I made the drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on February 1^st.  I planned on staying at the Commerce Casino for virtually the entire month and playing mostly cash games while the tournament action was still small and playing more tournaments as the buy ins got bigger.  I used to be a cash player, and I was set on getting back to my old form.  Being a tournament player is fun and can be very rewarding, but when you go through long stretches of going deep without breaking through to a top finish, as I have as of late, it can be mentally frustrating and tough on your bankroll.  Playing cash games is far less volatile and can make for more consistent income and enable a tournament player to make it through the slow times.  Since I used to live in LA and play a lot at the Commerce, I figured this was the best place to get back into the game.

I packed up my car with everything I’d need to make the casino feel like home for the next month.  I brought my golf clubs and my longboard (skateboard not surfboard), nearly everything in my bathroom, a small library of books, and a dvd player.  I even changed my Netflix subscription to the Commerce address (which reminds me, I should change that back).

 I arrived just in time to play a $300 No Limit tournament, which I lasted all of two hours in.  From there, I went down to the 5/10 No Limit cash games and sat in my first live cash game in a long, long time.  I didn’t play all that well, ran worse, and was lucky to get out losing only one full buy in.  I two outed AA with QQ with a river Q to avoid being down two buy ins.  This was a rather inauspicious start to my month long grind.

Fortunately, I started playing better and running better the following day.  It took me about two more days to get back to even for the trip, and I never looked back from there.  I played just two of the small buy in tournaments, and dedicated the rest of my time over the first two weeks to the 5/10 No Limit games.  The games were generally very good and I was able to achieve a good win rate over the first ten or twelve days of my trip.

I focused on tournaments more during the second half of the month when the $1k buy ins and up started.  I also sat in some mixed games where I played for more money than I’d ever played for.  I’ll post the story of the second half of my trip in a few days.