Trip Reports - Noob tours the Bay Area

[KurtSF]

So a couple months ago I decided I wanted to play some live poker, as previously, other than a few scattered experiences, I was an online only player. I've been making a little tour of the 3/6 games at Bay Area cardrooms, and I thought I'd write up my experiences in a short series of trip reports. Without further adieu:

Casino San Pablo

I was house-sitting at the time, with access to a car, so I decided to take the opportunity to find out what live play is like. I did some research online and decided I wanted to go to either The Palace in Hayward or Artichoke Joes in San Bruno, as they spread 3/6 games with a 3-1 blind structure that is similar to the blind structure online and I would be comfortable playing without making any serious adjustments to my game. I came to 2+2 for some advice on which to choose, and for soft 8-to-the-flop-style games many folks recommended the Cal Grand in Pacheco and Casino San Pablo in, well, San Pablo. What the heck I figured, especially since both The Palace and AJs are easily accessible by BART, I might as well take this opportunity to go someplace I won't go without a car. I decided on CSP and headed out after dinner on a Friday night for an evening of cards. My goals for the evening consisted of playing for 8 hours, and to make the right plays to leave up at the end of the night. I was a little concerned about the 3-2-2 blind structure as it was almost twice as expensive per orbit to play, and I wasn't sure ahead of time exactly how I should adjust.

I got there a little before seven, and just with the Friday night rush. I pulled right into the parking lot, but as I was walking to the casino there was a line 20 cars long waiting their turn to grab a spot. Last cigarette outside, and I went in. I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that Casino San Pablo was an actual CASINO. Two things hit me right off the bat: (1) there was the constant ringing of slots like any casino floor in Vegas. This was entirely unexpected to me. The poker tables were off in a back corner and 90% of the place was filled with slot-junkies. Wow! And (2) you could smoke inside, just like any casino in Vagas. This completely floored me! Smoking is illegal EVERYWHERE in California. I guess I had no idea how much leeway the Indian gaming establishments actually have, if they are able to allowing smoking indoors. Shocking.

Anyway, I twist and turn my way through the rows of slots to get to the pokerroom, which wasn't actually a room, just a little section in the back that is divided off by rails where maybe 10 tables are. I have the brush put me down for 3/6 and he says its only a couple minutes as I'm 3rd on the list, so I take a piss and have another cigarette... inside! BTW, there's no smoking at the tables, but you just go 10' to the other side of the rails.

That night the cards did not go my way. This was a few months ago, so I don't remember many particular hands, but this one pretty much sums up the night:

2 limpers to me on the button, AA down and I raise it up. Only the two limpers call and the flop comes Qxx. Check-check and I bet, EP limper calls and MP limper folds. Turn comes another Q. A check and I bet, and EP Limper raises. He obviously has the queen and I'm crushed, but I can't fold. *sigh* I call that bet and another on the river and he turns up QTo to bust my aces.

That's just the way it went that night. Here are some other highlights:

6 to the flop I have AQo, flop comes KQx. Decent player in EP bets out, a couple come along, including me. Turn is another blank, EP bets out again, this time I'm the only caller. River comes an A, EP bets out and this time I raise him up. He shrugs and says "we probably have the same hand," calls my bet and turns up JT for the pure nuts. Wow, I suck, but it sure was nice of him to call with an unbeatable hand, ha!

Couple hands later same guy makes a royal flush. Floor pays him the $250 royal jackpot. A couple minutes after that another player accuses him of going south after he takes the two $100 and two $25 chips off the table. Game is stopped for a few minutes while its sorted out that the bonus money is not considered table stakes.

A hot Asian woman was in seat 9 for the first few hours I was there. She was not good, but was amazingly lucky. Trips, boats, quads, you name it. Must have taken $600 off the table before she racked up and left.

At one point a young guy sat next to me with a wooden carved Buddha statuette as a card protector. Amazingly he didn't know who it was, just that his aunt gave it to him. We filled him in on who it was and that you are supposed to rub his belly for luck. He did and won a nice pot. Then I did and won a nice pot. Then the lady next to him did... this carried on for like 15 minutes. Whoever rubbed the belly won. It was rather amusing! Until eventually the kid played a hand where he never missed an opportunity to raise and got himself all in, only to flip up AKo, unimproved of course, and left.

The most entertaining portion of the evening was when a guy sat in at about 1am who was totally plastered. Guy was wrecked. Had serious trouble staying awake, and had to be prodded alert on numerous occasions. Since he called EVERYTHING preflop, and apparently folded everything after it, no one complained. Eventually the table got into a little rhythm around this guy. New hand: elbow him to throw his $3 into the pot. If he was awake when his action came on the flop he would fold, and if he was asleep, the dealer just mucked his cards. That guy must've contributed $3 a pot for 45 minutes never seeing a showdown. Hilarious.

End results: down 21 BBS.

Pretty painful. At the time I blamed the 3-2-2 blind structure for making the game bad, but with hindsight I know it was just my inability to adjust. I played too tight early on (you'll get crushed in a game this loose if you only play premiums), then too loose later in the session, chasing my losses and hoping to get lucky. Additionally, while the table was definitely beatable, I think I could have done better at table selection. Seeing as 3 of the seats were filled by the same person when I left at 3am as they were when I sat in at 7 the previous evening (and a 4th seat was the same person until 2am), I think there were a few ringers (or at least regulars) in the game.

Welcome to live poker, you donkey.

If I get decent responses (or at least not outright flamed) the upcoming rooms are Artichoke Joes, California Grand, The Palace, and The Oaks.

Peace.

[donking]

You should add Lucky Chances to your list as the location is close to AJs.

[KurtSF]

I'll get there eventually. Lucky Chances and Bay101 are pretty much the last two major cardrooms in the area that I haven't been to.

[Arbitrage]

[ QUOTE ]
You should add Lucky Chances to your list as the location is close to AJs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I second that, their blind structure for 3/6 is 1-3. I am a Bay Area native and would enjoy reading more trip reports.


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

[donking]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[raphet99]

Nice report...keep 'em coming. I live in the area and have only been to the Oaks. Now I know I won't go to San Pablo...I can't stand the smoking...LOL

[KurtSF]

Artichoke Joe's

2 weeks after my trip to Casino San Pablo I was eager to get back in the saddle. It was my biggest losing session ever, in dollars (it doesn't take much when jumping to 3/6 from my usual .25/.50 game online), but I know I was pretty card dead and even though I didn't play that well my mistakes were probably just a small part of my losses. What I needed to do was play solid and get lucky! With dreams of sugarplums dancing in my head, I got off work on Friday and I hopped a BART train to San Bruno for an evening of cards at Artichoke Joe's

The poker wikki says that AJs is a block from the San Bruno CalTrain station, and "about as far" from the San Bruno BART station. Yeah, if one block is a mile and a half long that's about right. Its easily a 20 minute walk from BART to AJs, which really isn't bad, but the fact that I had to piss like a racehorse really made it feel like forever. Now since I got here on public transportation I was a little constricted in my exit options. BART stops running at about midnight, so my choices are to bail early and catch the last train, or to stick it out like a champ and catch a train the next morning when BART start running again at about 6am. I figured that if I was playing well, feeling good, and doing good I would press on through the night, but if I was getting tired, playing poorly, or was stuck I would cut my losses and get out at midnight. Midnight was decision time.

Anyway, I nearly piss myself before finding the restroom (in the back by the PaiGow tables), and I start to scope out the pokerroom. AJs is a nice place, well lit, high ceilings, and pretty big. There's a huge room in back for the Asian games, and the poker is split up into a couple sections. They had a lot of tables, most seemed to be spreading 3/6 and 6/12, but there were a couple 15/30 games too. Just as I was starting to feel out the room the brush announced "Immediate seating for 3/6," so I got a table and sat down.

It didn't take me long to figure out that this game was more serious than the one at CSP. I knew my play would be tighter because of the smaller blinds, and apparently so was everyone else's. There were a fair number of older players, mostly nits, at the table, and a smattering of others. I'm getting pretty comfortable at the table, making conversation with a few people including the guy on my right. I'm in the big blind and there are a bunch of limpers, and he raises it up from the SB. I say "Man, look what you did. Now I have to look at my cards." I spot an ace and a nine suited in spades down there, and call his raise, when he says, "Hey, I like to raise it up." I start in on a little tirade, "Not me! Check check check that's what I like. Like to see some flops. I alway want it check check check. Hate it when it gets raised. Like to see those flops. Check check check." It was just nonsense - I was just making table chatter. The flop comes out A9x, he bets and I promptly shut up about checking and raise it. The table all looks at me like I'm crazy. One old guy calls it cold, and the SB calls it, and everyone else gets out of the way. Turn comes another 9. Damn it! If I had known that was coming I wouldn't have pushed everyone out on the flop, but whatever, thems the breaks. I bet, old guy calls, SB folds. Old guy calls one more on the end and I drag a middling pot with my monster fullhouse. C'est la vie.

I go pretty card dead, and I'm down about $60 around 11:30. I'm contemplating bailing and getting a good night's sleep. Then I make a flush and drag a nice pot, and take another little one on the next hand when I make top pair and everyone folds on the turn, and bam!, I'm even just as the the clock strikes midnight. I give the wife a ring and let her know I'm spending the night at the cardroom and I'll see her in the morning, then promptly return to the table to get sucked out on a couple times and 15 minutes later I'm stuck almost $100. I should have left.

Whatever, I'm in it for the long haul now. Let's gogogogogo.

Most of the old guys leave and the the table changes. I try to pick up reads, a skill I'm just learning being a noob to live games. This one big kid with a CDman and a hoody sits down and reads comic books between hands. Hmmm, isolated, introverted, and contemplative. I figure he's thinking player and someone to watch out for. Nah! Turns out he was a total lagtard. Super aggressive and dangerous because he would bloat the pots, but if you could beat top pair it was usually worth looking him up. Middle age overweight Asian guy on my left is a total rock. He's playing about a hand every two orbits. I just stay out of his way. Drunk frat-boy looking dude joins the table. Alright, a gambooler!

I'm holding my own but I'm not catching cards and I'm just slowly getting my stack pecked away at. Its getting on 1:30 and I'm now stuck $150. Depressed, I rebuy and order a beer. This had an amazing impact on the table! Everyone lightens up, 4 other players order drinks, including the drunky fratboy (who got about half of his Malibu and Pineapple into his mouth and the other half on his shirt). I gotta remember that one.

This is about when "Mark" shows up. The guy, probably about 36, starts hovering around the table and about 4 people at the table know him and start calling out to him. "Mark, gunna play some 3/6 tonight?" "Hey Mark, sit in." "Oh no, not Mark." Apparently this guy is a well known maniac. He does indeed play, sitting to my right, and he does indeed live up to the reputation. Let me tell you, its awesome having the know maniac sitting to your right. Everyone loosened up hoping to take him. Guy bet and raised just about anything. It wasn't unusual to see him raise 64o preflop and show it down - after making a boat of course. He was getting pretty lucky and doing quite well, taking some big pots off people overplaying their premium hands, and my "luck" started to change too. With a looser table, and always knowing what the maniacs action was before mine, I started to accumulate chips again. I'm back to about $40 from even, and I'm starting to think it just might be my night after all.

Then he cools off and looses the nice stack he's accumulated (of course), and gets up saying "I gotta go get some more bullets," and heads off to play double hand poker or some such crazy concoction with cards, dice, and a roulette looking table. I count my stack. Just one nice pot away from being even. With hindsight, THIS is when I go on crazy monkey tilt!

And fittingly my stack starts to shrink. About 3:30 I'm back down like $150 so I take a smoke break. I intend to stay away from the table for about 20 minutes, collect myself, and play solid poker the rest of the night, so I go hide in the 8 foot x 5 foot smoking room, inhaling some of my cigarette, but mostly stale secondhand smoke from the other 6 smokers crammed in there with me, when who shows up but Mark. "Hey man," I say, "did you get more bullets?" his face is slacken and his whole affect is flat - "Nah, I lost $300 on that [censored] game." Damn.

I return to the table, resolved to play good poker, but it still isn't going my way. At this point in the night its just the dregs, and the table is mostly 6 and 7 handed the rest of the night. My table chatter is making less and less sense. Mark does return eventually, but I'm not catching cards. I'm down most of my budget for the evening, and pretty bummed out. About 5 am, I'm getting sick of this game, when Mark on my right makes it a live six. I have a brilliant idea and make it nine in the dark. Brilliant! Like five to the flop and I look down to see K3 offsuit. Flop comes J76 rainbow. Mark leads out. I'm not happy about missing the flop, but I figure my King is still live and its a decent pot already, so I call. Only the button calls, and its three to the turn. A beautiful King shows up. Yesssss! Mark checks... not wanting to make the pot bigger than it had to be (and not making great decisions, obviously) I check behind, and so does the button. River is a 3. BINGO!!!! I make kings up on the river! Mark checks, so do I, and the button bets. "Easy call," says the voice in my head, just before Mark says "raise." Uh oh. I know I'm beat, but I can't lay it down. Meekly I stammer "I call," and Mark say "you don't have to do that." Button calls behind me and I turn up my two pair and say "Yes I did," so he turn up 45o for the nut straight and says "No, you didn't."

I rack up the few chips I have left, unable to even fill one rack, and cash out. I smoke cigarettes outside for 40 minutes until BART is running again, and start the long painful walk of shame away from my disastrous session.

End result: Down 38 BBs.

Ouch! This is a standard session online, but the bets are so big it really hit me hard. It took me a week to straighten it out in my head that, yes, I played like total [censored], but even if I had played well the night would have been a big loser. After learning all about the swings online, I now had to re-adjust to the swings live, which were all that much harder to take since I couldn't just play another 1000 hands tomorrow and even it out. It took me over a month to go back to another live game, but I'm glad I did.

Next up, California Grand.

[Arbitrage]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[pig4bill]

[ QUOTE ]
I'll get there eventually. Lucky Chances and Bay101 are pretty much the last two major cardrooms in the area that I haven't been to.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's also Garden City, semi-infamous for being the place Phil Gordon cut his teeth at, and where WPT million dollar winner Danny Nguyen deals/dealt.

[Corpsebean]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]


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