Trip Report From 'The Phoenix'

In Sacramento there are only 5 or 6 good cardrooms, and only a couple of them offer no limit cash games. There is a city ordinance that restricts the establishments to only limit games. (subject to change at the end of the year) but for now..The Phoenix Room is the only exception. They always have a 2/2 ($200 max buy in) NL game running, and the players are ridiculously terrible as you can imagine.

So it was a Monday, and I had just cashed out of Stars and put a good chunk of cash on my Visa card....I get to work and I am sitting in the cube and I just started thinking to myself (WTF am I doing here ?) and decide to head over to the Phoenix for a change of pace. It gets old sitting in front of the monitor and I wanted to mix it up live and get back to some grass roots live poker instead of clicking my mouse.

The Phoenix isn't Bellagio, but it's not a bad place to play at all...the floor is friendly and the female dealers are hot. The food is good and inexpensive and needless to say the competition is weak. So I buy in for $150.00 and take my seat.

After I sit the table is full and we were a little cramped for space. The guy sitting to my left (I was in seat 7) was irritated already being stuck 3 buy ins and he started whining about my leg brushing up against his. I sat down in a good mood, but this guy was pissed off at the world so I decided to target him and try and put him on life tilt even harder.

After about 30 mins, I had managed to build my stack to about $300 when I got paid off on a set of 6's vs AK on an Ace high board. irritated homophobic guy was raising a lot and donking off a ton of chips when I picked up 2/3d in the bb.

utg bumps it to $12.00....call call call I'm priced in so I call the extra 10 bones....what the hell.

The flop comes 2c/Kh/9c

the first guy leads out for a 3/4 pot sized bet and it folds around to irritated guy and he flat calls. Hmmmm , I decided to make a play at the pot and I jam it up to $120.00 with a pretty big reraise looking to take it down right there.

Immediately the first guy shoves another $90 on top of my raise and irritated homophobe guy slams his fist on the table and reluctantly calls off the rest of his 3rd of 4th full buy in....it gets to me and I am pretty much priced in...the pot is almost $600.00 and I have to call another $90 or so. I knew I was way behind but I was pot committed so I call too.

He says 'turn em over' and I say 'you first' and the other guy doesn't say a word.

they are both all in so the dealer peels off the turn and the river as we all stand up.

turn 3h

river 2c

Before I could table my cards, irritated guy screams 'YEAAA BABY !! ' and flips over Kc/8c for the King high flush. The other guy mucks his cards I just quietly turn over my runner runner ducks over 3's I didn't even have a chance to say anything because that idiot was yelling and high fiving his drunk buddy on his right.

The guy in seat 1 goes 'holy shit' and starts laughing and idiot has a quiet meltdown and storms out the door without even saying a word. It was the first time I actually felt bad for another player after dragging a huge pot..the guy must have been stuck at least $900 and that was only what I saw him lose before I got there.

It was a relief to see him leave he stunk of booze and B.O. and was generally an unpleasant person. The guy that took his seat was some Russian kid I had played with before...He caught me on 2 big bluffs in a previous session, but we joked around a lot and hit it off well.

My stack was almost $1000.00 already and I hadn't even been there 2 hours yet. I had such a massive advantage on the other stacks I couldn't possibly leave. I only planned on coming for an hour or two...but I knew I could abuse the table and clean up if I played a disciplined, sober session so I settled in for a long night.

As time went on after a couple more hours I had chipped up to about $1300.00 on sheer aggression and people were starting to play back at me because I was raising any 2 (with reasonable potential) in unopened pots everytime I had the chance.

So I had folded about 6 hands in a row and for some reason decided to make a huge play with 10d/8d pre flop.....There was an early position standard raise to $10.00 and 3 callers....I jam it up to $75.00 one guy goes 'jesus' and mucks and it gets around to my Russian buddy who just looks at me and flat calls. I just laugh and we watch our smoking hot blonde bombshell dealer Vanessa turn over the flop

6d/Jd/9c

Monster flop for me so I lead out immediately with a 1/2 pot bet of $75.00 and BAM...he reraises all in for another $250.00 at least. I couldn't call fast enough and as soon as I called, he sees my cards and sighs.. 'man I knew you had that' and tables A/Jos. LoL so Vanessa peels off a brick on the turn and I just say 'diamond baby'....and wham...ship the 3d on the river...sweeeeeeeeeet that put me way over 2K . Russian kid just says 'nice hand' and hits the ATM right behind us, buys in again...and orders a Corona.

So I played a few more hands , nothing really noteworthy..and decided to order a few shots. I slugged back a few, bought the table a round before stacking my towers of power into 4 racks and heading home with a bulging wallet and a story to tell. The 2/3 runner runner boat was one of the sickest beats I have ever dished out before and it was satisfying to put someone on tilt that hard I have to admit. In a way I felt bad for him, but in the end I had to chuckle just a little.

I haven't been back to the Phoenix since then, but I'm sure I'll make it back soon enough.

nice trip report thanks!

Nice report. And very nice run.

Ever been to Cache Creek ripp?

Yea I've been there a couple of times...nice card room and great staff/service, but I have a pretty easy game here in town close to where I work. Cache Creek is about 90 mins from my house so I don't make it there very often.

lol, if i'm the drunk guy watch yourself on the way to your car.

Dude, I live 6 miles from there. I was gonna try the Lucky Derby first but I might have to swing by the Phoenix.

BTW, http://www.cardschat.com/f4/2-weeks-...st-tips-86977/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f4/2-weeks-til-brewfest-tips-86977/)

Ah ok.

I used to have friends that went to Davis (that's in Sacramento right?) and when I visited them once I went there. Actually still have a friend there that is a dealer there, last time I checked, but might have moved on by now.

Definitely not to the standards of Vegas, but it was pretty decent, nothing special but decent.

I've been to a lot of the casinos in Cali, from the time that I used to live there. Lived up and down the coast of Cali when I was younger, so I've been to most of the casinos there.

I can't stand the Lucky Derby. They make you reg for the tourneys 2 hours ahead of time and only have one no limit game running, but its lame because the max buy in is only $200.00 and the blinds are $3/$5 gimme a break..plus rake thats a tough game to build a stack with without committing 30% of your stack at least pre flop the standard raise is $25 and you can only buy in for $200 ? wtf is that. Plus they run that 'no bust' joker blackjack BS. All the dealers are these Pai Gow degen asian mafia types...oh and the food sucks. LoL alrighty then

Great story! Glad you did so well, and it was fun railing you last night on PS.

Keep it up, I like your style.