NYC & AC Trip Report
Hello everybody...
My wife & I flew into NYC on Saturday morning to do some shopping this past weekend. We stayed at the Sheraton Towers which is just a short walk from Times Sq.
All I can say is WOW! NYC is just crazy. It has a vibe unlike anything I have experienced before (except for maybe Vegas). I have visited Toronto, Mtl, Van, Philly & Chicago but I was blown away by the sheer volume of people walking the streets. Not only was Times Square packed but so was every neighberhood that we visited. The one thing that really blew me away was how many people stopped me to talk soccer because I was wearing a Man U official jersey. My wife thought it was hilarious when a group of young guys shook my hand and gave me props for wearing a Wayne Rooney jersey.
NYC is also the most expensive city I have ever visited. We ate lunch at Stages Deli and had dinner at a great steakhouse called Del Frisco's. I highly recommend Del Frisco's, both the food & service were second to none.
After dinner we strolled around for a couple hours and then went to a comedy club called Caroline's. We saw three performers including Susie Essman from Curb Your Enthusiasm. All three comedians were hilarious.
On Sunday we did some more shopping and decided to take a bus tour. It was money well worth spent. We did the downtown loop which took 2 hours. Our guide was great and the good thing about the tour is that you have an opportunity to get off the bus at several different locations and get back on at a later time if you wish.
On Monday my wife flew back to Detroit and I took a bus to AC. I checked in at the Trump Marina for $99/night. I quickly changed a headed off to the Borgata to check out their poker room.
I sat down to play $3/6 as I wanted to get in a good frame of mind before playing $5/10 or $10/20. I won $80 in about 4 hrs of play. I felt a little tired so I grabbed a bite to eat before heading off to Ceasars to check out their poker room.
Ceasars was a huge disappointment. They only had 5 tables going and only had one limit table of $2/4. I left quickly a headed to the Taj.
I have read that the poker chips at the Taj Mahal are dirty. To be honest the poker chips are disgusting. They are all stained brown from dirt and who knows what else. The poker room is large and is divided by small games on one side and larger games on the other. They have a registration desk for each side as well. I had to wait only about 10 minutes and they opened a new $5/10 game. The players at the table were rocks and there was very little raising. I played for about 2 hrs when the table broke and donked off about $120. I registered for a $10/20 game and waited for about an hour to play before I could feel the Borgata calling my name.
So at this point I am down $40. There is only one $5/10 table going and 3 $10/20 table but the wait lists are long. (There are probably 10-12 no limit tables running, along with a few stud, omaha, and $20/40 limit tables always going strong). I sit down to play $3/6 and play from midnite til about 4am. It was a table full of young players who loved to build huge pots. I never could hit any of them but mage to make a small profit of $40.
On Tuesday I decide to play in the 11am tournament. It was a $65 buy-in for $5000 in chips with 20 minute levels. They were 120 players and paid out 18. At the end of the 1st hour they have an add-on for $5000 in chips for an additional $50. I ran my chips up to around $30,000 by the 400-800 level. I was playing tight but extremely agressive when I had a hand. Under the gun raised to $2400, I was in the cut-off with QQ and re-raised to $6000. UTG moved in and I called the additional $4000. He had pocket 10's. He hit his set on the turn. With $20,000 left I had plenty of chips left but hit a cold deck. I tried a couple moves but players started moving all-in every hand and players started getting eliminated left and right as small pairs held up against higher overcards. My stack dwindled down to $8500, the blinds were $800-$1600 with a $200 ante. I moved in UTG with AKs and was called by pocket sixes. The sixes held up and I was eliminated in 34th place.
Right after the tournament I sat down and donked off $200 in 2 hours. I should have never sat down. I was still thinking about the tournament and was not focused at all. At that point I decided I need a quick nap and a meal to refresh myself as I knew I was going to play a long session in the evening.
AC has lenty of other poker rooms but I loved the feel of the Borgata. I decided that I was not interested in playing anywhere else.
I had a plan Tues night to sit down with $120 at the $3/6 and play extremely tight and slowly build my stack. I sat down at 8pm and by 10pm I built my stack to $200. I jumped to $5/10 and continued to play extremely tight and by midnite I had a stack of $350 and jumped up to play $10/20.
At the $10/20 table we had a mix of 4 pretty strong players, myself who I placed around 5th, 4 weaker players and one crazy lady.
I won a huge pot when UTG raised pre-flop, everyone folded to me and I was holding JJ on the button. I re-raised and crazy lady re-raised in the BB. Both UTG and myself called.
Flop was rag-J-rag. Crazy lady raised, UTG called, I re-raised, Crazy lady capped and UTG folded. I called.
Turn was another rag, Crazy lady raised, I re-raised and she only called.
River was another rag. There were no flushes or straights on board so I knew I had her beat. Everybody at the table knew she had Aces and I had trips except obviously for her. We raised back and forth a couple times which eventually put me all-in. I took down the pot which was in the $800 range.
I played til about 4:30am. I was pretty happy with my play that evening and thanks to Crazy lady I left with $900 up from my original $120 buy-in.
My Wed night session was pretty uneventful and I lost $40 playing about 6 hrs of $10/20.
All in all I had a very enjoyble trip to AC except for my travel home where I experienced a couple of bad beats with my flight. To male a long story short my plane was to arrive in Det from Philly at 6pm. I ended up not getting home to London until 3am.
Without a doubt the Borgata is the place to play in AC. The poker room is the most attractive and most comfortbale in every way imaginable. They had the best tables, the best chairs and the hottests waitresses that you will find anywhere. I have heard reports that the games are difficult to beat however I felt that there was a good mix of good and poor players.
I hope this was helpful to anybody who is planning a trip to AC.
Dave
My wife & I flew into NYC on Saturday morning to do some shopping this past weekend. We stayed at the Sheraton Towers which is just a short walk from Times Sq.
All I can say is WOW! NYC is just crazy. It has a vibe unlike anything I have experienced before (except for maybe Vegas). I have visited Toronto, Mtl, Van, Philly & Chicago but I was blown away by the sheer volume of people walking the streets. Not only was Times Square packed but so was every neighberhood that we visited. The one thing that really blew me away was how many people stopped me to talk soccer because I was wearing a Man U official jersey. My wife thought it was hilarious when a group of young guys shook my hand and gave me props for wearing a Wayne Rooney jersey.
NYC is also the most expensive city I have ever visited. We ate lunch at Stages Deli and had dinner at a great steakhouse called Del Frisco's. I highly recommend Del Frisco's, both the food & service were second to none.
After dinner we strolled around for a couple hours and then went to a comedy club called Caroline's. We saw three performers including Susie Essman from Curb Your Enthusiasm. All three comedians were hilarious.
On Sunday we did some more shopping and decided to take a bus tour. It was money well worth spent. We did the downtown loop which took 2 hours. Our guide was great and the good thing about the tour is that you have an opportunity to get off the bus at several different locations and get back on at a later time if you wish.
On Monday my wife flew back to Detroit and I took a bus to AC. I checked in at the Trump Marina for $99/night. I quickly changed a headed off to the Borgata to check out their poker room.
I sat down to play $3/6 as I wanted to get in a good frame of mind before playing $5/10 or $10/20. I won $80 in about 4 hrs of play. I felt a little tired so I grabbed a bite to eat before heading off to Ceasars to check out their poker room.
Ceasars was a huge disappointment. They only had 5 tables going and only had one limit table of $2/4. I left quickly a headed to the Taj.
I have read that the poker chips at the Taj Mahal are dirty. To be honest the poker chips are disgusting. They are all stained brown from dirt and who knows what else. The poker room is large and is divided by small games on one side and larger games on the other. They have a registration desk for each side as well. I had to wait only about 10 minutes and they opened a new $5/10 game. The players at the table were rocks and there was very little raising. I played for about 2 hrs when the table broke and donked off about $120. I registered for a $10/20 game and waited for about an hour to play before I could feel the Borgata calling my name.
So at this point I am down $40. There is only one $5/10 table going and 3 $10/20 table but the wait lists are long. (There are probably 10-12 no limit tables running, along with a few stud, omaha, and $20/40 limit tables always going strong). I sit down to play $3/6 and play from midnite til about 4am. It was a table full of young players who loved to build huge pots. I never could hit any of them but mage to make a small profit of $40.
On Tuesday I decide to play in the 11am tournament. It was a $65 buy-in for $5000 in chips with 20 minute levels. They were 120 players and paid out 18. At the end of the 1st hour they have an add-on for $5000 in chips for an additional $50. I ran my chips up to around $30,000 by the 400-800 level. I was playing tight but extremely agressive when I had a hand. Under the gun raised to $2400, I was in the cut-off with QQ and re-raised to $6000. UTG moved in and I called the additional $4000. He had pocket 10's. He hit his set on the turn. With $20,000 left I had plenty of chips left but hit a cold deck. I tried a couple moves but players started moving all-in every hand and players started getting eliminated left and right as small pairs held up against higher overcards. My stack dwindled down to $8500, the blinds were $800-$1600 with a $200 ante. I moved in UTG with AKs and was called by pocket sixes. The sixes held up and I was eliminated in 34th place.
Right after the tournament I sat down and donked off $200 in 2 hours. I should have never sat down. I was still thinking about the tournament and was not focused at all. At that point I decided I need a quick nap and a meal to refresh myself as I knew I was going to play a long session in the evening.
AC has lenty of other poker rooms but I loved the feel of the Borgata. I decided that I was not interested in playing anywhere else.
I had a plan Tues night to sit down with $120 at the $3/6 and play extremely tight and slowly build my stack. I sat down at 8pm and by 10pm I built my stack to $200. I jumped to $5/10 and continued to play extremely tight and by midnite I had a stack of $350 and jumped up to play $10/20.
At the $10/20 table we had a mix of 4 pretty strong players, myself who I placed around 5th, 4 weaker players and one crazy lady.
I won a huge pot when UTG raised pre-flop, everyone folded to me and I was holding JJ on the button. I re-raised and crazy lady re-raised in the BB. Both UTG and myself called.
Flop was rag-J-rag. Crazy lady raised, UTG called, I re-raised, Crazy lady capped and UTG folded. I called.
Turn was another rag, Crazy lady raised, I re-raised and she only called.
River was another rag. There were no flushes or straights on board so I knew I had her beat. Everybody at the table knew she had Aces and I had trips except obviously for her. We raised back and forth a couple times which eventually put me all-in. I took down the pot which was in the $800 range.
I played til about 4:30am. I was pretty happy with my play that evening and thanks to Crazy lady I left with $900 up from my original $120 buy-in.
My Wed night session was pretty uneventful and I lost $40 playing about 6 hrs of $10/20.
All in all I had a very enjoyble trip to AC except for my travel home where I experienced a couple of bad beats with my flight. To male a long story short my plane was to arrive in Det from Philly at 6pm. I ended up not getting home to London until 3am.
Without a doubt the Borgata is the place to play in AC. The poker room is the most attractive and most comfortbale in every way imaginable. They had the best tables, the best chairs and the hottests waitresses that you will find anywhere. I have heard reports that the games are difficult to beat however I felt that there was a good mix of good and poor players.
I hope this was helpful to anybody who is planning a trip to AC.
Dave
Comments
NICE!
Nice trip report btw...