I was itchin' to play some cards tonight so I went ahead and headed out at about 9:30 or so. I did not really have a decision as to where I would play yet, but I headed towards Viejas or Barona. Once I hit the 67 Freeway exit I had to make a decision. I decided to go to Barona because I have enjoyed the $1/2 NL game there the few times that I have played it.
Well I got there at about 10pm and the placed was PACKED as you can see by the image below.
I put my name on $3/6, $1/2NL and $1/3 NL which I have not played before, but it is $100min to $300 max , I think. I would give it a shot. The attendant stated that it would probably be at least a 1/2 hr and I asked for a pager. BTW - My name could not even be seen initially as I was "off the charts".
I waited, and waited for about 1/2 hr, I think maybe 45 minutes and they finally called my name for $3/6. I really didn't want to play limit, but to kill time, I sat down. It wasn't very exciting and I missed every draw I had. I ended up donating about 80% of a rack there. Finally they called me for $1/2NL. I was glad to move and got up quickly.
As I sat down at the $1/2NL table ($20-60 buyin). I gazed over the table. It seemed like a good table to me. There was one young fellow, and when I say young I swear he was 14. He was probably 17-18, but seemed even younger. Barona seems to have the youngest players. Anyways, this guy was very talkative and seemed to know the game well, almost...well he was very cocky in his own way. I could not wait to extract from this guy... Several others at the table were very soft so I felt that I was in for a good session.
I buy in for the max $60 and get to work. Basically, it was a pretty routine session for me, quite a change from the $3/6 game. I got a lot of great starting hands, like QQ right off the bat. Also saw KK, AA, JJ and QQ another 2 times at least, but the best hand of the night was the 57c. I ended up flopping the club draw, but with big cards on the board. That pot became about $80-100 by the end and I rivered the club and bet out only to get raised and 1 caller to the raise. I called and won the hand against 2 people with 2pr, one being the youngster. He was pretty bummed when I said, I have to call, if you have a flush you probably have me because mine is small. He said flush is good and they both turned over 2pr.
Several hands later and several smaller pots, the game started to ween down. One young girl sat down and bought in for $20, I think. She was UTG on her first hand and bet out $7. I'm 2 positions in front of her and look down at KK. I make it $20 to go and she states, I guess I may be out the first hand and reluctantly calls. She tables QQ against my KK and never improves. I felt a bit bad since it was a first hand cooler.
One more interesting hand to note was a UTG hand I had of JJ. I decided to limp and see what happens. at least one other limper and the flop comes 3 rags. There is about $6 in the pot and this new guy to the table (waiting for $4/8 game) slides a stack of $20 out there. I said why so much? $20 into a $6 pot. Of course he said, oh is it only a $6 pot? I thought to myself, why the drastic overbet? Either he wants no callers or wants someone to think he is bluffing. Well, I decided that I may not win here, but I'm not going to play a big pot with JJ and a huge overbet on the tiny pot. I folded face up even though there were at least 2 other players yet to act. THe guy to my left calls and they check it to the river. Villian had 99 and caller had T7 and had flopped top pair of 7's. He was also clearly waiting for a bigger game and seemed bored. Even compainign about only being able to play $60. I would have won the hand, but it was just one of those really strange bets.
All in all, I was down about $80 in $3/6, but I ended up positive about $65 after the NL game. Pretty big swing for the night...
Good luck and great cards to you!
