Denver Poker Tour: Oriental Theatre 5/23

The Place

The Oriental Theater is located in Northwest Denver at 4335 W. 44th Ave near Tennyson. The Tennyson district is an up and coming neighborhood. There are lots of shops and new development along Tennyson. The Elitchs Gardens development site, which was an old amusement park is located at 38th and Tennyson. Elitchs moved downtown and that area was re-developed. This caused a lot of satellite development around that area. The Oriental is just one of the re-development projects in this area.

The Oriental started hosting Denver Poker Tour a few months ago and judging by the number of tables (3) and the number of people on the waiting list (11). It looks like it gaining popularity. The place has a small bar with beer and liquor. Usually the game is in the theater itself, but last night we played in the lobby. The Oriental theatre was hosting a Dylan Birthday Tribute for the Denver Public School Foundation Music programs. So we got the hear the sound check all night. The noise and the bands were not too bad.

Apparently when they host the poker tables in the theatre, they will play movies on the big screen. One night they played Rounders. They are considering hosting the regional DPT events at this theater. It's a good location and I'm considering making it my weekly game. I'm going to play there again to see what it's like to play inside the theatre.

My Play

Awful awful awful. Tight Passive. I think my cash game play leaked into my tourament play and I didn't play as many hands or raised when I should have. The table was very weak, and I was playing very tight and passive. I managed to play for 3 hours and get down to the final two tables, but I was just awful. I needed to open up my game and play more marginal hands (eg J7s, 9To) in late position when people were limping in. I also didn't see any pairs or aces all night.

Two hands I think I should have played better are:

I was in late position and woke up with J7s. I thought about it for a bit and folded. The flop game J73 and everyone just checked around to the river. I think a pair of nines won. I should opened my game especially early on to build my chip stack.

The final hand I played awfully. I was really disgusted with myself. It was late into the second to the final table and we were down to 6 players. The BB was down to 1/2 BB so she was all in. I was in MP and I had 44's. I limped in and the SB called. Right there I should have raised.

The flop came 237 with two spades and I bet out 2BB. The SB called. At this point I put him on either two over cards or he hit a two or three. He would have raised with the 7 and I think the spades scared him.

The turn was a blank and it was checked around.

The river came a spade and he fired at the pot, I didn't think he had the flush, but was trying to steal the pot. I reraised with my remaining chip (<1BB). He mentioned that I probably hit the flush. He turned over 23 with two pair and took down the pot.

My mistakes were that I should have raised to isolate preflop.. Even gone all in with the pair of fours, just to pick up the pot. The only calling hands for the SB would have been two overcards or a high pair. I was attempting to trap and got retraped. At that point just picking up the blind would have been a good option for me.