One of the most puzzling aspects of my persona that has developed over the years is my proclivity for self destructive behavior. I first noticed this in my poker playing but soon realized it was a life long affliction. It seems whenever I am happy and doing well financially, with no real concerns and nothing to do but figure out ways to enjoy myself, I do something stupid and the next thing you know, escape velocity from heaven is achieved. As I plummet towards hell I expend great amounts of energy to get back to where I was peacefully resting a short time earlier. I tend to spend my life vacillating between these two states; constantly expending energy, ultimately moving very little from one extreme to the other. As I go through my life in this erratic manner I often ask myself whether this is really worth the effort, wouldn't I be better off simply vacationing with my lovely wife and visiting with my wonderful children, I mean at the end of the day, what is really the goal? however, my true id always prefers the friction, almost as if it read a poster somewhere which stated "it is the journey, not the goal", and now is determined to exist according to this adage. It seems there is great inner strength borne of adversity, so much so that we often invoke self destructive actions designed to return to the frustrated state. It is perhaps ingrained in one to seek this volatility rather than the tranquility offered at either end of the spectrum.
Or maybe I'm just insane.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
The title of this blog entry comes from a US Marine Corps motivational tactic which goes something like this; if you are not excited about getting up at 4am to run 5 miles in the rain, then perhaps you will become more motivated if we increase it to 10 miles. If 10 is still not enough, perhaps 15 will get you excited. It is a motivational strategy a poker player can learn from, or as some will tell you, a bad beat is an indication you are playing well. If this is true then I was playing extremely well last evening because I spent the entire night sulking at Bad Beat Central.
It started out innocently enough with me dishing out some of the sort of bad beatings I would later in the evening succumb to. One of the first hands I get involved in happens on a 10/25 cent no limit cash table (my stack is about $19) where I am in the small blind and it is checked to me so I raise the obligatory 5 times the big blind and instead of folding to my obviously superior hand both the big blind and the button decide to call. The flop comes Kd-7s-2d which compliments my 7d-4d fine since I have no problem betting into a big pair with middle pair and a flush draw so I do ($5 against a $4 pot) and the big blind drops out but the dealer decides he's had enough of my bluffing ways and he decides to go all in for like $11 at which point I call and we have a diamond flush draw with middle pair looking at Aces. Of course since only professionals play on the Poker Stars 10/25 cent no limit tables I endure a diatribe from my poor victim regarding the stupidity of such a call which I shrug off because (a) I don't consider myself or anyone playing a 10/25 cent no limit table as being an expert on No Limit Hold'Em and (b) if I am not mistaken the turn presented me with a coin flip decision made easier by the fact that the pot was already paying more than 2:1 which is about what a flush draw on the flop is worth. I river a flush and take down a pot big enough to force me to leave the table and return with my original $20 and about the same squirreled away from the table in my bankroll.
A couple of hands into my new table and I get 5s-9h in the big blind. Everybody checks around to me so 6 out of 6 players see a flop of 8c-Jc-3s. Again, everybody checks so I bet $1 figuring somebody's gotta steal it or at least show me the folks who think they're trapping, and I get 2 callers. I'm beginning to think my nine high is good enough when the turn produces a 4h, and again everybody just checks. I can't handle this sort of torture so I bet $2.50 and I get one caller. The river is a 5c and now I'm about as excited as one can get over the third high pair so I raise $3 and the calling station folds. I take down a ridiculously big pot for an incredibly poor hand. I've reached Nirvana and decide I'm never leaving this table. Never arrives about 45 minutes later after I've run my initial $25 up to $55 and I am as confident as a middle aged pot bellied vice laden smoker with a drinking problem can be. Its time to move up to the big boy tables.
I sign up for a 45 player (5 table) No Limit tournament with an $11.50 buy-in which pays around $150 for first place. I play conservatively and am basically in first place for the entire tournament. At the final table I start with around 14k but the blinds are 600/1200 and after a couple of rounds of no cards and after watching some Bozo to my left keep bluffin (finally he had to show down a hand or two; one hand was Q7 suited, another was Ace 4 off) until I am down to like 8k and he is up to 15k, I get Ac-2c on the button. Bozo raise $2400 and I decide I've had enough of his bluffin-ass so I go all in. When we turn over our hands it ends up Ac-2c vs Ah-9s. The flop produces 2d-7c-Kc so I pair my deuce and I'm feeling pretty good about taking down first place in this tournament (at this point we were the two largest stacks), however, because I'm about an 8:1 favorite at this point I start sensing disaster. It is just something that I have learned over the past several years. The turn yields an innocent enough 6s but of course he catches his nine on the river and so I'm back to square one in bankroll land after busting out 8th in a tournament that pays out to 7 places.
Two hours of grinding it out and I'm up $15 on the 10/25 cent cash tables I am sitting on a $35 stack at a table where the maximum buy-in is $25 and the next largest stack is $22. I'm moosing and muscling and all the other good things that go into making me forget about the bad beat suffered earlier. Eventually I'm dealt a decent hand; wired Kings, out of position so I raise to $1.25 (about 5 times the big blind) and I get called by one player so we see the flop together (I assume its some sort of bonding exercise). When 6c-4c-10c hits I say to myself, 'hmm clubs, they look familiar" and notice I am holding the Kh-Kc. Before I can estimate the odds of him holding an Ace of clubs he goes all in. Now I'm thinking if he does have an Ace his kicker can't be much (probably not a King, Queen or Jack) so at a 6 player table the odds of him having any Ace is around 50% but an Ace with a kicker he would be willing to sacrifice his stack for is a pretty low probability. He could have the pocket rockets in which case I'm screwed but I'm thinking the pocket Aces should be scared of the flop. I'm putting him on a flush or flush draw and the only issue is if he is holding the one card I'm worried about; the Ace of clubs. I call mainly because I only tend to fold Kings if I see an Ace on the board, and even then, in most cases I will pay to see an Ace. He turns over 10d-Qh and I still can't figure out what the hell he thought he had. I figure I'm about a 8:1 favorite again and then I get that feeling again. I convince myself I'm just being silly and remember laughing so loud I'm sure my neighbor was annoyed, but I remember laughing even louder when the Qd turned. It was almost as if he was being given the last futile dying hope just to prolong the torture. I remember watching as the Qs came on the river (of course it dropped in slow motion) and my stack went from a bunch to nothing on the turn of a card. I am now down to like $18.00 and my self confidence has been entirely drained. I am down $7 for the night after about 5 hours of effort.
Its usually not just the bad beat that kills you but rather the collateral damage it does to your psyche that ends up costing the most. I remember losing another big pot in an $11.50 buy-in tournament shortly thereafter when my A-h-Kh saw a flop of Ad-7h-4s and one person raised about $1,000 and I went all in for about $3,000 (yeah well I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer). We turn them over and he has pocket Aces. No luck involved in that one. My curtain call on a $1/$2 No Limit table was however, one for the ages. I had worked my stack back up to $35 when I get dealt the pocket eights. I'm allowed to limp in at which point I get the flop of my dreams; 8d-Kh-2c. My all-in is called by someone holding the Kd-5d. I can't blame him for drawing to the flush with the high pair, but at that point I think the odds are about 20:1 that I'm going home with $50 more than I started with. Alas the 2d turns and the Ad rivers and just like that I'm down to a $0 bankroll, whining about how this sort of crap never happens in real life. By now its about 2AM and I decide its time to turn off the 2008 WSOP final table which I have been watching in the background, and go to sleep. I see Peter Eastgate cringing as he realizes he has a one-out or he is basically gone and then I see him hit his 6d on the river (he ended up winning the 2008 WSOP) thereby confirming that one-outs do indeed happen in real life as well as on-line. I also realize mine cost me about $25 bucks while the the one I just watched cost Dennis Phillips like five million and I realize that sometimes it just takes a beating to someone else to improve your morale.
It started out innocently enough with me dishing out some of the sort of bad beatings I would later in the evening succumb to. One of the first hands I get involved in happens on a 10/25 cent no limit cash table (my stack is about $19) where I am in the small blind and it is checked to me so I raise the obligatory 5 times the big blind and instead of folding to my obviously superior hand both the big blind and the button decide to call. The flop comes Kd-7s-2d which compliments my 7d-4d fine since I have no problem betting into a big pair with middle pair and a flush draw so I do ($5 against a $4 pot) and the big blind drops out but the dealer decides he's had enough of my bluffing ways and he decides to go all in for like $11 at which point I call and we have a diamond flush draw with middle pair looking at Aces. Of course since only professionals play on the Poker Stars 10/25 cent no limit tables I endure a diatribe from my poor victim regarding the stupidity of such a call which I shrug off because (a) I don't consider myself or anyone playing a 10/25 cent no limit table as being an expert on No Limit Hold'Em and (b) if I am not mistaken the turn presented me with a coin flip decision made easier by the fact that the pot was already paying more than 2:1 which is about what a flush draw on the flop is worth. I river a flush and take down a pot big enough to force me to leave the table and return with my original $20 and about the same squirreled away from the table in my bankroll.
A couple of hands into my new table and I get 5s-9h in the big blind. Everybody checks around to me so 6 out of 6 players see a flop of 8c-Jc-3s. Again, everybody checks so I bet $1 figuring somebody's gotta steal it or at least show me the folks who think they're trapping, and I get 2 callers. I'm beginning to think my nine high is good enough when the turn produces a 4h, and again everybody just checks. I can't handle this sort of torture so I bet $2.50 and I get one caller. The river is a 5c and now I'm about as excited as one can get over the third high pair so I raise $3 and the calling station folds. I take down a ridiculously big pot for an incredibly poor hand. I've reached Nirvana and decide I'm never leaving this table. Never arrives about 45 minutes later after I've run my initial $25 up to $55 and I am as confident as a middle aged pot bellied vice laden smoker with a drinking problem can be. Its time to move up to the big boy tables.
I sign up for a 45 player (5 table) No Limit tournament with an $11.50 buy-in which pays around $150 for first place. I play conservatively and am basically in first place for the entire tournament. At the final table I start with around 14k but the blinds are 600/1200 and after a couple of rounds of no cards and after watching some Bozo to my left keep bluffin (finally he had to show down a hand or two; one hand was Q7 suited, another was Ace 4 off) until I am down to like 8k and he is up to 15k, I get Ac-2c on the button. Bozo raise $2400 and I decide I've had enough of his bluffin-ass so I go all in. When we turn over our hands it ends up Ac-2c vs Ah-9s. The flop produces 2d-7c-Kc so I pair my deuce and I'm feeling pretty good about taking down first place in this tournament (at this point we were the two largest stacks), however, because I'm about an 8:1 favorite at this point I start sensing disaster. It is just something that I have learned over the past several years. The turn yields an innocent enough 6s but of course he catches his nine on the river and so I'm back to square one in bankroll land after busting out 8th in a tournament that pays out to 7 places.
Two hours of grinding it out and I'm up $15 on the 10/25 cent cash tables I am sitting on a $35 stack at a table where the maximum buy-in is $25 and the next largest stack is $22. I'm moosing and muscling and all the other good things that go into making me forget about the bad beat suffered earlier. Eventually I'm dealt a decent hand; wired Kings, out of position so I raise to $1.25 (about 5 times the big blind) and I get called by one player so we see the flop together (I assume its some sort of bonding exercise). When 6c-4c-10c hits I say to myself, 'hmm clubs, they look familiar" and notice I am holding the Kh-Kc. Before I can estimate the odds of him holding an Ace of clubs he goes all in. Now I'm thinking if he does have an Ace his kicker can't be much (probably not a King, Queen or Jack) so at a 6 player table the odds of him having any Ace is around 50% but an Ace with a kicker he would be willing to sacrifice his stack for is a pretty low probability. He could have the pocket rockets in which case I'm screwed but I'm thinking the pocket Aces should be scared of the flop. I'm putting him on a flush or flush draw and the only issue is if he is holding the one card I'm worried about; the Ace of clubs. I call mainly because I only tend to fold Kings if I see an Ace on the board, and even then, in most cases I will pay to see an Ace. He turns over 10d-Qh and I still can't figure out what the hell he thought he had. I figure I'm about a 8:1 favorite again and then I get that feeling again. I convince myself I'm just being silly and remember laughing so loud I'm sure my neighbor was annoyed, but I remember laughing even louder when the Qd turned. It was almost as if he was being given the last futile dying hope just to prolong the torture. I remember watching as the Qs came on the river (of course it dropped in slow motion) and my stack went from a bunch to nothing on the turn of a card. I am now down to like $18.00 and my self confidence has been entirely drained. I am down $7 for the night after about 5 hours of effort.
Its usually not just the bad beat that kills you but rather the collateral damage it does to your psyche that ends up costing the most. I remember losing another big pot in an $11.50 buy-in tournament shortly thereafter when my A-h-Kh saw a flop of Ad-7h-4s and one person raised about $1,000 and I went all in for about $3,000 (yeah well I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer). We turn them over and he has pocket Aces. No luck involved in that one. My curtain call on a $1/$2 No Limit table was however, one for the ages. I had worked my stack back up to $35 when I get dealt the pocket eights. I'm allowed to limp in at which point I get the flop of my dreams; 8d-Kh-2c. My all-in is called by someone holding the Kd-5d. I can't blame him for drawing to the flush with the high pair, but at that point I think the odds are about 20:1 that I'm going home with $50 more than I started with. Alas the 2d turns and the Ad rivers and just like that I'm down to a $0 bankroll, whining about how this sort of crap never happens in real life. By now its about 2AM and I decide its time to turn off the 2008 WSOP final table which I have been watching in the background, and go to sleep. I see Peter Eastgate cringing as he realizes he has a one-out or he is basically gone and then I see him hit his 6d on the river (he ended up winning the 2008 WSOP) thereby confirming that one-outs do indeed happen in real life as well as on-line. I also realize mine cost me about $25 bucks while the the one I just watched cost Dennis Phillips like five million and I realize that sometimes it just takes a beating to someone else to improve your morale.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
We Really Need to Legalize On-Line Poker
One of the rationale against the legalization of on-line poker is the belief that people will become gambling addicts and squander their life savings. It seems like an attempt to legislate morality. What it really is is an attempt to see the future and try to stop a perceived problem which doesn't yet exist in real-life. This is a strange concept. It reminds me of an old Barney Miller episode (Barney Miller was a comedy which aired in the 1970s about a Manhattan police department) where a guy in the holding cell is screaming they have the wrong person behind bars. It seems he was a psychic and he knew the guy he tackled in the middle of the street was going to steal a little old lady's purse so he decided to stop the crime before it took place. The Captain correctly warned him he should not assume he knows what another person will do. I only wish our government had as much common sense as Barney Miller.
This weekend I am home again, having to work on Saturday, and dealing with the after effects of my wife's dog's heart operation which cost me another seven grand I don't have. Since a quick trip to AC is out of the question I'm stuck home having to play on-line which really sucks because of the funds clearing problems we US players have to deal with until Barney Frank gets his legislation passed. I deposited $50 back in June (June 12th to be exact) on my Poker Stars account using eChecks which Poker Stars cleared immediately (which they usually do) and I then proceeded to lose it in about 3 nights so then, after grinding out like $5 in the free rolls (I think Poker Stars has the best free rolls on-line) and blowing that, I deposited another $25 around July 5th and ended up losing that after about a week of play at very low buy-in tables (like $1-$3 with an occasional $11 or $12 buy-in) so I go to make another deposit on July 19th and my account balance is now -$49.69. I look in my email and I have an email dated back July 12 informing me my June 12nd deposit had been declined by my bank (wtf, like a month later?) and they had deducted it from my account; and oh by the way, make sure to deposit $49.69 to cover the negative balance or we'll try to put it through again after 10 business days. Now I'm screwed. My bank accounts dry because of my wife's dog's heart operation. My on-line account is almost $50 in the red (and I'm looking at another bounced check charge in 5 days) and I have no money to buy my way out of it. I play in a bunch of free rolls and get like $2.50 paid back so now I'm only $47 in the red, but at this rate I'll be dead before my account balance is caught up. I need a stake.
Now it just so happens that my two youngest sons are quite good poker players (my older two don't play at all). My youngest and I had actually been sharing our bankrolls recently, so I gave him a call and was informed I had access to $20 of his bankroll on the condition I keep off the low buy-in tables I love so much. We agreed a 10/50 cent no limit cash table was acceptable as long as I sat down with $20 or more so off I went trying to make enough to get my account balance back in the black. Now the 10/50 cent tables have a lot better players than one might think. Since the buy-in range is between $5-$25 its a good idea to keep away from tables with stacks in the $40s and $50s since those players have been sitting there a while and are obviously playing well. I can usually average about $10/hour on these tables, though my son tends to do twice as well. After about 7 hours I have paid off my $50 and added twenty to my sons bankroll. I go to bed happy I can play on my own account again.
Unfortunately it has been a week or two of bad beats at the tables and apparently luck transcends the poker table because when I checked my account balance the next day it was now zero. It seems since one of my checks had pseudo bounced I was now on some sort of probation. My deposits were now subject to a 14 day waiting period so the $25 I had deposited last week was not cleared (even though eChecks sent me a confirmation a couple of days ago) and the additional $5 I had transferred to my account after I paid back the original $50 was evidently tied up in there somewhere, I guess until Poker Stars clears the $25 deposit which according to my account page says July 28th, so back to my son's bankroll I go. After another grueling 7-8 hour session I had my $25 deposit covered (so I assume I will see a deposit of $25 in my account this Wednesday, we will see) paid back and another $40 added to my son's bankroll.
I'm pretty sure the June eChecks check bounce had something to do with the recent problems we US players have had to deal with regarding depositing and cashing out. I have read this was due to some sort of asset freeze initiated by the NY State Attorney General's office but I have not seen any official release from Poker Stars yet though I have heard Full Tilt did notify their account holders that something bad had happened. I do remember following several blog posts and forums since at the time my account balance was zero and I was not allowed to deposit on Poker Stars for almost 2 weeks. While I still don't know what really happened during that blackout period what I do know is I hated being locked out and even worse worrying about what would happen if I ever did really try to cash out more than $10,000-$20,000 on-line. Should I report this pseudo criminal activity to the IRS and pay them or assume it is illegally gotten gains which I do not have to report (kind of like an arms dealer). I just really hate being in a position where I don't know what it means to comply with the law. I do know that the government views on-line poker as illegal, but I don't hear of anybody actually getting arrested for it and its not clear if this also covers free rolls. I know that the weekly bingo games at my local old age home are also considered technically illegal but no one would think the old folks would get arrested so I am in a bit of a quandary.
There is an old saying which goes something like this "do we have bad people in jail because of good laws or good people in jail because of bad laws?". I know that if poker players start getting put in jail because they play on-line it is a case of good people in jail because of bad laws and that's not a good thing. I sure do hope my government handles this properly. Please sign the Poker Player's Alliance petition if you are so inclined and have not already done so. You may find it here. You may find your local Congressman's and Senator's voting record here. Note you may also find their contact information on this site as well.
My friend who wants to play on-line but for now limits himself to free rolls for exactly this problem knows a squeeze play when he sees one. The basic problem as he sees it is the Senators are in a bind. They get a lot of contributions from their local gambling establishments. They may not get the same from Poker Stars being an entity currently registered to the Isle of Man so they vote with their wallets. They will continue to do so until our collective little wallets make as much noise as their large gambling establishments wallets do. I guess the government doesn't mind gambling as long as they are the house. In this case the house knows how to tax physical revenues. They are not quite as astute at taxing virtual revenue yet. Hopefully they will wise up and realize there is more potential in virtual gambling tax revenue if handled properly.
This weekend I am home again, having to work on Saturday, and dealing with the after effects of my wife's dog's heart operation which cost me another seven grand I don't have. Since a quick trip to AC is out of the question I'm stuck home having to play on-line which really sucks because of the funds clearing problems we US players have to deal with until Barney Frank gets his legislation passed. I deposited $50 back in June (June 12th to be exact) on my Poker Stars account using eChecks which Poker Stars cleared immediately (which they usually do) and I then proceeded to lose it in about 3 nights so then, after grinding out like $5 in the free rolls (I think Poker Stars has the best free rolls on-line) and blowing that, I deposited another $25 around July 5th and ended up losing that after about a week of play at very low buy-in tables (like $1-$3 with an occasional $11 or $12 buy-in) so I go to make another deposit on July 19th and my account balance is now -$49.69. I look in my email and I have an email dated back July 12 informing me my June 12nd deposit had been declined by my bank (wtf, like a month later?) and they had deducted it from my account; and oh by the way, make sure to deposit $49.69 to cover the negative balance or we'll try to put it through again after 10 business days. Now I'm screwed. My bank accounts dry because of my wife's dog's heart operation. My on-line account is almost $50 in the red (and I'm looking at another bounced check charge in 5 days) and I have no money to buy my way out of it. I play in a bunch of free rolls and get like $2.50 paid back so now I'm only $47 in the red, but at this rate I'll be dead before my account balance is caught up. I need a stake.
Now it just so happens that my two youngest sons are quite good poker players (my older two don't play at all). My youngest and I had actually been sharing our bankrolls recently, so I gave him a call and was informed I had access to $20 of his bankroll on the condition I keep off the low buy-in tables I love so much. We agreed a 10/50 cent no limit cash table was acceptable as long as I sat down with $20 or more so off I went trying to make enough to get my account balance back in the black. Now the 10/50 cent tables have a lot better players than one might think. Since the buy-in range is between $5-$25 its a good idea to keep away from tables with stacks in the $40s and $50s since those players have been sitting there a while and are obviously playing well. I can usually average about $10/hour on these tables, though my son tends to do twice as well. After about 7 hours I have paid off my $50 and added twenty to my sons bankroll. I go to bed happy I can play on my own account again.
Unfortunately it has been a week or two of bad beats at the tables and apparently luck transcends the poker table because when I checked my account balance the next day it was now zero. It seems since one of my checks had pseudo bounced I was now on some sort of probation. My deposits were now subject to a 14 day waiting period so the $25 I had deposited last week was not cleared (even though eChecks sent me a confirmation a couple of days ago) and the additional $5 I had transferred to my account after I paid back the original $50 was evidently tied up in there somewhere, I guess until Poker Stars clears the $25 deposit which according to my account page says July 28th, so back to my son's bankroll I go. After another grueling 7-8 hour session I had my $25 deposit covered (so I assume I will see a deposit of $25 in my account this Wednesday, we will see) paid back and another $40 added to my son's bankroll.
I'm pretty sure the June eChecks check bounce had something to do with the recent problems we US players have had to deal with regarding depositing and cashing out. I have read this was due to some sort of asset freeze initiated by the NY State Attorney General's office but I have not seen any official release from Poker Stars yet though I have heard Full Tilt did notify their account holders that something bad had happened. I do remember following several blog posts and forums since at the time my account balance was zero and I was not allowed to deposit on Poker Stars for almost 2 weeks. While I still don't know what really happened during that blackout period what I do know is I hated being locked out and even worse worrying about what would happen if I ever did really try to cash out more than $10,000-$20,000 on-line. Should I report this pseudo criminal activity to the IRS and pay them or assume it is illegally gotten gains which I do not have to report (kind of like an arms dealer). I just really hate being in a position where I don't know what it means to comply with the law. I do know that the government views on-line poker as illegal, but I don't hear of anybody actually getting arrested for it and its not clear if this also covers free rolls. I know that the weekly bingo games at my local old age home are also considered technically illegal but no one would think the old folks would get arrested so I am in a bit of a quandary.
There is an old saying which goes something like this "do we have bad people in jail because of good laws or good people in jail because of bad laws?". I know that if poker players start getting put in jail because they play on-line it is a case of good people in jail because of bad laws and that's not a good thing. I sure do hope my government handles this properly. Please sign the Poker Player's Alliance petition if you are so inclined and have not already done so. You may find it here. You may find your local Congressman's and Senator's voting record here. Note you may also find their contact information on this site as well.
My friend who wants to play on-line but for now limits himself to free rolls for exactly this problem knows a squeeze play when he sees one. The basic problem as he sees it is the Senators are in a bind. They get a lot of contributions from their local gambling establishments. They may not get the same from Poker Stars being an entity currently registered to the Isle of Man so they vote with their wallets. They will continue to do so until our collective little wallets make as much noise as their large gambling establishments wallets do. I guess the government doesn't mind gambling as long as they are the house. In this case the house knows how to tax physical revenues. They are not quite as astute at taxing virtual revenue yet. Hopefully they will wise up and realize there is more potential in virtual gambling tax revenue if handled properly.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
AC Trip Report, Taj, Bally's, Caesars and Showboat, 7/18/09
Sometimes even when you win it feels like you lost. Such was the case in Atlantic City this past weekend.
One of the concerns I've had recently regarding my poker activities has been that of bankroll management. Like so many things in life it actually breaks down to goal directed (or misdirected) behavior; if you don't know what your goals are it makes it less likely you will achieve them. When it comes to poker I must admit I have been having thoughts of going back home to South Florida and playing pseudo full-time. It is not as far fetched as my wife seems to think (fff@#$%#kkkk her) as I know from experience I can grind out about $20 an hour at the many pari-mutual limit tables within a half hour of my apartment in Fort Lauderdale. I also know that in AC on the No Limit tables I can average about 2-3 times that or roughly $50 and hour and I know that since I have left South Florida, No Limit is now legal down there. I just have not reconciled the half cut in pay and potential for ruining something I enjoy part time but might hate full time yet, with the anticipated lifestyle changes that go along with this decision. That being said, my bankroll goals for a single day excursion to AC once a month might be far different than my bankroll goals for a four to five hour session at my local poker room each afternoon where my total commute might be 30 minutes. In my current situation, a 2-3 hour bus ride equates to a 6 hour round trip commute for a day to AC so right off the bat I am under the gun $40 plus 6 hours. If I value my hours at $20 per hour and if I need to eat something during that trip my initial overhead before I even hit a casino is almost $200. So if I am in Florida and I come back from a 4 hour session up $200 it was a good day at $50 an hour net income but up here in the North East that same $200 represents $0 an hour and I hate to work so little pay.
So when I go to AC with a $200 bankroll and need to come back after 16 hours with at least a $20 per hour net return, what I am really saying is I need to turn $200 into $550. Obviously, turning $2,000 into $5,500 would be a better approach but for now assume my monthly AC excursion bankroll is limited to the $200-$400 range. Turning a 200% profit on a $200 investment in AC is no easier than anywhere else. The low limit tables are a minefield of bad beats and a $200 bankroll can't absorb too many bad beats early on, so I decided a safe strategy would be to invest $60 in the somewhat soft tables at Caesars which would at least leave me with $100 to try and make up for it elsewhere if that's whats happened and guess what? That's what ended up happening.
I opened up with a $60 buy-in at Caesars on a $1/$2 No Limit table. After about 45 minutes I was up to about $140 when the soft table allows my 2♦-4♦ on the button to limp in and realize a wheel on the flop when a A♣-5♥-3♠ falls. I raise $10 and am called by 2 guys. The 9♣ turns and it is checked to me so I raise $20 and the first guy folds while the second (an older non-drinking local) calls. The river brings K♣ and the tee totaler raises to $50 at which point I go all in and he insta-calls and shows me the club flush. So far my plan is executing to perfection :-)
I walk up to the Taj (which seems to be a lot further from Caesars than I remember) and take my last $100 to a brand new $2/$5 No Limit table which is just opening up and sit for about 15 minutes while they attempt to assemble all the players who were waiting on a 2/5. We finally seat 9 players and begin. I am sitting in seat one and after folding the first round I get A♥-K♥ on the button. One player raises $10 a second calls and then the whacko across from me who has been raising pre-flop, every hand, all game so far raises $75 out of position so I shove all in for my remaining $80. He stares at me for at least 2 minutes before he finally realizes its like a $5 call. The remaining player folds and the flop comes 2♥-5♥-9♥. For some reason he doesn't turn over his hand so I don't either. The turn is a A♦ and the river 8♣. Without prompting (a mistake) I turn over my nut flush finally realizing nobody asked to see our cards. The crazy guy mucks before I can ask to see his cards. Two hands later I get hooks (which have been killing me lately) and I raise to $20. I get two callers. The flop comes 2♥-9♦-5♣ so I bet out like $50 and both guys fold. I get up and walk out to have a cigarette with a new $220 bankroll.
I walk up to the Showboat and sit down at a $1/$2 No Limit table with $100. After about 15-20 minutes I realize these guys are much more concerned about losing their money than the guys back at the Taj. It seems like anytime anybody raises more than $6-12 dollars they fold. It also looks like if you want 2-3 callers you should raise exactly $12. I adhere to the local protocol and since I'm not getting any cards anyway, I decide when I get in position I'm going to try to make my first major play of the day; if the pot is un-raised when it gets to me regardless of my cards I'm swiping the pot. Sure as hell, when I get the button 3 limpers call so I raise like $50 and everybody folds pretty much on que except a young Russian guy sitting across the table from me who stares at, and interrogates me for about 2 minutes before finally mucking his hand. Next hand I do basically the same thing with 10♥-2♦ and get exactly the same results except the Russian kid had folded before me so no aggravation from him this time around. I fold my next hand, an 8♣-4♣ pre-flop, because the youthful East Blockian 3 raised, and I watch as we lose an older grizzled fellow when his called all-in turns into a race between pocket tens and A♣-J♦ won by the kid I quickly realize is the only player at this table I really need to concern myself with.
A little while later I finally get a playable hand (note no wired Aces, Kings or Queens this trip in over 10 hours of play; weird!), an A♣-Q♣ from the small blind. The bet is $12 to me (but of course) so I raise $30 dollars to get rid of any pain in the ass small suited-connectors etc that might be trying to get opportunistic on me, and of course everybody folds except my youthful nemesis who simply calls. The flop comes 10♣-9♥-J♣ and I lead out with a defensive $20 bet which is insta-called. The turn is the 4♣ which brings me the temporary nuts so I check and of course get an insta-all-in along with the obligatory big stare-down which I interpret as a 'that club didn't help you bitch!' cry for help. I suspect I'm in good shape for the time being so I oblige and he turns over the pocket Jacks. The river brings a 7♥ and I pick up a nice sized pot along with the associated hand analysis from my younger opponent. Two hands later I get the hooks and raise like $30 into an unraised pot and the reverse baseball cap wearing soviet calls after everybody else folds. The flop brings A♣-9♥-10♦ so I raise like $30 to feel him out and he tries to take me all in. This time I take off my sunglasses, stare him down, tell him he has the Ace Nine and fold. He shows me the 9♠ and I say "you had the Ace too" but he denies it (I figure he had the nine or 10 kicker because he was actually a pretty good player and pretty good players don't go all in without a decent hand). At this point I decide to take my money and head back to the Taj, but of course as soon as I start packing up my chips he starts in with the "Where are you going?" bit. I grab a cheeses-teak on the way to the Taj at my favorite boardwalk shop and count myself lucky to be up around $300 after about four hours of play. Then I remember my bankroll goals.
Since I now how enough money to starting playing a bit aggressively when I reach the Taj poker room I ask for a $1/$2 No Limit table determined to establish a table presence and trap some big pots, however, there are already two aggressive guys at the first table they put me at so I get up and leave. I grab a smoke and a shot of Hennessy and agonize over whether I should sit down at a $10/$20 table or move to a different $1/$2 No Limit table and pursue my dreams of trapping big pots. I decide I want to spread my wings and try to trap a bit so I sit down at a $1/$2 No Limit table and start aggressin. I raise $20 with a 9♣-10♣ after a 3♣-8♣-K♥ flops and everybody folds. I raise $50 with A♥-7♦ after everybody calls a $20 bet on a 7♣-2♦-K♥ flop and they all fold except for one guy who folds on the turn when I lead out with a $60 raise. I fold two hands so I don't over do it, then I get Q♥-9♥ one behind the button and raise $20 and instead of folding around to me like I was expecting, 3 players call my raise. Thus begins one of the strangest hands I have played in my brief career.
The flop comes 3♥-7♥-10♥ giving me a Queen high flush and the big blind bets out $12 which 2 other players call and while I'm thinking about my bet (because I really don't need a fourth heart to turn) the button (who is the player to my immediate left) calls and the small blind calls at which point I realize what's going on so I start yelling at the dealer, 'excuse me, excuse me, its my bet!', but she deals the turn and its the Jack of hearts. The dealer says "oh, did you want to call?" and I say "no I want to raise $20!" at which point everybody says they call and put their bets out. I'm thinking "freakin great now the Ace AND King are betting against me". Noticing my unhappy demeanor, the dealer calls over the floor person who says put the Jack back in and reshuffle the deck and continue (wtf?). The turn is the King of hearts and everybody checks so I go all-in and one guy who has me covered, calls. The river is the 6♥ (we now have a flush on the board) and I go all-in praying the caller doesn't have the Ace which he doesn't (he had a King Ten black off) and I take down a big pot but it was a very strange hand and if I didn't win it I probably would have contested it. I pick up a set of nines at one point and an A♣-7♣ from the button on a A♦-K♦-2♣ flop which my $40 bet takes down.I give back like $50 when my A♠-10♠ flush gets beat by a boat on the river so I get up, cash out and count my money. I have like $540. I came with $160 ($200 less my transportation costs). I've been playing about 6 hours. I'm up around $380. I decide its time to go home. My bankroll objectives have been met.
The bus doesn't leave Bally's until 8:30 so I convince myself a quick stop at Caesar's soft tables will yield some additional revenue. I sit down at a $1/$2 No Limit table and proceed to give back $100 when my trip Nines lose to trip Tens after I make an idiotic pre-flop all-in call with wired Nines (I deserved to lose $100 on that hand). I walk over to Bally's (Caesars and Bally's are actually connected in AC) and stand in what surprises me as a very long line given it is just before 8:10pm. After only 3-5 trips to AC in the past couple of months using the bus I can already see some patterns emerging. First, the bus schedules are only advisory warnings. When a bus schedule says a bus leaves a given terminal at 8:30pm on such and such a day, what this really means is, absolutely not before, but perhaps sometime after 8:30 a bus will arrive that more than 20 people might be able to get on because oh by the way, we pick up at the Hilton first before we get here. I also know a few facts about bus capacity. For example, I now know the Academy bus (the one I have been taking) can hold exactly 54 people. I know this because after waiting over a half an hour in line the driver informs us we have two seats left; 'just 52 seats folks, plus 2 left is 54 and that's all this bus holds' is exactly what the driver said, just when it is my turn to board. I decide I don't like this driver. I don't like his condescending attitude, I don't like his demeanor, I don't like his answer when I complain about the low down stinkin coyotes who have been cutting in line under his watch; 'call the company', and I definitely don't want him driving me the two hours to Manhattan so I turn to the Asian couple behind me who have a two hour drive home once we reach Manhattan (I know this because I had been chatting with them while waiting on line) and say "you guys go". They are extremely grateful and wave to me from the bus as I walk back into the Bally's casino. I do this kind of crap all the time believe it or not and I really don't know why, but as I am making my way back into the Bally's poker room to wait out the 2 hours until the next bus arrives I am thinking to myself; NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED. Not a good omen.
Now Bally's, the Showboat and from what I hear, the Tropicana are where a great number of the locals like to congregate during the week. It actually reminds me of the pari-mutuals back home. The same cast of characters on the same schedule, week in and week out. In my opinion, it is one of the toughest places to make any real money (back home we affectionately refer to it as "no fold'em hold'em" as you tend to see the river on every hand) and so I try to keep away from those kind of places while in AC. Unfortunately, Bally's is one of those places. The table composition was as follows ...
Dealer to my left, 65-70 year old (hell, he looked healthier than me) Chinese guy then a person so quiet I don't even remember what he or she looked like, followed by an Asian guy with glasses who I figure was about the same age as me (let's say around 50). He had quite a large stack this evening. I am going to say maybe $1,600 or so, and it was obvious he had been there a while. This was a $1/$2 No Limit with a $500 max buy-in. Next was a second older Asian gentleman who was friends with the first elder Asian gentleman, followed by what eventually I realized was his niece (who appeared to be about 40 years old) and a black lady about my age. Finally there was a heavy set middle eastern looking guy who appeared to be between 38-48 years old with a gruff voice to my right, and between he and I was an attorney from somewhere nearby who was around my age but carried a stack many times larger than mine (maybe $1,000) and would answer his cell phone whenever it rang. He knew the black lady as they had evidently just been in a tournament together earlier in the day and were catching up on current events, as I sat down. The attorney knew the middle aged Asian girl because they had played at Bally's last week at the same night and time but this week for some reason she was staying in a hotel on the boardwalk rather than driving back home, and his stack was up rather than down. This immediately connected basically everybody with everybody at this table in my mind (except me) since the lawyer referred to the middle eastern looking dude by his first name; Sam. It reminded me of back home and that's pretty much how it played out. One notable difference was I had not yet played with really good female players but the two ladies at my table were extremely good players and I will remember them when I return if I should encounter either again.
At first I was up to about $180 after maybe 30 minutes of play, but I attribute that to me being more the unknown quantity than anything else. I took advantage of their lack of knowledge of me a couple of times and got away with it but for the most part they would keep me honest; especially the women. They were tough and unless I wanted to take my hand to the mat I did not bet into them much. The middle aged Asian gal played few hands but when she did play she played them strongly. The black woman played a lot of hands but was impossible to bluff. She was betting back into me on the river way too many times to have that many hands over me and I would have to trap her to get any money out of her but I never got the opportunity. They knew enough to keep out of each others way. Between the two of them they kept me frustrated for quite a while. With 5 minutes to go before I had to leave to catch the bus and just one hand before the big blind, I decided I would fold the next hand and leave unless I got something playable. I got the 10♣-10♦ so I call $12 (because Doyle says to see the flop as cheaply as possible with them and I tend to agree) and the flop comes 8♥-8♣-4♣. I bet $20 to see what's out there, basically feeling pretty good about my wired tens but needing to know if anybody's got the eight. Everybody folds except the middle aged Asian guy who calls. The Ace of clubs turns and I now have to know if he has the Ace so I bet $50 and he calls. Now at this point I've got second high pair, a flush draw and a suck-out trip Tens draw. I don't put him on the Ace since he just called (which was probably a mistake) rather than raising because in that case I would have figured he was as scared as a flush draw as I was, so we see the river. Its a 2♦ and I decide to shove all-in and hopefully bluff him off the pot (in the back of my mind I'm thinking I'm bluffing with the best hand) but of course he takes me all in since my $180 stack is a mere bag of shells to him. We turn over and sure as shit he has the eight. My poor bankroll.
I think the thing that bothers me most about the way I played all day is the last hand of the night (isn't it always) and with me this seems to be a pattern, I pretty much knew I was beat on the river but for some reason, probably because I already had $100 in the middle and I subconsciously wanted to go home a big winner on a high note, I pushed all-in looking for the big money, easy score when I should have tucked my tail between my legs, folded, and went home a little less of a winner. This is a disturbing character flaw to have in this game. I was bummed and I know I need to work on this in the future. Oh yea and not getting stinking polluted towards the end of the night might also help. Whatever. By 10:02 I'm downstairs (the Bally's poker room is on the 6th floor) and I get in a line already 40 people deep, waiting for the 10:30pm bus which is obviously also going to be full. I make it home by 2:00am up $180 but it feels like I'm down $180. After I spend $100 to buy a carton of smokes (freakin Manhattan!) maybe I'll have enough left over to drown my sorrows in a bottle of Hennessy but maybe not, as tomorrow is laundry day. God I hate the saying 'better luck next time' but it sure does seem like it always applies to me.
One of the concerns I've had recently regarding my poker activities has been that of bankroll management. Like so many things in life it actually breaks down to goal directed (or misdirected) behavior; if you don't know what your goals are it makes it less likely you will achieve them. When it comes to poker I must admit I have been having thoughts of going back home to South Florida and playing pseudo full-time. It is not as far fetched as my wife seems to think (fff@#$%#kkkk her) as I know from experience I can grind out about $20 an hour at the many pari-mutual limit tables within a half hour of my apartment in Fort Lauderdale. I also know that in AC on the No Limit tables I can average about 2-3 times that or roughly $50 and hour and I know that since I have left South Florida, No Limit is now legal down there. I just have not reconciled the half cut in pay and potential for ruining something I enjoy part time but might hate full time yet, with the anticipated lifestyle changes that go along with this decision. That being said, my bankroll goals for a single day excursion to AC once a month might be far different than my bankroll goals for a four to five hour session at my local poker room each afternoon where my total commute might be 30 minutes. In my current situation, a 2-3 hour bus ride equates to a 6 hour round trip commute for a day to AC so right off the bat I am under the gun $40 plus 6 hours. If I value my hours at $20 per hour and if I need to eat something during that trip my initial overhead before I even hit a casino is almost $200. So if I am in Florida and I come back from a 4 hour session up $200 it was a good day at $50 an hour net income but up here in the North East that same $200 represents $0 an hour and I hate to work so little pay.
So when I go to AC with a $200 bankroll and need to come back after 16 hours with at least a $20 per hour net return, what I am really saying is I need to turn $200 into $550. Obviously, turning $2,000 into $5,500 would be a better approach but for now assume my monthly AC excursion bankroll is limited to the $200-$400 range. Turning a 200% profit on a $200 investment in AC is no easier than anywhere else. The low limit tables are a minefield of bad beats and a $200 bankroll can't absorb too many bad beats early on, so I decided a safe strategy would be to invest $60 in the somewhat soft tables at Caesars which would at least leave me with $100 to try and make up for it elsewhere if that's whats happened and guess what? That's what ended up happening.
I opened up with a $60 buy-in at Caesars on a $1/$2 No Limit table. After about 45 minutes I was up to about $140 when the soft table allows my 2♦-4♦ on the button to limp in and realize a wheel on the flop when a A♣-5♥-3♠ falls. I raise $10 and am called by 2 guys. The 9♣ turns and it is checked to me so I raise $20 and the first guy folds while the second (an older non-drinking local) calls. The river brings K♣ and the tee totaler raises to $50 at which point I go all in and he insta-calls and shows me the club flush. So far my plan is executing to perfection :-)
I walk up to the Taj (which seems to be a lot further from Caesars than I remember) and take my last $100 to a brand new $2/$5 No Limit table which is just opening up and sit for about 15 minutes while they attempt to assemble all the players who were waiting on a 2/5. We finally seat 9 players and begin. I am sitting in seat one and after folding the first round I get A♥-K♥ on the button. One player raises $10 a second calls and then the whacko across from me who has been raising pre-flop, every hand, all game so far raises $75 out of position so I shove all in for my remaining $80. He stares at me for at least 2 minutes before he finally realizes its like a $5 call. The remaining player folds and the flop comes 2♥-5♥-9♥. For some reason he doesn't turn over his hand so I don't either. The turn is a A♦ and the river 8♣. Without prompting (a mistake) I turn over my nut flush finally realizing nobody asked to see our cards. The crazy guy mucks before I can ask to see his cards. Two hands later I get hooks (which have been killing me lately) and I raise to $20. I get two callers. The flop comes 2♥-9♦-5♣ so I bet out like $50 and both guys fold. I get up and walk out to have a cigarette with a new $220 bankroll.
I walk up to the Showboat and sit down at a $1/$2 No Limit table with $100. After about 15-20 minutes I realize these guys are much more concerned about losing their money than the guys back at the Taj. It seems like anytime anybody raises more than $6-12 dollars they fold. It also looks like if you want 2-3 callers you should raise exactly $12. I adhere to the local protocol and since I'm not getting any cards anyway, I decide when I get in position I'm going to try to make my first major play of the day; if the pot is un-raised when it gets to me regardless of my cards I'm swiping the pot. Sure as hell, when I get the button 3 limpers call so I raise like $50 and everybody folds pretty much on que except a young Russian guy sitting across the table from me who stares at, and interrogates me for about 2 minutes before finally mucking his hand. Next hand I do basically the same thing with 10♥-2♦ and get exactly the same results except the Russian kid had folded before me so no aggravation from him this time around. I fold my next hand, an 8♣-4♣ pre-flop, because the youthful East Blockian 3 raised, and I watch as we lose an older grizzled fellow when his called all-in turns into a race between pocket tens and A♣-J♦ won by the kid I quickly realize is the only player at this table I really need to concern myself with.
A little while later I finally get a playable hand (note no wired Aces, Kings or Queens this trip in over 10 hours of play; weird!), an A♣-Q♣ from the small blind. The bet is $12 to me (but of course) so I raise $30 dollars to get rid of any pain in the ass small suited-connectors etc that might be trying to get opportunistic on me, and of course everybody folds except my youthful nemesis who simply calls. The flop comes 10♣-9♥-J♣ and I lead out with a defensive $20 bet which is insta-called. The turn is the 4♣ which brings me the temporary nuts so I check and of course get an insta-all-in along with the obligatory big stare-down which I interpret as a 'that club didn't help you bitch!' cry for help. I suspect I'm in good shape for the time being so I oblige and he turns over the pocket Jacks. The river brings a 7♥ and I pick up a nice sized pot along with the associated hand analysis from my younger opponent. Two hands later I get the hooks and raise like $30 into an unraised pot and the reverse baseball cap wearing soviet calls after everybody else folds. The flop brings A♣-9♥-10♦ so I raise like $30 to feel him out and he tries to take me all in. This time I take off my sunglasses, stare him down, tell him he has the Ace Nine and fold. He shows me the 9♠ and I say "you had the Ace too" but he denies it (I figure he had the nine or 10 kicker because he was actually a pretty good player and pretty good players don't go all in without a decent hand). At this point I decide to take my money and head back to the Taj, but of course as soon as I start packing up my chips he starts in with the "Where are you going?" bit. I grab a cheeses-teak on the way to the Taj at my favorite boardwalk shop and count myself lucky to be up around $300 after about four hours of play. Then I remember my bankroll goals.
Since I now how enough money to starting playing a bit aggressively when I reach the Taj poker room I ask for a $1/$2 No Limit table determined to establish a table presence and trap some big pots, however, there are already two aggressive guys at the first table they put me at so I get up and leave. I grab a smoke and a shot of Hennessy and agonize over whether I should sit down at a $10/$20 table or move to a different $1/$2 No Limit table and pursue my dreams of trapping big pots. I decide I want to spread my wings and try to trap a bit so I sit down at a $1/$2 No Limit table and start aggressin. I raise $20 with a 9♣-10♣ after a 3♣-8♣-K♥ flops and everybody folds. I raise $50 with A♥-7♦ after everybody calls a $20 bet on a 7♣-2♦-K♥ flop and they all fold except for one guy who folds on the turn when I lead out with a $60 raise. I fold two hands so I don't over do it, then I get Q♥-9♥ one behind the button and raise $20 and instead of folding around to me like I was expecting, 3 players call my raise. Thus begins one of the strangest hands I have played in my brief career.
The flop comes 3♥-7♥-10♥ giving me a Queen high flush and the big blind bets out $12 which 2 other players call and while I'm thinking about my bet (because I really don't need a fourth heart to turn) the button (who is the player to my immediate left) calls and the small blind calls at which point I realize what's going on so I start yelling at the dealer, 'excuse me, excuse me, its my bet!', but she deals the turn and its the Jack of hearts. The dealer says "oh, did you want to call?" and I say "no I want to raise $20!" at which point everybody says they call and put their bets out. I'm thinking "freakin great now the Ace AND King are betting against me". Noticing my unhappy demeanor, the dealer calls over the floor person who says put the Jack back in and reshuffle the deck and continue (wtf?). The turn is the King of hearts and everybody checks so I go all-in and one guy who has me covered, calls. The river is the 6♥ (we now have a flush on the board) and I go all-in praying the caller doesn't have the Ace which he doesn't (he had a King Ten black off) and I take down a big pot but it was a very strange hand and if I didn't win it I probably would have contested it. I pick up a set of nines at one point and an A♣-7♣ from the button on a A♦-K♦-2♣ flop which my $40 bet takes down.I give back like $50 when my A♠-10♠ flush gets beat by a boat on the river so I get up, cash out and count my money. I have like $540. I came with $160 ($200 less my transportation costs). I've been playing about 6 hours. I'm up around $380. I decide its time to go home. My bankroll objectives have been met.
The bus doesn't leave Bally's until 8:30 so I convince myself a quick stop at Caesar's soft tables will yield some additional revenue. I sit down at a $1/$2 No Limit table and proceed to give back $100 when my trip Nines lose to trip Tens after I make an idiotic pre-flop all-in call with wired Nines (I deserved to lose $100 on that hand). I walk over to Bally's (Caesars and Bally's are actually connected in AC) and stand in what surprises me as a very long line given it is just before 8:10pm. After only 3-5 trips to AC in the past couple of months using the bus I can already see some patterns emerging. First, the bus schedules are only advisory warnings. When a bus schedule says a bus leaves a given terminal at 8:30pm on such and such a day, what this really means is, absolutely not before, but perhaps sometime after 8:30 a bus will arrive that more than 20 people might be able to get on because oh by the way, we pick up at the Hilton first before we get here. I also know a few facts about bus capacity. For example, I now know the Academy bus (the one I have been taking) can hold exactly 54 people. I know this because after waiting over a half an hour in line the driver informs us we have two seats left; 'just 52 seats folks, plus 2 left is 54 and that's all this bus holds' is exactly what the driver said, just when it is my turn to board. I decide I don't like this driver. I don't like his condescending attitude, I don't like his demeanor, I don't like his answer when I complain about the low down stinkin coyotes who have been cutting in line under his watch; 'call the company', and I definitely don't want him driving me the two hours to Manhattan so I turn to the Asian couple behind me who have a two hour drive home once we reach Manhattan (I know this because I had been chatting with them while waiting on line) and say "you guys go". They are extremely grateful and wave to me from the bus as I walk back into the Bally's casino. I do this kind of crap all the time believe it or not and I really don't know why, but as I am making my way back into the Bally's poker room to wait out the 2 hours until the next bus arrives I am thinking to myself; NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED. Not a good omen.
Now Bally's, the Showboat and from what I hear, the Tropicana are where a great number of the locals like to congregate during the week. It actually reminds me of the pari-mutuals back home. The same cast of characters on the same schedule, week in and week out. In my opinion, it is one of the toughest places to make any real money (back home we affectionately refer to it as "no fold'em hold'em" as you tend to see the river on every hand) and so I try to keep away from those kind of places while in AC. Unfortunately, Bally's is one of those places. The table composition was as follows ...
Dealer to my left, 65-70 year old (hell, he looked healthier than me) Chinese guy then a person so quiet I don't even remember what he or she looked like, followed by an Asian guy with glasses who I figure was about the same age as me (let's say around 50). He had quite a large stack this evening. I am going to say maybe $1,600 or so, and it was obvious he had been there a while. This was a $1/$2 No Limit with a $500 max buy-in. Next was a second older Asian gentleman who was friends with the first elder Asian gentleman, followed by what eventually I realized was his niece (who appeared to be about 40 years old) and a black lady about my age. Finally there was a heavy set middle eastern looking guy who appeared to be between 38-48 years old with a gruff voice to my right, and between he and I was an attorney from somewhere nearby who was around my age but carried a stack many times larger than mine (maybe $1,000) and would answer his cell phone whenever it rang. He knew the black lady as they had evidently just been in a tournament together earlier in the day and were catching up on current events, as I sat down. The attorney knew the middle aged Asian girl because they had played at Bally's last week at the same night and time but this week for some reason she was staying in a hotel on the boardwalk rather than driving back home, and his stack was up rather than down. This immediately connected basically everybody with everybody at this table in my mind (except me) since the lawyer referred to the middle eastern looking dude by his first name; Sam. It reminded me of back home and that's pretty much how it played out. One notable difference was I had not yet played with really good female players but the two ladies at my table were extremely good players and I will remember them when I return if I should encounter either again.
At first I was up to about $180 after maybe 30 minutes of play, but I attribute that to me being more the unknown quantity than anything else. I took advantage of their lack of knowledge of me a couple of times and got away with it but for the most part they would keep me honest; especially the women. They were tough and unless I wanted to take my hand to the mat I did not bet into them much. The middle aged Asian gal played few hands but when she did play she played them strongly. The black woman played a lot of hands but was impossible to bluff. She was betting back into me on the river way too many times to have that many hands over me and I would have to trap her to get any money out of her but I never got the opportunity. They knew enough to keep out of each others way. Between the two of them they kept me frustrated for quite a while. With 5 minutes to go before I had to leave to catch the bus and just one hand before the big blind, I decided I would fold the next hand and leave unless I got something playable. I got the 10♣-10♦ so I call $12 (because Doyle says to see the flop as cheaply as possible with them and I tend to agree) and the flop comes 8♥-8♣-4♣. I bet $20 to see what's out there, basically feeling pretty good about my wired tens but needing to know if anybody's got the eight. Everybody folds except the middle aged Asian guy who calls. The Ace of clubs turns and I now have to know if he has the Ace so I bet $50 and he calls. Now at this point I've got second high pair, a flush draw and a suck-out trip Tens draw. I don't put him on the Ace since he just called (which was probably a mistake) rather than raising because in that case I would have figured he was as scared as a flush draw as I was, so we see the river. Its a 2♦ and I decide to shove all-in and hopefully bluff him off the pot (in the back of my mind I'm thinking I'm bluffing with the best hand) but of course he takes me all in since my $180 stack is a mere bag of shells to him. We turn over and sure as shit he has the eight. My poor bankroll.
I think the thing that bothers me most about the way I played all day is the last hand of the night (isn't it always) and with me this seems to be a pattern, I pretty much knew I was beat on the river but for some reason, probably because I already had $100 in the middle and I subconsciously wanted to go home a big winner on a high note, I pushed all-in looking for the big money, easy score when I should have tucked my tail between my legs, folded, and went home a little less of a winner. This is a disturbing character flaw to have in this game. I was bummed and I know I need to work on this in the future. Oh yea and not getting stinking polluted towards the end of the night might also help. Whatever. By 10:02 I'm downstairs (the Bally's poker room is on the 6th floor) and I get in a line already 40 people deep, waiting for the 10:30pm bus which is obviously also going to be full. I make it home by 2:00am up $180 but it feels like I'm down $180. After I spend $100 to buy a carton of smokes (freakin Manhattan!) maybe I'll have enough left over to drown my sorrows in a bottle of Hennessy but maybe not, as tomorrow is laundry day. God I hate the saying 'better luck next time' but it sure does seem like it always applies to me.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
AC Trip Report, Harrah's Deep Stacks, 7/12/09
Since there are obviously no capable dog groomers in Manhattan my wife is down in Florida for the next several weeks getting her dog's toe nails clipped and shopping for things they have in Florida but couldn't possibly have in Manhattan.
This leaves open the distinct possibility of a trip to Atlantic City this weekend so I set about planning said trip in advance. First I need to get there (not a trivial issue when you live in Manhattan) so I check into one of the many casino buses that depart from Port Authority which is basically a 15 minute walk (or $5 cab ride) from my apartment. There are several bus operators but I only need to see the first two; Greyhound and Academy, to realize they all pretty much offer the same thing; round trip for $35 plus a $25 slots voucher when you get there (rumor has it they used to pay out $25 in cash but it seems those days are long gone), which on this trip went unused. The bus normally takes about 2 hours in each direction but this day it would take four and a half hours because the bus broke down (the air conditioner didn't work either) about mid-way and we ended up getting to Atlantic City around 12:30pm which did not leave much time to get to Harrah's and the $200 buy-in deep stack tournament we came to AC for in the first place.
Now Harrah's is a strange poker room. Its kind of dark and reserved. It is basically broken up into two sections and it looks like one section is where they hold the tournaments and the other section is where the cash games are. I have heard from other tournament players in the past that Harrah's has good action and it looked like the cash table section was hoppin but the tournament section was pretty much dead with only the final table from the 10am tournament (a $50 buy-in) finishing up. The deep stacks tournament I had come for was my worst nightmare; three tables! This is exactly what I was hoping to avoid as I was led to believe by the gentleman on the phone when I called in advance that there was usually between 7-10 tables. I had come with a friend so when we were seated at the same table we ended up with a table composed of me and my friend, a middle aged woman, a gnarly old biker dude, a local who liked to raise $900 regardless of blinds or situation, an escapee from the local old age home, and three seats whose players had abandoned them. Eventually the empty seat to my immediate left was filled by a 30ish guy who played pretty well but didn't get much in the way of cards for most of the tournament.
The play was slow to say the least. I know in a deep stacks tournament (a format which I happen to like) things tend to go a little slower and this is actually desired, but in this tournament, after nearly 4 hours we had only managed to shed 8 of the original 29 players. We started out with 15,000 in chips and the blinds increased every 20 minutes so everybody played extremely tight until the final table at which point it degenerated to an all-in fest which is kinda what this format is designed to avoid but on this day, this format only had the net effect of extending play to about 5 hours. I got popped with about 13 players left, when I pushed all-in with my hooks out of position and my friend (A-9 off) and the assisted living resident (K-10 suited) both went all-in (I had them both covered) so it was basically a JJ against AK race and the Ace turned up. This left me with about 5k (the blinds were about 800/1600 at this point) and when my all-in with a K-6 suited lost to a pair of tens about five hands later, I was left to wait for my friend (who got bumped about 6th 20 minutes later) out back where the smokers congregate.
Now when the bus broke down and we were standing around outside in the service island parking lot smoking cigarettes and bitching about the sorry state of cheap AC transportation, a weathered wench who kept poking and hitting me to drive home her point (which I hate incidentally) informed me she was here to see the RatDog concert taking place at 7 that night at the Taj. The vision of playing for real money against a bunch of acid impaired Dead Heads had me salivating so after the Harrah's tournament my friend and I walked over to the Borgata which was crowded as always (this is my favorite AC poker room by the way) and then took a Jitney down to the Taj Mahal to do some fishing.
The Taj Mahal poker room might be the busiest on the strip. It is certainly one of the most brightly lit rooms I have ever been in and they spread Stud as well as Omaha Hi/Lo which I love. They have the obligatory $1/$2 Limit and No-Limit games but they also have waiting lists for $10/$20 and $20/$40 Omaha Hi/Lo and Stud as well as $3/$6, $5/$5, $10/$20 and $20/$40 No Limit. I was also informed their tournaments (typically $100-$200 buy-in) usually run between 5-9 tables. We initially sat down at a $3/$6 No Limit table and after about 4 shots of Hennessy and 40 minutes I was drunk and up $80 so I decided to go get something to eat. The Taj has a great burger place on the second floor so after about a half hour break I joined a $10/$20 Omaha Hi/Lo table. The players were for the most part very good. There were several hands where you didn't see the river, which for Omaha Hi/Lo is a bit rare. The raises were made with value in mind and usually the blinds and button (with a single out of position player here and there) were the only players to see the flop, but best of all, not a drunk at the table with the exception of yours truly. I had reached Nirvana.
My first hand was crap (like Kh-Qc-7d-9s) so I folded but on my second hand I was dealt 4h-5h-5d-6d and though I was out of position, when it was my turn to bet, I raised to $40 and was re-raised by the button. The small and big blinds both called and I called. When 4s-4c-5s flopped, both blinds checked and I raised. I was called by the button and both blinds folded. There was now like over $200 in the pot and I was sitting on the potentially temporary nuts. I checked when the 5c turned and as expected, was immediately raised. I called and the river produced the Ah. Now If he had the 2h-3h (the straight flush wheel would beat my four fives and scoop in this case) I was dead, but that would mean he called with a 6 high straight straight (potential straight flush) on the flop and I just didn't think he would do that. Other than that I think I'm in pretty good shape so I lead out with the usual 'how much can I raise' question which of course raises a few brows. The brow I am interested in informs me a $40 raise would be permitted so I raise $40 and he calls. When it turns out he has an Ace high flush and no low I scoop nearly $320 while the onlookers marvel at how fortuitous a flop I got. Three more fortuitous flops and one bad beat later I walk away with about $200 more than I sat down with.
Next up is the strange $5/$5 No Limit table which I think is a Taj exclusive. The minimum buy-in is $200 which surprises me but the Hennessy says this is front pocket change for a shark on the prowl like me so I promptly get reeled in on my first hand when the flop pairs both my K and J but the river delivers a straight to the only fish who dared call my all-in. As I was walking away to add insult upon injury, an over-eager rounder asks 'are you going to get more money?'.
I grind it out for the next hour or so on a $2/$4 (which we turn into a $3/$6 after all agreeing) Omaha Hi/Lo table with three other players picking up like $30 more). At around 11pm I find my friend on a No Limit table and tell him the Showboat at 11:20 meaning the bus is leaving then. He asks what the buy-in is (cause he can play for like days straight with no sleep) but I break the bad news to him that I meant the bus. The ride home is uneventful and at around 2am I'm in bed watching Kang and Kirk shooing some alien off the Enterprise. Bottom line is I end up spending about $80 on transportation, food, free drink tips and smokes and losing about $90 at the tables. Since the wife is away next weekend also, hopefully I'll get it back with interest.
This leaves open the distinct possibility of a trip to Atlantic City this weekend so I set about planning said trip in advance. First I need to get there (not a trivial issue when you live in Manhattan) so I check into one of the many casino buses that depart from Port Authority which is basically a 15 minute walk (or $5 cab ride) from my apartment. There are several bus operators but I only need to see the first two; Greyhound and Academy, to realize they all pretty much offer the same thing; round trip for $35 plus a $25 slots voucher when you get there (rumor has it they used to pay out $25 in cash but it seems those days are long gone), which on this trip went unused. The bus normally takes about 2 hours in each direction but this day it would take four and a half hours because the bus broke down (the air conditioner didn't work either) about mid-way and we ended up getting to Atlantic City around 12:30pm which did not leave much time to get to Harrah's and the $200 buy-in deep stack tournament we came to AC for in the first place.
Now Harrah's is a strange poker room. Its kind of dark and reserved. It is basically broken up into two sections and it looks like one section is where they hold the tournaments and the other section is where the cash games are. I have heard from other tournament players in the past that Harrah's has good action and it looked like the cash table section was hoppin but the tournament section was pretty much dead with only the final table from the 10am tournament (a $50 buy-in) finishing up. The deep stacks tournament I had come for was my worst nightmare; three tables! This is exactly what I was hoping to avoid as I was led to believe by the gentleman on the phone when I called in advance that there was usually between 7-10 tables. I had come with a friend so when we were seated at the same table we ended up with a table composed of me and my friend, a middle aged woman, a gnarly old biker dude, a local who liked to raise $900 regardless of blinds or situation, an escapee from the local old age home, and three seats whose players had abandoned them. Eventually the empty seat to my immediate left was filled by a 30ish guy who played pretty well but didn't get much in the way of cards for most of the tournament.
The play was slow to say the least. I know in a deep stacks tournament (a format which I happen to like) things tend to go a little slower and this is actually desired, but in this tournament, after nearly 4 hours we had only managed to shed 8 of the original 29 players. We started out with 15,000 in chips and the blinds increased every 20 minutes so everybody played extremely tight until the final table at which point it degenerated to an all-in fest which is kinda what this format is designed to avoid but on this day, this format only had the net effect of extending play to about 5 hours. I got popped with about 13 players left, when I pushed all-in with my hooks out of position and my friend (A-9 off) and the assisted living resident (K-10 suited) both went all-in (I had them both covered) so it was basically a JJ against AK race and the Ace turned up. This left me with about 5k (the blinds were about 800/1600 at this point) and when my all-in with a K-6 suited lost to a pair of tens about five hands later, I was left to wait for my friend (who got bumped about 6th 20 minutes later) out back where the smokers congregate.
Now when the bus broke down and we were standing around outside in the service island parking lot smoking cigarettes and bitching about the sorry state of cheap AC transportation, a weathered wench who kept poking and hitting me to drive home her point (which I hate incidentally) informed me she was here to see the RatDog concert taking place at 7 that night at the Taj. The vision of playing for real money against a bunch of acid impaired Dead Heads had me salivating so after the Harrah's tournament my friend and I walked over to the Borgata which was crowded as always (this is my favorite AC poker room by the way) and then took a Jitney down to the Taj Mahal to do some fishing.
The Taj Mahal poker room might be the busiest on the strip. It is certainly one of the most brightly lit rooms I have ever been in and they spread Stud as well as Omaha Hi/Lo which I love. They have the obligatory $1/$2 Limit and No-Limit games but they also have waiting lists for $10/$20 and $20/$40 Omaha Hi/Lo and Stud as well as $3/$6, $5/$5, $10/$20 and $20/$40 No Limit. I was also informed their tournaments (typically $100-$200 buy-in) usually run between 5-9 tables. We initially sat down at a $3/$6 No Limit table and after about 4 shots of Hennessy and 40 minutes I was drunk and up $80 so I decided to go get something to eat. The Taj has a great burger place on the second floor so after about a half hour break I joined a $10/$20 Omaha Hi/Lo table. The players were for the most part very good. There were several hands where you didn't see the river, which for Omaha Hi/Lo is a bit rare. The raises were made with value in mind and usually the blinds and button (with a single out of position player here and there) were the only players to see the flop, but best of all, not a drunk at the table with the exception of yours truly. I had reached Nirvana.
My first hand was crap (like Kh-Qc-7d-9s) so I folded but on my second hand I was dealt 4h-5h-5d-6d and though I was out of position, when it was my turn to bet, I raised to $40 and was re-raised by the button. The small and big blinds both called and I called. When 4s-4c-5s flopped, both blinds checked and I raised. I was called by the button and both blinds folded. There was now like over $200 in the pot and I was sitting on the potentially temporary nuts. I checked when the 5c turned and as expected, was immediately raised. I called and the river produced the Ah. Now If he had the 2h-3h (the straight flush wheel would beat my four fives and scoop in this case) I was dead, but that would mean he called with a 6 high straight straight (potential straight flush) on the flop and I just didn't think he would do that. Other than that I think I'm in pretty good shape so I lead out with the usual 'how much can I raise' question which of course raises a few brows. The brow I am interested in informs me a $40 raise would be permitted so I raise $40 and he calls. When it turns out he has an Ace high flush and no low I scoop nearly $320 while the onlookers marvel at how fortuitous a flop I got. Three more fortuitous flops and one bad beat later I walk away with about $200 more than I sat down with.
Next up is the strange $5/$5 No Limit table which I think is a Taj exclusive. The minimum buy-in is $200 which surprises me but the Hennessy says this is front pocket change for a shark on the prowl like me so I promptly get reeled in on my first hand when the flop pairs both my K and J but the river delivers a straight to the only fish who dared call my all-in. As I was walking away to add insult upon injury, an over-eager rounder asks 'are you going to get more money?'.
I grind it out for the next hour or so on a $2/$4 (which we turn into a $3/$6 after all agreeing) Omaha Hi/Lo table with three other players picking up like $30 more). At around 11pm I find my friend on a No Limit table and tell him the Showboat at 11:20 meaning the bus is leaving then. He asks what the buy-in is (cause he can play for like days straight with no sleep) but I break the bad news to him that I meant the bus. The ride home is uneventful and at around 2am I'm in bed watching Kang and Kirk shooing some alien off the Enterprise. Bottom line is I end up spending about $80 on transportation, food, free drink tips and smokes and losing about $90 at the tables. Since the wife is away next weekend also, hopefully I'll get it back with interest.
Monday, May 18, 2009
AC Trip Report, Borgata 15k Guaranteed
Went to Atlantic City last week to play in the Wednesday night 15k guaranteed at the Borgata. We were staying at Caesars (excellent rate, like $149 a night) so we took the #2 Jitney (for $2.25) to the Borgata around 5pm. If you haven't been to AC its basically a bunch of waterfront casinos on the boardwalk for like 5 miles and then there are one or two (Harrahs and Borgata) that are about 4 miles west of the boardwalk so you really can't walk from Caesars to the Borgata, not only because its a pretty long walk but also because the neighborhoods you would have to walk through are a bit rough.
Went to sign up for the tournament ($120 buy-in of which $20 goes to the house) and they make us get a player's club card just to register. They don't do this in South Florida. Anyway, we go to sign up (its free) and the registration guy gets all flustered because the machine can't read my Florida drivers license and it takes like a half an hour to get me registered and then he makes us go to another window to a different guy to have my son register; weird.
Anyway, once we got our players club cards we go stand in a 5 player line and get registered quickly. It is about 6pm by this time. We go get something to eat at Wolfgang Puck's place and when we come back to the poker room around 6:45 there's a line of about 50 people, so registering early saved us a significant wait.
The Borgata poker room is pretty big; 85 tables. It is also very well lit and has a goldish yellow look to it. Much brighter than most of the rooms I've been in. Once the tournament starts I begin looking around for the monitors which tell you tourney stats like how many players registered, how many tables are left, how much money is paid out to how how many places, etc. To my surprise I discover they don't have this sort of thing. Instead a guy writes the remaining table numbers on a white board in the back of the room. I find it interesting that probably the biggest East Coast poker room (certainly one of the most popular) is still in the dark ages when it comes to poker room computer equipment. My home casino (the Hollywood FL Hard Rock) has everything computerized including computerized poker tables (IE no dealer). I don't play the computer poker tables, but thats another story. But when I am in a tournament at the Hard Rock I can always look up and see how many tables are remaining, and what the payout is. I just found this very different. Actually, now that I think about it most of the Vegas casinos are much like the Borgata so I guess I just got spoiled at the Hard Rock.
Once the tourny starts I realize the players are probably a little better than in South Florida, but not a lot better. South Florida has a lot of younger (like 20s-30s) players who really don't have a clue, and a bunch of older players who could give a shit less, but there are also some pretty good regulars. AC players in general seem more serious and play a bit tighter. Obviously both get their share of boisterous drunks and knuckleheads, but in general I found AC players to be a bit more savvy, especially at the lower limit (2-4, 5-10) tables where in South Florida we call the low limit tables 'no fold'em hold'em' because down there it seems like you always see the river with at least 3-4 other players.
The South Florida poker scene is in my opinion very underrated. In Broward County alone, we have Hold'Em at all the pari-mutuals (dog tracks, harness tracks, Jai Alai) as well as 3 dedicated casinos (the Hollywood Hard Rock, The Coconut Creek casino and the old Seminole Bingo Hall) so a player can move around quite a bit and find a wide variety of games. We have a bunch of Pros in the area (Howard Lederer, Mike Mizrachi to name a few) and the poker rooms are usually more full than most AC casino poker rooms. For example, the ShowBoat in AC is probably smaller than my original home casino, the Pompano Harness track (also known as the Isle of Capri casino) and during the weekdays you will find about 10 live tables (limit, no limit, Omaha H/L, stud) at the harness track while at the ShowBoat in AC most weekdays you will find 3-4 live tables and all will be limit or no limit. Caesars Palace, where I stayed has about 30 tables but during the week your lucky if more than 8 are simultaneously active.
The 15k guaranteed tournament at the Borgata was a bit bigger and better than most similar tournaments in South Florida. It drew about 300 players (30 tables) and paid out to 27th place (3 tables). First place was 8k, second 4k, and I'm pretty sure it went down to 2k, then 1k from there. What I do remember is 27th place paid $109. I played very well and got bounced when there were 4 tables left. I was somewhere around 5th-9th place with about $62k in chips (you start with 10k unlike Florida where you typically start with $1500-$3000 in chips) and I got pocket queens on the button. The small stack at our table (about $27k) went all in from bad position and I called. He turned over wired twos and rivered trips. Two hands later I pushed all in pre-flop with pocket aces and the same guy called with Q-10 suited. Of course he turned a flush and my night was over, but I never mind going out like that cause I know that's the game and according to Helmeuth, players who go out on bad beats are always better than players who go out when they are dominated.
We got back to Caesars around 1am and played 2-4 limit until around 6am. I ended up losing about $60 to a bunch of young drunks. There were about 5 tables active; 3 no limit and 2 limit. The no limit tables were 1-2 and 5-10 blinds. Both limit tables were 2-4. After taking about a 4 hour nap and grabbing some breakfast at the Piazza buffet; an excellent bargain at $16 I might add, I took the Caesars shuttle to the ShowBoat (Harrahs owns Caesars, Harrahs, the ShowBoat and Ballys and they offer a free shuttle between the four casinos) and got in a $60 buy-in tournament (started at like 2pm but allowed alternates to join until 3pm) which had about 5 tables and paid to 5 places (like $1200, then $600, etc). I got bounced at the final table when my AK suited got whacked by a AQ off with a Queen falling on the river. My luck finally bottomed out when I returned to Caesars and went to sit at a 2-4 limit table. They told me I had to make my first purchase of chips from the cage not at the table and when I returned I saw everybody at my table screaming and yelling. Turns out quad ladies took out quad fives and gave the owner of the quad fives half of the $177k bad beat jackpot. The owner of the ladies got like $35k and the remaining 6 players at the table split about $35k. Since I was not dealt in the hand because I was over at the cage getting my chips (like they can't cash a $20 at the table) I got dick. Even worse than dick since they had to verify the win looking at the tapes so the table was dead for like an hour. I gave back my chips took my remaining $50 and headed back up to my room with my tail between my legs; humbled yet again by the poker gods from hell.
Went to sign up for the tournament ($120 buy-in of which $20 goes to the house) and they make us get a player's club card just to register. They don't do this in South Florida. Anyway, we go to sign up (its free) and the registration guy gets all flustered because the machine can't read my Florida drivers license and it takes like a half an hour to get me registered and then he makes us go to another window to a different guy to have my son register; weird.
Anyway, once we got our players club cards we go stand in a 5 player line and get registered quickly. It is about 6pm by this time. We go get something to eat at Wolfgang Puck's place and when we come back to the poker room around 6:45 there's a line of about 50 people, so registering early saved us a significant wait.
The Borgata poker room is pretty big; 85 tables. It is also very well lit and has a goldish yellow look to it. Much brighter than most of the rooms I've been in. Once the tournament starts I begin looking around for the monitors which tell you tourney stats like how many players registered, how many tables are left, how much money is paid out to how how many places, etc. To my surprise I discover they don't have this sort of thing. Instead a guy writes the remaining table numbers on a white board in the back of the room. I find it interesting that probably the biggest East Coast poker room (certainly one of the most popular) is still in the dark ages when it comes to poker room computer equipment. My home casino (the Hollywood FL Hard Rock) has everything computerized including computerized poker tables (IE no dealer). I don't play the computer poker tables, but thats another story. But when I am in a tournament at the Hard Rock I can always look up and see how many tables are remaining, and what the payout is. I just found this very different. Actually, now that I think about it most of the Vegas casinos are much like the Borgata so I guess I just got spoiled at the Hard Rock.
Once the tourny starts I realize the players are probably a little better than in South Florida, but not a lot better. South Florida has a lot of younger (like 20s-30s) players who really don't have a clue, and a bunch of older players who could give a shit less, but there are also some pretty good regulars. AC players in general seem more serious and play a bit tighter. Obviously both get their share of boisterous drunks and knuckleheads, but in general I found AC players to be a bit more savvy, especially at the lower limit (2-4, 5-10) tables where in South Florida we call the low limit tables 'no fold'em hold'em' because down there it seems like you always see the river with at least 3-4 other players.
The South Florida poker scene is in my opinion very underrated. In Broward County alone, we have Hold'Em at all the pari-mutuals (dog tracks, harness tracks, Jai Alai) as well as 3 dedicated casinos (the Hollywood Hard Rock, The Coconut Creek casino and the old Seminole Bingo Hall) so a player can move around quite a bit and find a wide variety of games. We have a bunch of Pros in the area (Howard Lederer, Mike Mizrachi to name a few) and the poker rooms are usually more full than most AC casino poker rooms. For example, the ShowBoat in AC is probably smaller than my original home casino, the Pompano Harness track (also known as the Isle of Capri casino) and during the weekdays you will find about 10 live tables (limit, no limit, Omaha H/L, stud) at the harness track while at the ShowBoat in AC most weekdays you will find 3-4 live tables and all will be limit or no limit. Caesars Palace, where I stayed has about 30 tables but during the week your lucky if more than 8 are simultaneously active.
The 15k guaranteed tournament at the Borgata was a bit bigger and better than most similar tournaments in South Florida. It drew about 300 players (30 tables) and paid out to 27th place (3 tables). First place was 8k, second 4k, and I'm pretty sure it went down to 2k, then 1k from there. What I do remember is 27th place paid $109. I played very well and got bounced when there were 4 tables left. I was somewhere around 5th-9th place with about $62k in chips (you start with 10k unlike Florida where you typically start with $1500-$3000 in chips) and I got pocket queens on the button. The small stack at our table (about $27k) went all in from bad position and I called. He turned over wired twos and rivered trips. Two hands later I pushed all in pre-flop with pocket aces and the same guy called with Q-10 suited. Of course he turned a flush and my night was over, but I never mind going out like that cause I know that's the game and according to Helmeuth, players who go out on bad beats are always better than players who go out when they are dominated.
We got back to Caesars around 1am and played 2-4 limit until around 6am. I ended up losing about $60 to a bunch of young drunks. There were about 5 tables active; 3 no limit and 2 limit. The no limit tables were 1-2 and 5-10 blinds. Both limit tables were 2-4. After taking about a 4 hour nap and grabbing some breakfast at the Piazza buffet; an excellent bargain at $16 I might add, I took the Caesars shuttle to the ShowBoat (Harrahs owns Caesars, Harrahs, the ShowBoat and Ballys and they offer a free shuttle between the four casinos) and got in a $60 buy-in tournament (started at like 2pm but allowed alternates to join until 3pm) which had about 5 tables and paid to 5 places (like $1200, then $600, etc). I got bounced at the final table when my AK suited got whacked by a AQ off with a Queen falling on the river. My luck finally bottomed out when I returned to Caesars and went to sit at a 2-4 limit table. They told me I had to make my first purchase of chips from the cage not at the table and when I returned I saw everybody at my table screaming and yelling. Turns out quad ladies took out quad fives and gave the owner of the quad fives half of the $177k bad beat jackpot. The owner of the ladies got like $35k and the remaining 6 players at the table split about $35k. Since I was not dealt in the hand because I was over at the cage getting my chips (like they can't cash a $20 at the table) I got dick. Even worse than dick since they had to verify the win looking at the tapes so the table was dead for like an hour. I gave back my chips took my remaining $50 and headed back up to my room with my tail between my legs; humbled yet again by the poker gods from hell.
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