Low Level Bay Area Trip Report...

[PITTM]

so a friend and i went to visit our buddy in berekely last night and we decided to make it a poker trip. we got to berkelely around 830 and took bart to the oaks club in emeryville. The place had a very log cabin feel to it and the 2/4 games were loose enough to be great games, but not too loose to the point where it got frustrating. i got aces twice, kings twice and aks twice in my first 20 hands and won all of them(sweet!). I think the fact that they actually had 1/2 there made all the maniacs head to that game. I took about 40bbs and we made our way back to our buddies house, did some drinking and went to bed.

The next morning, we packed up and headed home. since we had both done really well the night before we decided to stop at lucky chances on the way back and play in the 100nl game. We got there right at noon, which was great because the table was just starting and there were no stacks that were too big...the game was great, really really soft, with 5 to the flop even if it was raised to ~20(blinds were 1/1/2). I got busted on a misread when i thought he just had top pair and he actually had a set, bummer(i had top 2 pair). I think lucky chances was my favorite place ive been to, besides the time charge(6 bucks/half hour! yikes!) which was well worth it because the game was so soft, the place was real nice, the dealers were very competant and the players were pretty friendly. My friend ended up turning his 100 into 300. which made me not mind losing my buy in since i really saw him improve. overall it was a great trip and profitable for us both. i think my regular cardroom went from bay 101 to LC.

The most notable hand of the trip came up here. I thought i played the hand really well and didnt really care that i lost. I had Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] in the BB. Not raised so i checked. flop came K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. SB checked, i bet, button(who was a very tough player) called my bet, just him and i heads up. The turn came down K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] to make my 2nd nut flush, but on a paired board. The tough player also seemed to give me some respect and he said "i think he has ak, but i wanna see it" so i just checked, and he bet, and then i raised him. He seemed to know i was gonna do it, which scared me. The river was 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. i bet, he raises, i reluctantly call and he shows me A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. bummer. i thought i kinda got in his head on the turn and that i would make some money off of it. it was the first limit hand where i felt 100% comfortable the whole time.

rj