I was in San Jose on business last Thursday. After meetings in the morning, I went over to the Bay 101. It is a small casino - the guy with me remarked that it looked like a bowling alley. They have one area with some card games and another with poker tables. The poker area is good sized and they have 25 or so tables. They have a weird rule in the area, that keeps them from having no limit games. They have mostly limit games, as high as 100/200 and several spread limit tables, where the blinds are 3, 5, with 2 on the button. Unfortunately, the max bet is $200 and you can only buy in for $200 max. I got a table about 7:00. When I sat down, there weren't any huge stacks. One young woman had about $1200. I was all in my second hand. I had AT and the board was T rag rag. I ended up chopping with another guy who had the same hand.
I doubled up quickly after that, when I flopped a set against a guy who had top pair. Right after that, a local "table captain" sat down across from me. He was bound and determined to beat me. He only started with $80 though. He coubled through me when he rivered a flush against my 99. I think that was the only hand won from me. I must have busted him at least 5 times. He was super aggressive and I can see how he could build up a chip stack, but everytime I was in a pot with him, I had quality hands. It seemed like every flop, I would make a strong bet and he would put me all in with a draw or junk. It was always about $100 to call him, so I don't think I ever laid down to him. It seems like I constantly had top pair or an overpair and I always beat him. I know he was getting frustrated. He must have lost close to 2K, which was a lot for this little game. He seemed to respect me, but was also constantly trying to outplay me.
I played pretty tight but also picked a few tight players to pick on. The young woman steadily lost the money she had. She played super tight and was very weak. I bluffed her off a good sized pot and showed my hand. The "table captain" told me to "pick on someone my own size". A lot of these folks must play together everyday, so they were friends and didn't play hard against each other (lots of "lets check it down").
I steadily built my stack. I was up to about 1K. By now the woman and captain were gone. We got down to 6 players, so I was raising $30 about half the hands. I had 77 out of position against a guy with about $600. The flop had a K 8 2. I bet $40 and he called. The turn was a 7, giving me a set. I bet $75 and he quickly raised me $200. Turns out he had top pair and I guess he figured I was just screwing around. Anyway, I re-raised him another $200. He looked sick, but called. He had about $50. I went ahead and put him all in. Like I said, he showed top pair. After that, I had about $1600.
They broke my table after that (it was really late by then) and I moved to a table where the biggest stack was maybe $300. No one had any dang money. I went on a huge rush of cards. I got AA and made it $25. One player with maybe $250 min-raised to $50. A semi-loose player with maybe $150 called. I then raised $200 and they both called. She had QQ and he had AK, so I was a big favorite. To top it off, I flopped an ace. After that, had over 2K. I continued my rush, by playing junk and hitting flops or turns. I hit the nut straight twice, a full house, etc., and got paid off, but from people with short stacks.
I ended up cashing out about $2500. I took a cab back to the hotel, packed my stuff and raced to the airport for an early morning flight.
