Commerce, Congrats, New FL Limits and More Steps

Tons of odds and ends to get through today...

My trip to the OC after Vegas allowed me to hit the Commerce for the first time. I first put my name on a 200nl list but then I remembered they had odd blinds. I asked the floor and the blinds were 5/5. A little higher than I was looking for so I put my name on the 100nl 2/3 list and was able to get a seat almost immediately. Everything that everyone has told me about the place is true. Craisians everywhere! It took me a total of about three hands at the table to figure out who the droolers in the game were. In particular there was a Russian/Eastern European in the 1 seat. In two separate hands in the first 1/2 hour at the table I was able to nearly double against him. I went from my $100 starting stack to $285. My second near double all but busted him. He left the table but wanted the seat locked up. Yes!

About 15 minutes pass and he buys back in for $100 with 20's 10's 5's and 1's. The very first hand there is a raise to $15 and a caller to him. He raises to $35 and gets called in 3 spots. Flop comes QJx. He ships his last $65 in and gets called in 2 spots before there is an all-in and another caller. One of the players had K10 and the other flopped two pair. River A and K10 takes it. Russian/Eastern European slams downs the AA in disgust and walks away saying "keep my seat locked up". He ended up throwing his cards so hard they almost hit me in the 4 seat, landing on the rail. We waited for 45 minutes but unfortunately he never returned.

After our Eastern-European friend left the table turned into one of the nittiest ever. The 30-something guy to my left played the nuts and nothing else. When he was in a pot you folded. An older gentleman who took the 1 seat was nitty along with another older guy in the 2 seat. In one hand I had AK and the guy in the two seat raised to $15 with about $40 behind. I raised to $45 straight and he tanked for about a minute before folding QQ face up. Yeah, that tight. I told him he could pick either card cause they were both the same, he picked the ace. I bled down slowly over a couple more hours and ended up walking with around an $85 profit.

Congrats to CK for her 4th place finish in the Venetian $500 event for a little north of $20k. Great job! It figures the year after I buy pieces of her in a few events that she hits a big score. I run good.

As of 7/1 the new limits have arrived in Florida. We now have all of the games offered in Vegas. I stopped by the room near my house for a second to see what they were offering. Looked like the biggest game in the room was two 5/10 no-limit games. I was ale to play my first action 7/2 albeit only in the 1/1 $60 buy-in game. After having my roll depleted by Vegas and life expenses that's all I could afford. As expected the play was absolutely horrendous. I turned my $60 starting stack into $149 in less than 90 minutes before I had to leave. I might stick to that game for a little bit while building back up to the 1/2 game.

I witnessed one lol thing and one rofl thing in the game. I saw a dude win a $60 pot and tip $5. Shortly after that he won a $45ish pot and tipped another $5. I weep every time I see that. It's bad enough you have a 10% $5 rake plus a $2 high hand rake in the game. I swear Florida dealers have it made over their Las Vegas brothers and sisters. The rofl was truly one of the funniest things I have ever heard at a table. There were 3 limpers before the small blind raises to $3 and naturally everyone calls. Flop comes out and it gets checked through. Small blind check folds the turn and says to the player next to him, "To be honest I was just trying to steal the limped money". Buhahhahaha. He raised 3x (to $3) after 3 limpers. Does he honestly think everyone is gonna fold?

I have been perusing the steps and satellites on Poker Stars lately looking to see if I can win my way into a LAPT or ANZPT event. Unfortunately the ANZPT events do not utilize the step system. Their seat only satellites run around $265 and their package satellites are around $415. I even sent a PM to the ANZPT Tournament Director Danny McDonagh to see if he could do something. He said he actually tried the same thing with no luck. At least he tried, which is commendable. I really wanted to use the steps to try and win a seat. Guess that is just not going to happen for me and I am resigned to try and win a LAPT (or possibly an APPT) seat since they do use the steps.

My current step plan is to play a step 2 about every other week and try and build up some step 3's. Nearing the end of the year I will then try and press them into some step 6's for a shot at a seat. So far I am 2/2 in advancing. I probably won't play another one till around the end of the month.