I had told myself i was not going to play any tournaments on the nights where I have to go to work the next day. It is just very difficult to play until 3:3:00 am and then go straight to work. I always have the mind set I am going to play all night in any tournament I enter. Its my positive thinking and it helps.

Friday afternoon traffic here in Los Angeles is the worst. I live about 54 miles from work and it takes me about 2-2 1/2 hours on Friday night to get home. So I stop at Commerce which is 5 minutes from my office normally but today it took about 20 minutes because of traffic.

Daniel Alvareaz one of the more jovial individuals of Cheri Dokken’s staff talked me into playing a $120.00 satellite. He held me down on the floor twisted my arm and reached into my wallet and took the money out and put it on the felt. NO, not really he just said,”Theres one seat left in the $120.00 Scott” and I took it.(you wish Danny)

I ended up winning the satellite by being patient and waiting for the right opportunity. Satellites are supposed to be a inexpensive way to get into events. I find some people play them for just the thrill and $120.00 does not mean anything to them or they do not have a family to go home to and are bored with cash games.

I see some show the strangest cards in show downs and no matter where they are seated, they play any ace or suited cards. Occasionally they are lucky and win with J-3 spades or they river a a set of threes to pocket QQ or KK. I keep telling myself these are the people you want to be playing against but it can become frustrating at times because $120.00 means a lot to me and I am here for a purpose not for the rush or to show others how good of a poker player I am or think I am.

I enter event #8 with about 15 minutes before the cards are in the air. There seems to be only about 300 or so and there are still tables full of people playing 2-4 hold em and $40.00 dollar NL cash games. I was expecting 500 or 600 people for this event. The entries are down this year from last year and Cheri told me she expected this because of the California Economy.Eventually over 540 people entered. It just took them along time to get to Commerce because of the traffic. Registrations were still being taken as Level 2 started.

As I sit at my table #32 seat 9, Ut Nguyen, Men The Masters brother is in seat 4 and Anna Wroblewski sits down in seat 3.

I have spoken to her a few times this past year and have seen her play at Legends and the 5 Diamond Classic her record speaks for itself and actually I am excited she is here because I want to be the one to bust her.

I was playing very good and focused,but as all poker players do too often, we make a wrong read or one mistake and it cost us the tournament.

I had AJ of Diamonds out of position and called a new guy who had just sat down in seat 5’s raise of 250 chips.

There was a little buzz at the table as UT Nguyen and another player at the table got all there chips in pre flop. Ut tabled QQ and his opponent turned over JJ. The flop.7-8-9 and the turn was a 10 and as Men the Master came over to check on his brother the river was a 3 and Ut lost to a straight and walked away very disgusted. Some disrespectful player at the adjacent table yelled at him, “Nice Hand Sir” mocking Men’s famous quote. Tasteless but this is the type of player evolving here locally. Rude and obnoxious!
Too much Mike and Phil and now Hevad Khan on TV here I guess.

The flop come out 2D-JC-4D I bet out 600 chips and he just calls. The turn is 8H and I throw in 1000 chips and he just calls. I am now thinking he is on a flush draw or he has a lower pair and does not believe I have the Jack or anything else. He is a middle aged man and I have never seen him before and he doesn’t appear to be strong in the hand. I am thinking he does not have an over pair because he doesn’t raise me on either bet and if he did have an over pair, he is taking a risk I catch 2 pair or a set. I do not put him on a set, because I truly believe he would of raised me. The river is 9H and as I look at him and try and figure him out, I check… he unorthodoxly reaches for the rest of his chips and throws them into the pot as if he is frustrated. He has me covered and I call with top pair top kicker. He turns over pocket Aces and I get this sick feeling. Wow I was just WAMBOOZLED!!!! I told him nice hand and told everyone good luck as I walked away amazed.

I have been pretty good on my reads lately and was sure I had this guy. I was not upset at myself as I get sometimes after getting knocked out. This guy just played that hand really good or really bad and got lucky I didn’t have a set or two pair. His all in at the river tricked me into thinking he missed. As I was leaving I sold my remaining tournament chips to another player and went home $450.00 richer thanks to my satellite win.

Yesterday was the Ladies Event and I stopped by after work to see how it was going. Because of the California Supreme Courts ruling on discrimination, Casino’s cannot have Women Only Events. A disclaimer is added to the advertisements and all genders are able to enter. One man was brave enough to enter the tournament and the field was just over 80 players. Cindy Violette, Anna Wroblewski, Erica Schoenberg, Julie Le (Nams wonderful sister) Alex Jacob’s girlfriend all were entered in the $1000.00 event.

I did not stay very long as it was The Exterminators Poker Crew qualifying night and I had to get to Ray’s house by 5:30. I played another $80.00 satellite before leaving and ended up splitting it with some guy who never had played a satellite before. We both took $360.00 I took the tournament chips and he took the $120.00 cash so I actually received $400.00 to his $320.00 he was very happy with this as he sold his two chips for cash.

I will not be playing any events until Feb 19th. I already entered the $545.00 NL event before I left Commerce. The upcoming events are above my bank roll and if I do play a few more satellites and have the success I had the past 2 days, I will be able to enter a $1500.00 event next week.

It is only 3 more weeks to the Fallen Heroes Memorial Poker Tournament. If you have not sent your entry fee in yet, you can go to the Bicyclecasino.com site and click on Tournaments. Click on the Fallen Heroes logo and register on-line at no extra cost. The Bicycle casino was kind enough to set this up for us.

In the mean time Take care and stop by and say Hello to me at Commerce if you see me.