My First Trip To LA Poker Classic At Commerce Casino
By 
My first trip to Commerce Casino in early of Jan. 2010 to play in the 1st event of $1 million guaranteed. I have to say when it comes to poker it the “nuts.” The cash games downstairs were so crazzzy with the tournament room upstairs plus a tent outside with more than 1600 plus poker players registered and tried to qualify for a seat to get into 2 days main event on Jan. 25th 2010. They were 4 days to be qualified and on each day there were only 18 players advanced on and a total of 72 players qualified moved on to play in the 2-days main event. Although I started the day with my bought in for $335 with $3K chips 30 min. level and I’ve to say that I’ve played pretty solid through those 12 hours or so and I was busted out 92nd place out of the 1600 plus starters. Right at the end of the mid night just seemed to struggle but I’ve won some cash though and a sweater for souvenir. Not bad for a rookie from Minneapolis, eh. 
Poker fans, please let me elaborate to you just little bit more about what my plans were when I began to play in the LA Poker Classic Tourney that day. Poker is a game of decisions and it’s a sick game, right??. Some decisions are very easy to make, while others will keep you awake all night long if you chose poorly. In my experience, the larger the pot size, the harder the decision you’ll be faced with, right??
On the other hand, the smaller the pot is, the easier the decision. Which is why, especially in tournament play, you want to keep the pot small when you’re holding a marginal hand. You don’t want to be facing a decision for all of your chips in a situation where all you’ve got is something like top pair with a medium-strength kicker. You want to avoid that scenario as much as possible. It’s better to keep the pot small by checking and calling rather than building a huge pot, even if you do hold an advantage in that hand.
Let me give you an example from a hand I played at the Commerce Casino in LA early this year. We were still fairly early in the tournament and everyone started off with $3K in chips, and I was in the cut-off (the seat before the button) holding K-J. The action folded around to me, I put in a min raise and was called by the button ( a pro from FullTilt) because I’ve seen the patches on him. Both blinds folded, and we were heads-up going to the flop.
The flop came J-9-6 with two clubs. Yes, I had top pair with a strong kicker, but with straight and flush draws on the board I was in no spirit to go banana with my K -J. So I’ve checked, and the pro from the button bet out about two-thirds of the pot.
A check could also tempt my opponent to bluff in this spot, especially if he put me on something like A-K or A-Q. With a bluff or a drawing hand being the button’s most likely holding, I made the call.
The 4th street was no harm at all 3, not a club, and very unlikely to help out the button in any way. Once again, I decided to control the pot size and keep it small ball by checking. If I’d bet and the button had a monster draw, there’s a good chance that he’d come over the top of my bet to try and push me off the pot. I liked my hand here, just not enough to go broke with it because it’s in early stage.
After I checked, the button put in another bet (EV) I guessed, which I called. The 5th street was a non-Club 4, again no harm no alarm goes off here meaning that neither the flush draw or the straight draw got there, right?? I’m pretty sure that I had the best hand at this point, I still decided to check the river here and let the “Big Dog” bluffs/wooofs.
Why I decided to check? Well, there was a small chance that the button had made a set or two pair somewhere along the way, and it’s better to check-call in that spot rather than face a tough decision for a lot of chips if he raises. Also, if he did have nothing but air, checking might induce a bluff on the river.
As it turned out, the button checked behind me and I took down the pot with my K-J. I didn’t win a big pot with that hand, but I also didn’t lose a huge pot. The decisions I faced on each street were made much easier like peeling off a banana and it’s because I’d kept the pot small.
I had fun playing poker there at Commerce, great experience, the limo rides to and from LAX was a classy one too and thank you to Mike Sulaman (A floor Manager) who’d hooked me up with the limos.
2-Putts
