So I came down to LA this past weekend to see a few friends. At first I didn't think we would be able to fit in any poker because we were pretty busy, but we I decided to push back my return to Sunday night, so we headed over to the Commerce around 11am on Sunday. Boy was it busy. We waited about 45 minutes for a 5/10 table. The game plays a little lower than most 5/10 games I've played in before given that it has a 400 maximum buy-in. This limits the game to 40 BB which is pretty low IMHO. There are plenty of rooms that have NO cap at the 2/5 level which play much higher than this game.

So on the first orbit I'm dealt AA from early position and make it 35 to go. I get 4 callers! No respect, oh well. The flop comes t j k. Not exactly a great flop for me with 5 people in the pot. I raise to 120 and a guy with 600 behind pushes. Another player calls and I have to give up my hand. Guess what the other players had. One guy had 56 and the other guy had AK. I would have won the hand, but I can't call that, can I?

I rebuy to $400 again and don't see anything worth playing for a bit. I then make a standard raise from the button with A5 and get both of the blinds to call. The flop comes 557. Nice. The BB raises and I just call his bet. The turn is a T with only a backdoor flush possible now. The BB bets about 2/3rds of pot and I push. He calls with KK. Shame on him for slowplaying preflop.

I'll try to post some other interesting hands another time, but it was a fun 5 hour session. The food is comped in this game and it's really good. I had a steak for lunch and it was yummy. I left up about $900. At one poiint I was up $1500 or so, so was a bit disappointed, but not really. There were 2-3 good players at the table at any one time, but mostly the players were pretty bad. Either much too loose or there were a bunch of people who would play really tight and pretty much be giving away their hands when they did play. One time I called one of these players with 55 knowing that he had a premium pair. I hit my set on the flop and stacked him. I'll try to post some more hands another time.

A buddy and I headed over to the Crystal Park casino. We were supposed to play in a home game, but only 3 of us showed, so we decided to move the game over to a real room. I never played there before but my two friends like it so I went along for the ride.

We played in the $200 game with 1/2 blinds. Things started off great for me when I flopped trip 7's and a guy flopped a flush. Doesn't sound like I had the winning hand, does it? Well the board paired on the river and I stacked the guy. We didn't get all of our money in until I had the best of it on the river, so I didn't feel overly lucky. I would not allowed myself to get stacked with the flush on board unless I hit my boat.

So now I'm up to $400 after only 10 minutes and feeling pretty frisky. My two friends are pretty good players, but the other people all seemed fairly green. I opened things up a bit and called a raise from the button with T7 of hearts. The flop came with two hearts and the original raiser bet. I raised him with my draw and he called. I missed the turn and he checked so now I decided to bet. There was now $40 in the pot and I wanted him to go away so I bet $40. He pushed on me and it was pretty clear I was beat so I folded.

Things continued to get worse. I raised from mid position with JJ and got called by both blinds. The flop came with an A and they checked to me. There was 15 in the pot and I made it 15. They both called. Not good. The turn was a K so now there were two overcards. The SB bet 40, the BB called and I was done. Turns out that they both had me beat. One guy had KQ and the other guy had A9.

On the very next hand I get AA and bet $7. The button makes it $20. I decide to just call. The flop comes KT9 rainbow. I bet 40, the button pushesfor $100 more. I call and he turns over KK for a set.

The rest of the night was just boring. I was pretty much card dead. I ended up losing about $50, but came away fairly impressed with the room. It's very nice and modern, the food was good and the staff and dealers were professional. I would definitely play here again.