L.A. Poker Classic Experience by Linda Johnson

I just got back from a week at the Commerce Casino playing in the L.A. Poker Classic (LAPC) and its live games. It was the best poker trip I’ve had in a long time. The tournament schedule was awesome! There were a few tournaments to choose from each day and they weren’t all No Limit. Split Pot junkies like me were able to play Omaha, Stud/8, and even HORSE. By the way, I think it was genius of Matt Savage to order numbered buttons to make it easier to keep track of how many hands had been played in the Mixed Game tournaments.

Matt and his tournament staff did an amazing job of handling the big fields. I got a chuckle out of hearing him announce midway through one event, “Raising your thumb in the air does not signify a raise.” Despite having more than 1,000 players in some events, they still started either on time or very, very close to it. Satellites were running constantly, which helped increase the fields and allowed many players to have a shot at big money for a small buy-in.

The slow-rising structures allowed for a lot of play. Despite this, I found myself almost never winning a hand and busting out early in four out of five events. As it turned out, my early tournament departures were a good thing since I was able to capitalize on the juicy live games downstairs. Los Angeles is poker heaven in my opinion. The game selection is incredible. During the week I was at Commerce, I played mostly $40-$80 Omaha/8, $40-$80 Hold’em, $25 to $100 a point Chinese Poker, $75-$150 Omaha/8, and $100-$200 Omaha/8. Caution: These games are not for the weak at heart. Most pots are raised three or four times pre-flop, with multiple players going along to the river. You have to be prepared for some very big swings, but you will love the action.

Staying at the Crowne Plaza and commuting via elevator to the poker room was awesome. The dealers were very good and the floor people excelled at their jobs. The food was incredible and was free in the high-limit section.

The only thing I didn’t like about my poker trip was the behavior of some of the players. Although the instances of abuse are less frequent than they were years ago due to an outstanding effort by management to improve playing conditions, some players still think it’s acceptable to throw cards, use profanity, and yell at the dealers. Some like to blame the dealers for their losses instead of acknowledging that perhaps 7-5 offsuit isn’t really a good enough hand to put in four bets pre-flop.

The dealers don’t usually stick up for themselves, which made the following incident very funny. A middle-aged woman was dealing and made a mistake that wasn’t her fault; a player wanted to buy the button, but didn’t announce it or put his chips in, so she dealt around him. He went ballistic and started screaming at her and calling her names. She said, “I’m sorry.” He continued scolding her for several hands until she finally yelled back at him, “I said I’m sorry. I’m tired! I’ve been dealing 10 hours. Don’t talk to me!” With a stunned look on his face, he shut up temporarily.

In another incident, I was sitting in the nine seat and a player who had been extremely out of line threw his cards at the dealer for the third time in three hands while muttering something about her heritage. One of the cards went on the floor. The dealer didn’t see the card go off the table, so she put the deck in the shuffling machine. The red light came on to signify a malfunction and she tried to straighten the same deck and put it back in the machine again. Obviously, the light came on again, at which point I said, “It’s never going to work because there are only 51 cards in the deck.”

She looked down and saw the card on the floor and started to pick it up. I put my foot on the card and said, “Don’t touch that card. That gentleman, and I use the term loosely, threw it off the table and he should come pick it up.” He just sat there, so I asked the dealer to call the floor man. When he got there, the player tried to say it was an accident. The other players at the table spoke up and let the floor man know that this was no accident; in fact, it was common behavior for him to throw the cards and threaten the dealers. Congratulations to the supervisor for telling the player that this would not be tolerated and that the player would have to change his behavior if he wanted to continue playing.

I heard a few funny comments while playing live poker like “I love Chinese Poker. It’s like crack… very addicting!” After raising and then folding to a re-raise, a player said, “Hey, that’s like inviting me for a drink and then throwing away the booze!”

I can’t wait to get back to Los Angeles to play some poker. On February 19th at 7:00pm, I’m playing in a charity event at the Bicycle Casino to benefit families of firemen and policemen killed in the line of duty. Please come support this worthwhile cause. The buy-in is $130 and dinner is included starting at 5:00pm. If you are on the East Coast, please join me for a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. on March 3rd to benefit Paralyzed Veterans of America. Email me at Linda@cardplayercruises.com if you want more info on either of these events.