Hustler Casino

Lately, I’ve been dry with my tournaments. I can’t even win a satellite to the tournament.

After one of my disappointing showings at the Bike, I decided to return to Hustler for some cash game action. The $300-$500 tables were full so I sat down at a $100-$300 with $200 to start. Literally, my very first hand was A [diamonds] 2 [diamonds] so I call the $5 blind. The flop is 3, 4, 5 all diamonds. Yes, I flopped a straight flush wheel. To make a long story short, a guy that flopped 2 pair paid me off.

Soon after, a spot opens up for me at the $300-$500 table and I move over. When I get there, I see that there’s a lady with about $4,500 in $5 chips. WTF?! I asked the guy next to me what’s going on and he tells me that she’s been super lucky hitting everything and everybody at the table is paying her off.

I watch her play for a while to see what she’s doing. It was obvious that she was a novice player that played ABC poker and just have been super lucky. She was very obvious about her hands and didn’t really try to hide her strong hands at all, and when she was weak, she would make faces and noise. I also saw that she would call you down with any pair. She just didn’t like getting bluffed off her hand. Once, when I was raising pre-flop with a good hand, she said, “Whatever you bet, I’m gonna call you.” I was originally going to bet $30, but when she said that, I decided to push it to $50 and sure enough she called me. After the flop, she just check folded and I made a little more than I would have.

The problem with playing against a non-bluffable player is that you have to wait for a hand. And sometimes, you just never get one.

Fortunately for me on this night, I woke up with pocket queens, raised, and got called by her and another guy. The flop was Q-10-10. A great flop but it’s hard to get any action when you flop this big. The guy on my right was first to act and he comes out betting $150. Huh? Is he just trying to steal or does he really have something? Since the lady was to my left, I just flat call, and she flat calls.

At this point, I’m a little confused as to what she has. There are 2 diamonds but she is not the type of player to call with a draw. The turn is an ace. I’m hoping somebody has an ace and it makes them stronger. The guy bets out $250. I pretend to think, then call. Now the lady makes a lot of noise and calls. At this point, I’m putting the guy on a 10. I still don’t know what she has.

The river is a King. The flush doesn’t come. The guy checks now. Maybe he’s scared of the 4 card straight on the board. I go all-in for about $300. The lady stands up and makes a bunch of noise then calls. Then the guy goes all-in for $800 for another $500 on top of my bet. Hmmm. Now, I’m hoping he doesn’t have pocket 10s.

After not much thought, the unbluffable lady calls the $500 for the side pot. She has 9-10 (for just trips) and he has 10-Jack for a river straight. He wins the $1000 side pot and I take down the big main pot. Nice.

Soon after this hand, I get pocket Kings and raise and the same 2 people call me. This time, the flop is A-K-J rainbow. Even though I flopped a set, I’m not super happy about this flop. The guy checks, I bet $150, the lady folds, and the guy calls.

The turn is a Jack. Nice. Now I feel a lot better about my hand. The guy checks again. This time, I bet $250 and he calls.

The river is a blank. I’m hoping he made something, but he checks. At this point, I don’t think I can get much more from this guy so I make a big $500 bet to make it look like a bluff. He thinks for a while and calls and I take down another huge pot. He claimed to have flopped a straight but he didn’t show.

After that, I call it a night feeling pretty good. I didn’t make any tricky plays but it’s always nice to get paid off with your big hands.

After about few hands, every time he would raise, I would say, “Raise again?” just to let him know I was aware of what he was doing. This did not deter him at all. In fact, it might have actually caused him to do it more.

Finally, when I was on the button (and he was the big blind), I said, “You’ve been talking everybody’s blinds so I’m going to raise and take yours.” He replied, “No you’re not.” I just wanted to mix things up and raise before it got to him to raise.

However, when it was my turn and I looked at my cards, I found pocket rockets. Nice. I raised to $30 as I had told him I would do. He called immediately and 2 others also limp called after him.

The flop was Jack, 10, blank rainbow. Everyone checked to me and I bet out around the size of the pot and the big blind was the only caller. The turn was a 7 and he checked. I felt that he probably had a 10 so I said, “10 no good” and went all-in for around $400. The big blind thought for a bit and called.

The river was another Jack, which I didn’t really like, but managed to take down the pot.

The table had a good laugh about how the hand came down. But it put the big blind guy on tilt and he spewed off all his money in the next 30 minutes.

It’s always nice to get pocket rockets at the perfect time.

http://lapoker.info/o

To use the table, first figure out how many outs you have.  For example, if you have a flush draw after the flop, you have 9 outs. Look for 9 under the “Outs” column and see the percentage in the corresponding rows for the turn and river.

While I was in Vegas for the AEE convention, I decided to checkout some of the poker rooms in Vegas.  A guy at a tournament in LA told me to go see the Hard Rock poker room so I did.

Even during a big convention weekend, there were only about 4 or 5 tables open so it wasn’t very busy.  However, there were a lot of action players throwing money around.  They have $1-2 and $2-5 no limit tables. The $1-2 is $100 to $300 but the $2-5 is $200 to $2,000.  No, that’s not a typo.  $2,000 with $5 blinds.  This makes for some really interesting poker when a guy walks up with $2,000, while other guys are playing with $200, and the $2,000 buy-in raises to $100 pre-flop every other hand.

Another interesting rule is their “Hard Rock Straddle.”  This is a live straddle on the button, who will act after the big blind, if there are no raises.  However, if the big blind were to raise, all the others go in turn, all the way around back to the button.  It’s very strange but it gives the button a huge advantage.  Many people raise on the button just to inflate the pot for themselves, but people often get suspecious.  You don’t have to worry about that because you are blind raising before you see your hand.

Basically, unless there are super aggressive people at the table, you should always do this straddle on the button.  Even if somebody raises out of position, you can flat call and still try to flop something and be in position to take advantage.

While I was there, most people bought in for $500, but a few came in for the maximum $2,000.  Be ready for action, especially when drunk people come to the table.

COMMERCE (KABC) — Armed deputies moved in on their targets early Saturday morning, cornering two suspected robbers in their car at a gas station in Hollywood.

Officers said they found a bullet-proof vest, a helmet and pepper spray inside the trunk of the car.

The suspects were identified as 21-year-old Jonathan Atkins and 18-year-old Raymond Little. Both men were wanted for a string of follow-home robberies from area casinos.

“The male victim was followed home from the Commerce Casino to his residence in Lake Forest,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Jansen. “When he got out of his vehicle he was approached by two or three suspects, one had a handgun.”

Officers say the men demanded money that the victim had won at the casino.

Investigators say the case is ongoing and aren’t saying much else. However, officers said there may be more arrests. Authorities had set up surveillance in order to track down the suspects, who would watch people when money at the casino and then follow them home.

Officers still say they are not sure just how many people were involved in the crimes, but wanted to shut down the operation before anyone was seriously hurt.

Both men arrested are being held on $100,000 bail and are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

Once again, I returned to Hustler to try my hand at their tournament.  This time, it’s the Oktoberfest $500 buy-in no limit tournament, with 7,500 in starting chips, and 40 minute rounds.

This is the type of tournament structure that I like because it gives you plenty of time to make your moves, and you can make 2 or 3 small mistakes, or even 1 big mistake and still have enough chips to play.

Before the tournament, I decided my strategy was going to be to play a lot of pots and try to accumulate chips to push people around in the later rounds.

In the first round of play, I limped in with 6, 9 and 3 others were in the pot with me.  The flop was 9, 5, 3 rainbow.  One guy bet 200, and everyone folded to me and I just called with my 6 kicker.

The turn was the 8 which put the second diamond on the board, giving me top pair and now a flush draw.  The guy checks and I bet 350, now feeling better about my 6 kicker.  That lasted about a second because he check raises me to 1,350.

I had played long enough at the table to notice that this guy was pretty tight and didn’t look like a guy that would bluff this early in the tournament.  I wasn’t sure exactly where I was, but I felt pretty sure he wasn’t on a flush draw so my 9 high flush would be good if I hit it.

The river was the 3 giving me a flush.  However, the guy comes out betting 1,000.  Since I hit a back-door flush, I felt I could get some value out of raising and made it 3,000.  He thought it over for 3 seconds and called.  I showed my flush and he flips over pocket 8s for a full boat.

Whoops.  Crap.  I made 2 mistakes in one hand.  First, I should have raised on the flop and he would have probably folded.  Then on the river when the board paired 3s, I should have just called the 1,000.

This put me in a big hole but I wasn’t out yet.  Unfortunately, the same guy got pocket Kings when I got pocket Jacks, and I lost more chips.  Amazingly, I was able to get away from my pocket Jacks pre-flop so I didn’t lose all my remaining chips.

Eventually, I had to make a big bluff to try to get some chips and the move failed and I was out.

I’m not really sure if my original plan was a good one or not.  Perhaps playing 6, 9 suited got me in the trouble that I got into.  If I was playing tight, I would not have even played that hand.

In any case, I’m going to try again next Sunday for their $1,500 buy-in.  Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

According to an article on the Vancouver Sun, Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas now offers topless strippers at their pool. This area is separate from the regular area and there is a cover charge from $30 to $50.

The strippers work at Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club in Las Vegas and work at the Rio pool on a part time basis. They get some free food and drinks and sun. The article did not reveal if the strippers are paid to work there by Rio or are there for Sapphire as promoters.

All this is in keeping with Vegas’ move away from the “family” entertainment center to more “adult” entertainment with their “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” slogan.

Technically, it is not illegal for a casino to have a strip club but the Nevada Gaming Control Board has refused to hand out permits to allow this. However, topless poolside areas are not prohibited and several casios in Vegas has created areas for guests to be topless. Rio is the first casino to “hire” strippers to lounge around the pool topless.

This trend is what I’ve been waiting for. Vegas is getting back to it’s roots again. Sin city here I come.

Absolutepoker.com and Ultimatebet.com are owned by the same company and there was a case of cheating reported last year on Absolutepoker.com.  In this strange case, there’s a claim of  $75 Million in losses, and another company which sold software to Ultimate, Excapsa Software Inc. of Toronto, is being liquidated in an attempt to collect the claim.

How the money from the liquidation will be distributed is another entirely different question.  Apparently, there’s more than one cheater involved in this scheme so it would be difficult to trace back to all the hands and pots that all these people were involved in.

What a big mess this is.  And this is yet another reason for people to claim that there’s something wrong going on with online poker.  Apparently, at least in this case, they are right.

In my opinion, this is exactly why online poker should be regulated like it is in England, instead of pretending like nobody uses it in U.S.  Of course, regulation doesn’t seem to work very well when the regulators are in bed (literally) with the people they are regulating, but at least there would be something to point our fingers at.

While the World Series of Poker 2008 is going on at the Rio, Microsoft has put their Surface OS tables in the lounges there. This video shows some “applications” for the Surface, iPhone-like operating system, like games and ways to pickup on the ladies, or vice versa.

Frankly, I’ve never seen attractive chicks like these playing video games, or even touching anything geeky, other than the iPhone. Maybe the iPhone will finally bring in the good looking people into the world of gadgets and geeks. One can dream.