L.A. Poker Classic

I am feeling completely wiped out as I write this column. I just returned home after two weeks of nearly nonstop poker in Los Angeles, as I attended the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. When I'm home, I tend to stick to a day schedule, waking up at around 8 in the morning and going to bed shortly after midnight. However, road trips tend to put this schedule to the test, and this trip was no exception. I frequently found myself going to bed at dawn and waking up just in time for dinner. This schedule actually made sense, as tournaments at Commerce have a 3:30 p.m. start time and run until well past midnight. Also, much of the best side action tended to break out in the wee hours.



A well-structured tournament: I have yet to attend a major tournament at the Borgata in Atlantic City, but I have heard great things about the tournament structures there. I can't imagine they could be too much better than the one used in the main event at Commerce, though. Lately, many tournaments have adopted the "double chips" policy, in which players receive twice as many starting chips as the amount of the buy-in. So, for a $10,000 main event, players would begin with $20,000 in tournament chips. In theory, this is supposed to afford players more time to play deep-stack poker and build their stacks. However, I have noticed that many tournaments that offer double chips largely negate the benefits by utilizing a fast structure, so the tournament ends at about the same time it would have with a lesser amount of chips.



In the Commerce event, not only did we start with $20,000 in chips, but the structure was exceptionally slow, as well. As a result, the main event stretched out to last six days. This is a long time for one event, but with a first prize of more than $2 million, I appreciated the fact that the tournament planners had provided us with a structure that allowed for a great deal of play to reach the final six. Was there still a lot of play at the televised final table? Well, that's a subject for another column.



It was a bad day to be a Phil: Day two of the main event began in quite a unique way. The survivors arrived to find that they would be seated in alphabetical order according to their first name. Although I suppose this technically was a "random" occurrence, it was a bit unusual, to say the least. I started the day at the Mark table (duh), and later was moved to one of the John tables, where I played for the rest of the day. I had mixed results there, as I busted Esposito with K-K against his Q-Q, but later lost a fairly large pot to Gale. Hennigan, Juanda, and Phan were nowhere in sight.



Two complaints: Overall, I thought this was an excellent event, but I do have two beefs to put in the category of constructive criticism. The first, and most significant, has to do with the way seats were assigned for day one (I can live with the alphabetical innovation for day two). Apparently, seats were sold in seven-table blocks. This means that the first 63 players to sign up (that reminds me – we played ninehanded all the way through; way to go, Commerce!) were randomly issued seats at one of the first seven tables; then, the next 63 players for the next seven tables, and so on.



What is the problem with this system? Well, for one thing, there were nearly 700 players in the field, so a lot more tables could have been included to make the draw more random. I'm sure management was expecting a similar turnout, so this couldn't have been too difficult. The problem with using seven-table blocks is that you are seated with the people who signed up at the same time that you did. For example, supersatellite winners will largely be seated together. Although I can't confirm this, I would also suspect that the large number of online qualifiers for the event probably ended up together. And, the large group of players who plunked down $10,000 cash on the day of the event sat together. Had I known this was how things were going to be, I certainly would have picked a different time to sign up, or at least done some "scouting" of the buy-in line. Hopefully, the draw for this event will be truly random next year, as the players certainly deserve it.



My other complaint isn't as serious, but more a matter of convenience. The tournament began at 3:30 p.m., and at 8 p.m. there was a 45-minute dinner break. This meant that for players who wanted to eat at one of the restaurants, there was plenty of time to order their food, but it was a coin flip as to whether or not they would receive it before the tournament resumed. This may have been the only coin flip I won during the event. I think adding just 15 minutes to the break would make all the difference. Although Commerce's kitchens can pump out great food very efficiently in huge volumes, I think it's a bit of a stretch to expect that they can feed several hundred players in just 45 minutes.



Taking a break: One problem with playing at Commerce is that it is just so easy to do nothing but eat, sleep, and play poker (with sleep being a distant-third option). So, "poker burnout" occurs after a while. For me, this happens after a few consecutive days of playing long, unprofitable sessions. It always helps me to get out of the casino and do something fun when I feel this way. This trip, I was fortunate to have my wife and kids visit for four days preceding the main event. We stayed in Anaheim and took the kids to Disneyland. At ages 6 and 5, they have no fear of any ride, and scoff at the thought of taking a leisurely cruise on "It's a Small World." This is fine with me, as I don't want that song ingrained in my head.



I also met up with my good "real world" friends Eric and Rob, whom I hadn't seen in a while. We went to dinner at a fairly new steakhouse on the west side called The Lodge. I would highly recommend it for the atmosphere, décor, and the steaks. I had a Cajun-marinated bone-in ribeye, and it was definitely one of the best hunks of meat I have eaten (and it has a lot of competition).



Badougi, anyone? It was difficult to play in a mixed game at Commerce that did not include Badougi. This game seems to keep gaining in popularity there, and now it is being played in Las Vegas, as well. Many players probably haven't heard of it, and others have probably been playing it for years in home games, possibly calling it something else. I'll be writing more about this game in my column in the next issue.

Questions or comments? Please e-mail me at [email protected].