Fun At Commerce (Long and Dull)

Long time lurker and occasional poster Jon here. I've been reading
RGP for several years and figured I'd chance the slings and arrows and
schoolyard insults and post a mini report of a recent session. Of
course it was a winning session, because no-one ever brags about their
losses, do they?

I don't mind comments or critique of my play or my writing style so
have at it . Fair Warning: I'm a pro at neither poker nor writing and
this is likely going to be very dull recounting for most of you
seasoned RGP'ers and poker players. I wouldn't mind feedback on how to
play against the various profiles I created for the cast of characters
I was up against.

Be kind.

On with the show ..............

So .. It's a hot Sunday afternoon in L.A. and I decide to hook up with
some pals and play poker in the over-airconditioned environs at
Commerce Casino. Well .. none of the hookups occur and I'm flying solo
for the day. No big. I'm here for entertainment and education - my
friends and their lame excuses and errands can go pound it!

Now, I'm not a pro or a big money player (I'm an IT/Computer Dork by
day). I've been playing poker for many years, and tournaments for
over 10. I consider myself a serious hobbyist at best - a solid
Tournament player with several cashes in smaller tournies (including
Sahara, Binions and Caesars - nothing in L.A. to date except beating
up my friends at the home game tournies). I'm a decent low-stakes
Limit player (usually at the 3-6 and 4-8 level), and while my NL game
is good against the normal joes at home, I'm still working on my NL
game against the abnormal joes in the real world (i.e. the people I
don''t know).

So with the thought in mind that I'm going to invest $120 in "lessons"
I take 3 buyins to the low limit tables upstairs at Commerce and sit
down at a fresh table (which I like because we're all starting on even
ground and it makes it easier to gauge how I'm doing).

Today is going to be about playing the people and not worrying about
the money. I'm going to try watch and make mental notes and try to
devise a plan on how to play each player. In my mind the $120 is a
sunk cost for the day. I decide to play super-tight for the first few
orbits to see what I'm up against - the cards help out by giving me
nothing to play. However, as is typical at these tables, the play is
fast and furious and after the 2nd orbit I'm able to get a pretty good
idea of what I'm up against:


Seat 1: Laid back loose guy
Seat 2: Aggressive Mexican guy
Seat 3: "Expert" asian kid with an ipod, glasses, and every chip trick
in the book.
Seat 4: Serious guy whose every move is almost annoyling methodic.
Seat 5: Old asian Rock
Seat 6: Solid mexican guy
Seat 7: Super LAG Philipino guy
Seat 8: Crazy Russian
Seat 9: Me: Doing my best impression of a rock (for now). My plan is
to try to look like easy pickings.

Almost immediately Serious Guy is tangling with Crazy Russian Guy.
Once he's in a hand Crazy Russian hold his cards so I can see him.
He's playing trash, and alot of it but at this point I don't see that
Serioius Guy knows this yet. 1-2 blinds - Russian Guy raises to $6
preflop from EP. My 10-6 goes in the muck. Couple of callers
including Serious Guy from the button. Flop Q - 10 - 4 rainbow.
CrazyRussian leads out with an $8 bet, SG calls. Turn blank. CRG
Checks, SG bets 8 and CRG pushes all in for the rest of his stack. SG
calls pretty quickly. River K. SG flips over K-10. CRG mutters
something in Russian about the Volga and tosses Q-10 into the muck (I
was the only one who saw his cards) ... and we have our first rebuy.

A few hands later, SG takes out Expert Asian Kid who tried to get
fancy with a pocket pair, gave SG a free card, and then couldn't get
him to fold his flush draw. At first I was bummed that EAK was
leaving because watching him play, he was really awful. Clearly he
watched a LOT of TV and learned all the tricks and moves, but he
suffered from bad hand selection, fancy play syndrome, min raises with
big hands, etc. However EAG leaving brings in our HERO for the evening
- Old Mumbling Eastern European Guy - more on him later!

The first hand I'm involved in I get JJ in late pos, 2 limpers in
front of me, I raise to $10 and everyone folds. I'm happy with that
result, my tight image pays off. I picked up a few other small pots
along the way.

An orbit or so later, I get AJo in mid pos. I raise to $6 (5 or 6
seems to be standard open raise) 3 callers. Flop AJx two hearts. I
lead out with $8 and all fold except SLAG Philipino guy who re-pops me
another 8. Now, this is where I usually have problems in NL. I tend
to chicken and out flat call and let myself get outplayed/outdrawn on
the turn. After watching this guy play I know if he had a pocket pair
he would have raised my preflop bet, so he doesn't have a set. That
puts him on a weak Ace or a flush draw. I decide to make him pay to
see another card and repop for $20 (leaving me another $20 behind).
He hems and haws and mucks 54 heart face up.

A few hands later he's out, replaced with Cute Solid Chick.

Here's my plan and reads so far after about an hour of play:

Seat 1: Laid back loose guy - He's a wild card. Mainly I stay out of
his way although I think he sees I'm playing real cards and has folded
to several of my raises.
Seat 2: Aggressive Mexican Guy (AMG) - THis guy is tough. He's not
afraid to mix it up and puts a lot of pressure on with his bets. I
figure to only tangle with him when I've got solid hands and have hit
the flop.
Seat 3: "Expert" asian kid is gone early - replaced with Old Mumbling
Eastern European Guy. OMEEG is has got chips from hitting a lot of
Bingo hands. He seems to be utterly beatable and I've already mentally
laid claim to some of his chips. See below for my plan on him.
Seat 4: Serious Guy (SG). He plays way too many hands and splashes a
lot of chips. Bets agressively with 2nd pair. Goes passive (then
check-raises the river) when he hits top pair. Has gotten lucky early
and has a decent stack. Goes into the tank a lot and plays each hand
like he's at a WSOP final table.
Seat 5: Old asian Rock. He's a rock. Only bets and raises when he
has cards and hits flops. Pretty easy to bluff off draws. Will not go
away once he's hit top pair. I lost a hand early to him with 2nd pair
and watched others unsucessfully try to bluff him on the river.
Seat 6: Solid Mexican Guy. SMG plays a good mix of hands. For the
most part we stay out of each other's way. He's short stacked several
times, and we ended up all-in against each other, my AK vs his 88
which he wins.
Seat 7: Super LAG Philipino guy is gone, replaced with Cute Solid
Girl. CSG plays a fairly narrow range of starting hands and almost
never limps. Once she's in she's not afraid to bet and mix it up.
Makes good laydowns. I assume when I'm in a hand with her, she's got
something.
Seat 8: Crazy Russian Guy. He plays a LOT of hands - raises Preflop
with a wide range of hands. Has lost a lot of hands to Old Mumbler and
SG and is on his 3rd buy-in/ Will ALWAYS play his cards when Old
Mumbler is in the hand. I figure to try go get in cheap against both
he and Old Mumbkler and try to get them to pay me off. CR bets on any
flop he hits and tries to river people.
Seat 9: Me. I'm trying to project an image of a sensible, tight but
slightly weak player in hopes of getting some action.

Back to the game ....

Meanwhile Old Mumbling Eastern European Guy has gone on a tear. He's
limping pretty much any two and hitting the flop in every way
possible. He's calling raises with a lot of trash and hitting. He
and CRG and SG tangle a LOT with OMEEG getting the best of most of
them. Solid Mexican Guy his fairly short stacked and when OMEEG limps
in from of him, he pushes all-in from the BB with KK. All fold except
OMEEG who calls the all-in (~$12) with J-6. Runner Runner 6's and SMG
gets up laughing and decides to go hit the bar.

I devise a game plan for OMEEG. Play only solid cards against him -
if the flop is raggy, keep the pot small and get out of the way if he
gets aggressive on it. - if I hit the flop, push at him flop and
turn. Then check-raise his inevitable river overbet. He is an
absolute disaster with his chips. He never puts them up very far so
the dealer is constantly asking him if he's betting. He's constantly
mumbling in something that only passingly resembles English and has
sort of a puzzled look on his face at all times. . And he's got almost
3 racks on a $40 buy-in table. Most if it came from CRG and SG. Any
thoughts on my game plans?

Here's a hand as an example: Cute Solid Chick raises preflop to 6
with AJ. 2 callers, including OMEEG. Flop A66. OMEEG leads out for
$10 and CSG flashes me her cards and mucks. Old Asian Rock calls with
AQ. OMMEG takes him out with J6.

Suddenly things take a turn for him. 2 limpers in front of me, I limp
33 to OMEEG's BB. He calls and there are 5 of us in the pot. Flop is
J63. OMEEG bets out and I call. All the rest fold. Turn is an Ace.
He checks, I bet out $8 and he calls. River is a blank, he checks, I
bet $12. He calls with 10-6.

OMEEG is now ofiicially on tilt. I love this guy! Everyone seems to
get getting a little piece of him here and there. He calls for a new
setup, twice within 45 minutes. I have an over/under bet with Solid
Girl on when he'll call for another one. And he's mumbling and
yelling at the dealers and the pther players (although I can only
undstand about half of what he says.. This is EXACTLY the kind of
entertainment I was looking for when I came down here!! W00t!

And it only gets better when this hand ensues:

I don;t recall the preflop action but the board reads QQ6J Everyone
is out of the hand execpt the SB and BB, Agressive Mexcian Guy in Seat
2 and Old Mumbler in Seat 3. There is a lot of action and it's a
sizeable pot at this point - probably close to $100 (at 1-2 blinds).
The River card is a 6. AMG pushes all-in for about 150. This has
OMEEG covered. He hems, he haws, and like so many times before he
sort of makes a waving motion with his hand and says something that
might have been "I call". Without missing a beat AMG says, "You
call?" and flips over QJ. Now OMEEG goes nuts "I never said 'I
call!' I said 'I bet'" Well this makes no sense, and we've all seen
Mumbler pay off people with crap and his actions while not 100% clear,
it can be reasonably assumed he called. The Floor is beckoned and he
queries the dealer and the players as to what they heard. I
personally couldn't say for sure and I really didn't want Old Mumber
to leave so I just kept mum. One of the players suggested that we
look at what he had - that if he had nothing, calling on the river
would make no sense. The Floorman turns over his cards and Old Mumbler
has J6. He hit his full house on the river! Hell yes he called! My
only beef is that Seat 2 turned up his cards REALLY quick on what was
very tentative action on Mumblers part - it almost felt like an angle
shot. In any event after 10 minutes of arguing and foofarah, Old
Mumbler was forced pay up and was out of chips.

And again - this is EXACTLY the kind of entertainment I was looking
for when I came down!! I was laughing the whole time.

The good news is that Old Mumbler bought back in .. again .. and
again... and again. Our Hero!

I'm UTG with AK. I raise to 8 and get 4 callers, oy. Cute Solid
Chick on the BB pushes in $40. If this had been Expert Asian Kid, I'd
have instacalled knowing it was a squeeze, with CSG I figure she's got
a real hand, maybe AA or KK, but more likely a vulberable PP like QQ
or JJ) AK UTG is no time to stack off with 3 callers behind me. I
fold. Of course Old Mumbler calls with 10-9 and she turns up QQ.
Flop and Turn hit noone, the river is an Ace. Even though I would
have won I think I made the right move here. I compliment her on her
bet and for being the 3rd person to stack off Old Mumbler.

I stacked him myself once. I had 88, and raised to $6. Two callers
including the button, OMEEG. Flop is A86. I check he bets 5 and I
call. Turn is a J. He checks, I bet $10 and he raises to $10, I push
in for the rest of his stack and he calls. He has J-2. He finally
left after about 10 $40 buy-ins, a couple of short buy-ins, and at
least 2 $50 buy-ins.

Three more hands of note:

Me on the BB with AQ. 3 limpers, SB (Crazy Russian) completes and I
check (a mistake on my part). Flop is A93 - two clubs. CR plays
anything and leads out. I flat call (another mistake) - 1 other
caller. Turn is 10 clubs. CR bets, I call. River is a K no club, CR
bets, I call and he turns over K9. Just weak and wretched on my part
- I was just too afraid of the draws. Chopped a chunk of my stack
too.

Last big hand for me, I finally trapped Mr Serious Guy. He's on the
BB, I open to $6 with A-3 (not something I'd normally open with but I
was concsiously "mixing it up" on this hand). SG calls. Flop is
A-10-3. SG checks. I check. I sense that he's got part of this and
I'm trying to look weak. Turn K. I know this guy loves to bet 2nd
pair, so I'm assuming if he has a K, he's betting. He methodically
measures out $8 in two very neat stacks, and I slowly and deliberately
call. River: 3. It's my bingo card. Now here is where my
observations and mental notes on Serious Guy paid off. He checks. I
figure he won't pay me off, but he may try to steal the pot from me.
I put out a $10 bet, trying to make it look like maybe I'm stealing
the pot. He almost instantly announces ALL-IN. I smile and call and
he sheepishly shows K-10. How this guy doesn't at least put me on an
Ace I don't know but I appreciate it.

I decided I've had enough fun and stand up with $240, $200 to the
good. Using Gambler's Logic I'm actually up $320 because I planned
on lost $120 and I didn't!. At this point I grabbed a bite to eat,
and decided to start drinking donk my winnings at the 3-6 LIM table -
it was standard Commerce play. Two hands of note: I hit a full house
on the river - the same hand gave the guy next to me quad 4's which I
paid him off on. 10 minutes later he limped AA and I completed the SB
with QJh. The flop was Q high. He bet, I called. Turn was a blank ,
he bet, I raised, he called. River was a Queen. He bet, I raised and
he mucked his cards face up and yelled at me for rivering a Queen. I
snapped back that he JUST rivered Quad 4's on me not 10 minutes
earlier and that he had no place to whine. He grabbed what was left
of his chips and left. Oh well. Commerce is so entertaining!

I played for several more hours and booked an uneventful $40 loss.

Overall I feel like I played well and accomplished my goal which was
to try to improve my game by learning to read people better. I'll
probably head back one more time this month before my Vegas trip, the
Venetian at the beginning of August.

Cheers all!

-jon

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