Commerce Casino
Monday, June 18th, 2007A couple of my poker playing colleagues have recommended that I should play the games at the Commerce Casino in CA. I thus added a trip there this year before the WSOP events that I intend to play. I must report that so far the Commerce has been as good as advertised, if not better than I expected. My regular live game at the Borgata in Atlantic City is 5/10 NL with a $1500 max buy in. During the week they usually get three tables going by the evening and have 5 or 6 on the weekends. They also have a 10/25 NL game available on weekends and some weeknights with a $2500 minimum buy in. SO even though there may not be enough players to support it, there is a hole between $1500 and $2500 that exists in AC. That is because the 10/25 game plays very big compared to the 5/10 and there should be a game that plays in between these two levels.
The Commerce Casino does not have this problem. Their 5/10 NL has a max buy in cap of $500! However, their 10/20 NL game has no cap and a minimum buy in of $600. The average buy in seems to be around $2000-$3000 at the 10/20 game and they nearly always have 3 games running during the day and 5 or more at night and on the weekends. They also have a $20/40 NL game that runs most days and a $50/100 NL game that runs irregularly. The staff tells me that things are slow right now because many players are in Vegas for the WSOP, yet this is a far bigger game selection than I have in AC and this is during their slow period! I doubt that a better game selection at this level exists anywhere, even in Vegas if you are looking for big NL cash games. They also have many big Limit games as well as some of the other games. Over 300 tables and if you play in the high limit room, all your food is comped completely! I have eaten many of the items on their menu and I will attest that the selecion is very large and most of their dishes are very good. The staff also allows you to eat at the tables which is another big plus not allowed by many casinos!
I know that I may sound like an advertisement after writing this, but I am just offering what I have learned. I also may be biased because I am having a very good run during my stay here. I have won 4 days out of the 5 I am here so far and I would have won 5 out of 5 if not for one big mistake yesterday. Regardless, I promised some hands and analysis, so here we go.
After scouting out the casino and discussing the various limits available with the floor personnel, I decided to sit at the 10/20 NL table for my first foray into combat at the Commerce. A brand new 10/20 table is forming and I sit down with $2000. We draw for the button and I win the button. The very first hand, UTG makes it $100 to go and I look down at two beautiful red aces on the button. I raise to $300 and think this is going to be interesting. UTG thinks for 2 seconds and raises to $800! No thinking for me, but I slowly count to 20 before saying, ‘I am all in!’ UTG calls immediately! I think to myself, ‘Fasten your seat belt Willis and welcome to Commerce!’ The board comes out Q high, no flush and I turn over my Aces saying, ‘Am I good?’ UTG mucks his hand with a disgusted look on his face! Thank you lord! One hand played and I am up $2000. Talk about a baptism by fire!
Thanks to some good luck and reasonable play, each of my first three days here are winners. I make one big mistake on day 4 and it ends up as a loser. By day 5 I am starting to feel comfortable in this game and I have some interesting hands to relate. I have been buying in for $2000 each day and that is pretty close to the standard buy in most players use with a few buying in for $3-4000 and a couple I have seen buying in for close to $10k. The guys with 10k all moved on to the 20/40 game as soon as seats opened up there which happened fairly quickly in most instances. Many players also buy in for around $1000, on the whole most of them are bad players. One guy on my table is particularly bad and he proceeds to go all in on 5 of the 10 hands he played. In addition, he played 10 of the first 20 hands he received. This is an especially bad player that we all welcomed and he busted out when he pushed with 45o, no draw and no pr on a draw heavy paired board! He had pushed for $1500 which is what he had built his $1000 stack up to after stealing a couple pots with previous pushes. He leaves to go to the ATM and returns shortly with about $2500. I have built my stack up to over $3000 during the first hour of play when I am fortunate enough to get involved with the table maniac. The maniac has straddled UTG for $40 and I look down to see KhKc in middle position. I make it $180 to go, assuming that I will get heads up with him. Everyone else folds and he calls as expected. The flop comes Qh7s8h and the maniac leads out for $200. I had seen him lead out in another hand when he hit two pair and he then had pushed all in when he was reraised after the flop. I figure that I will get the same pattern if he has two pr and I raise him to $700 total. Maniac thinks a while and decides to call. The turn is the 4h and the maniac immediately pushes all in for another $1500. I sit there thinking whether I can fold here or not. I think it is at least 50% likely that I have the maniac beat. I also have the redraw to the Kh for a four flush if I am wrong. I am getting over 2 to 1 on my $1500 and I figure I am about 75% likely to win, easy call by the math so I decide to hold my nose and say, ‘I call.’ The dealer turns over the 9h and I immediately turn over my hand. Maniac looks and looks at the cards, finally discarding them into the muck! Big pot, big call, big reward, I feel great.
The maniac leaves the table for good and a couple orbits later I look down at TT in middle position. The studious looking, middle aged Asian gentlemen to my right has just raised to $100 and I make it $300 to go. They all fold back to him and he thinks a bit and calls. The flop comes Jxx rainbow, the Mr. Asia checks so I bet $500. He thinks a second or two and calls. Uh-oh I think. A blank comes on the turn and Mr. Asia checks again. I turn to him and try to get a read. ‘What do you have?’ , he replies, ‘I have you beat.’ in a very confident tone looking me right in the eye. I look at the board again and check. QQ or KK I am putting him on! An offsuit Ace hits on the river and Mr. Asia checks again. A voice in my head says, ‘He is scared of the ace, you must bet!’ An appropriate bet here for me if I held AK would be about $1200. I look at my chips and slowly count out the appropriate chips and push them into the betting ring. I watch my opponent out of the corner of my eye and he reaches…not for his chips, but for his cards! He takes off the card protector and turns over KK! ‘I let you get there didn’t I?’ I haven’t moved a muscle and I only glance at his cards before looking straight back toward the pot. He mucks them and I happily collect my ’stolen’ pot!
A young asian has been playing a short stack of about $1000 for about an hour. He has been pretty tight and he has his girlfriend sitting with her head on his shoulder quite bored most of the time. I raise with QQ to $100 in middle posn and the youngster calls from the BB. The flop comes 789 two hearts and the youngster checks. I bet $250 into the pot and he calls. A non heart rag comes on the turn and the youngster checks again. I am certain he is on the draw by now or maybe he has a set. I ask him how much he has remaining and counts down his $740 remaining chips. His girlfriend’s interest seems to have perked up and I catch her looking at me. She smiles and rolls her eyes and then looks away. Hmmm, I wonder if she knows what he has. I pick up 800 chips and place them in the pot. The youngster reluctantly calls. Another rag comes on the river making a str8 and I turn over my QQ. He looks at the board and reluctantly mucks his cards. Nice little roll that I am on this afternoon.
A couple hours later I haven’t gone up or down much in chips and I thinking about leaving soon. 4 limpers in front of me and I have 23h on the button. I don’t normally play these cards but almost no pots are limped into on this table, so I figure what the heck for $20. The flop comes 456 two clubs! Check, check in the blinds and the UTG bets $70. Fold, fold and I raise to $270. Fold, fold and UTG calls. Damn, I really thought I would take down the pot right there. Turn is an offsuit Q and UTG checks. I bet $600. UTG looks like he will fold, then finally calls after about a minute of thought. The river is the awful 8 of clubs. UTG has at least $4000 in front of him and I have him covered by far. He thinks a bit and bets out $1200. I really, really hate that river card. The reluctance of his call on the turn screamed draw and now both the flush and the straight draw have gotten there. I am really perplexed and cannot determine the best course of action. I probably should call and take my medicine, but every hand I read him for seems to have gotten there now. I really reluctantly fold my cards into the muck. He doesn’t show so I ask him what he had. “A set!’ he replied. “That makes sense,’ I say while beginning to seethe inside. I didn’t seriously consider that possibility since I would not have played a set that way in that hand. My opponent in this hand was fairly tight and aggressive and a set made sense the more I thought about it. I really need to get better at calling big bets on the river in this game. Partly, I am not quite used to the size of these pots and frankly, I am not used to playing 23s in late position. Hell I don’t usually play it in any position and after this hand I will really think twice about the damn thing! I hate tough decisions and this game is full of tough decisions quite frequently. Anything to lower the amount of tough decisions should be a good thing.
Still, I am up for the day quite well and very well for the trip, so I shouldn’t complain too much. I love the tough decisions as much as I hate them…after all it is the challenge that makes NL such a great game.