I just spent the better part of 3 days playing 20/40 stud hi at the Commerce. For those of you familiar with the layout, the 20/40 and 30/60 games are grouped in the same area. There are usually 1, maybe 2 20/40 games going and 1 or 2 30/60 games. During my time there, the 30/60 games seemed to be in higher demand.

I was wondering if others feel the following way. For action, I have never seen anything that comes close to what I have seen at the Commerce. I have put in some time at the Bellagio and just a little at Foxwoods. Probably not enough at Foxwoods to do a fair comparison, but based upon what I have seen I would pick Commerce over any of the other venues based solely on what I saw at the tables.

There are times when the game is pretty nitty with a cast of regulars who tell each other what they have and miss all kinds of bets due to the nature of the game. Some of the regulars go at each other very hard since they seem to get under each other's skin though. This is often during mid day, but you can get enough crazies showing up that even mid day can be great.

However once 10:00 or so hits, then all hell seems to break loose with huge multiway pots with people capping and making plays that make absolutely no sense to me. I had a guy who was so pi$$ed with me (I raised him on a prior hand on 5'th with almost nothing because I was convinced he had nothing and sure enough he went to the river with almost nothing and lost) that he blind called me on the river to make some kind of statement I guess. He had absolutely nothing but seemed pleased with the statement. He busted out for about the 4'th time shortly after that.

Last night I saw a quasi maniac that I think could play well if he wanted to win $2K or so in maybe half an hour by completely running over the table and catching well. He then blew though that and his original $1K buy-in within maybe another 30 minutes. This seemed par for the course and no big deal to him.

This is not to say that there are no good players. There are some very strong individuals including those that frequent 100/200 games and seem to show up around the 10:00 time. There are are also all-day regulars who are downright dangerous, who I believe are making a pretty nice living playing the game. But these guys are mixed with on-line holdem poker punks who show up with an attitude that they are going to out aggro every one else and end up on tilt faster than you can say "idiot". There are calling stations that seem oblivious to isolation bets who catch often enough to tilt otherwise sane people.

The whole experience makes me a huge Commerce fan especially considering the free food, drinks that can otherwise cost you a ton at other venues. How does everyone else feel about the Commerce for mid-limit stud games. Did I just hit a particularly good time, or is this typical?

I wonder if I played with you saturday night (probably so since only one 20/40 table was running). If so, the table was filled with a gang of calling stations that were hitting rivers galore and I saw the only younger person at the table get stuck for about $800 while I was there. He was playing fine, but just getting massively cold decked.

I didnt see anoyone going ape**** while I was there, but I definitely saw a bunch of old guys that dont like folding, not one bit. I was only there for about 2-3 hours and really didnt have any cards worth speaking of, but it seemed fairly similar to the games I see at the taj at the same levels.

Never been to the Commerce, but when I'm there I'll definitely check it out. Foxwoods 20/40 games can get pretty damn good on the weekends, but weekdays tend to be filled with the regulars.. Not saying the regulars are very good, but they play somewhat decently and don't do anything really stupid. Thanks for the trip report lstream.

Sounds like soem good games that you may need a deeper bankroll for. Ive never played the commerce but have played the TAJ 15-30, 20-40 and prefer the 15-30 but they dont spread it anymore.....

Could be I guess. You play there regularly? Actually Saturday night was tamer than what I experienced on Sunday night and again on Monday night. Saturday night was also my worst session (the only losing one, but cold decked does describe the situation - don't think I was the only one though) as it turns out, so who knows? I am not particularly "young" by the way, but no where near the age of the retired regulars.

In case you go there regularly, maybe you recognize some of the guys that turned Sunday night into a huge variance game. A super aggro Asian guy (think his name is Jason), a skinny Japanese guy who is always yelling "gambo gambo", and a short haired guy (30 or so) who seemed Israeli. He too was into screaming "gambo gambo" all the time.

Regarding the comment on bank roll - ya don't show up there without being properly bank rolled for the game.

One more thing - I got to know a pro player a bit in this trip I don't know his name, but he told me he has been playing for about 10 years, and was in town for the LAPC. I asked him where he thought the best mid-limit stud cash games where - without hesitation he said "right here"

Here is a bit of a strange situation from one of the games. A regular who seems to frequent both the 30/60 and 20/40 games calls the BI with an ace. One other ace is dead. He then hits a second ace on fourth and double bets. Everyone folds, leading up to a guy who raises him - while doing so shows him one of his hole cards - the last ace.

The open aces bets all the way to the river and gets called. He then checks the river and the other guy bets. Open aces thinks for a while and folds. His opponent shows him a pair of 2's and nothing else. I thought the open aces guy was going to croak right there - this situation had him mondo-stressed and out of sorts for at least an hour after that. I thought he should have gotten up and taken a breather to calm down, but he just kept on going and was clearly rattled bad.

awesome hand....hahaha

I was a blond guy in my late 30s wearing a white FORD t-shirt. Nobody else at the table could have been under 60 except one guy who I would have easily pegged as younger than me (in his 20s?) with short dark hair and a dark complexion. He was playing a solid aggro game but was just getting murdered. You may not even have noticed me because I dont even think I took a single hand to showdown between 10pm and 1am. I either won before 5th or was chasing down a good draw that wiffed in a situation where I couldnt even beat my opponents Board. And this gang didnt strike me as one a SIWAS was going to work on.

The guy that was vacuuming the chips was an older black guy with a jamaican accent wearing a cap. He actually struck me as playing fairly well until I saw him chase down 3s full of 5s on a river where he was WAAY behind the entire way.

I also wasnt making any comment on the guy's bankroll. He sat down with maybe 1200, which seems a reasonable starting amount. He just lost a few tough big hands. I left before he did out of ennui.

Also, that is the only time I have ever been in Commerce. I was just in town on business. I am from DC and usually play at the Taj or the Borgata.

So our hero has something like (KQ)AA and gets raised by (XA)29? So the BEST possible hand the raiser could have would be one pair obviouisly lower than aces? The fact that someone is willing to raise open aces here would have me calling river 100% of the time (as well as re-popping 4th).

I haven't been to the Commerce in some years. When I was there they had a nice 40/80 game going with $10 chips. Guess that isn't going any longer?

Davdob,

I know the Jamaican guy you mean - I played him earlier in the day. It's all a fog to me know but I think we might have been at the same table then. However, when I was there, another fairly young black guy was at the table as well. He was the pro I mentioned in the prior post. He is in his early 30's at the most.

If we overlapped then it was likely for a short time then. I was wearing a short sleeved blue shirt. I too was getting killed for a while at that table - lots of nice solid starting pairs that kept getting run down. My bankroll comment was aimed at a different post where someone had commented that you better be well rolled to play in those games. I don't consider myself a wild player and still I was seeing rapid $500 to $1000 swings at times when i was catching playable hands.

That table was very sedate compared to the other games I was in. I likely put in 35 hours or so over this time so I got a pretty good taste of the games over that time. Never spent a dime on food either - I was pretty impressed at the free food and drinks there. They were even feeding spouses who were just watching. Some of the floor managers were simply outstanding from a customer service perspective, especially once they know who you are.

Yep - that is about what hero faced, and he DID NOT pop 4'th. It was impossible for him to behind at that point. Hero appeared to be a well know regular who usually sat in the 30/60 games - he played 20/40 while waiting for a seat it seemed. I have to say that I could not believe what I saw - the whole table just went quiet except for the guy gloating about the victory. Hero then sat there talking to himself and calling himself "a stupid sack of sh_it". I actually felt bad for the guy since he clearly should not be playing poker - his visible stress level was just through the roof whenever he played a hand.

Villain and I ended up heads up about an hour later. I had completed third with pocket kings. I did not improve the entire way, and bet all the way to the river and then checked. He bet, and I called only to have him show a pair of 2's again.

I told him that he can't make that play more than once a night, and he told me that he couldn't remember if I had seen the first one.

I don't know about 40/80 but I was told that 50/100 and even 100/200 runs, but in a different part of the casino. Never checked this out myself.

I will concur that the service was excellent. The two floor people I delt with were super at making sure I was taken care of and that when my spot came up on the list I was found and told. I will definitely play there again when I am in LA.

For those in LA without deep pockets, I recommend the 2/4 stud game at Hollywood Park. Just make sure you have a large sack to carry out your winnings.