Scott Diamond

Last Night the Commerce Casino had its $120.00 Deepstack Event for its California State Poker Championship series.

What a turnout!!! There were 866 people who showed up to play and Cherri Dokken and her staff accommodated all of them. This was a huge accomplishment for a Sunday afternoon.

Me...well I doubled up very early and was rolling along until I had my AK beat by KJ on the river by one of the late arrivers. Then my A-8 was beat on the turn by A-5. I went completely card dead and when the blinds went to 600-300 I had 3500 chips left and pushed with 55 only to run into KK.

I watched the final two tables from the night before multiple re buy tournament.My good friend Jorge Pineda again made another final table as did another friend Minh Nguyen.

Minh has fallen on some very tough times lately and has kept his composure and is always a gentleman at the tables. Minh ended up knocking Jorge out in 6th place and the final 5 ended up making a deal which took about 20 minutes. Robert Chip Burner Turner was also at the final table and I found it very amazing how many people lent some of these players money and were waiting around for their percentage.

I felt really bad for Minh, he agreed to take around 69,000 and the trophy with the first place prize at 81,000. Minh had three quarters of the chips in play and watched as the other players argued over there amounts.

After it was all over and the backers were paid and the money owed to others Minh walked away with only 5K..

I hope this is a turnaround for Minh and he goes on a streak to get his life back in order. I am sure there are still more people owed, but at least he paid off some of his debts last night.

Another class act was my friend Jorge who gave a lot of his friends 10-20.00 each before heading home. It may not sound like much,but to me it's just the thought that counts and those guys are having a free meal on Jorge today.

Jorge played a short stack very well last night and when Minh raised in front of Jorge for about 45,000 chips, Jorge moved all in for about 92,000 and Minh Called. Minh showed QJ diamonds and Jorge had AK.. The flop was 8-3-9 and the turn was a 10 giving Minh a straight.

Poker can be cruel so very often. I know I am an expert in this cruelty field. I have a remedy for those demons at Commerce, However I am not going to share it with you at this time. I am hoping to play Either Tuesday or Wednesday, so until then...

Take Care...Be Safe...