Bay 101 and shots at 5/10.

After being in Santa Cruz for over two weeks without going to the Bay 101 casino, I finally made my first trip there last night. My first thoughts when getting there was how shitty a location it had. A big empty lot to the right and a bunch of shabby office buildings across the street and the highway was buzzing behind it. I figure the inside will be nice like a normal casino but boy was I wrong. The walls are all ugly white washed with absolutely no décor at all. The ‘reception desk’ was unstaffed and the minute I walked in the door some ugly guy walks in front of me, sticks out his hand and looks behind me. I know he wants my ID but I say “What?” because I’m a bit pissed at how rude this guy was and he honestly doesn’t say anything, just keeps starting, looking super pissed off, behind my head. I pull out my ID and he stares at it for a second, hands it back and walks away. Pretty fucking bad.

The poker room itself is WAY bigger than I imagined. I’m use to the small Indian casino’s in Oregon with only 4-6 tables but this one must have had upwards of 40 or 50 tables. I’m a bit confused as, like I said, I’m used to the little Oregon ones where the floor man knew me and just put me on the list automatically. I walk up to the big list and I ask what games are running and this guy, once again, doesn’t say anything at all. He just points behind him and starts being rude to someone else. I see that they are running only limit games 3/6 up to 80/160. I get the guys attention and ask him to put me down for 3/6 to 10-20. He looks at me annoyed for like 5 seconds before super exapsteratdly asking me “YOUR NAME!?” Patrick, I say. He turns around, and literally is shaking is head, writes my name down. Wow. I could have sworn because we donate so much money to casino’s you expect good service or at least not down right rude service. I then have to wait an hour and a half to finally get a seat at 6/12.

The table is super talkative and of course I’m the youngest one there so they all make fun me, want to see my ID, etc. I don’t play a hand for probably 20 minutes until I get A8o on the button. Everybody has been limping a ton and there are about 2 limpers before me. I raise it up and get 3 callers, including the BB. Flop is all rags and I miss completely. I bet and they all call. Flop is like a J or something. Then all check and I bet and only the BB calls. The river is an 8 and we check/check and I take it down. This hand seriously set me up for the next 8 hours of play as everybody thought I was the super loose kid who bets too much. I think I played better than I ever had live. I played my normally stragagy, limping behind a bunch of limpers and raising from LP when there was only 1 or 2 limpers. It worked really well and I built my stack to about $800 (from a $400 buy in). I went a bit card dead around midnight and over the next 3 hours dropped down to 600 and about 3 AM decided to call it quits and drive home.

My feelings are very mixed now on live. I really feel like I played super super good there. This hand is a good example. I have K6s OTB and after 2 limpers I raise it up. Flop comes down KQ5. I bet and everybody calls. Turn is another king. I bet and only the BB calls who I had a good read on. River is a 9. He checks and I actually THINK about the hand, which I never do online. I figure a bet is best because he will call any smaller PP and any Q 6 or 9. And if he caught his straight (which is a smaller part of his range) he will raise and I can fold. And he will never bluff C/R, ever. Well, he did C/R and I thought about it again and folded my trips face up. He was shocked and showed his 10J for the river straight. This is something I would never do online.

On the other hand, I had to deal with mega uncomfortable chairs and very annoying people. I was seated between two Vietnameese brothers who were clearly colluding. It was so obvious and I kept calling them out on it but nobody would do anything. It didn’t affect me too much because I’m not an idiot but they just owned the fish with their super blantent collusion.

Like Viet #1 was BB and Viet #2 the button. A bunch of limpers would come in as per usual and button would raise and then BB would 3-bet. And, of course, a lot of limpers folded because they are dumb. Then BB would check and fish would check and button would bet. Then BB would reraise and of course the fish had to get out of there and then they would check it down. OMG it tilts me how bad the collusion was and nobody did shit about it. It actually saved me chips one time. It folded to button (Viet #2) who raised and I called out of SB with AJs. Then freaking Viet #1 in the BB 3-bet and then the button capped it! Wtf. I get a bit pissed here and fold. I ask to see both players hands and the BB actually had QQ but the button had A10o. He would never ever cap it with A10 off if his brother wasn’t in the hand. I ranted a bit to the dealer but the guy just kept saying “I always cap with A10” and how they saved me money anyway, which is true. So anyway, that’s my story of Bay 101.

Then I come home and because its super late I figured there would be a bunch of euro fish on and fire up FTP. I’ve had a sick month so far and decide to take load up 3/6 and 5/10 along with my normal 2/4. I stack a 20bb shortstack at 5/10 real quick with my A10 > AK AIPF. Then I get a half stack to sit in with me and on the third hand or something we get AJs vs his A6o AIPF. 6 on the flop and he is doubled up. Then we go back and forth for awhile. I had been playing a weird style of limping the button with almost my whole range because he was just potting OOP everytime, building pots for me. I’d mix it up between raising with shit and good hands. No real big hands until I pick up 1010 OTB. I limp and he makes it 30. I make it 110 and he calls. Flop is Jc9d3c. Not a bad flop for me. He donks out 80 into 130 and I make it 320. He calls and the turn is a 5d, making two flush draws. Now I have a hard decision on the turn as there is about 830 in the pot and I’ve got 550 left. I decide there is a good chance he has a FD, lower PP or Q10 striaght draw. I ship it in and he snap calls with JKo. Oh well. Take a shot at 5/10 and it didn’t work out. Grind back 2/4 and I’ll try it again someday. I think there are plenty of fish up there to where I have a big edge.