Atlantic City Trip Day 2 :

So...after the tournament result, we headed on down to the Borgata poker room and set out for world domination once more.

The cap on 1/2 NL there is 300, so I brought the max to the table, and as always immediately sent a message after sitting down, raising and re-raising several pots. This chipped me up a bit, to around 350.

Then the first legitimate hand of interest came up, a player, fairly short stacked(somewhere around 50-75 can't honestly remember) raised from mid position to 10, and I repopped to 40 with AK, basically comitting him. He shoved and I topped up to call the all in. He rolled over 44. Flop was 9/9/9, turn was a 9. Ship it?

After that I played a few more pots here and there, maintaining a now incredibly typical LAG image for me in a cash game, I throw chips around frequently, to generate action to get it back from the table when I get hands. I had JJ 4 times in the span of about an hour, and lost every pot with them(nothing overly substantial)...and won a fair pot with AA.

A few hands later I played the first real hand I would spend time debating with people for the entire trip so I'm curious to hear thoughts on it : after a few limps, I raised to 12 with KK, got one caller whom I had position on. The flop was about as disasterous as could be without containing an ace, Jd/10s/9d. He checked, I c-bet 20, and he check raised me to 80. This is one of the spots where I just flat out don't want to play a big pot on that board with KK, so I opted against getting stubborn and just folded. In retrospect I think it's the right play.

After that I just kind of treaded water for a little while, and ended the session up 200. We grabbed a meal over at Wolfgang Puck's restaraunt right next door to the poker room, amazing food and reasonable prices for a "celeb-chef" like that. After that, Alex said he wanted to go to Taj for the midnight tourney again, so I came along for the ride.

Taj tourneys are an odd bunch, alot of incredibly bad players. One side note : the Taj is a very unpleasent poker room to be in. It's hot as HELL in that poker room, and frankly, the supervisor that I saw around was so incompetent it was startling...

As for the tourney, we start with 20k in chips, blinds 25/50, every 20 minutes the level goes up.

The first pot I played ended up being fairly gigantic.

There were 3 limps to me, and I looked down at JJ. I raised to 400 total, and got one caller. The flop was 2/4/5 with 2 diamonds. He checked to me, and I bet out 700 at the pot. He suddenly check raised me to 3k total. I tanked for a minute, really unsure of what to do at this point, and decided to call, putting him on a flush draw. Which made the turn card real depressing. As. Granted, not a diamond, but still, if you figure someone for a flush draw, aces aren't fun to see. He slammed the turn for 6k, which again I tanked for a minute. I still didn't buy the ace for him, a few reasons, he bet the turn really quickly, which I thought he'd have given it a moments thought if he had the ace. 2 pair was certainly in his range, and so was a set. But I still felt like he had a diamond draw that didn't catch the ace with how quickly he bet the turn. So I called the turn. The river came a 10h, and he insta-shoved all in. I took a minute again here, telling him I didn't beleive he had me at all, again he acted very quickly on the river and again I felt like if he had a hand here he'd have been considering a value bet rather than shoving his stack in(basically pot so not an overbet, but still...). So after a minute I finally called, and he simply tapped the table and said nice call and threw his cards in the muck. I tabled Jacks, fairly excited at the table image that would give me. I then promptly steamrolled the tournament for a while, and then ran incredibly card dead around the middle of the tournament.

Eventually I found myself on an average chip stack, around 45k, blinds were 1500/3000. We were down near the bubble, and I raised to 8k with Ad/Js, a fairly agressive player who was really visibly pissed when he took a bad beat a few hands ago, and had just returned to the table after a walk after that hand, shoved all in for 35k total. Again here I tanked for a fair while, and finally called figuring I'm probably ahead of his range here, or at least flipping which I'd take to try and get a real competitive stack. He rolled over As/Jc for the same hand. And then we started pulling our chips back to chop the pot. Oh, I forgot, we did all that before we saw the board : 10c/9c/3c. Oh for gods sakes don't freeroll me on the bubble please. Turn, 6c. Thank you. River? 5c. Just fucking because okay? So ya, that was fun.

After that, Alex and Jason went back to their room for some sleep, and I headed over to The Borgata again. I decided that rather than sleep like people do, poker was more important. Largely because I had been in absolute control of any table I sat at the entire trip and felt like I was playing immaculate poker. So, since I was up a fair chunk already, and since I am technically bankrolled to play it live, I decided to jump into 5/10 NL. So I bought in for 1000 and sat down.

Overall there wasn't a ton of excitement at the table, I didn't sit for too-too long, about 4 hours or so. The three interesting hands I guess were :

MP a fairly LAGgy player raised to 35 in an unopened pot. I repopped to 140 from the SB with Ad/Kd. He smoothe called the extra 105. Flop came Ah/9c/3s. He held about 350 behind, so I decided to play a trap and check the flop to him and see if I could induce a shove from AQ. Sure enough, he shoved all in. I snap called and he showed AJ. Turn and river bricked out.

A few hands later I raised UTG to 35 with Ah/Qh, got smoothe called. Flop was Qs/8d/6h. I decided to try the check raise again, and he led out for 55. I raised to 180 straight, and then he 3 bet to 450. I tanked for a while and eventually folded, and he showed me 66.

And my last hand was fairly fun. There were 4 limps(rare) to me on the button and I had already decided I was raising any two cards there to try and steal the dead 55 dollars in the pot. So I raised to 50 straight with 6h/2h. I picked up one caller to the flop. The flop was Kh/2c/8h. I figured that was a good and bad flop, because the range of hands I put him on was deffinitely heavily weighted to Kx to limp and then call a raise that sized. And since he had called I was fairly certain he wasn't going to give this up easily. So instead of doing anything drastic, he led out for 125, and I smoothe called it. The turn was a 6d. That was a card I enjoyed immensely. He led out again for 250, and I slammed all-in, prompting a fold.

Overall for the trip? We got to chill by the ocean, we ate at some killer restaraunts, I stayed at The Borgata which is absolutely gorgeous, we had a ton of fun, and I played in my eyes anyway, although maybe the blogs don't sound like it, amazing poker. Every table I sat at I dominated entirely.

I ended up the weekend trip to Atlantic City up nearly 2k for the weekend.

As for Atlantic City, mixed reviews. It's a dump, especially down by the Boardwalk. On the flip side, as you drift away from it, and over towards Borgata, The Water Club and Harrah's, the city starts to get nicer and nicer. And as for the level of play, as I said before on the first entry, it's astonishing. I really, truly mean that. I've seen alot of bad players alot of places, but nothing compares to some of the pure nonsense I saw here. An all in on a Qc/Qs/9c/5h board by a guy holding 88 after crazy action preflop and on the flop. Which is disgusting. But what's worse? He got called. By Ad/10h....

Ya, it's that bad. I may actually go back for a week just to try and play more cash and less tourneys against these clowns.