Baseball and the Palomar

I'm sitting in the Los Angeles airport after a great, fun, exciting weekend of baseball, cards and friends.

After hitting up the Hustler when I got in on Saturday, I met up with JoeSpeaker , metsfan, A.J., Owen and Erin to go to the Dodgers-Pirates game. It was awesome, and the home team won. A.J. kicks ass -- he can talk your head off, and I loved listening to him.

I liked Dodger Stadium a lot. It was built in 1962, but it still looks nice and has a fun atmosphere. I had heard about the legendary beach balls that bounce around at the games. There was also a blow-up doll being hit around in the stands, which cracked me up. Metsfan is already talking about the World Series. The Mets are a great team, but it might be a little early to be thinking about late October.

I also saw the San Diego Padres lose to the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, and then the Anaheim Angels beat the Colorado Rockies in a thriller on Monday. Petco Park in San Diego is beautiful -- I've been to 13 MLB stadiums so far, and Petco is in my top four.

After the Padres game, I figured I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hit up one of the San Diego card rooms. So I hopped on the Internet and found that the Palomar was only four miles away from downtown, toward Escondito.

It's unlike any card room I've ever been to. The Palomar is a storefront on the side of El Cajon Boulevard -- a rare Sunday night light amid fast food restaurants and sleeping businesses. I guess when poker is legalized, there's no reason for the glitz of Vegas. All you need is card tables and dealers for people who want to waste away a few hours and maybe get lucky.

There were about six tables inside with four games running. There were two 1/2 no limit tables with a $100 buy-in, one 5/10 no limit table and one 3/6 limit game. Some guys in the corner were playing Pai Gow. The rake was $5. The people seemed a little down on their luck but generally friendly. I sat in the 1/2 no limit game. I didn't want to push my luck, especially after a long day where I had already had several drinks.

The game was friendly and fun. One old guy came over from the limit table and started playing like a maniac. Maybe that's how he thought no limit was supposed to be played, but he busted out in about 10 minutes. Another guy was talking about his spinal tap. One rounder wearing headphones liked to slow play every single hand, which made him easy to read. A Vietnamese woman to my right was smiling and having a good time.

I only picked up one decent hand, A9s, which I raised from middle position. I usually wouldn't play A9s from MP in an online game, but I felt I had a strong read on this table.

I got a few callers, and two 9s fell on the flop to give me trips. A shorter stack pushed all in after I made a smallish bet, and he turned over J9 for a lower three of the kind. I cashed out shortly afterward for a $19 profit. Good enough for me.

I can't wait for the Vegas trip in two weeks!