11/21/99 sunday
this club has not changed since my last visit two years ago. they've got about 25-30 tables of stud, hold 'em and omaha at various limits. they also offer pai gow and pan. the gaming area is in the center of the room, sunken about 4-5 feet below the surrounding walkway. people on the rail can look down and see the action at about half the tables in the room. the boardman is set up in a corner, at rail level, and he can oversee all that is happening in the room. however, the signup board can't be seen by players and is not projected anywhere, so you can't see how far down you are on the lists, or if there is any funny stuff going on. dealers change on the 1/4 hour, and you pay time charge on the 1/2 hour. dealers keep their own tips.
i'm called for 4/8 stud. as i am getting settled, the man to my right looks at me and says, "hey! i remember you! don't you have some kind of poker web page?" wow! i'm impressed. i played with this guy once, in august 1997, and i was wearing my "rec.gambling.poker" baseball cap. i remember the hand, too. we were playing 6/12 stud; i had just sat down, and i was the bring-in with pocket sixes. he raised with an ace. i make runner-runner sixes for quads to beat his aces full. you bet he remembered me! ;)
the time charge for 4/8 stud is $4. after a while, they call down one of those screwy 9/18 stud games. i was first on the list, and ran to lock up a seat. i'm told that this is the highest-limit stud game in the bay area, and i want to play! :) they use teal-colored $3 chips for this game, and the time charge is $5. after an hour or so in the game, during which time one dealer had asked me about my "barge99" chips (she and another player said that they recognized my reference to the poker newsgroup), a man taps me on the shoulder and says, "you're tiger! i remember you from atlarge! presto!" it's ernst-dieter martin, and he wins a tropicana jacket!! wtg dieter!!
an hour or two later, a large, exuberant, bespectacled gentleman of chinese extraction bounds up to our stud table. he tells dieter, "this job thing sucks!" it's bill chen (who, it turns out, is really a red-neck born in alabama!) and he's quite ticked off that the stud game is already in progress and he's without a seat. but bill gets into our game within 45 minutes or so. he looks like a maniac; raises like a maniac; plays like a maniac; but he stacks chips just like a pro! ;) bill is quite enamored of my method of betting six chips. rather than put two little stacks of three chips adjacent to each other on the betting surface, i pick up six chips; separate them in my hand into two groups of three, and throw them out lengthwise in front of me in two adjacent rows of three. one row is slightly ahead of the other. bill spends the rest of the night trying to imitate this procedure!
our game is terrific! everyone knows each other (except this east-coaster, of course), and the laughter never stops! dieter, alan and bill are all great guys, and we have a blast! and i won all the money, too! :D
although i had planned to play in today's stud tourney at lucky chances, i just didn't get out of bed in time to make the 10:30 start. oh, well.
i'll be in the bay area for at least another few days! i hope to meet more of you!!
[ tiger hops over to the California Grand Casino ]tiger returns to the Oaks for the screwy 9/18 7-card stud game
12/2/99 thursday
hiya, folks!
it's been a while since i posted a report - i've been busy, you see. i have a few things to tell you! :)
first - i want to thank all of you for your warm comments about these reports. a large part of my professional career involves writing. and i've written something almost every day of my adult life. so, reporting my experiences is not a chore for me - the tough part is to make it entertaining. here goes!
11/26/99 friday
after a wonderful thanksgiving, neal, dan and i celebrated the post-thanks- giving period with a brunch of dim sum at "abc seafood" in foster city, where they live. then it was time for one more poker session.
i'd been salivating all week at the thought of another session of the screwy 9/18 7-card stud game at the oaks club in emeryville. i got to the club at about 3:30pm, and was thrilled to learn that there already were five names on the interest list for the game, which generally doesn't get started until about 7pm. sure enough, they get it cranked up around 4:30. i see two or three of the usual suspects from last week, together with a few players i hadn't seen before. my favorite seat, #8, was taken by a man i had watched for a while at the 4/8 stud game. i'd describe him as a "bully" - very aggressive, big stack of chips, almost always willing to bet whenever it was checked to him - but he managed to pull cards as if he knew that they were going to be there. ok. i'll take #1 and play right behind him.
phil is on my left, in #2. he is a friend of bill chen's and had played in the game last week. i didn't know the asian gentlemen in #3 and #4, but peter, the asian gentleman in #5 was in the game last week. ernst-dieter martin took #6, and the big fish was in #7. phil told me that peter's nickname was "hawk." it seems that this soft-spoken handsome man need do nothing to have every pretty woman within two blocks come up to him and greet him. nice guy to have around, huh?
the game, as i suspected, is pretty wild. wyatt, the bully in #8, is in at least half the pots. he's splashing chips around, betting and raising at every chance. i'd label him a maniac, but he's got a lot more poker smarts than the average maniac. dunno what to do with him.
within a few hours, i'm stuck $300. then things start to change. wyatt raises my bet on fifth street (i've got two split pair, kings and sevens), and i three-bet him, since i'm convinced that he's pushing a small pair with an ace overcard. i make a seven on 6th street, and another seven on the river (improving my sevens full to quads). he actually raises me on the river, and i three-bet him again! :)
i'm the low card with jacks in the hole, and open for a full bet. scott, the guy in #4 and wyatt call. i bet the hand all the way (high cards keep falling on them, but they're split between the two), make a running pair of tens on 5th and 6th, and my two pair is good. :)
a little old lady from pasadena (or somewhere else) replaces dieter, and i greet her by cracking her wheel with a full house on the river. welcome to the game, lady. :)
then i'm rolled up with queens, in last position. four people, including wyatt, who is showing a 10, have limped in and i have the highest card. i raise, and get three callers. on 4th street, two rags fall, wyatt gets a jack, and i get a nine. i bet, and they all stay. on 5th street, nothing of apparent help happens. i'm high with a king, and only wyatt (who's caught a five) calls. he pairs his five on 6th street, and check-raises me. i make it three bets, and he calls. he checks blind on the river. i look at a five, and bet my three unimproved queens. he says, "ooh! i caught a queen!" and raises me. i pay it off. he started with a slick in the hole and a ten in the door; caught a jack on 4th street, and made the case queen on the river to complete his gutshot broadway. ::::sigh:::: he was drawing to exactly one card and got there - and i didn't improve. "nice hand, sir!"
by this time, the players have loosened up considerably, and i've managed to mention my trip. scott, the guy in #4, tells me that he lurks at rgp, and even remembers my screenname! :) he's lived in the bay area all his adult life, and (surprise!) is in he computer industry. scott wears a handle-bar mustache and a baseball cap with the letter "m" on it. and it takes him a few minutes to remember that the "m" stands for the memphis red sox!! but then he tells me all about the oaks club chips!! :)
yes, they're all those dratted speed chips! but the colors!! the $1 chips are simply green. but the $2 chips are gray with black highlights. these colors just happen to be the team colors of the oakland raiders! the $3 chips used for the screwy 9/18 games are teal with white highlights. these colors just happen to be the team colors of the sharks! and the $5 chips are yellow with green highlights, which just happen to be the colors of the oakland a's!! how 'bout that? thanks, scott!
around 10:30 or so, i get a couple racks. i'm up $277, i'm tired, and i plan to leave early saturday to head back east. i declare the trip to be over, book the win, and say goodbye to yet another set of new friends (including wyatt!). i'm outta here!
(hey! part 1 was "the end of the trip"!! how could there be a "part 2"???)
11/27/9 saturday
although i had toyed with the thought of passing through reno/lake tahoe, colorado, and chicago on the way home, cooler heads prevailed (they pointed out the serious hazards of crossing the rockies in the winter!). i'll do the southern route. i wanted to be on the road by 10:30 am, and actually started the car at 10:31. south to bakersfield, barstow and needles. there is nothing between bakersfield and needles except barstow, which means that there is nothing between bakersfield and needles. };)
i make needles by 8:30 pm, and have checked in and eaten dinner by 9:30. laughlin, nevada, is only 20 miles away, but i'm not going to get involved in a poker game, get stuck, and only get a few hours of sleep before i hit the road again tomorrow, which is sunday.
i'm almost through arizona, about 30 miles from the border, along interstate route 40. suddenly, i'm aware that there is *no* westbound traffic. then i see a helicopter taking off, about a mile or two east of where i am. and when i get to the place, i realize that this was a med-evac 'copter. i see one of those suburban assault vehicles (sometimes known as sport utility vehicles), wheels up and in the air, perpendicular across the freeway. some 20 yards east of the assault vehicle, the front bumper of a passenger car can be seen; the rest of it is apparently in the adjacent ditch. there's at least six state trooper vehicles, and all westbound traffic was halted about a quarter-mile east of the accident site. there's a line of traffic at least five miles long. i don't stop to distribute my business cards (i'm not licensed to practice law in arizona), but head east.
i'm about 30 miles west of albuquerque. i'm cruising along route 40 with a jazz cd on the music machine. suddenly, i see a huge neon sign for a casino. and *just* before i reach the exit ramp, i see the neon sign flash "poker room"!!! ****screech**** and i make the ramp with millimeters to spare.
[ tiger can't resist another poker room ]
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Kenneth R. Churilla