Another Hollywood Park Trip Report: dream table, valet nightmare

[private joker]

Commerce doesn't have a player's card. That's kind of weird, isn't it? Every other casino in L.A. has a card. Hawaiian Gardens, Hustler, Normandie, the Bike... and of course the ghetto fabulous freak show that is Hollywood Park. It's kind of like rakeback, these cards -- HG doesn't actually give you anything but freeroll points, but the Bike gives you food/pts, Hustler gives you the same, and HP gives you $2 per scan for merch, $1 per scan for cash redemption.

Well, lately the yellow chip games have dried up at HP, or so I thought. Both HP and Hustler's 15 games haven't been up to par in about 6 months, nor has HP's 20 or 25 game. Lately it's looking like Commerce more and more. But last night, there was still that nagging player's card for HP in my little black leather card-holder I got from the Bike. Gee, I wonder how many points are on it? I've never redeemed it. Hmmm.. could be a lot.

OK, so it's Friday night and I drive all the way down La Cienega through city traffic 25 miles and 35 minutes to get to the racetrack. Why not. So I show up, valet my car (it's a free valet there for yellow chip games), walk in. The list is long as usual, but luckily they start up a 3rd game of 15/30 about 5 minutes after I get there. It's not a great table but it's pretty good. People are actually playing super tight-passive.

Live games are always more passive than online, but this was the extreme. OK, easy to adjust. Luckily, I noticed another trend -- if you show your cards when you fold, your opponents are more likely to show theirs so you can see if you made a good fold or not. And since I don't like to be a calling station, I don't pay off a whole lot these days. I think I'm usually right, but tonight I wanted to see how much info I could get.

Immediately I'm hit with the deck. I get KK in the SB pretty early on and 3-bet some lady's EP raise. It's HU and the flop comes down QTT. I pick up a tell on her and decide to check it. She cagily checks behind. The turn is an A, making my fold easier. I check, she bets, and I say "bad board for these" and fold the KK face up. Lady smiles and shows her QT. Yikes!

A few hands later I get AQs and 3-bet on the button after some normal-playing guy raises in EP. It's HU again and the flop comes down AJ8. He hesitates for a while before checking, and I bet and he calls. The turn is a 4 and he checks in rhythm. I bet and he instaraises. I decide to think for a while on this one because he just saw me lay down kings and I wonder if he's taking a sho- WAIT a second, nobody takes shots at HP! And they don't even pay attention to image! F*ck this I'm folding.

I show only the A and fold, so he shows me two 8s for the flopped set. ni han.

Then I get QQ in the SB and 3-bet some other old guy's EP raise (but he's new to the table). He caps it PF. Uh... that never happens. OK. The flop comes down AJx. I check he checks. Turn is a T. I check, he bets... what can I beat? Nothing, right? I can't beat AA, KK, JJ, TT, KQ, AK, AQ, AJ, AT... basically I'm dead. So I fold QQ face up. He shows AA proudly, because everybody likes to show off two aces.

I get must-moved to another game which is far looser, but not much more aggro. One or two more LAGs. I pick up ATo in the BB and check my option. Flop comes down T97 and the idiot LAG SB bets out. I raise, and the rockish old man to my left cold-calls casually. Hmm... Whatever. The turn brings like a 3 or whatever and I bet out and now he raises. WTF? Am I drawing dead? I think for a bit and hope he's the type to show. AGAIN I fold my cards face up and he shows the table J8o, very proud of his flopped straight.

So I finally get AA myself (in the SB again, much like my KK and QQ) but for the first time tonight it's folded around to the button. She is all in for 4 chips so I raise and the BB folds and I take two chips back and win a monster pot of 10 chips. I go on to win a few more small ones.

Amazingly, with all of these big hands getting cracked, I finish the night a winner -- up $343 as a matter of fact. Back when I was a payoff wizard, I'd be even for the night. But after reading some posts by really good players in my MSLHE forum, I realized "No, I don't have to pay you off. They're my chips and I don't have to call for 'pot odds.'" When you're losing, you're losing.

Of course, against other players I'm still paying off these hands (especially that AQ laydown which I think was pretty big for a live 15 game), so I hope you guys don't get the idea that I think huge folds are necessary -- and ESPECIALLY please don't think I endorse folding face up. It is VERY RARE that folding face up is a good idea. Don't give players any info they didn't pay for. Especially if they're thinking players. But if you get more info out of doing it than they do (and here, I did get a lot more by seeing their winning hands to confirm my reads of their nut-peddling passivity), then by all means, join in the spirited good times of these lively, friendly tables where everyone likes to show everyone their cards. [There's some metagame value here too, by not looking too serious, and being one of them; get the fish to like you and be on your side, and you'll make a lot more $ than by being a cranky, serious grinder who never says anything and gets nitty about rules].

Time to rack up. I cash out and take my player's card over to the concierge to see that I've got $125 in merch pts. and $62 in cash. I take a quick look in the store to see nothing I want, so I cash it all out. An extra $62 in rakeback is pretty nice since I pretty much don't really want to come back here. I decide I'm done with HP.

I go to the valet, get my car, and drive off. Sayonara, Hollywood Park. OK, so I drive back home all the way back to WeHo, and get there 35 minutes later thankful to never have to make that drive again unless I have to go to the airport. I turn my ignition off and take the keys out. Uh... this keyring is light. HOLY CRAP MY HOUSE KEYS ARE GONE. My house keys were on a tiny silver ring looped onto my car key ring. They must have fallen out at the valet! UGH!!!!

*sigh*

Back in the car I go. Back down to HP I go. Another 35 minutes, all the way down to Inglewood at 1:30am. On the way I call HP from my cell phone to try to find someone from the valet to see if my keys are anywhere there. It takes a while talking to people at security etc. before they tell me yes the keys are there. WHEW. I pull up at the valet by 2am and get my keys -- they're all there -- and then I turn around and drive back AGAIN, with HP in my rearview mirror mocking me for saying goodbye last time. This was not the encore I wanted.

I can't wait to go to Commerce tonight... I intend to fold all my cards face down and pay off like the fish that I am. Why?

It's Commerce.

[thirddan]

<3

reports like these make me want to play poker again...

[TobDog]

[ QUOTE ]
I pull up at the valet by 2am

[/ QUOTE ]

U lucky you didnt get robbed/jacked/etc.

I too miss real poker

[toss]

Another solid trip report. If any other guy wrote this (with one or two exceptions) it would simply be boring.

[Dominic]

HP was always my favorite room in LA for some reason. It just felt comfy to me - all grungy and sad. i almost miss it.

[Six_of_One]

Interesting stuff...but tell me more about this "free valet" for yellow chip games. I've always paid. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
HP was always my favorite room in LA for some reason. It just felt comfy to me - all grungy and sad. i almost miss it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's comfy for me too. I place a high value on not being claustrophobic and it seems there are more seats in HP's top section with adequate space than any other room in the city. Plus the place seems to have a higher goofy fun quotient than some of the other LA clubs.

Obviously though you should plan on eating before you go and when you get home, going for one survival meal mid-session.

~ Rick

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting stuff...but tell me more about this "free valet" for yellow chip games. I've always paid. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? Bummer. Yeah, dude, just have a top-section floorman stamp your valet ticket when you're racking up. The stamp means no charge for valet.

[Six_of_One]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Interesting stuff...but tell me more about this "free valet" for yellow chip games. I've always paid. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? Bummer. Yeah, dude, just have a top-section floorman stamp your valet ticket when you're racking up. The stamp means no charge for valet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Somehow I'm always the last to know about these things. It's probably been that way for years, and here I am paying $5 every time...typical. It's a good thing I've only played top section there maybe 6-8 times.

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
HP was always my favorite room in LA for some reason. It just felt comfy to me - all grungy and sad. i almost miss it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's comfy for me too. I place a high value on not being claustrophobic and it seems there are more seats in HP's top section with adequate space than any other room in the city. Plus the place seems to have a higher goofy fun quotient than some of the other LA clubs.

Obviously though you should plan on eating before you go and when you get home, going for one survival meal mid-session.

~ Rick

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually liked the meals there. Better than at The Bike! They had a great middle eastern chicken and rice thing that was outstanding. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] Plus, I was friendly with all the brushes and floor personnel and it's always nice to go to a place "where everyone knows your name."

And the horse racing just adds another fun dimension to it all.

The Hustler is great but not many games going, The Bike is huge but impersonal and Commerce just scares me. Hollywood Park rules!