‘LAPC Shenanigans’
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 - HollywoodDave
So after months of playing primarily online at UB…ever since Aruba, really…. I’ve officially been thrust back into the live poker scene and man oh man what a joy its been! The Commerce Casino LA Poker Classic started a few days ago and HD has been down there in the trenches, playing some tourneys and kickin ass at the cash tables! The first event was INSANE — slated to start at 1 pm, a $300 NLH event with a $200k prizepool that ended up with a 600k prizepool instead!! Needless to say, I was alternate # 606 (!!! no shit !!!!) and, after waiting in line for over an hour and a half to register (read: showed up at the last minute like a douchebag), didn’t get my number called & seated til 4 pm!! 3 hours in, my 3k starting stack ended up only being 15 big blinds. Oh well, time to look for a hand to shove with! I found it when an UTG player raised to 500…and i looked down at QQ and insta-shoved. Action folded around to the original raiser (who’s sitting on like a 14k stack) who begins to hem and haw and stall…he asks me what i have…and then laughs, calls, and flips up the slowplayed KK!! Dick!! Well, you guys know what hit on the river….instant karma in the form of a beautiful fucking Queen! As i raked in the pot, i made sure to ask him if he knew why the queen hit….because that’s what happens when you slowplay, baby!! Unfortunately, that was as exciting as my first LAPC event got…i lasted a few hours but finally ran into back-to-back flushes and found myself in a stud cash game instead. Made some $$$ for my trouble and took off once traffic died down. That’s LA for you — live and die by the freeway traffic patterns! Monday i came back for the first Stud event, and after the first few levels i found myself shortish on chips. I took some quiet time on the first break and realized that i was playing too loose, not only for that early in a tournament, but just peeling off too many cards once i was involved in a pot. We all need to check ourselves sometimes, and I took the time to do just that. Came back from break, played right, and found myself going deeper…and deeper…til i emerged as one of the chip leaders by the dinner break. Had a chance to grab a bite and catch up with friends Frankie O’Dell (also a 2-time WSOP bracelt winner) and Jean Gaspard (who goes by ‘Prince’) who I had the good fortune to not be seated with them the entire tournament — since they’re both pretty good players. The streak couldn’t last, however, as a few missed opportunites after dinner had me treading water til I was finally taken out by Prince hours later in 20th place when my straight ran into his flush. Of course only 2 tables got paid, so close but no cigar, but both Prince and Frankie would go on to make it deep on the final table, so I was glad they both got a nice cash out of it. Most recently, I played Tuesday’s Omaha 8/b event, which due to Annie’s intense training and countless hours in cash games online, I consider it to be one of my best events. And lo and behold, I had what had to be one of the SOFTEST table draws ever for an O8 event — 2-3 complete ATM’s on the table with basically no clue how to play the game just shipping away their money. But unfortunately, after picking up 1000 chips (in the 25/25 blind level!!), they ended up drawing out on me a few times to leave me short as the blinds increased. Eventually the ATM’s busted without me being able to take enough chips from them, and I found myself on the rail a few hours later. No dinner break for me this time! But hey, traffic was bad so I sat in a very juicy stud cash game and picked up a couple thousand, so I guess I’m freerolling in the next few LAPC events! Hopefully I can do more damage as we get into the larger and larger events. In particular i’m looking forward to the HORSE events this time around. I’ve been doing so well in the individual mixed games but so far no major cash in a HORSE event, no matter how deep I go. Rock on, guys — -hd.
Tags: Annie Duke, Commerce Casino, Frankie O'Dell, h.o.r.s.e., Jean Gaspard, LAPC, Los Angeles, Online Poker, Poker Strategy
