Commerce Casino Trip Report - Live Poker is Rigged!

Let me preface by saying that this won't be a classic trip report, with many hands discussed. I unfortunately, am a lazy phuck, so I didn't write down any hands, or talk into a recorder, like I saw some other guy doing. That's a little too tootsie fruitie for my taste.

They have daily tournaments at Commerce, to go along with the many many cash game tables which run 24x7. The tournament area is separate on the second floor. There were signs plastered all over the place announcing the L.A. Poker Classic which is coming up through February. Even though it's the holiday season, the place was packed. They got somewhere around 75 players for the noon tournament, which was a rebuy. 120 buy in, 100 rebuys and 100 addon. 1st through 6th cashed, with 1st being around 5.5k. One thing to note is that they take players right up till the end of the rebuy period. I don't know if that's standard, but I thought it was odd. I saw one guy come in right at the very end, pay his buyin + rebuy +addon and was set to go. At any rate, I thought the juice was pretty hefty, again, don't have much to compare it to other than what we pay online for juice. Basically, from the orignal 120, 97 goes to the prize pool, 20 to the house, and I assume the final 3 to the dealers?

So when we got started, there were only two full tables. By the end of the rebuy period, there were 8 tables or so. With all the late comers I suspect knowing they could be late, so it may be SOP.

You get 1000 chips for your buyin, and of course 1000 chips for any rebuys, and 1000 for the addon at the end of the rebuy period. So I decide not to rebuy right away. Why? who knows, I don't really like rebuys, but it was the only tourny running.

First hand out of the gate I get dealt KK. I remember thinking to myself, 'could be my day'. A moment after thinking that I remember thinking 'damn, I just jinxed myself'! LoL

So, lady UTG opens the for 60 (3BB's), middle position reraises to 300, and CO moves in! FIRST HAND! So of course I call all in, blinds fold and UTG lady calls, middle position guy calls. Holy cow, you'd think you were on Fulltilt or something! Ok, so what did they have?

UTG Lady - 88
MP guy - JJ
CO - T9(dms)
me - KK

(insert FullTilt Mystique) Flop comes 3 baby diamonds to end all the suspense right away, we all rebuy! I guess live poker is rigged after all! I actually did a double rebuy.

Ok, after that fabuloso start, nothing of interest happens until the end of the rebuy. UTG opens for 3x BB (standard), UTG+1 cold calls, MP moves in. Folds to me on the button with AK suited. Both UTG and UTG+1 were tight players, so I dump the AK. My thought was that at best I was up against KK, and at worst AA. These guys had only shown down premium hands. I had about 4k in chips at this time, so if I call and lose, the best I could do is a double rebuy and the addon to put me at 3k. So I folded. My reads were good. UTG and UTG+1 called having KK and AA respectively. MP had TT. TT dude obviously a FT player, managed to channel the FT mystical powers and of course flops not one but two Tens. Live poker is soooo rigged!

Ok, so on to the second hour. We were in the 100/200 25 ante round, and I'm sitting round 4.5k in chips. I think I badly misplayed this hand, which wound up costing me half my stack. I was in the BB with what else but my namesake, two black aces! ;-)
The cutoff opens for 800, which I felt was a pure steal. Button and SB fold, and instead of repopping this guy, I decided to smooth call, with the intent of getting allin on the flop. However, the flop comes out 678 all hearts. The CO guy had me covered, and I didn't like any of my options. Mostly because the CO guys reaction to the flop was like that look a kid gets when he's in the candy store.
I just had a funny feeling that flop hit this guy hard. So, what do I do? Pot had about 1900, I had 3.7k remaining. I opted to bet out 1.3k, and then decide based on his action. Since I'm playing live, and I'm proned to all kinds of 'live action mistakes', I make it a habit of verbally stating my bet/raise amount. So the instasecond after I declare ' Bet 1.3k', CO declares 'allin'! Now mind you, I didn't have a read on this guy, he had just been moved to my table, but again, he was lit up like a Christmas tree. So I hemmed and hawed (sp?), and finally folded the aces face up. Co dude was nice enough to table T9 for a flopped straight and a draw to both a flush and st8 flush. Nice hand dude.

I manage to chip back up to about 4k when the next major hand occurred. I believe we are now in the 200/400 50 ante round, and the CO opens for 1.2k. Folds to me and I have JJ, good enough to shove, which I do. But the BB who is short stacked at about 3.4k shoves as well. The CO calls after some thought, and flips over AK. BB has AA and after I don't improve I'm left with about 1.2k or something like that.

Then next hand it's folded to me on the button, and I shove with T8sooted, and when the BB says 'count it..eh, nevermind I call', I knew I was doomed. He flips AA, and I can't channel the FT mystique and IGHN in about 13th spot.

Oh well, I had fun, and it's always a cool experience to play live poker. I decided to go downstairs and play a little 1/2 NL before going back home, and I am happy to say I was able to win back all my tournament expenses, in fact, I went home up 60 bucks! A quick note on that 1/2 game, you can't raise anyone out preflop. Seriously, I tried 3x, 5x, 10x, and always got at least 3 callers. I raised preflop with KK up to 50 bucks, and got 5 callers!!! WTF is up with that? and of course had to fold with the flop came ace high. Unreal....live poker is flipping rigged!!!

2BA