It is raining cats and dogs here in Los Angeles, but that hasn’t dissuaded players from heading over to the Commerce Casino to play the first event of the Los Angeles Poker Tour. The tour kicks off with a $1 million guarantee for $335 buy in. The event is expected to be very successful with four starting days and no cap on the amount of players to enter each starting day.
I arrived at the Commerce Casino with three other Vegas pros at 6:30 am of Day 1A. There were already over 600 players registered, and alternates started after 800 players. We decided to buy our seats before getting a few hours of rest before the tournament. It was a good thing we did because the line was out the door when we woke up. The venue was filled, and after the alternate cutoff was over there were 1,282 players that entered Day 1A.
Play at my first table was pretty slow at start out. The first level was 25/25, and the players seemed determined to feel each other out. I started raising more to take down some pots which proved to be successful. Another guy started playing aggressively as well, and I knew that he was going to put pressure on me if he got a chance. He raised in mid position to 150 and I re-raised in the big blind with AhKh to 450. He re-poped for 1,400. I put him on a medium pocket pair and made the call. The flop came K63 rainbow. He twitched when the flop came down, so I knew I was good. I checked, and he pushed me all in. I immediately made the call and he turned over 99. The turn and river blanked giving me the double up.
In the next two rounds I lost half my chips when I flopped middle pair and a flush draw against another lady on the table. I bet out and she called. She turned two pair which left me drowning when I bet and she raised. I called but wasn’t able to make my flush. A similar hand played out leaving me back at the starting stack.
I was relieved when I was moved to another table that had some big stacks. Surprisingly, they were letting me bet them off small pots which allowed me to maintain my stack. However, I was crippled at the 75/150 level when I called a short stack’s all in on the turn. I had second pair and he had ace high. Unfortunately, he hit his ace on the river taking 1/3 of my stack. The final blow came when an aggressive player raised to 500, and I shoved 2,500 with pocket jacks. He had about 8,000 behind, so I thought there was a good chance he would lay down a marginal hand. He called with Ad7d and hit the ace on the river to knock me out.
The tournament turn out for this event has been impressive and it is only Day 1A. Tomorrow is another day and a new start, so I will be sending more updates from the felt.
