I left DC on Wednesday, Apr 16 to go to the Spring Red/White Game in Lincoln, Nebraska on Apr 19 with a second motive….to play poker! Duh! I usually fly in to Omaha, pickup a rental and drive to Lincoln where I stay and occasionally make the 50 mile drive back to Omaha, go across the Missouri River, and play at Horseshoe in Council Bluffs. This time I skipped the comp at Harrah’s and stayed at Country Inns & Suites where Horseshoe has leased a block of rooms for players. It is also located across the street from Horseshoe. Convenient as I decided max play was in order! Enough of the logistical BS, let the cards fly!
I walked into “The Shoe” around 3:30pm and saw the usual suspects. Most of the regulars were seated at either PLO, 2/5 or 1/3 NL, or the heavy duty 3/6 Limit tables. There was a final table in play from the 11am Tournament, and it was pretty much filled and maxed due to the 9 dealers on the shift in the 18 table room. The poker room here is very nicely kept, with lots of room, great lighting, and super management. Right across from it is JB's Cafe which makes it convenient to step away and eat if you want to leave the table. They will serve at the table as well. I come here at least 5-6 times a year, and the staff and regulars have me ID’ed. I’ve made friends as Midwest folks are truly friendly people, for the most part. I found that I had to wait a bit so I put myself on the 1/3 and 2/5 lists. I still have to get better at the PLO game before I sit down. They gave me the vibrating caller, and I went off to play some slots and kill waiting time.
Obviously, people were glued to their seats as an hour later, I got the call, left a winning slot session, and was seated at a 1/3 table at the 5 seat. A little background here..I always sit down, chill, and stone up so I can observe and watch how play goes. I notice the player in the 4 seat is giving the 20 questions to every player he goes heads up with, obviously looking for info and doing a poor Daniel Negreanu impression. The light switches on. This is the guy that I saw last Thanksgiving who totally went on tilt after losing a hand at a 2/5 game to an inferior player call according to him. He’s a good player who is socially unacceptable. Think minor league Hellmuth here. I’m thankful he’s to my right. Needless to say, it’s inevitable that we get into a hand. I’m at the cutoff with JJ, open at $9, everyone folds, and seat 4 raises $5, I call, and we’re off to the races. The flop is all low, 259 with a flush potential, he bets $10, I call, and a J hits the board on the turn, showing a possible flush draw. He bets $15, I raise to $30, he calls. A 2 lands on the river, he checks, and I bet another $30. So now it starts. “Didn’t hit the flush, huh?" "I know that 2 didn't help ya!" "Sorry to hear that." "You didn't play AK?" He’s looking for the info, and I do my best impression of Penn Gillette’s sidekick Teller. I’m deep in the bunker then think. I decide to hold my breath and get flushed. Listening to words I love to hear, “Well, I have to see what your holding.”, he calls, and I show him the boat. He goes quiet, mucks his cards, gets up and walks away. He comes back after a moment, says “Good hand!” and goes back to work. The rest of the night brought a few small pots my way, and then went silent as I start to go card dead. I enjoyed the show more than anything else as he was entertaining. Oh, he always signs up for games as SHOWTIME. Yawn! More to come…
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Atlantic City, The Donald’s Taj, and Me
Lots have happened since my last take. First of all, I had an incredible couple of tattoo sessions which I should have reported on, I attended opening NIGHT at the new Nationals Park in DC, and I just got back from Atlantic City.
I have to share a hand I had last night in a SNG on Poker Stars first. I’ll make it short and sweet….
Last night, I'm playing in a SNG. I start to go bone dry at the wrong time with blinds rising, and four of us left, I have to push with 78 SUITED! BB/chipleader calls me with AA. Duh. Flop? 788! Turn? A! River? 8! Sickest board I've seen in a long time. Yeah, I ended up taking first cash. Poker! That's the way it rolls!
I’ll just jump right into the weekend as you will see why. I arrive in Atlantic City at 10:30am and go direct to Borgata. It’s breakfast time and my fave joint for breakfast is The Metropolitan at Borgata. They make the best corned beef hash and eggs! Add a toasted bagel, and smear with creamed cheese and assorted jams…and I’m a happy boy. Their coffee is rich high test and jumpstarts me for the day. Afterwards, I decided to just kick back and hit the slots. Gotta put some playing time on the account for compage! I played for about 2 hours, extracted 3 times the C Note I initially inserted, and drove over to The Taj, where I was staying for the weekend. It is also the first time I have ever stayed there. That’s when the excitement happened….
http://www.nbc10.com/news/15827265/detail.html
I checked in, went upstairs, the valet brought my luggage to the room, I freshened up, and then went to the Taj Poker Room. As I was walking in the lobby by the front entrance, next to the poker room, I saw EMT vehicles, AC police cars, and an area right in front of the car valet area taped off. I went to the room, touched base with my friend, and then went outside to see what happened. An eye witness to the fight outside told me what was in the news report. Later, I went to the Showboat to play poker. Sitting to the right of me at my table was a girl who, after I told her of my welcome to Taj, gave me the blow by blow which started at a $1-$2 No Limit table because she was AT the table where it started. The good news was that I found a fish sitting at the table as well. Seems he forgot the first thing you do during a hand at a poker table is put the other players on a hand. So when he has top pair on a board that is showing flush or straight possibilities, he almost disregards the obvious and bets on his high pair. After a $200 buy-in, I later walked off the table with 5x the investment.
After a change of clothes, I’m out for the evening to Harrahs to amuse myself in the poker room there at Sit-n-Goes (SnG). Since a game had just started, I decided it was the perfect time to him one of my fave spots to eat in AC, the Bluepoint Raw Bar connected to Harrahs Steakhouse. Kicking it off with a Grey Goose Dirty Martini and a half dozen oysters, my main dish was their signature Lobster Bisque with an Armagnac drizzle over lobster toast. It kept me light for the evening of poker. For dessert, I played in the SnG taking third. The thing about these SnGs at Harrahs is that you start with 800 chips and blinds of 25 and 25. From there the blinds accelerate. So I consider these contests as simply shootouts. You must get busy and build early. In any case, you can go from leader to loser in a hand. It’s a rush.
After cashing out, I played slots to properly represent my comps then left to crash for the evening as I had a 10:45am date with the Taj Poker Room. Having a very nice breakfast at “plate,” I met with all the people who frequent Atlantic City Poker Guide online. The owner of the site organized a great tournament and labeled it “Showdown at The Taj!” The cool thing is that I got to place faces with the people I forum with. I also got to meet about of madmen that have a great Wednesday nite game 15 minutes from where I live! I traveled 220+ miles to meet these guys. Sick. To make a long story of bad beats short, I was eliminated just as they went to the final two tables. I was not happy with my play but learned a great deal. The last time I played in a tournament at Taj, I cashed nicely. This time I walked away dry! But like I said, my reward was the fun and banter with new friends. Considering what had occurred at The Taj the day before, I valued the fact that I can win and lose with style and grace. That is huge.
It brings to mind a great poker player who left us all in Dec last year, Chip Reese. If you look into what was said of him after he died, you know this is a guy you want to emulate. This is a class act poker hero.
After the tournament, I went, ahead of a new friend who was still in the tournament, back to Borgata. He wanted to play there for the first time, and I’ll never say no to the Borgata. When I got there, I decided to chill for a while, and wait at some of the fun slots. Two hours later and I had built a nice little chunk of baby jackpots! Sweeet! I started to realize that I had been very lucky at the slots over the past 36 hours. I celebrated over a Tony Luke Cheesesteak.
My new bud finally showed up, with a sad tail of busting just south of the bubble boy spot, and we got separated for the time being on two tables. As soon as I sit down, the player to my left is telling me about the player to my right. The story is that I have a regular WSOP commentator to my right who has to verbalize his thought process to everyone at the table. I start to pray to the poker gods for THE hand. It comes about ten minutes later. I raise 2½ times the BB with AQ preflop. I get a few callers, along with our own Norman Chad! The flop is 8 9 Q. I kick it to 1 ½ times the pot. Everyone folds and Norman starts in about my straight draw. He calls. A dead card on the turn, I make a sizable bet and he calls. Nothing exciting on the river, I make a value bet and the donk calls with 6J, tell me I have nothing. I show him high pair, high kicker, and I hear a mumble as I am raking in the chips. Two hands later, the floor manager tells me he locked up a seat at my friends table. I rack them up and bounce over.
It’s nice when you come to a table, and everyone realizes you have just relocated with a full rack of chips. They see you have the ammo, they start to drool and decide they want them, or they warn themselves to play cautiously. Personally, I prefer the fear that Attila The Hun is about to rape, pillage and plunder their little village! I sit down with a smiling face, say hi, do not immediately acknowledge my friend, and chine out, “Cocktails!” I decided to play tight, play tourist, and just watch the fun. There was a lot of good action and excitement. I immediately spotted the hardcore online players that I label, “stupid aggressive.” They overbid, overvalue, and overplay their hands. I won a few pots, lost a couple, and walked off ahead for the evening. My friend made some huge chip towers and declared Borgata profitable. We decided to go back to Showboat as it was close to The Taj, and it had a past proven record as being profitable.
Once again, I took a passive role. My friend was seated to an interesting quiet fellow to his left. One thing led to another and, my friend decided to start buying him tequila shots. There are good and bad results that can happen when you build this unstable situation. The donk will start to give away chips like crazy OR he gets loose and starts to hi on everything he plays. Unfortunately the later happened. He started to catch cards, players would follow the drunk to hell, and start to bleed chips big time. I realized this and decided to go underground deep. The blindness finally hit him, and he carried his tail out with a lot of captured chips. I left to crash for the evening unscathed. But there is a story which I plan to follow up on that I heard about which sounds interesting. A mute Asian took our pickled player’s seat. My friend tells me he had a major chip letting. When I get the details, I will relate.
The next day I caught breakfast, got on the road, and headed south. I did not want to deal with Philly, Baltimore, and DC rush hours. I figured I would quietly reflect on the road of the weekend’s events. Interesting times.
I have to share a hand I had last night in a SNG on Poker Stars first. I’ll make it short and sweet….
Last night, I'm playing in a SNG. I start to go bone dry at the wrong time with blinds rising, and four of us left, I have to push with 78 SUITED! BB/chipleader calls me with AA. Duh. Flop? 788! Turn? A! River? 8! Sickest board I've seen in a long time. Yeah, I ended up taking first cash. Poker! That's the way it rolls!
I’ll just jump right into the weekend as you will see why. I arrive in Atlantic City at 10:30am and go direct to Borgata. It’s breakfast time and my fave joint for breakfast is The Metropolitan at Borgata. They make the best corned beef hash and eggs! Add a toasted bagel, and smear with creamed cheese and assorted jams…and I’m a happy boy. Their coffee is rich high test and jumpstarts me for the day. Afterwards, I decided to just kick back and hit the slots. Gotta put some playing time on the account for compage! I played for about 2 hours, extracted 3 times the C Note I initially inserted, and drove over to The Taj, where I was staying for the weekend. It is also the first time I have ever stayed there. That’s when the excitement happened….
http://www.nbc10.com/news/15827265/detail.html
I checked in, went upstairs, the valet brought my luggage to the room, I freshened up, and then went to the Taj Poker Room. As I was walking in the lobby by the front entrance, next to the poker room, I saw EMT vehicles, AC police cars, and an area right in front of the car valet area taped off. I went to the room, touched base with my friend, and then went outside to see what happened. An eye witness to the fight outside told me what was in the news report. Later, I went to the Showboat to play poker. Sitting to the right of me at my table was a girl who, after I told her of my welcome to Taj, gave me the blow by blow which started at a $1-$2 No Limit table because she was AT the table where it started. The good news was that I found a fish sitting at the table as well. Seems he forgot the first thing you do during a hand at a poker table is put the other players on a hand. So when he has top pair on a board that is showing flush or straight possibilities, he almost disregards the obvious and bets on his high pair. After a $200 buy-in, I later walked off the table with 5x the investment.
After a change of clothes, I’m out for the evening to Harrahs to amuse myself in the poker room there at Sit-n-Goes (SnG). Since a game had just started, I decided it was the perfect time to him one of my fave spots to eat in AC, the Bluepoint Raw Bar connected to Harrahs Steakhouse. Kicking it off with a Grey Goose Dirty Martini and a half dozen oysters, my main dish was their signature Lobster Bisque with an Armagnac drizzle over lobster toast. It kept me light for the evening of poker. For dessert, I played in the SnG taking third. The thing about these SnGs at Harrahs is that you start with 800 chips and blinds of 25 and 25. From there the blinds accelerate. So I consider these contests as simply shootouts. You must get busy and build early. In any case, you can go from leader to loser in a hand. It’s a rush.
After cashing out, I played slots to properly represent my comps then left to crash for the evening as I had a 10:45am date with the Taj Poker Room. Having a very nice breakfast at “plate,” I met with all the people who frequent Atlantic City Poker Guide online. The owner of the site organized a great tournament and labeled it “Showdown at The Taj!” The cool thing is that I got to place faces with the people I forum with. I also got to meet about of madmen that have a great Wednesday nite game 15 minutes from where I live! I traveled 220+ miles to meet these guys. Sick. To make a long story of bad beats short, I was eliminated just as they went to the final two tables. I was not happy with my play but learned a great deal. The last time I played in a tournament at Taj, I cashed nicely. This time I walked away dry! But like I said, my reward was the fun and banter with new friends. Considering what had occurred at The Taj the day before, I valued the fact that I can win and lose with style and grace. That is huge.
It brings to mind a great poker player who left us all in Dec last year, Chip Reese. If you look into what was said of him after he died, you know this is a guy you want to emulate. This is a class act poker hero.
After the tournament, I went, ahead of a new friend who was still in the tournament, back to Borgata. He wanted to play there for the first time, and I’ll never say no to the Borgata. When I got there, I decided to chill for a while, and wait at some of the fun slots. Two hours later and I had built a nice little chunk of baby jackpots! Sweeet! I started to realize that I had been very lucky at the slots over the past 36 hours. I celebrated over a Tony Luke Cheesesteak.
My new bud finally showed up, with a sad tail of busting just south of the bubble boy spot, and we got separated for the time being on two tables. As soon as I sit down, the player to my left is telling me about the player to my right. The story is that I have a regular WSOP commentator to my right who has to verbalize his thought process to everyone at the table. I start to pray to the poker gods for THE hand. It comes about ten minutes later. I raise 2½ times the BB with AQ preflop. I get a few callers, along with our own Norman Chad! The flop is 8 9 Q. I kick it to 1 ½ times the pot. Everyone folds and Norman starts in about my straight draw. He calls. A dead card on the turn, I make a sizable bet and he calls. Nothing exciting on the river, I make a value bet and the donk calls with 6J, tell me I have nothing. I show him high pair, high kicker, and I hear a mumble as I am raking in the chips. Two hands later, the floor manager tells me he locked up a seat at my friends table. I rack them up and bounce over.
It’s nice when you come to a table, and everyone realizes you have just relocated with a full rack of chips. They see you have the ammo, they start to drool and decide they want them, or they warn themselves to play cautiously. Personally, I prefer the fear that Attila The Hun is about to rape, pillage and plunder their little village! I sit down with a smiling face, say hi, do not immediately acknowledge my friend, and chine out, “Cocktails!” I decided to play tight, play tourist, and just watch the fun. There was a lot of good action and excitement. I immediately spotted the hardcore online players that I label, “stupid aggressive.” They overbid, overvalue, and overplay their hands. I won a few pots, lost a couple, and walked off ahead for the evening. My friend made some huge chip towers and declared Borgata profitable. We decided to go back to Showboat as it was close to The Taj, and it had a past proven record as being profitable.
Once again, I took a passive role. My friend was seated to an interesting quiet fellow to his left. One thing led to another and, my friend decided to start buying him tequila shots. There are good and bad results that can happen when you build this unstable situation. The donk will start to give away chips like crazy OR he gets loose and starts to hi on everything he plays. Unfortunately the later happened. He started to catch cards, players would follow the drunk to hell, and start to bleed chips big time. I realized this and decided to go underground deep. The blindness finally hit him, and he carried his tail out with a lot of captured chips. I left to crash for the evening unscathed. But there is a story which I plan to follow up on that I heard about which sounds interesting. A mute Asian took our pickled player’s seat. My friend tells me he had a major chip letting. When I get the details, I will relate.
The next day I caught breakfast, got on the road, and headed south. I did not want to deal with Philly, Baltimore, and DC rush hours. I figured I would quietly reflect on the road of the weekend’s events. Interesting times.
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