USA Day 4

Hollywood!!
Yes, I spent the evening in Hollywood ... Hollywood Park Casino that is, in Inglewood, quite a distance from the ACTUAL Hollywood ... but I digress!
I went to Hollywood Park in the hope of playing in the $4/8 mix game that I played one evening last time I was in LA (earlier in the year). The mix is H.O.E., with games rotating between limit Holdem, Omaha hi-lo & 7-card stud hi-lo. I found the game to be very soft (and profitable) last time & was hoping for a repeat performance.
Alas, as I arrived & went to the board, there was only an interest list up for the $4/8 mix, with only one set of initials on it. Hopefully I added my initials to the board and joined a $4/8 Limit Holdem (with kill) game in the meantime. The game was pretty much what I was expecting - players who either overvalue their hand, or can't fold when they are beaten, and as a result I left some $120 to the good.
Two fun hands I'll quickly mention:
There's a raise & about 4 callers to me in the BB & I look down at AA, so make it 3-bets. Of course everyone who was already in the hand calls, and then the initial raiser caps the betting, so its 5 or 6 players to a capped flop, and I have AA in the BB ... good in some ways, not so good in others. Flop is 245 with two hearts. I bet (yes, I have the ace of hearts) and all but one player calls until it gets around to the woman on the button (who has mostly been a horrible calling station), who raises. Obviously this isn't a good sign for my hand & I figure if she's going to raise the field in a capped pot that she must have a real hand (for once!), with any two pair + hand being possible. I decide to call (heck I have a gutshot & backdoor hearts), as does everyone else! The turn brings the 7 of clubs. Not the best card in the world for my hand, but its limit holdem & there's one more card to come ... so its checked to the raiser who bets, and everyone in the hand puts in some chips & hopes for a miracle. The river is the 8 of spades ... which is a miracle for one player, who bets the river ... cue the violins & the crying calls ... of course I'm coming third by the river, with the flopped set of 2s from the woman on the button being overtaken by the rivered straight of Mr Miracle, who called down with 66, and the pre-flop capper lamenting his bad fortune as he asked for sympathy when turning over his QQ ... ah, limit holdem ... LOVE THIS GAME!
Of course I'm on the recieving end again towards the end of the session, this time with 77 on the button. I decide to limp and see a flop, as raising simply bloats the pot when I am generally without any idea of where I stand in the hand post-flop, which is something I prefer to avoid if at all possible. Anyway, the flop comes down 78T with two hearts ... good & not-so-good at the same time. Its quite likely that I have the best hand now, but with such a board there's not too many turn cards that I can really love (yes I was calling for running deuces, with the order being non-heart deuce, followed by the deuce of hearts on the river!). I decide that the only way I'm going to get anyone to fold in this hand is to raise it right away, and after the much-expected bet from the fairly active player in middle position & a call from the hijack, I make it 2-bets to go ... which EVERYONE who was in the hand called ... and the player who was next to me (he had folded) commented 'well that scared them into calling!'. At this stage the inner monologue was getting louder ... black deuce, BLACK DEUCE! ... but alas, the turn brought the jack of spades, so I was now behind any 9. Of course the BB now leads out, the flop bettor calls & the hijack raises! Once again its FML time & I call 'time' (explanation to follow). Eventually I decide to fold, figuring that I probably don't have 10 clean outs to improve (ie: the board pairing) as someone with a 9 in their hand might also have a 8, T or J with it, as well as the fact that I might face further raises on the turn from the BB who lead out at the pot. Anyway, the other two players both call, the river brings an offsuit 3 (one card too late for me!) & all three players check the river & turn over their 9s to chop the pot.
Thankfully there were other hands in the session that were far less painful (and far more profitable), so all-in-all a decent night out.
A quick explanation of 'time' ... over here it is something that you call on yourself when you have a decision to make & want more than the 'standard' few seconds to make it. Generally its used when someone has a tough decision (such as my folding of a set), or if someone has been ordering drinks, food, etc & hasn't had a chance to look at their cards & make a decision before the action is on them. It is also used by dealers if a player acts out of turn to prevent others from acting out of turn. For example, lets say seat 3 is still thinking & seat 4 folds their cards. The dealer will often call out 'time' to let seat 5 know that even though seat 4 has just acted, it is not actually his turn yet.
What we Australians usually refer to when calling time (apart from that horrible 'the casino is going to take their free money this hour after the next hand') is known as calling a clock on someone (ie: when they have already been thinking about a decision for a substantial amount of time & a player at the table would like them to make their decision immediately - or at least in the next minute).
Next on the agenda: Omaha hi-lo at the Commerce. One of the many non-holdem donkaments I plan to play while in LA!