A friend of mine invited me to a private poker tournament party in Laguna Hills where there were going to be a bunch of novice players. That, plus the fact that there would be strippers dancing got me to go. After meeting the host, I paid by $100 and sat down at one of the over 10 tables going. The good news was, only one guy at my table knew how to play. The bad news was, only one guy at my table knew how to play. It took forever to play one hand because each player had to be shown how to deal, let alone how to play.

During one hand, the contactor to my right was getting a lap dance from 2 girls, while another girl had her boobs in my face. Between the naked girls and the players not knowing how to play, we were playing about a hand every 10-15 minutes. When a dancer went on the stage, they would dim the lights, making it very hard to see the cards.

In my wildest imagination, I never thought I would say this in my life, but the naked strippers were a distraction and it made it very hard to play cards. Maybe that’s why they don’t have them in the casinos. <wink>

Because the players are novices, it’s very hard to bluff them. They will call you down with Ace high thinking it’s good, which it is if you’re bluffing them. So I had to actually wait for a real hand. I finally get pocket rockets (Aces) and raise the minimum. The small blind calls me with A-10 diamonds, and the flop is 4, 5, Jack. I bet out and get called. The turn is an 8. I bet again and the guy goes all-in which is just another 400 for me to call. We turn up our cards and I realize he’s drawing dead and can only chop with a 3, so he’s got 4 outs to tie. I’m sure you can guess what the river was. Yes, a 3 comes on the river and I have to chop the pot. Ugh. At least I didn’t lose, I guess.

Later, a guy goes all in with A-6 off, and the contractor on my right calls him (pre-flop) with pocket rockets. Once again, the board gives 2, 3, 4, 5, and gives both of them a straight, except the A-6 guy gets his 6 high straight and cracks the Aces. Ouch. Glad that didn’t happen to me.

I lasted a little longer but the blinds were going up so high, it became an all-in fest. I had about 20,000 but with the blinds at 2,000 – 4,000, it’s pretty much all-in before the flop. I get knocked out when I go all-in with bottom pair and lose to middle pair.

My friend had to wake up at 7am so we say good-bye to the lovely strippers and drive back to LA. Normally, I would have stayed at the party for some lap dances but I drop off my friend and decide to get some real cash game action at the Hustler.

After having to play against novice players, it was a nice change to play normal at the Hustler. My first hand was 7 <club> 3 <club> and decided to raise with it. I get 2 callers and the flop is King high. I bet and one guy check calls me. The turn is another King, and I bet and the guy thinks for a while and folds. Nice. That’s the way things are supposed to be.

On another hand, I have pocket deuces and flop a set. The flop also has a King and the guy with the King bets out. I make a minimum raise and he calls me. On the turn, nothing comes and I bet and he goes all-in. I call and take down a nice pot with my set of deuces. Deuces never looses.

Later, I’m the big blind and the guy to my left raises to $25. There’s 5 callers behind him so I decide to call with 2 <diamond> 3 <diamond> for pot odds. The flop is King, 2, 2. Nice! There’s already like $150 in the pot so the raiser bets out $150. Everybody folds one by one, to me. Before I can do my Hollywood act, the raiser opens his hand to reveal pocket rockets! I say, “Hey! Hold on,” but it’s too late. Everybody at the table laughs because they think I’m going to fold now.

Now, I do my little Hollywooding and tell the guy, “I’m not trying to mess with you but I have to go all-in.” That’s the cleaned up version of what I said. Suddenly, it gets real quiet at the table as the guy goes into the tank. While he’s thinking, I decide to mess with him a little more by telling him to just fold and I’ll show him my cards. He goes all-in to call me and I show him the bad news. Nothing comes up on the turn or river and I take down a huge pot with my deuce – 3. Nice. This must be my deuces night.

So after my debacle at the private party, I have a great session at the Hustler. But driving home, I had to think about the boobs in the face at the party.

Everybody and his brother’s casino has some type of players’ card or VIP card.  When each casino starts having yet another card for their computerized table, this is really going to be rediculous.  It’s already got my wallet stuffed to it’s maximum capacity.

Too bad the casinos can’t get together and have one standard card for all casinos.  But that would be asking too much.  The one possible hope would be for some outside company, like one of the computerized table manufacturers, to come out with some card that all the casinos would use.  Unfortunately, I just don’t see that happening in my lifetime.

So what does carrying all these cards really do for us.  Well, let’s see.

The Bicycle Club
If you play in the medium to large no limit tables, you already get free food.  They used to pay you back cash if you played a lot but I don’t know if they still do that.  They have tournaments for people with accumulated hours on their card.  I guess that’s something.

Commerce
Their card is just for tournament entries and nothing else.  It’s to make their life easier for registration purposes only.  No real benefit for the players, except maybe quicker registration.

Crystal Casino
I have no idea what the card does for me.  I emailed them but didn’t get an answer back.  Nice customer service.

Hawaiian Gardens
Again, I have no idea what the card does for me.  I emailed these guys too and didn’t get anything back either.

Hollywood Park Casino
You can earn comp credit for every hour played, and you’ll earn credits good for casino food, redemption center, and gift shop merchandise, or even cash. You’ll also be eligible for special tournaments, parties and promotions open only to Players’ Club Members.  All this according to their website.

Hustler Casino
As you accumulate points, they can be redeemed for food, items at their casino store, or even items at their Hustler store in Hollywood.  2 years ago, I used this to buy Hustler store gift coupons for Christmas.

Normandie Casino
I’ve been playing here on Saturday and they tell me that you can accumulate points for food or items at the gift store.  However, on the $500 table, all food is free so I’ve not used the “Lucky Koi” card.

Hustler Casino exterior

What I liked about the WSOP main event was the deep stack of 20,000 in starting chips.  It really allows for some “real” play and not an all-in fest after 2 rounds.  Back in the day at Caribe, they used to have a 10,000 chip Sunday tournament which I loved and won a few times.

That’s also the reason why I’ve been going to the once a month Hawaiian Gardens deep stack tournament.  Once again, I went down there for their 2pm once a month, Saturday tournament.

This tournament starts you off with 3,000 in chips and the rounds are 30 minutes long.  I actually got up to about 31,000 in chips at one point, but managed to throw away most of my chips by slow playing pocket Kings.  What a disasterous miscalculation that was.  My mistake was not taking into account how tight of a player my opponent was.  There’s no need to slow play against a tight player.  Another expensive lesson for me.   But because I got up to such a large stack, I managed to hold on to make the final 2 tables and cash for the first time at this tournament.  I wasn’t happy with my play but at least I made money.  I’m going to try again next month.

The very next day (Sunday), I went to the Hustler deep stack tournament for the first time at 3pm.  This one starts you off with 5,000 in chips with 25 minute rounds.  Compared to the 3,000 chip tournament, this gave me lots of playing time.  I made 2 mistakes early on, and still managed to come back from less than 10 times the big blind back up to 16,000 in chips.  You can only do something like that in a deep stack tournament.  In one of those Commerce 1,500 chip tournaments, 1 mistake and you’re out.  I’m going to try again next week for sure.  I love the structure.

After the tournament, I tried my hand at the cash game there at the Hustler on the $300-$500 no limit table.  At this table, they give you free food so it’s as good as the Bike.  I doubled up on one hand with a flush, which gave me room to experiment.  One one hand, just for another $20 on the flop, I could have gotten runner-runner diamonds to make the nut flush against the winner (and chip leader) who had the King high flush.  I’m pretty damn sure he would have called all in for $1,000 on the river. Woulda-coulda-shoulda.  Oh well.

After more than doubling, I had already decided to play just before my big blind and got pocket Aces.  I hate it when this happens because I’ve had bad luck getting big hands right before leaving several times.  I was in late position so I didn’t try to do any stupid limping like on Saturday.  However, when I made a raise, 5 people called me out of position.  Crap.  That’s waaaay too many callers for pocket rockets.

The flop is Jack high with no flush draw but with a straight draw.  It was checked all the way back to me, so I came out really hard and bet more than the big pot that was there.  I managed to get everyone to fold except the last guy who flat called me.  I was hoping he had Ace-Jack which would make him drawing to 2 cards.  I bet again on the turn and he again check called.  On the river, he checked again and I decided to wimp out and check behind him.  He showed Jack 8 off.  WTF?!  Jack with an 8 kicker??  Damn!  I’m lucky he didn’t hit his kicker because I would have never thought he had an 8 kicker.  Even a 10 kicker would have surprised me with all the money going in there.

Well, that was a great way to end my day with pocket Aces holding up.  For once, I made enough money to leave early, instead of staying all night to try to break even.  I need to come back here for some more live action.

Hustler Casino
1000 W Redondo Beach Blvd.
Gardena, CA 90241
(877) 968-9800
(310) 719-9800
hustlercasinola.com
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