My mistake, it is 2/2/3.

[donking]

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Go to the Grand, they will give you $50 for $20 if its your first visit (2hours min play).
GL!

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Where is the Grand? What games/limits do they have? The $50 for $20 sounds like a good deal, is it?

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The Grand is on Grand ave in Pacheco (Concord), the 20 for 50 is a good deal. All they do is check your ID to make sure you haven't done the promotion before.

they have 3/6, 6/12 and 12/24 hold 'em

1/2 and 2/5 nl

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When did they spread 2/5? I haven't been in months but last time I was there it was only 2/2/3?

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My mistake, it is 2/2/3.

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Is it no-limit or spread-limit?

[KurtSF]

California Grand

Smarting from losing nearly 3BB/hr for my first 20 hours of live play it took me a while to get back to it. But the stars began to line up for my return about a month later. I had a coupon for the (previously mentioned) $20 will get you $50 at Cal Grand that said it expired 10/31 (they have now extended it to 11/30, and I expect will run it out to 12/31 when December rolls around), plus I had borrowed a car to get t a friend's birthday part in Oakland (that wasn't near any BART stations). So I had a car and ostensibly $30 free money, and I figured I'd explore the California Grand after the party.

The food was great at the party. Awesome wine and cheese, and a delicious dinner, and when the scene was starting to die down I bailed and headed over the hill. It was a decent drive out to Pacheco, but parking was easy and I headed in. The brush told me there was immediate seating for 3/6 at table 1, I told him to lock it up and headed to the cage. I hand them a twenty and my coupon, they take down my DL# and give me a half a rack. Bonuswhoring at a B&M! Who woulda thunk it! I buy another rack and head to my seat.

Now the Cal Grand is a little dumpy and degenerate. Not as degen as the Palace, mind you, but more so than Casino San Pablo because that room is at least housed in nice facilities. This place feel like someone emptied out the first floor of their house putting all the furniture in the attic, crammed about a dozen tables into every conceivable nook and cranny, and opened a cardroom. The best part of the ambiance was when I ducked out for a smoke later on at about 2:30 and there was no one outside anymore except for one guy huffing spray paint from a paper bag. Now that's class! I sat in about 11:30. Still a little tipsy form the wine I wasn't over thinking the 3-2-2 blinds and sat down to have some fun and collect my free $30.

Whatever it was, I was really comfortable at the table. I had everyone sized up in just a few orbits. Guy at the other end of the table with a handlebar mustache and a steamfitters local 342 shirt was loose pre, but otherwise decent. Oakland A's jersey next to him was decent as well, but a total gambooler. The guy next to me on my left was actually pretty good, played medium tight, not afraid to raise, but was sick good at reading people. Whenever we weren't in a hand he would tell me what they had, and I can't remember an occasion all night where he was wrong. I did pick up a nice tell on him, or rather, a telegraph. he held in chips between his fingers kinda like a roll of quarters, and he would stick his thumb in between some chips the cut out at the end of the roll the number of chips he was planning on betting. Nice! The seat to my right was occupied by a rotating cast of characters that were all terrible in different ways and it only too a hand or two for me to pick up on how. The first was a rock and wouldn't play anything. After he left play-every-hand character sat down, then a maniac, then another rock. It was a great table.

But the biggest thing about this evening was that the deck him me in the face! I had my share of top-pair type hands that I took down, and there were the usual selection of two and three out suckouts to beat me on the river. But I won an inordinate number of hands from the blinds. Yeah OK, there were 3 blinds in this game, but here are some highlights:

I'm in the BB and look down at T6o. Whatever, 7 limpers and no raises so I check to see a flop. T6x, bingo! I check it and my buddy on my left raises it up - couldn't write it better if I tried. Old guy with scraggly white hair on the other side of the dealer (I'm in seat 9) makes it two, one or two more call that cold, and I make it three. My buddy, old guy, and one or two others call that. Turn brings another 10! I bet out, buddy calls, old guy raises me! 2 folds and its on me. I contemplate briefly going for the overcall and bringing my buddy along, but instead decide to charge the guy who likes his hand, and 3-bet the turn. Buddy folds and old guy calls. I get one more bet from him on the river before turning up my hand and scooping the tremendous pot.


A short time later I'm in the SB with (again) about 7 limpers in the pot. I peek over at my buddy on the left and he hasn't split up his chips like he does when he's going to raise, so I throw my $1 in and call blind, as there's almost nothing I fold in this position and damn few hands I raise. As the flop comes out I peek down to see J3o. "One of the few hands I might actually have folded," I'm thinking as I look up and see the flop has come 33T. No time like the present, so I bet out. Get a couple calls, and same old guy from my T6o hand makes it two. Most of the rest fold, so the limpers are now between me and him and I do go for the overcalls this time, and they both come. Turn is an offsuit King. I don't want this checking around, so I bet out again. 2 folds and the old guy raises me. From previous action (he's a bit loose-aggressive and a bit calling station - he'll play too many hands, bet it up if he hits, and if he mises, he'll still call it down) I think he would have called down the donkbet on the turn I made, so I think the K improved him, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have Q3 or A3. After a moment's though I decide his range is was bigger than K3 and 3-bet it, he calls, and calls another on the end, to turn up (what else) KT for two pair. Ship it!

I'm in the BB and buddy raises it up UTG. Everyone calls. Yes, that right. It was raised under the gun by a decent player and EVERYONE called it. I look down and see 74o. Damn! "This is the worst call I've even made," I announce to the table as I put my 3 chips in the middle. Flop comes KT7, check check and UTG raiser bets. Maybe one person drops, but basically everyone calls. Turn comes 4. Check check and UTG bets, again MAYBE one person dropped out, but there at least 8 people in this pot, and I'm not feeling so hot about bottom 2 in this situation, so I just call too. River is a blank, check check UTG bets, one caller everyone folds, and I call too. MP caller turns up KJ for top pair, UTG instamucks, and I turn up my two pair, and scoop the pot.

For the next 20 minutes everyone is talking about how you can't fold 74o preflop. "That's how you make money in these games," and "Aces just get cracked," and "I always play that hand hope for a kaka flop," and on and on. I play along. I agree whole heartedly and talk about how stupid AK is. I'm starting to have a pretty decent stack at this point, so most of my premiums don't go to showdown as I'm getting a lot of folds when I start raising. But I make a point of turning up every "kaka" hand I end up with, many of them winners anyway.

I order a beer, and settle in for a good time. A little later I'm in the SB again, 5 limpers and I throw my one chip in to see a flop. I have 24o, but the flop comes J53 to make me an OESD. I check it and it comes back to me one bet and I call. River comes an Ace and I practically jump out of my seat, but blithely check it. This crowd always chases A-rag and I know someone will bet it. Sure as shootin' they do, and I raise that, and everyone folds. Oh well. Buddy on my left says "You had the nut straight." I don't know if its a question or a statement, but I've gotta turn up my hand and show him.

I'm really in a flow this night. I'm even starting to time my cigaraette's well. You see, being used to online play I don't have a feel for how long the hands take so I had been waiting until I muck UTG to go take a smoke break, but now I'm getting more used to it so I'm taking my breaks in late middle position and getting back before the blinds and don't have to post to get dealt in again. From one smoke break I get back just in time to put up my BB and see this gem:

EVERYONE limps! Yes, everyone. This is the second 10-to-the-flop hand I've been in tonight. I have KQo, look around the table briefly, and decide there no point to a raise: no one's folding and there's gotta be some aces and pairs out there so I doubt I have much of an equity edge either. I check my option and the flop comes K99. "Well, let's see who has the nine," I say to myself and bet into it, getting called in 5 spots. "How strange," I'm thinking, "they must be waiting until the turn to spring the trap." Turn comes, whatever it was I bet again and get called in 3 spots. How odd. River comes another blank, and I'm starting to think I might have the best hand, so I bet, get called in 2 places, both turn up kings with a worse kicker, and I scoop another nice pot. Holla!

One hand of note that I wasn't in. Aggressive player with an A's shirt raises it up from MP and gets a few callers. He bets out on the flop and gets raised by someone in late position, everyone else folds and the hand is heads up. A's shirt 3-bets, LP caps, A's shirt let's out a sigh and calls. He bets into the turn and gets raised again. He sighs, louder this time, checks his cards, stares at the LP raiser, checks his cards again (to make sure they haven't changed, I guess), shrugs, and 3-bets it. I felt like screaming "There's ten people at this table that know you have aces and nine know that you are beat. Its OK to fold. Really!" LP caps it, A's shirt calls that and check calls the river. LP turns up Q5o to show the two pair he made on the flop. A's shirt moans about his aces being cracked for a while. Haha.

Its getting on 4 in the morning and I'm decidedly tired and sober, so I grab a few racks and start to rack up, which makes me feel like an A-hole. It take me like 3 hands to get all my chips into racks, and when I'm done my stack of racks is like a foot and a half tall. "Good night everyone," I say. A's shirt says "Man I wish I knew when to quit." I look over and his stack has about $40 in it and I realize he had at least $300 when I sat down - probably $200 of my stack came directly or indirectly from him. I shrug, cash out, and cruise home, taking about 20 minutes to get to SF without any cars on the road.

End result: up 65 BBs

Although only 60 BBs came from the game, as 5 BBs were my free monies, it was quite a night. Almost $400 in 4 hours, and I love poker again. Woot!

Next up, The Palace.

[FCBLComish]

If you get the time, also check out Cache Creek.

[pfapfap]

Nice! Keep it up! Sounds like you're getting better at B&M the more you play, too. Most people are entirely predictable at 3/6 around these parts. Can't wait to see what you say about Oaks (my local haunt).

[pig4bill]

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If you get the time, also check out Cache Creek.

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That's a tough one for a 3/6 player. You burn up all your profits in gas.

[Corpsebean]

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My mistake, it is 2/2/3.

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Damn! Got me all excited hoping there was a 500NL game there now. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[dha123]

Hey Kurt:

Enjoying your posts of SF Bay Area Poker rooms.

Well you hit the bottom three, now time to try the top two.

CSP is a dump, and the smoking inside is a disgrace, but the Indian's seem to think they can do anything they want.

So check out the Oaks in Emeryville and Lucky Chances in Colma, for both I would recommend a car, or a least a taxi from the BART stop. CSP has shuttles(?) (call), Oaks is in a semi-crappy neighborhood, not one for walking the mile or so from BART, especially with a lot of cash, but it's just a short cab ride from MacArthur bart station.

Both of these clubs are much, much nicer than the ones you have been to.

The Oaks has about 20 tables 1/2 to 15/30 (30/60 fridays) and 4/8 omaha and 2/4 and 4/8 stud. Rake is after the flop, no 'time' on the button. Blinds for 3/6 are 3 and 1.

I haven't been to LC since I moved to the East Bay a few years ago, but they have about 15 tables, and the space is nice. 3/6-30/60(?) and spread limit, which used to be a no-limit game, they also have Omaha and stud.

[pfapfap]

If you go during the day, the Emery-Go-Round is free from BART. 30/60 is also spread on Tuesdays, and 6/12 Omaha (both Omahas are hi/lo) on Thursdays.