By StrayBullet on April 20th, 2007

I had business in Orange County the week of 4/17 and as any good poker player would do, I flew out the Friday before the week of work! I had tournaments all planned out for the LA and surrounding area but that all changed when I got a taste of Hawaiian Gardens and an itch to play at the Venetian!

I played in the $155 at HG on Friday, with starting chips of T2k and 25 minute levels, it wasn't much better than what I experience in FL. I was totally let down by the facilities. I wasn't expecting a Vegas style card room but I wasn't prepared for the "warehouse" type setting and exposed ceiling. A VERY odd feeling for sure! I ended up busting with a hand I'll vow never to play again, the dreaded AQ! I raised from early position and got heads-up to the flop with position. Villain led out for 200 and I raised to 600 which was flat-called on a Qx7 board. Turn provided me with a 3rd queen but all was for naught as it filled him up and I was prompty heading for the door. 257 entrants on a Friday afternoon, Cali sure does love it's poker!

By StrayBullet on April 20th, 2007

I had business in Orange County the week of 4/17 and as any good poker player would do, I flew out the Friday before the week of work! I had tournaments all planned out for the LA and surrounding area but that all changed when I got a taste of Hawaiian Gardens and an itch to play at the Venetian! ...

By EdmondDantes on July 30th, 2007

After my visit to Ocean's 11 Casino, I headed back north toward LA and worked my way over to Hawaiian Gardens Casino for a brief look at their set-up. HG is located about 35 miles southeast of Santa Monica, about a mile off the 605 freeway in the city of, well, Hawaiian Gardens. The casino (actually, two Sprung structures www.sprung.com*) is spartan by LA cardroom standards. In its current state, there are two main structures, one for California games (blackjack variants, pai gow, etc.), one for poker action and a smaller structure sandwiched between. You can get an idea of the setup from a satellite image of the facility below...




Overview

The casino has about 190 tables in total, of which approximately 140 are oriented to poker games. The two main rooms are wide open rooms (from above, pai gow, blackjack, etc. in the tent on the left and poker in the one on the right) filled with tables with admin areas (brush, cage, etc.) along the perimeter. Imagine an airplane hanger with a Hawaiian theme that happens to have 140 poker tables and you get a sense of the poker room. Although Spartan and very active, HG is surprisingly comfortable with well-maintained equipment, flat screens everywhere and first-rate customer service.

The main poker room is partitioned into the general area and a VIP or higher stakes area with 15/30 limit and above and $300 NL and above. Note to the hungry: food is free in the VIP section. The smaller stakes limit, $100 NL, Omaha and stud action fill the remainder of the room and are scattered liberally around. You can check it out in a lousy camera phone photo below.

The main room




The smaller, middle "tent" used to house the Lahiana restaurant (among other things) but to accommodate HG’s growth over the last few years, management opted to replace the restaurant tables with baby NL games. HG was the originator in So Cal of the fixed buy-in NL game and, as with Ocean’s, they’ve seen tremendous demand for them. You can imagine the management meeting. “Well, the restaurant tables are busy twice a day with an average ticket of $8. If we took them out, we’d have room for about 30 NL tables generating about $100+ per hour an average of 18 hours per day.” It was probably an easy decision.


Low Stakes NL…Hawaiian G-style

As I mentioned above, the small stakes NL games are held in the room which used to house the Lahaina restaurant. There were roughly 30 tables in the room of which 16 were in operation on Thu night at around 8p. The majority, 11-12 were 1/1 blinds, $20 min-max buy-in tables; another 6 or so were 1/2 blinds, $40 min-max tables.

I wanted to try these tables, checked with the brush person and was immediately seated at a $20 table. The clientele at these tables seemed to be mostly social players with fewer of the older limit players I’d see at Ocean’s. The demographics pretty much mirrored the surrounding area—Hawaiian Gardens is an Asian community; Oceanside comprises more of an older, retiree market. Of course, given the So Cal locations, both have a strong complement of Hispanic patrons.

In the baby NL room, the tables themselves are quite close together and have an unusual nylon “felt”. I’m not a big fan of the faux felt—it makes me feel like there should be drains in the floor so they can just hose the whole room down at the end of the night. It wasn’t grungy by any sense, but it was definitely barebones and set up to accommodate lots of turnover with several staff persons focused on filling open seat and chip runners with $20 stacks of chips to facilitate the frequent reloads.

Although it’s a $20 min-max buy-in, it’s not uncommon to see players sitting relatively deep with 5-6 buy-ins. And as you might expect, you can see some very interesting hands at these levels with varying stacks and skills. Within moments of my arrival at the table, there were 5 limpers (including the two big stacks at the table, both sitting with $1000+) to me with some junk hand in the BB. The flop came 5T5 rainbow, and I folded to the small blind’s $6 lead. Both of the large stacks called. The turn was a blank completely the rainbow. The small blind again bet out, this time for $12. Call. Call. “Ok, someone’s lying.” I thought. The river bricked and the small blind shoved. When the first big stack called, the small blind announced, “Well, I think I’m beat. You must have a five.” I thought, “You led all three streets, OOP, on a non-draw board without a five? Bless your heart.” Oddly enough, the other big stack insta-called as well. Both big stacks showed T5o for flopped boats. The small blind tabled QTo and was promptly reloaded by one of the roving chip runners.

I ordered a Jack Daniels on the rocks to keep my head from exploding and settled in for some more of this dark comedy. Within another orbit or so, there were 5 limpers to me in the BB with 8[h]9[h]. The flop was 8J6 rainbow, checked around. The small blind led out at the 8[c] turn and, with trips, I shoved for my all $18 or so of my stack. It folded back to the small blind, he called and showed J2c. Top pair, no kicker—I’ll take it.

A few hands later there was a min-raise with two callers to me in LP with TT. I raised to $10 and got one caller. Checked to me, I shoved the J high flop and the caller abandoned his hand.


Maelstrom!

One of the problems with multi-way pots with lots of limp calling is that you sometimes get sucked into being a calling station. A few hands later I played one of those hands and I still feel the shame of it. An UTG min-raiser made it $2 (Is there a book or something that advocates min-raising? If not, why on Earth do guys do so much of it live?) and there were four calls behind to me on the button with 33. In a limped pot, I sometimes re-pop this and take down a nice pot with a continuation bet, but that min-raise UTG had me beat and I knew it. I called for set value, and when the flop fell 245 rainbow, I started to hear a vague sucking noise.



The original raiser then bet $3 into the $12+ pot, leaving himself $8 behind. Everyone called to me and I considered shoving but thought all I’d accomplish was getting heads up with a short stack (the original raiser) who had me beat. I called the $3. The turn brought an eight (no flush draw) at which point the UTG raiser shoved and the vague sucking sound turned into a full on ship rattling maelstrom. Call, call, call, call. $8 to me into a $50+ pot in with two of the callers and myself sitting with chips behind. It occurred to me that a made straight (67) was a definite possibility and at a higher level I’d likely fold. But here, in the low stakes NL abyss, ANY HOLDINGS are possible and the thought of an A rolling off and a horribly played ATo taking this pot forced me to call the 8 bucks.

As it was, a second eight rolled off on the river and the hellish whirlpool stopped. Check check check check check. TT > 45 > A4 > 33 > 23 for a $60 pot at $20 min-max NL. God help us.

A few hands later I saw another fine play by one of the large stacks at the table. Six limpers to the BB (the big stack at the table with $120ish) who made it $10 to go. There was a call behind here, and then a shove for another $15 (?). What is the call then shove in MP—88…AQ? In any event, the table folded back to the BB. She called and big stack behind her called for a $75+ pot. Flop came 5[d]4[d]9[s]. The original raise then bet $10 into the $75 pot, but the other stack was obviously not going anywhere with that bet. Call. Checked it down from there. AKo < A[d]2[d] < 77.


Bigger and better things

At this point, I’d seen enough carnage, racked up (ok, so I picked up my $18 in chips) and went out to put my name on the list for the $500 NL game, played here with 5/10 blinds. Within a few minutes I was seated at what looked to be a pretty good table, lots of limp/calling, a strip-club obsessed “money manager” (henceforth, “Suit”) sitting with about a grand and just enough table passivity to be interesting.

Within minutes of sitting, I witnessed the following hand. Suit min-raises UTG to $20. Middle position player sitting $500 deep raises to $75. DB calls in position, and Suit folds. Flop 992. MP raiser fires $125 bet. DB calls. Turn is a blank. Check. Guy behind pushed for $240. Original raiser labors and calls with 88. 88 < TT. Suit shakes his head and shouts “I had A9!”.

A few hands later there are six limpers to me (and yes, I’m still at the 5/10 table) on the DB with AQo. I bump it to $50 and get two callers. Checked to me, I bet $100 at the A high flop. One player folds, the other one shoves for another $50 or so. Turn, river…blank, blank. AQo > POS.

I didn’t have too many more hands to report. Called in position with JTs, multi-way pot. Whiffed the flop. Folded to action in front of me. Later, I'm in middle position with AA and raised two limpers to $40. Everyone folded. Whatever.

The laugh-out-loud hand of the session was the following. Limped all around, six players (including me in the BB with 8[s]6[s]) to the flop. KK5. Checked all the way around. Turn is a K. I check. Suit (to my left in the BB) pushed $20 into the $60 pot. Called all around except for me. River is the case K, at which point, three players jump up out of their chairs. Only two players show—JJ and QJ. Q takes the pot and the JJ player throws his hand to the felt shouting “JJ never wins for me!” Gee, I can’t imagine why.

The action was good enough that I came back down on Saturday night to check it out again. I poked my head in the low stakes NL room and it was PACKED. All 30 or so tables and some overflow tables running. The atmosphere was again pretty raucous—it’s more like a party than a poker room. I spent a little time watching and it’s obviously more of a social event than hard-core playing. I guess it has to be. At the $20 min-max tables, there’s only $180 on the table to start with and HG is pulling maybe $75/hour out of that economy.

In any event, I sat in a $300 NL table (3/5 blinds) that was much tighter than the one I’d played the Thursday before. Players were much more cautious—still limping, but fewer to the flop. I promptly blew off a buy-in in the following hand.

I’m in middle position with A[h]J[h]. UTG limps to me, I bump it to $20. DB and UTG both called. I totally whiff the flop T[s]7[s]6[d] but when UTG checked to me, I fired $35 at the pot. DB called and UTG folded. Turn was another T and I checked. DB checked behind. River was A[c] which I checked hoping to get him to stab at it. He did that and then some, shoving for $200 and standing up. WTF? My immediate thought was that I didn’t have much in the pot so I should abandon the hand, but I couldn’t make sense of the bet. A big pocket pair re-raises PF or on the flop. A set, straight or T bets < pot here usually. He didn’t look particularly comfortable, showed way too much strength and over bet shoved the pot at the river. Sure looked like a busted flush draw to me. I called and it wasn’t, of course. He showed AQo but whatever. More than 50% of the time, that’s a busted draw. I’m more ticked off that I didn’t fire a second bullet at the turn.

In retrospect, that hand opened the table up considerably. The guy I doubled up promptly (next hand, in fact) donked off 80% of his stack to another player’s AA. As for me, I ended up getting action on AA, QQ (2x) and took down a nice pot with a straight flush draw shove into a multi-way pot. I’m pretty sure the table labeled me as a loose player, but I really only played quality hands (and not many hands overall) all night. I ended the session off a $100 and happy with my play.

A note on the service. The dealers and floor staff were, as at Ocean’s, noticeably friendlier than those at the Bike or Commerce. None of the thinly veiled contempt for players that you’ll often experience from dealers in the bigger LA rooms. Considering HG’s size and activity level, that’s impressive. As for table service, the $300+ NL games are played in the VIP section. Food’s free and quite good. I didn’t ordered food but several players had hamburgers and fruit plates that looked very good. As with all LA rooms, drinks are not free, but the cocktail service was responsive.

Overall, I think Hawaiian Gardens Casino is a nice alternative to the Commerce or the Bike. There’s bigger action at both those rooms, but plenty of action for mid-stakes players at HG. There’s plenty of parking, easy access from the 605 freeway, minimal wait times, decent food for $300+ players and guys that are willing to call off $200 with a pair of aces, jack kicker. What more could you want?

Still digging,

Edmond


[i]Footnote[/i]

*Sprung structures are typically used for semi-permanent facilities that needed quick construction—military installations and Indian gaming facilities, for example. Hawaiian Gardens was one of the last (if not the last) California card room to be licensed prior to the moratorium on card room licenses and started up with five poker tables set up in trailers in December of 1997. It used the sprung structures thereafter add capacity cheaply and quickly. For a thorough account of the history and breadth of gaming in California, see Gambling in the Golden State – 1998 Forward by Charlene Wear Simmons, Ph. D, May 2006.

Gambling in the Golden State 1998 Forward - pages 1-92
Gambling in the Golden State 1998 Forward - pages 93-176

By EdmondDantes on July 30th, 2007

After my visit to Ocean's 11 Casino, I headed back north toward LA and worked my way over to Hawaiian Gardens Casino for a brief look at their set-up. HG is located about 35 miles southeast of Santa Monica, about a mile off the 605 freeway in the city of, well, Hawaiian Gardens. The casino (...

By NJINJI on October 13th, 2007

This trip report consists of a day of me playing basically the lowest buy in no limit that exists. Maybe this will be helpful to anyone who is curious about the $20 (1/1) game at HG but has never had a chance to play it.

Keep in mind, i'm not a pro, that's why this isn't a TR for 5/10 NL. I'm learning, so any advice on my play is definitely welcome. I didn't think I was going to write this so some details have been forgotten or may be slightly inaccurate.

The main purpose of this trip was to a) kill a day, b)get some hours towards the 50 needed for the 50k freeroll, and c) win some cash

Here goes.

Arrive at HG at 8:30 (earliest i've ever gotten there). Place is pretty dead, on the plus side, got a great parking spot. Go to the 20/40 NL room and there's 2 20 games and 1 40 game. 40 has been going all night and has seats open. Two players, estimating one has ~$1000-1500 and another has $1500-2000, all from a $40 buy in. Obviously they've been there all night. They look TIRED. I get on the list for the 20 and a player at the 40 calls me over to play while I wait. What the hell, it's early. Sit down with $40 and see a few flops for 2$ but nothing. The two very large stacks are playing conservatively. 5 min later, new 20 table is opening and I leave with about $30.

So (sorry I forget the details here) after a few hands I find myself in a decent position to push. I like to play very aggressively until I have 40-50$ in chips then I slow down. I don't always push with 20$ or less, but it is much more common. I push and lose. Oh well, another $20 buy in. Play a bit tighter but still aggressive second time around. Play for awhile more and find a good position to push again and lose. Good position being either something like having raised to 3 or 4 pre flop to get the pot up with decent cards and either hit a pair or gotten 4 to a high flush draw. Repeat again, lose again. This is starting to suck. Buy in again (turns out to be final buy in for the day). Few hands of nothing and then then i've got two decent cards (K[h]Q[h] or the like). I raise to 3 preflop and get a few callers. Flop gives me top pair with three diamonds on the board. Asian fellow a few seats to my right pushes for very close to 20 chips. He's been chasing. Since there's a few (1-2?) players to act after me, I put him on a diamond. I call. Other players fold. Turn and river come off with no diamonds and give me a set. He just had Ad. I play tighter, no more calling large all in bets for awhile. Pick up some decent hands and get up to about 3-4 stacks ~60-80$ without risking much. Guy directly to my right is a decent player but he's having horrible luck probably bought in 7 or 8 times by this point.
Finally i've got JJ. Unlucky player to my right pushes pre-flop and i've got to call. Others fold. I don't really try to put the players who have few chips and keep buying in on any hands unless they're very poor players and it's obvious. I'm just not good enough to do it as with so few chips people will play crazy hands. Anyway he flips over QQ, I flip over JJ and he gets excited thinking he'll finally double up. No such luck as the turn gives me a J and he decides it's time to leave.

New player sits down, pretty nice guy (and probably a good player). He lives close by but usually plays at commerce. Soon after I get KK. Best hand of the day so far. He pushes for ~20 or so. One or two people to act after me. I either call or raise 20 more. Next player to act pushes for 70 chips or so. Any others to act fold. I call. I flip KK, other player (who reraied 70 all in) flips K7 offsuit. Eveyone at the table is like WTF? I mean i've seen guys pushing on crap like 75 with 20$ or so but this guy had ~3 stacks. The new player to my right flips over AA. I don't care that much cause i'm dominating the K7 for a very nice sidepot. Then 4 clubs come up. guess who has the K[c] ? Mr. K7 of course. Although the poker gods didn't let him get all of it as the AA player had A[c]. Whatever, just another bad beat but at least we knew how this guy played. In the next hour or so I probably got a good amount of my money back from him. I think he bought in once or twice more then was out of it.

This was about 11 am or so. For the rest of the day I won two monster pots one very nice pot, and some average ones. And I lost probably 6 or so decent sized ones.

First monster pot. I was on the button with 64s. Sometimes for 1$ I say what the heck and hope for a low flop. Flop came A64 rainbow. Heavy betting all around with 4 players in. I think I raised. Regardless, the post was approaching 40-50$ after the flop. River is some card that might give someone a straight, but other than that no help for anything. again heavy betting, all 4 players stayed, I just called. Turn is a card that gives no help for anything. again betting (maybe not so heavy this time), but all 4 of us are in. I think some had pair of aces, some had pocket pair, but two pair held up for a monster pot.

For the nice pot. I had 55. Was in with one guy post flop. He had 50 chips or so. Flop came A 2 4. I think I bet 5-10 and he called, other players folded. turn was 6 or 7 or something irreverent. I think I checked, he bet 10 and I called. I wasn't sure if he had A or not but I had some money in the pot and had some outs. River was the wonderful 3. I bet 10 and he called. Showed the A and I showed the 5's.

At this point I had probably 7 or 8 stacks. I don't remember the losing hands as well as the winning hands. I lost a couple hands to this one guy who was getting incredibly lucky cards. One hand I had top pair (kings?) and couldn't really put him on anything. Cost me about 10$ per bet and he flips over aces. Okay that happens sometimes. Did this a few times with similar cards (top pair jacks with kings, ect). In the span of about 20-30 min he got AA 3 times or so and KK a few times. And most of the time I had good hands to call his 5-10$ bets with given the board and any action from other players.

Last monster pot. This lady sits down a few seats to my right. She is talking about how she lost at the other table. Probably had a drink or two. Didn't get the impression she was a very strong player, so definitely wouldn't mind being in a pot with her given the right cards. I've got A10s. Flop comes 10 x x rainbow, 10 is top pair. There's probably 4 people in the game including one guy who won a good amount of money from me earlier. He doesn't strike me as a very nice person or friendly player. Another note, he somehow got one of the chip runners to exchange a rack of his 1$ chips for a white $100 chip. I have not seen this before here, all chips are usually 1$ with the very very very occasional 5$ chip that the dealers usually change to ones when it gets in a pot. Anyway, the lady pushes with ~20$. I want to get out the other 2 callers as I fell i've got a good shot at taking her stack if they're gone so I raise $20 more. The guy throws his 100$ chip in. (I didn't have a good view of his chips and didn't realize he was out of 1$ chips - I also didn't hear him say "call"). I call time to decide and the other players quickly tell me he just called. I might have given away some info but oh well. Now I see why they only use 1$ chips. turn comes 10. I bet another 20. He calls. At this point, I should have realized that I had a very very strong hand but I was still feeling not so great about his quick call and was still feeling the "I don't want HIM in this pot" from when I just had TPTK. River came an overcard. He checks to me. This is where I made a mistake (and I need to watch this in my play in the future). I flipped over the 10A. I should have raised at least 20 more. Anyway he flipped over KK and the lady flipped over QQ. Neither hit the overcard. I got to take his 100$ chip which was cool and this put me at around $210. The lady bought in again and asked for my 100$ chip. I didn't respond because her question made no sense. You want me to take $100 in live money off the table to give to you because it's pretty??????

And then I lost a few more decent pots to that same lucky guy with the aces. I had QQ. Board didn't have anything threatening. Cost me 10$ a bet again and he flips over AA again.

Left at about 3pm and cashed out $140. Up 70$ or so plus a nice lunch (the thai chicken salad is pretty good - not recommended if you don't like onions though).

If anyone wants to go have some fun at 20/40 or maybe 100, lemme know!.

Edit: and yes, when I left at 3pm those two HUGE stack players at the 40 table were still there. Didn't get a good look as I left but the larger stack seemed to be down a couple hundred.

By NJINJI on October 13th, 2007

This trip report consists of a day of me playing basically the lowest buy in no limit that exists. Maybe this will be helpful to anyone who is curious about the $20 (1/1) game at HG but has never had a chance to play it. Keep in mind, i'm not a pro, that's why this isn't a TR for 5/10 NL. I'm...

By NJINJI on October 17th, 2007

I had a few hours to kill today so I went down to HG to try some $100 NL.

Sat down after waiting about 10 min. At the table one guy had about $700 or so, one had $300 and the rest were around or under 100.

Few hands in and i'm to 80 or so in chips and get QQ.
Someone makes it 10. I raise to 20. three callers (including both of the big stacks).
flop is something like 442. Big stack bets 25. One player folds. I push. Other player calls, big stack calls.
turn is 5, the other two players bet 20. river is K big stack bets 50 or so and other player folds. My queens win it.

continue to play but not getting many good cards.
Another hand it's me and a short stack heads up. He makes it 20 preflop. I call with JQ. Flop is 10KA. He bets his last 40$ and I call. He had pocket 5's but it does him no good.

Also flop top pair (aces) with a good kicker but get beat by the guy to my left with a straight. Only cost me 10-15$ a bet though, so not too bad.

Last notable hand is A3. Flop is 533. Checks all around. Next card is K Player to my right bets 10. I call. Two or three other callers. Last card is a 7 or other non-threatening card. He bets 10 again. I make it 30. One call one fold, original better fold. trip 3's takes it.

Then comes an interesting hand (that i'm not in). One player has $26 left and puts it all in preflop. 3 callers. Flop is 10JQ. Big stack bets 30 or something. Next player to act makes it $95. Next player to act goes all in for about $200. Big stack goes all in. It's to the $95 raiser to act. But dealer burns and turns the turn. which happens to be another 10. Players get very mad and the floorman gets called over. Their rules for this situation is that a new turn card is dealt, the 10 is shuffled back into the deck and the river is dealt. the original $26 all in player is FURIOUS cussing out the dealer/floorman/casino saying that is complete BS and they should reimburse him. Other players are very mad at the dealer for messing up the hand and ruining any possible jackpot (straight/royal flush was a possibility I think). This goes on for about 5 minutes and people start to come over to see what's happening. But floorman says sorry this is the rules, no reimbursements. The 95$ raiser folds. the original all in player is still fuming mad. Big stack says "it's okay it could come up on the river!" Obviously he doesn't want that card. Finally the dealer finishes the hand and two other non interesting cards are delt. Turns out original all in player had J10 (would have had boat but just had 2 pair). Big stack had K9 for the straight. Other all in player mucked. The dealer was replaced after the hand and the big stack gave the $26 all in pot to the player who should have won it.

I've seen the misdeal thing happen once or twice in the 20/40 room but no one seemed to care as it wasn't a big deal for that hand.

Played a bit more but nothing interesting. Then all of a sudden darkness. few people start to yell "cover your chips". 5 or 10 seconds later the generators kick in and lights come back on. Apparently it happens from time to time here. The tv's and the table computers (used for the players card tracking) are still off though. Someone said the cameras don't lose power when it happens, but I don't see how that matters unless they're night vision as it's completely dark.

Played a few more hands but got nothing. Cashed out at $287 for a $187 win. Peak chip count was $320 or so.

So in conclusion, the $100 game is pretty loose. I was very surprised how many family pots there were. You can see alot of flops for 3$ and if you hit a monster hand get alot of callers.

By NJINJI on October 17th, 2007

I had a few hours to kill today so I went down to HG to try some $100 NL. Sat down after waiting about 10 min. At the table one guy had about $700 or so, one had $300 and the rest were around or under 100. Few hands in and i'm to 80 or so in chips and get QQ. Someone makes it 10. I ra...