By gauchopoker on February 14th, 2007

Drove up to the Chumash with my friend for a night of fun and poker. We got here a bit before dinner and the wait wasn't too bad for the $200 NL game. All the regulars were here. Pretty much recognized everyone. I got off to a bad start when my Jacks ran into a set on a rag board and I played it a bit too hard. Here's how the action came down. I raise to 20, get called by the button. The board reads something like 259 with two hearts. I bet 30, and the button pushes. I figure him for top pair or a draw and call. He has me covered and shows 55. Great start!

I reload and hit a few good hands. My AK wins a nice pot when I flop two pair against a guy who has AJ. I then hit a set of my own and bet every street. The guy to my left called me all the way and shows only middle pair. What a donk!

After 2 hours I'm up one buy-in which is pretty good given my cold start. There weren't too many other memorable hands, just the standard stuff. I tried to play fairly good solid poker the entire time. There was an interesting hand that I watched. The action was something like this:

Limped pot with 4 players, flop comes 556 with two hearts. First guy bets 25, 2 callers. Turn is an A. First guy bets 50, second guy raises to 125, 3rd guy folds, first guy calls. River blank. First guy pushes, 2nd guy calls. Guess the hands. First guy had 55 for flopped quads!!! Second dude had 66 for flopped fullhouse. Ouch!!!

By gauchopoker on February 14th, 2007

Drove up to the Chumash with my friend for a night of fun and poker. We got here a bit before dinner and the wait wasn't too bad for the $200 NL game. All the regulars were here. Pretty much recognized everyone. I got off to a bad start when my Jacks ran into a set on a rag board and I played it...

By lakong on February 21st, 2007

So my wife and I planned to head up to Santa Barbara wine country for a romantic Valentine's dinner at the Sunstone Vineyard with a few other couples. She booked a room at the new Chumash resort. I recalled reading the poker listing of the Chumash poker room up on Tworags, so I was hoping to get in a session or two if I’m able to find some time.

We arrived Friday afternoon and she was a bit under the weather and wanted to get a good night sleep in so she would be rested for the big dinner the following night. Okay, I guess I'll just have to go down to the poker room. Not too bad...

I get there a bit past 9pm, and it is packed. They are spreading 4 NL tables at the $100-200 buyin level with 2/5 blinds and one NL table at the $300-500 level with 5/10 blinds. The lists are 15+ names deep, so I also put my name on some limit list and go to the cafe to grab some food. I get back 30 minutes later and the NL list hasn't moved much but my name comes up for the 4/8 limit game after another 15-20 minutes.

I haven't played much limit in about 2 years, and I'm not a big fan. I try to play a pretty straightforward/TAG game and don't enter many pots. I did have AK one time from LP, raised, get two callers and bet the rag flop, bet a blank turn and folded to a bet by an EP player on the river when I missed again.

I also played a few community pots with 8-9 players but never really made a hand for the 45 minutes or so I played. I think I lost about $70 in total when my name finally came up for the $100-200 game.

I buy-in for the max $200. The table consisted of a mix between blue-collar types in their 30’s and 40’s and college kids, probably coming up from UCSB. Everyone was very friendly and seemed to know each other.

To say I was card dead would be an understatement. Not only did I not get many/any premium hands, but when I did play a hand I rarely hit a flop. On several occasions I would raise from late position, continuation bet when it was checked to me and sometimes even fire a second and even third bullet when I could sense that my opponents wanted me to check. Well, in almost all cases I would get called down by opponents with very little – second and third pair type hands, but they were usually good enough against me.

Of course I tried to change gears and wait for big hands, but even then I would usually lose. For example, one time I three bet a guy with QQ, got called and then on an A rag flop the guy checks to me. I felt compelled to bet, the guy agonizes and calls, he checks again on the turn, I check too, he bets the river I call (probably a bit tilted) and he shows AT.

I played until 2:30am and maybe won 3-5 hands the entire time! One time I did stack a guy when I hit trips on the flop and my opponents didn’t believe I had it so they called me down, but hands like that were few and far between. I lost a few buy-ins and never could get anything going. I did have a good rep to get action for my premium hands, but it just didn’t work out for me. As they say… that’s poker!

I did have a good experience and was impressed with the room. The dealers and players were friendly, the action was good and management was very professional. They could use a bigger room with more tables and a bigger waiting area, but other than that I had no complaints and look forward to my next trip up to Santa Barbara!

* There was a guy there who won about 10 buy-ins – he cashed in for $2k which is quite a lot in a $200 max buy-in game. Not only did the guy have an incredible run of cards, but it seemed that every time he hit a big hand, someone else hit a big hand too, but it was just under his hand. At one point he was dealt KK three times in two orbits. Each time he stacked a player who also had a premium hand, just not quite as strong as his. Just an incredible run of cards.

By lakong on February 21st, 2007

So my wife and I planned to head up to Santa Barbara wine country for a romantic Valentine's dinner at the Sunstone Vineyard with a few other couples. She booked a room at the new Chumash resort. I recalled reading the poker listing of the Chumash poker room up on Tworags, so I was hoping to get i...