First Time at Commerce Trip Report

[PuckNPoker]

I've been playing poker online for almost a year now and decided to check out Commerce in LA. My live play experience is quite limited and while I'm winning 3BB/100 online I have yet to have a winning live play session outside of my initial session (in which I made a Royal Flush). So I was looking forward to getting some more live play experience and figuring out what I need to do different to win live. With the increased rake vs online I decided to play a little tighter than I would normally except on the CO and button where I would maintain my regular hand selection.

So I get to Commerce Saturday night and meet up with my friend, take the tour of the High Limit area, and then head over to the main area and I sign up for some 4/8 and get seated in under 5 minutes. I take the Big blind while waiting for my chips, get dealt QJo , folded around to the button who just calls, SB completes, I knuckle. Flop comes Jxx, SB checks, I bet, Button calls, SB folds. Turn is a low card, I bet, button calls. River is another blank, I bet, button calls and turns over KJo. In inauspicious beginning, I'm down $24 and havent even got my chips yet, but I'm pleased by the passiveness of the table. I then get J8s in the SB, and with 4 limpers I complete, pump my flopped flush draw with 3 others in the hand and the flush doesnt come through. 2 hands, I'm down half a rack or so.

I start watching the table more and my opponents, seeing if I can guess their hands, who plays tight (nobody except Seat 1 who looks like John Bonetti), who plays loose (almost everyone else), who is aggressive (nobody unless they have at least 2 pairs), who is passive (TPTK doesnt get raised here). Lots of junk hands being shown down, pocket pairs are considered gold by lots of players and they will go to the river with a pair of 5's and the board showing all overs, insensitivity to position in hand selection, and preflop raises are not respected at all (sweeet!), but post flop aggression is usually overly respected.

I win my first pot, with KTo in my next blind, 7 people to the flop. Flop comes JT9, giving a gutshot and a pair but a very coordinated board. I'm still not familiar with my opponents tendencies yet, but when the SB bets into me I decide to raise to protect my hand, all fold to the SB who calls. Turn is a blank SB check, bet, call. River is another blank, but I really dont know where I am in the hand and I take the free showdown. I show my KTo, SB looks at his cards and mucks.

Some of the more interesting hands that I wasnt involved with:

Six people to the flop, flop comes AAA, checked around. Turn A, someone says "I guess King high wins it", 1 person bets and 3 callers, river some blank, bet, call,call,call. Bettor shows a King... fold fold fold...

Another hand the final board shows QQJJx, and two people are going to war Heads up. Around the fifth raise someone at the far end of the table says "Must be quad jacks", the Old asian guy with the queen stops for a second and decides to just call.. young villian shows one jack and another blank. Old asian guy proceeds to get pissed and tilts off the big pot he just won.

Back to my hands, I was on a lousy run of starting cards for awhile so I'm just folding away, it comes my BB, 4 callers to me and I wrap the table before looking (stupidly), Turns out I had KQo and flopped top pair. The hand never went to showdown and I definitely lost some money by not raising, but that was the only "good" hand I didnt raise.

I had QQ in MP2 and raised it up with 2 limpers before me (5 to the flop for 2 bets), flop comes J62, bet into me by the guy who plays any 2 on my right, I raise, he 3 bets. I know im beat, but call down (I have some "hidden outs" if he has 2 pair, but only 2 outs if he hit a set) and villian dutifully shows me J6o.

Had JJ twice, neither held up, one of the times I had JJ, I raise, 5 to the flop, flop comes A63, normally I dont bet into an Ace with that many callers but for some reason I made a continuation bet. Called to my and then raised so I let my hand go. It turns out the raiser had 88, and bet it down to the river only to be shown the Ace from the caller on my left. I was really surprised by the 88 aggression and it stood out in my mind when later I had A9o in the CO, with 4 limpers to me I call. Flop comes Ace high, bet into me by UTG (who was the 88 person from that last hand), I raise, he calls, and check calls to the river and shows AKs.

It was a theme that night, I just kept hanging myself on better hands. Another example, A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] in the BB, I raise with 7 people in the pot, all call, the SB tells me that he wish I didnt do that because he didnt have much of a hand. Flop comes K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] which I think is a great flop for me, SB bets into me though , I raise, 3 callers, SB 3 bets, and I cap with TPTK and a flush draw (which im pretty sure is going to have to save me this hand). Turn is a Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], SB bets again, I call, the rest fold. River is a Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], SB bets, I raise (WHY?! lol), SB CALLS.... and shows me his deuces. The river play was bad, but I think the rest of the hand was ok.

One of hands I liked how I played, A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] MP2 with 1 limper (mister "any two will do" on my right) CO 3 bets (first preflop 3 bet I had seen) , I just called. CO has just taken a couple of beats and was both angry and fragile at the same time, flop came down King hight (Something like K74), Mister any two bets into me and I raise (representing AK) CO is pissed and folds, SB calls, turn is another King, check-called, river is a Queen, SB bets into me.. I call. SB flips over QTo (why was he betting that flop! lol). CO had AQ as well and that hand just putting him even more on tilt.

The biggest pot I won was a big blind hand which I played poorly. 52o in the BB, 7 to the flop, flop comes JQ5 2 spades.. it gets checked around, turn is 2 of spades.. bet , called into me, if someone has the flush I dont have the odds to call, but it is possible that they just picked up a flush draw, I called. River is another 5 filling my boat.. bet, call, to me, I raise, call call. The main bettor had 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] for the turned flush. So I was drawing to a 11.5-1 with about 5.5-1 odds.

Overall I had a great time at Commerce. The dealers were very fast and I only 2 dealer mistakes in 5 hours. I tried having some food at the table and ate a pretty good Kung Pao chicken at the table for $5. I left down $150 and am still looking for the leaks in my live game. But I think the game is very beatable even with a $3 + 1 rake. Overall I would say it was a 50/50 mix of people having a good time and other who cursed and blamed the dealers for their cards (throwing cards at the dealer was quite common as was open folding preflop with bad cards).

[toss]

Nice report. I'll definitely make Commerce my first destination once I turn 21.

[andyfox]

Nice report.

On the K-T hand, with all those players behind me, I'd have thrown that away with the J-T-9 flop.

On the A-9 hand, I'd have thrown that away in this type of game. To me, it's exactly the kind of hand I don't want to play in a loose passive game like this.

I don't think you played the 5-2o hand wrong, or at least I'd have played it the same way.

Nice to hear you enjoyed it, hope things go more your way next time.

[stankybank]

Nice trip report. It's fun to read stuff like this, especially cuz I remember how nervous I was when I popped my B&M cherry.

I dropped mad hundreds at the Commerce 3-6. I didn't even know how to play at all. Didn't know how to read my own hands with the board or anything like that. Just thought I would wing it. I was the fish alright. I remember one player called his friend over to sit at my table. I thought it was because they wanted to play together. Now I realize it was because of me.

Good times. Hope you make a better run next time. B&M is way more fun than online, IMO.

[PuckNPoker]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice report.

On the K-T hand, with all those players behind me, I'd have thrown that away with the J-T-9 flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree completely, I was all fired up and ready to play, but did I think I'd make a Q or 8 fold? And I just made me have to call a 3 bet and to the river. I post hands like these as a mea culpa, looking back I hate the way I played some hands (although some of the 20/20 hindsight is part of that).

[ QUOTE ]
On the A-9 hand, I'd have thrown that away in this type of game. To me, it's exactly the kind of hand I don't want to play in a loose passive game like this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting, I used to throw away A9o but I think playing the (yes, tighter) Party Poker tables have given me a mild profit with it. But when a table is that multiway and passive (and the hand not being suited, which I think makes it an easy call, yes?) hands like A9o just get me in trouble live?

Another time I got in trouble, AKo Mp2 I raise and 6 to the flop, flop comes something low 972 type flop, bet into me.. I call. Turn Ace (I think I sucked out lol), checked to me, I bet.. I get check raised.. (crap), I figure I was reverse dominated but I have 9 outs (3 King outs, 6 "hidden" board pairing outs), river was a 9. Now either I just really sucked out or the other guy filled up, I lean forward to look at seat 4 (I was in seat 6), he gives me a hollywood stare for 5 seconds and bets. I tried to figure out what the stare meant (and with no real previous knowledge of this guy I couldnt put any meaning into it) , and decided to call. Sure enough A9o.

[andyfox]

I think it's in HPFAP somewhere, or perhaps some other 2+2 book, that you're often better off calling with K-Q overcards than A-K or A-Q because your opponents are much more likely to have A-x and therefore make two pair if you catch an ace.

[TobDog]

It is in HPFAP, I dont remember exactly where, but thats the book it is covered in, one of those, when you read it it makes perfect sense, but 10 seconds before, you would never of thought the concept alone.

[PuckNPoker]

Yeah, I just figured out I figured the outs on the turn wrong, I only have 6 "hidden" outs if the person has A2, 3 "hidden" outs if he has A7, and only my King outs if he has A9. The flop call was questionable, I had odds but it was obviously difficult to play on the turn and beyond and I'm just not that good yet.