A few weekend agos I drove up from San Diego to play poker in LA for the first time. While driving up I was able to listen to XM and hear Clemson beat up Duke in football. No surprise. While driving through Anaheim, the smoke from the fires was just coming out over the highway and Disneyland (It must have been very uncomfortable to visit that park on that day)

I decided to goto Commerce first. I have heard a lot about this room, or should I say rooms. I got to the casino shortly after NOON. I walked around a little bit because they had some many tables, I needed to find the game I wanted to play. I was looking for a 2-5NL game. I wanted to play a little deeper. What I actually found was a $400 buy-in game. The limits for that game were 5-10NL. Kind of strange considering I said I want to play 2-5, but oh well I have played 5-10 enough that it doesn't bother me. I played fairly tight early on to sieze up the table. I was up about $200+ and I got pocket K's in early position. I raised to $40. I ended up getting 4 callers. Flop was 8 high with two diamonds and then the fireworks happen- I was bet out about $125. One of the short stacks behind me went all-in (Only had about $125 more). Another player pushed all in over the top. He had maybe $300 more. Then the next players went into the tank- he actually ended up folding Q's face up. Well I got out and I had the K's. Well you guessed it the short stack actually had the Ace's. How we didn't have more action pre-flop is beyond me. The other guy won the hand when he made a 10 high diamond flush on the turn. Aces, Kings, and Queens all cracked in one hand. Then after going up and down a little bit (Including another hand where I lost about $250 with Kings when someone rivered a set tens, I hit a bit of a hot streak. My stack had grown to about $1,500+ and I picked up Kings yet again. Every time I seem to pick up a big hand it was in early position. I raised ($40) and got two callers. Then another guy re-raised to $240. It was folded around to me, and I made it $640 total. He had about $1,000-$1,100 in front of him, so I had him covered. The other two guys folded, and this guy went into the tank. He must have thought about the hand for 10 minutes, asking me if I had 10's, jacks. I wanted the call at this point, or for him to shove. He finally folded after the clock was called by another player. He folded queens face up. I ended up cashing out about 6:45 or so with just over $2,000 in chips. I was into the game for about $750, so it was a nice profit. I thought Commerce was a good place to play. With so many games it gives the player the game they want.

I decided I want to play at another casino and decided that I want to head towards the coast so when I drove back to San Diego I would not be so close to the fires, which were a main topic of discussion while at the poker tables, and on television. I ended up passing the Bicycle Club, which I have heard go things about and decided to head over to the Hustler. I sat in a $300 buy-in 1-3NL game. I went through one buy-in and rebought. I ended up getting my stack to over $800, when the big hand hit. I had AhJh, and a couple of short stacks pushed all-in, and another player who had about $700 in front called the largest all-in (Which was about $110). I was in for $35, so with the pot-odds and since I was up I called the $75 more. Flop came three hearts (Queen high), and before either of us could bet the dealers turns a card pairing the board. We were like wait a minute, so the floor was called over and the proper procedure was followed where the river became the turn, and then that card was shuffled back into the deck and a new river occurred. All the money went in after the new turn (An ace which I like because I had an Ace and I knew a few other players had the remaining aces which eliminated some of his outs). I had the nut flush and the other guy had a set of Queens. River was a blank. I took down a $1,800 pot due to the dealer mistake. The one guy went bonkers. He yelled at the floor about how they cost him $700. It was classic. The guy was a complete idiot before that. Other players were trying to calm him down and he just started yelling at them. He was basically on tilt the rest of the night. I stacked him again later when all the money went in pre-flop and I had pocket Aces and he had AJo. Classic. I cashed out for over $2,200 at about midnight.

I ended up driving back to San Diego with a great first experience of the LA poker scene. I plan on going back up in a couple of weeks. I need to hit up the Bike next. I have heard a lot of good things about that room. Overall I like both rooms I played at, but I think the neighborhood around the Hustler was horrible. I'm not saying that Commerce was that much better but at least it is right there off the the highway.