Southern California – PART TWO

My bankroll is hurting, but I still want to try Casino Morongo in Cabazon, California. This is one of my favorite cardrooms anywhere. It has about 25 tables, and runs both NLHE and LHE. It also offers a 5-card Omaha…. Omaha High-Low with five pocket cards!!!!!! Yeehah!

But the real reason I love this cardroom is the age restriction, or lack of it. It is an Indian Casino, owned by the Morongo Tribe, and somehow, it is open to 18-year-olds.

Yep, 18 and you can play at Casino Morongo legally. So you get tons of Southern California College Students who flock here, and quite a few high school students working on fake IDs. The NLHE games are fast and furious with inexperienced guys making lots of mistakes.

I sat down to a $100 buy-in game. It consisted of me, one 30-something Asian who liked to steal small pots, a cranky old man who was getting on the dealer’s nerves with his sarcastic comments, and a host of kids who all looked like they should be in a High School Sex Education Class.

Purrfect!

The first two hours wind through. Nothing much happens. I win a few pots, but nothing spectacular. They are making the crucial mistakes in NLHE that is typical for the game: they don’t size their bets well and they over value top pair good kicker.

I’m waiting for my chance. But unlike the prior day at the Agua Caliente I’m patient and not forcing bad situations. I’m also talking it up with the other players and especially the dealers, and everybody is having a good time. This is a really friendly table, except for the old man. The Asian Guy says many times “Man, this is a fun table to play at.” Lots of players tap fists after a good hand. Just a lot of fun all around.

Then I get a mildly good run of cards and build my stack up to $200. Still waiting for something to happen. Then on middle position I look to find those blessed Pocket Rockets, good old AA. Well, I’ve been having fun, wisecracking and chatting it up, and I decide to do a little WSOP/Gold on the table.

“Well, guys, I’m representing a big, pocket pair. Stay away unless you have seven-deuce cause you’ll never beat me!” And I splash out a solid bet. The crusty old guy and one of the college students calls. The flop comes 25T rainbow. I make a pot-sized bet. The crusty old man thinks a while, then mucks. The student goes into the tank. He’s a short stack and calling my bet will have him truly pot-committed. If he wants to play he might as well move all in.

He merely calls.

A blank hits the turn and I go all in. The student tanks again, then calls. Another blank hits the river. The student shows AT for top pair and my AA gives me a good pot. The student gets up and goes away, quickly replaced by another student with a rack of chips.

A few minutes later I’m again in middle position when I look down to see KK! Can I do it again? I figured I’d try.

“It’s time to play again, guys. Have big cards or go away!” I push out a $15 bet. I’m astounded, and really worried, when five people call. What?

The flop is nice to me, 27J rainbow. The Big Blind bets $20. Then the old man calls, and another student, freshly seated, calls.

And now I go into the tank. The BB likes to raise flops like this to try to steal. I’m expecting he has nothing, or maybe second or third pair. If he hit a miracle two pair or trips on the flop, I’m in big trouble. The old man’s call is screaming at me. He’s one to just call here with Top Pair and a good kicker. Trips he’d go all in, as well with overcards. Otherwise he might call if he had a draw but there’s no half-realistic flush or straight draw on the board. I have no clue what the student has.

I need to raise to protect and define my hand. But how much? In fact, I start talking at the table again.

“Wow, A $20 bet, a $20 call, another $20 call and there’s another $70 (actually $90) in the pot. Everybody has pocket pairs?”

The BB looks unhappy, the old man’s chin juts out with a hint of anger, and the student looks really unhappy. And I know where I am. BB and student have very weak holdings, maybe overcards or second pair. Old man has a J, probably AJ, but maybe KJ. Time to thin the field.

“If you got a hand, stay in, if not, go away!” and I slide a rack of chips into the center.
BB dumps his hand before my rack stops moving. Old man thinks hard, then starts pushing out chips. He only pushes out three stacks to join his one already in the center. The student hastily mucks. But now the old man gets into an argument with the dealer when she prompts him to call with one more stack… It’s only an $80 raise, there are four stacks there….but one was your original stack, the total is $100…. They go back and forth before the old man grumpily shoves another stack in front of him.

I say to myself, he’s got a hand he thinks he’s beat, but it’s too good for him to get away from. Now I’m positive he has AJ, top pair and top kicker.

The turn comes a 7, pairing the board. I hate this card, hate it, hate it, hate it.

And old man leads out, pushing $60 into the middle. On another table, in another time and another opponent, I’d think this small bet to this big pot would be fishy. It would scream at me that old man has a 7, somehow. But this time it’s not. If he’d hit trips he’d go all in I know it. I can feel it. I have even more certainty that he merely has AJ.

“Well, if you have trips you’ve won yourself a big pot.” I slide out two more racks, enough to put him all in. He thinks for a few moments, then juts out his jaw and pushes in.

The river is, I hope, a meaningless 3.

He rolls over AJ, top pair, top kicker.

And at my side (I'm in seat 1) the dealer whispers “Please show me you beat him. You did, didn’t you?”

And I show my KK.

And start stacking chips.

The dealer beams as she starts shoving racks and chips my way. The old man fumes a few moments, then stands and leaves the table.

Now a couple comments here. I have a hard rule: Never talk about your cards and never flash your cards. When you do, you only give away information about your play. That is information a savvy opponent can use to beat you. I made an exception here, because of my table image was friendly, talky and outgoing, and while I was playing the tightest on the table the others had me slotted as a ”middle-aged home game player.” Or maybe an “old fart who talked a good game but can’t play with the kids!”

I decided to use this technique: proclaiming my premium hand, because at this point on this table I thought I could buffalo someone who had a weak holding to pay me off. I did it the second time for the same, but slightly different reason.

It worked the first time, because no one thought I’d tell the truth. I played a strong hand extremely strongly, so they thought I was bluffing.

The second time, when I repeated, the old man couldn’t let himself believe I was doing it a second time. The second time I must be bluffing, right?

Well, I did not do it a third time. I still remained my boisterous, friendly, chatty guy at the table, but I played pretty straight up. I was the monster stack at the table and I did bully a few people out of some pots with my chips, but otherwise I played straight up poker.

After four hours, I had a $700 profit. I’d made back all my losses from the previous to sessions.

Now that’s nice.

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Final stop was a return to Hollywood Park Casino on Friday Night. I didn’t have much time, because I was flying early the next morning, but I wanted to taste the busy action.

And busy it was! The poker room was filled to the brim, but it didn’t take too long to get a seat. Within ten minutes I was at a $200 buyin NLHE.

And I was in for a ride.

This was a table of Loose/Aggressive players who thought nothing of going all in with some very, very marginal holdings. My first hand I look down to see AKs in middle position. I raise to $25 and eight call! Wow. Rags hit the flop. One guy bets $50 and three call. I sadly muck. The raiser eventually wins a mighty pot with only a 86s that flopped two pair.

There is no really good player, but several terrible players. I have to keep ducking but I plan to play tight. My stack goes down, then I win a good pot when my 44 gives me a set. Two hours later I’m getting tired so I leave, $100 richer.

That table was just sick! If I played in that game consistently I’d be a poker pro in no time. People were just going nuts with the thinnest holdings. They played awful. I just wish I had more time to really take their money. So if you ever visit LA, and can stand the tribulations and massive chips swings of a table of maniacs, try the $200 buyin NLHE at Hollywood Park. It is so juicy!

So I flew back to Ecuador a net winner in the live games by the astounding amount of $100. But, concerning how badly I started, that’s not such a terrible thing. Next time, I’ll try to allow myself more time at the Friday action, and especially make more time for Casino Morongo.