Vegas for the Super Bowl?

Yikes, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated. We’ve been over the top busy with site-related updates and fixes, upcoming new features and partnerships. I’ve been splitting my remaining time between a casino project in Fresno and my day job as an ersatz piano salesman. Finally, I’ve been having computer problems almost daily which, for a liberal arts/content guy, is a total drag. None of these are good excuses for not posting but still—work can be such an intrusion to regular posting.

First things first, I’ll be in Las Vegas at the Mirage or Bellagio to watch the New England Patriots introduce Eli Manning and the Giants to men’s football. If anyone expects to be in town for that dark comedy, email me. BTW, if you’ve got the option to go to Vegas for the Super Bowl, I recommend it. I’ve been to the game live and watched it from a casino SB party. The Vegas play is far superior—better intensity (someone has something riding on every play), better food and, of course, the opportunity to fleece poker newbies before and after the game.

After I collect on my betting tickets, I’ll be back in LA and expect to take a couple of runs at LAPC events and satellites. I haven’t played a live tournament since my Club One Casino Ace of Diamonds flameout, so my entry fee should provide a nice overlay to the other entrants. If you’re in town, I’m the skinny, grey-haired guy with the voice recorder sucking up to casino personnel in between hands. Can’t miss me.


Comedy Night at Club One

On my last Fresno trip, I did manage to return to Club One for a little live poker. It was a busy Thursday night with about 15 cash games and another half-dozen tournament tables running. The Club’s biweekly $5/10 NL game and the Thurs night re-buy always draws a pretty good crowd. I got a couple of shots with my camera phone here...


The main board



The main room



Another look




I didn’t have much dough with me and there was a list for the $5/10 and the $3/5 NL, so I sat down in the $2/2 NL $40-100 min-max. The 2/2 game at Club One includes the usual mix of a couple solid players, more players who overplay 2nd pair and draws and a nice complement of limp/call/”Dammit, I missed the flop again” post-flop folders.

Some highlights from the session…


Hand 1

About an hour in, I was up a buy-in courtesy of a pair of jacks versus some other hand that felt the need to check/call to the river on a 33TKK board. In any event, I was in middle position with KK, bumped it to $8 and got four callers.

The flop came AKJ and the big blind, an Indian guy talking non-stop, pushed for $80+. I called knowing that my set of kings was good but he scooped with A4 when the 2 hit the river. The guy was annoying about the beat, celebrating and taunting that I “never should have called”, but in the spirit of my namesake I just made a mental note to even the score at a future date.


Hand 2

A woman shoved $500 into a $30 pot on a QJx rainbow board with at least three left to act and was called immediately by a player sitting with $200. Her T9 failed to get there and he picked up 100BB with TPTK. I saw her do it twice more over the course of the evening, each time with a straight draw. The guy to my left (her friend) commented to her that he can always tell when she’s on a draw because she overbets huge, to which she responded…”Well, I just wanted to take down the pot on the flop. I didn’t want a call.” I love low stakes NL!


Hand 3

I lost the balance of my stack when KQo < KJo on a KT7 board all-in on the flop. J turn and I was looking for a chip runner.


Hand 4

I tripled up with pocket QQ v AA v JJ all-in pre-flop. QJxxx board and I owed an apology to the AA player to my direct left.


Hand 5

A gross angle shoot was thwarted when the same woman who over-bet her draw above moved in at the river on a KQx9x board. She was called by my earlier nemesis, who now tabled AA. When she showed her K9 and moved her other stacks out to be matched, he backpedaled and tried to say she checked the river. What, are you serious?

What made the play laughable was that the woman had waved her arms toward the pot and clearly said “All-in!”. He then stood up and shouted “Ok, ma’am, I call you!” and threw down his aces…in front of 8 other players, a dealer and a floor person overlooking the table. Even still, it took a good five minutes of howling to sort it out and ended with him congratulating her on her “nice hand” in a lame attempt to whitewash his foul. Dude, enough already.


“I want to see the hand!”

At one point in the game, the player in seat 10 moved in on a 99xx board and was called by another player. The river blanked and seat 10 showed his A9 winner. The caller mucked but the annoying Indian guy, who had folded on the flop, shouted “Dealer! Dealer! I want to see that hand!” At that point, the dealer retrieved the losing hand from the muck and flipped it up.

For those of you who are newer to the game, it may not seem like a big deal and, in fact, the house rules permit the play. But it’s HORRIBLE table ethics. The genesis of the IWTSTH rule was to detect collusion but it’s now routinely abused by players to gain information. I’m happy to see that a number of rooms in Vegas are reversing the trend (thread on 2+2 about Vegas rooms and the IWTSTH rule) and I’d encourage other rooms to follow suit.

I ended the evening around 3a, up about $120 on my original buy-in. Not the life-changing dollars that shaundeeb et al. toss around at the blackjack table, but righteous bucks nonetheless. I look at it like I’m getting paid $30 bucks an hour to watch comedy? I’ll do that. Besides, I’ll be doing the same in Vegas this Sunday for a markedly higher wage.


Saturday night with two little screamers

Finally, I’m happy to report that I’ve fixed at least one of my offending computers. Hearing about the problems I was having, a hardware guru friend offered to take a look at my desktops and shrieked with laughter when I opened the cases. I didn’t follow what he was saying but I caught phrases like “that’s way too small” “grossly inadequate” and “obvious performance issues.”

Now I’d heard feedback like that before, albeit in a different context with different players, and it wasn’t criticism I was anxious to hear. Unlike the prior circumstance, though, he assured me that it was easily resolved with a trip to Fry’s, a credit card and a few hours work.

Ergo, I spent the better part of a rainy Saturday shuttling between Fry’s and the garage installing new motherboards, video cards and the like and re-installing operating systems. Now one of the computers (the one on which I’m writing) breezes along like Randy Moss one-on-one in the Giants secondary, but the other one still has some issues. It looks fine, but like Tomlinson in the AFC title game, it crapped out shortly after the first two runs and is now sitting petulant on the sidelines waiting for more attention.

With my one new and improved confuser, I feel strangely inspired, like the apes circling the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’m certain my next post will come sooner than this one, especially with the blog tracker showing me in 9th place. And I promise it will have some interesting reading!

For those of you, too young to have seen Kubrick’s classic, you can catch the opening scene here…
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Edmond

Just a reminder, the LA Poker Classic starts tomorrow (Thu, 1/24). I won't be playing the first events but will play a few the 2nd week and a couple of satellites for the final event. If anyone's in town or needs info, let me know!

For handy reference...

Guide to the LAPC

Schedule of events

Commerce tournament page

Edmond

The Bicycle Casino
7301 Eastern Avenue
Bell Gardens, CA 90201
(562) 806-4646
website



Jan 14th-20th; daily satellites at 7p


The deeper, the better

In the last year or so, we’ve seen the introduction of deep stack tournaments as rooms try to get a competitive edge by offering players more play for their money. The Venetian was one of the first to offer deep stack events—Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza—and they’ve proven popular with guys who are looking for more from a tournament than two rounds of posting and folding followed by a desperate short stack push with A6o.

This January, a couple of LA casinos have followed suit. The Hustler reworked Larry Flynt’s Challenge cup series (Jan 3rd-Jan 20th) link to include several deep stack events and the Bicycle Casino is introducing a new tournament series, Mo’s Deepstack. Mo’s series starts Jan 14th and runs through Jan 20th. The final event is a 2-day $1600 buy-in with 10,000 start chips. I like the Hustler’s tournament room (trip report) and respect everything Flynt has done to protect my right to satire, but I think the Bike events look pretty interesting.


Mo’s Deepstack

Let’s take a closer look at Mo’s Deepstack series. First, it’s a manageable, week-long series that finishes up a couple of days before the LAPC kicks off. Second, I haven’t seen the structure but it looks like the preliminary events have the same buy-in as a couple early LAPC events but with 2x the chips. Ok, that can’t be too bad. Third, the events start at 4:15p so there’s a good shot you can final table an event and still get home at a decent hour. Finally, the whole series isn’t a bankroll buster—the buy-ins are $335, $545 and $1,600 (final event) and the satellites $40-160.

You can see the schedule of events on the Bike site below.

Mo's Deepstack schedule

Or you can download a copy of the flier (note the stacks).

Mo's Deepstack flier

Again, I haven't seen the blind structures, but I'm told it will look something like this:

$335 buy-in; 5000 chips; 40 min rounds; 25/50 etc.
$545 buy-in; 7000 chips; 50 min rounds; 25/50 etc.
$1,600 buy-in; 10000 chips; 60 min rounds; 25/50 etc.

I'll post the actual structures when I get them, so check back or post me, if you're interested.


The Bike

If you haven’t played there, the Bike’s a great place for tournament and cash game action. The casino is the second largest card room in Southern California with 160+ tables (ergo: the 2nd largest on the planet) and its Legends of Poker event is one of the original World Poker Tour events. Past winners of the LoP include Brunson and Harrington and all the top pros have played the Bike at some point. In fact, when Stu Ungar was alive, he considered the Bike his home away from Vegas. If the penultimate NL poker player/degenerate liked the Bike, that’s a solid endorsement, right?

The Bike’s easy to get to from pretty much anywhere in Southern California. It’s located a couple of blocks or so from the 710 freeway, Florence exit, as seen in the Google image below.





The folks at the Bike keep their property competitive with anything you’d find in Las Vegas—it’s modern, well-lit and spotless. As you come up on the property, you’re greeted by palm trees and neon signage…








I usually pay the two bucks to valet park, but if you’re cheap, there’s plenty of self-parking as you can see from the Google image above. As you enter the casino from the valet entrance, you face a reception desk where there’s always 1-2 staffers that will help you find what you’re looking for. Note: the reception staff are great; ask for tournament info, game info, whatever. If they know the answer, they’ll tell you; if they don’t they’ll point you to someone who does.





The main poker area is to the left of the reception area with a large automated brush desk…





The Bike spreads over 120 tables of poker, so there’s plenty of action...








If you’re curious about the games spread, check out our listing here. Game info is listed on the right of the page and is updated frequently.

As for the style of play, I find the NL action at the Bike somewhat nittier than that of other local rooms. The 5/10 NL game is uncapped and tends to draw some better players. That said there’s a lot of weak tight players set mining and with an adjustment toward a looser, more aggressive style of play, the games are beatable. Three bet and raise more, and if you get resistance, fold. Simple stuff.

Need more validation? Here’s a quote from Mr. Ungar…circa 1990…BEFORE the poker boom…

"There are a lot more people to take money from here than there are in Las Vegas," Stu Ungar said last week between poker games at the Bicycle Club. "The city is becoming a nice place to gamble because there's a constant flow of people and money. There's more money to take out of here than there is in Las Vegas."

Indeed.


Tournaments

The daily tournaments (Nooners, Nooner Nites) are held on the main poker floor to the LEFT of the reception area. But larger, special events are held in the tournament/ballroom down a corridor to the RIGHT of the reception desk as you enter the casino. The Bike’s tournament room is smaller and more intimate than other local rooms, but I like it. It’s kind of like playing in your rich friend’s den—bigger and nicer than your own apartment but small enough where you can get a drink without sending up a flare.

Here’s a look at the special events/tournament room...





And with some players even…





Service on 1!

Food at the Bike deserves special mention. I think their tableside food is tops in Los Angeles with the exception of Ocean’s 11, 90 miles to the south. If you play in the higher stakes area behind the reception desk, you eat for free and you don’t regret it at all. The other night, I played the 5/5 $300-500 max NL game. (Note: the table was one of the tightest I’ve played in a while—still beatable but as lakong found out, when a guy plays back at you at the Bike on a 3876 board, your pocket queens are no good. See above.) I had a great salad and grilled salmon and lakong had a steak; both entrees were comparable in quality to that from a decent restaurant.

I also think the Bike deli is AWESOME. Whenever I’m meeting someone at the Bike, I almost always eat there and I’m not really a deli kind-of-guy. Great sandwiches, good coffee, polite staff, fast and cheap. The deli’s directly to your left as you enter the property.


You girls know each other, right?

Any discussion of the Southern California poker usually spins into a Bike vs. Commerce debate. Like all great rivalries—Ali/Frazier, Sox/Yankees, UCLA/USC, Biggie/Tupac, Tommy Lee/Kid Rock—you’ve got rabid proponents of each. Me? I’m an Ali/Sox/Stanford/Tupac/Tommy Lee kind of guy. But, of course, everyone’s different. To me, the Commerce and the Bike are like Ginger and Mary Ann or, more fundamentally, blondes and brunettes. You can make a great case for either, but if you can enjoy both, you should!

If you’re interested, you can see a comparison of all the So Cal rooms below.

Comparison of LA card rooms


Anyway, that’s a quick look at the Bike. I’m probably going to head down and play a couple of the Deepstack events. If anyone’s heading down, holler!

Still digging,

Edmond

The Commerce Casino
6131 East Telegraph Road
Commerce, CA 90040
(323) 721-2100
website




The Los Angeles Poker Classic

Ok, you’re shaking off the holiday hangover and skimming over that list of resolutions. Let’s be honest, the only one you’ve got any shot of keeping is “Play more tournaments.” Well, there’s good news. You don’t have to travel to some god-forsaken part of the world to bang heads with MTT superstars like Bond18 or A_Junglen at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Adanthar at the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City or even Landlord79 at the World Poker Open in Tunica. No, in fact, some of the juiciest tournaments on the planet are right here in Southern California.

The Bike, the Hustler, Hollywood Park and Pechanga all have events during the first couple of weeks of January, but the must-play series you need to put on your calendar right now is the LA Poker Classic held at the Commerce Casino.





The LAPC is a six-week string of events running from January 24th until March 3rd. The $10,000 Championship event (starting February 23rd) is one of the premier events on the WPT calendar and usually sets the momentum for the coming poker year. That’s right, fellas…it's a World Poker Tour/Game Show Network televised event. Make no mistake, you’re playing for money AND glory at the LAPC.

In our, well ok…my opinion, the LAPC events feature the biggest and softest fields you’ll find within 20 minutes of a decent restaurant and warm weather beach. Last year’s prize pools totaled over $16 million and the competition is roughly equivalent to that you’d find in a home game circa 1995. Sure, there are some first-rate players, but for every guy who knows what he’s doing, there’s half a dozen C-list celebs, Asian crazies or dudes holding a voice recorder who don’t. Oh, and when they bust out…they head straight to the cash games to pay your 2008 rent. It’s beautiful.

Still not convinced? Consider this. Yours truly, easily the worst tournament player on this site, has cashed in LAPC events. And I deserved to. Are you hearing me? Book a flight, order sturdy money counter from Staples and get your butt over to the Commerce to PLAY THESE EVENTS. Your bankroll will thank you. Seriously.


The Schedule and Structures

Here’s the schedule with the number of entrants and approximate prize pools in the comparable 2007 event.

LAPC 2008 events

As you can see from the chart, almost every event had a pretty good turnout in 2007. Good god, man, even the stud events had over 100 entrants! Prize money for the series totaled almost $16.5 million. It’s easily the richest series of poker events in California. Note: if you click on the event name link, you can see the structure for that event.

The majority of events are NL freezeouts with buy-ins of $330, $545, $1065, $2595 and $10,000. There are also limit, 7-card stud, Omaha hi/lo, 7-card stud hi/lo events and several special NL event—a 6-handed Turbo (20 min level) event that promises to be chaotic, a Shoot-out event, a couple of re-buy events and our favorite, a Tag Team event held on Valentine’s Day.

Now lakong would probably prefer to spend his $545 on third row seats to see Barry Manilow at the Staples Center, but, to me, I think the Tag Team NL event is the better play. What, you’re going to spend $500 on some overpriced, prix fixe dinner and an outfit she’ll wear once? I say drag her to the final table and create memories to cherish for a lifetime. Trust me, nothing say romance like a nice his and her stack of hundreds.

The series culminates in a $10K multi-day, WPT-televised event which has drawn increasing numbers in each of the last five years. When Gus Hansen won the event in 2003 (WPT Season 1), there were only 136 entrants. Last year, there were almost 6 times as many entrants (791) with $2 million guaranteed to the winner and $1 million to the runner-up. No word yet on what the first and second prizes will look like, but the paycheck will definitely put you ahead of budget for 2008. Past winners include Ferguson (pre-TV), Hansen, Esfandiari, Mizrachi et al. And anybody who is anybody has made the final table…Bloch, Pham, Stupak, Vinh, Gazes, Schoenfeld, Benyamine, Forrest, Lindgren, Tran, etc.

Most daily events start at 3:30p but note that the Championship event starts at 12:30p. All events will be held in the tournament room on the 2nd floor up the wide staircase by the valet entrance.


Satellites

For those of us short-stackers, there are single table satellites for tournament chips running continuously starting January 7, 2026 at 11a. You can see the range of buy-ins and structure here.

Single table satellites


In addition, starting January 24th, there are super satellites every night (except Jan 31st and Feb 22nd) with a $220 buy-in and multiple re-buys starting at 7p. You can see the structure for those little free-for-alls here.

Nightly satellites


Finally, January 31 (Thursday) and February 22 (Friday) are Special Super Sat Days with satellites at 11:30a and 6:30p. Note: the evening events typically draw a bigger field. You can see the structure for those satellites here.

Super Satellite structures


Away game for you? No problem!

We realized not everyone’s as good with staying focused around beautiful weather, hot women and free money as we are, so here are a few tips to make your LAPC trip a bit less stressful.


Getting there

The Commerce Casino is roughly equidistant from Los Angeles airport (23 miles), Burbank airport (22 miles) and Long Beach airport (20 miles). The John Wayne/Orange Count airport is more of a hike (31 miles) and San Diego airport’s at least a 2-hour run without traffic, with traffic…forget it.

If you have a choice, consider Burbank and Long Beach as alternatives to LAX. Burbank to Commerce is almost a straight shot down the 5 freeway, and Southwest flies to/from Burbank airport. Similarly, the Commerce is a quick drive up the 710N from Long Beach airport and JetBlue flies into Long Beach.

If you’re driving…use the Google map feature here. Just give yourself time around rush hour. The Commerce is directly off the 5 freeway, a major N/S thoroughfare in LA. It can be easy to get there off-peak, but during rush hour, it’s tough sledding.


Where to stay

The Commerce has a nice hotel on its property, the Crowne Plaza. Unfortunately, the 200 rooms are usually sold out during the LAPC so your best bet is to try one of the other local hotels.

For quality of service, your first choice should be the Wyndham Gardens aka the Doubletree Hotel Commerce, located at the Citadel Shops, a huge outlet mall up the street. The hotel is within walking distance (couple of minutes) of the Commerce. Further away but within 10 minutes or so of the casino, you’ll find

Ramada Inn – Commerce

Ramada Inn – South El Monte

Norwalk Marriott - Norwalk

Best Western – Montebello Plaza

Any of these hotels are decent for sleeping and showering, but you should manage your expectations. There’s not much else to do in any of these areas.

If you want a hotel with more amenities or off-casino entertainment, consider staying near LAX or the beach communities (Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach). You can find good, inexpensive accommodations within a mile or so of the beach and other shopping, dining areas. Remember, too, if you’re looking for sun and women, it’s LA…head for the beach!

Wherever you’re staying, you can either drive in and park at the Commerce (valet’s $2, not including tip) or arrange a courtesy shuttle. If you need a ride, just call the casino and ask for the floor shift supervisor. If you give them some notice and tell them the game or event you’re playing, they’ll usually send a shuttle for you. Even better, if you’re staying with a group of other guys, coordinate to come in at the same time and the Commerce will definitely send a car to pick you up.


Miscellaneous stuff

A player card is required for entry into all the tournaments. You can get one at the tournament sign-up area on the 2nd floor or from Player Relations.

If you want to wire entry fees in, you can find the info here. Wire instructions


Past trip reports

If you’re curious about the Commerce NL games, you can read my recent trip report here. With pics!

Commerce NL tournament area and cash games


And here’s another tournament trip report and look at the tournament area. Again, with pics!

California State Poker Championships


All right, that's all I've got for now. Seriously, if you happen to like money, you NEED to play the LAPC events. Why grind in front of the computer all year like you did in 2007, when you can lock up a year's worth of earn by the end of Feb and spend the rest of the year chillin' on the beach?

See you in all but the Ladies event!

Edmond