BBC Z's Nov 23rd - Nov 27th Atlantic CityTrip Report - Day 1 & 2
Day 1 – Wednesday Night.
It’s the American thanksgiving, I have 4 days off. According to Google I’m about 7 ½ hours from Atlantic City. I’ve got a free rental car, free miles, free gas, free food and I don’t even have to burn vacation days (free bankroll!), so I leave work on Wednesday at 2pm and on the road I go. I’ve got no maps other than a trip-tic printed off the AAA website.
The path is Durham -> Richmond VA -> Washington -> Baltimore -> Delaware -> New Jersey. Two things frustrate me right out of the gate. One, Virginia must be home of the foot brake because all the natives queue up in the left lane and drive about 5 under the speed limit. They must also really love their NASCAR because its “3-wide†down the entire highway. IE: Three cars across a three lane highway, all traveling equally 5 under the speed limit. I’m a Toronto driver; I can’t deal with that crap. Second problem comes up in Delaware where they decide to open two cash toll booths for their shitty little state on one of the most congested weekends of the year. Spend an hour getting through it. Finally make it to New Jersey, where I screw up a turn and land up taking the US-40 all the way into town. The 40 is a two line ‘highway’ with no lights and no cars. Not exactly the most comfortable feeling of driving. I try my best to get the Atlantic City Expressway but overshoot the turn a few times. After the third miss, I almost hit a fawn in the middle of the road. Needless to say, I just want to get to my Days Inn. I finally fid the expressway and spend another hour or so driving around back alley highways to get to my room. Mental Note: Always carry a map of your destination city. So I roll into the hotel at midnight, tired as hell. Let’s have a quick chat about this hotel. I check in. There doesn’t seem to be anything strange about it. It’s your typical three story motel complex, except that the stairs are guarded by a door with electronic locks. Feel safe? Well that’s too bad because the door isn’t actually connected to anything at the hinges. You kind of just push it out of the way and step over it. Two sides of the building and both doors are beyond broken. I’m on the third floor and climb up the world’s dirtiest stairway. No bum would be proud to call that a home. I get to my room, open the door and turn on the light switch. Nothing happens. I find a light and turn it on. I check out the bathroom. No water in the toilet. I turn the water on and the toilet overflows. The Hilton, this is not.
I decide that since I have 3 full days to enjoy AC, I’m in no rush to screw up my sleeping patterns by hitting a casino, so I watch a little TV, find a wireless network and go to sleep. I won’t burn out this trip like Vegas.
Day 2 – Thursday Night – Mid Town casinos – Sands/ballys/(blech)Caesars
I decide to split my trip up with one day of poker on the middle of the boardwalk (the above casinos). Friday night is for the Trop/Taj and Saturday Night is borgata / harrahs time. So around noon I’m off for the sands. I park there because they’ve got free parking. Damn, I just remembered now as I typed this that I forgot to get my money refunded. You pay the fiver first and then when you sign up for a card you are supposed to have your receipt to get a refund. Anyway, I look for the poker room at the sands but I have no idea where it is. After about 20 minutes of looking I hear someone mention that it’s closed anyway. Apparently, it closes at 4am (!!). That told me there’s no action there.
After I get my players card, I see this video poker machine designed by Sklanksy. It’s called ‘All-in Texas holdem’ or something. The premise of the game is that there are three holdem hands delt. The player picks one, and then multiple 5 card boards are delt. If you hand holds up against the two opponent’s hands, you win with payouts based on the strength of your hand. Since I wasn’t in any hurry to play poker (knowing I had 30-40 hours ahead of me) I toss $5 into the machine. Also, at the sands they had a promo that said if you earn 10 slot points, you get a scratch card for $10-$1000 dollars. I play 10 hands for one nickel on each and play for what must have been 30-40 minutes. I was trying to figure out the return rate for this game but I have no idea. Considering you can choose the poker hand it probably makes the EV calc hard. I can guarantee you it doesn’t have a 100% return rate, but sklansky games tend to have very close to 100% with proper strategies. Anyway, after all that play I figured I collected my 10 points. 2. Not even close. I wasn’t prepared to toss $20 after a likely $10, so off to real poker I was. I stumble my way over to Ballys and find the poker room on the 6th floor.
Very nice room, reminded me a lot of Vegas’ MGM but smaller. It’s strictly a 2/4 1/2 casino and I get a seat in a 2/4 game. I can remember next to nothing about the game except for one bizarre smoking rule. You are NOT allowed to smoke in the 1 seat or the 10 seat. Smoke away in the 2-9 seats though. The table is shorthanded the entire time I’m there but I don’t really care because it’s 5 to the flop every time anyway. I play from around 1 – 6pm earning 50c/hr in comps before I decide I’m hungry and leave. Heck, there are more poker rooms to play in! I left the table +$175.
I go downstairs to the Bally’ buffet and wait in a pretty long line for 10 minutes. As I’m in line I see a sign for their stage show: The Price is Right! Live. I love this show. It’s $25 bucks and the final show for the day starts at 7:00pm. It’s a toss between food and fun. I realize that I won’t be back here for my trip, so I forgo the buffet and take in the show. When you register they make you bid on two prizes. One was a motorcycle + sidecar from 1980. The second was some ugly lamp for 1999. I bid $2500 on the cycle and $750 for the lamp. I get my ticket, first row 4 from the middle. It was a pretty good seat. I enter the theatre and find out why it’s empty. I’m between two very old and large women. I’m a big guy myself, so it was tough to maintain a little contact between them as possible. Anyway, the show was GREAT! They play about 8 or 9 games and always call down a new set of 4 contestants. In addition, after every game they call 4 more names that get food comps. I’d guess in general 1/3 of the audience get a prize in some way. Anyway, the show was highlighted by the 6foot 6 guy in his late 40’s that got on stage, jumping around and screaming’ with his pants halfway down his ass showing a massive crack to the audience. His game was Cliffhanger. That’s the one with the yodeling guy who moves up the mountain for every dollar away from the actual price the guesses are. Anyway, the first price is this cheap coffeemaker to which hero bids $40 bucks. He’s off by $15 and has only $10 in misses left for the two remaining prizes. His second prize is a cheap looking tool and socket set. Einstein bids Fifty bucks. Needless to say, that little yodeler ran up and off the mountain to his death so fast it was all a blur. The actual price was $20. They played hole in one or two and the poor lady lipped the putt twice. They showed some highlights of the previous 6,000 shows which included the highest bid in show history for someone on contestants show. $9,000 for two surfboards. Needless to say Bob had a great time making fun of her. The show lasts about 80-90 minutes and it was great. An easy recommendation for anyone that’s willing to get into it and shout prices at people.
I go back down to the buffet and it’s pretty good for $15 bucks on a weekday. I made a good dent at it (for a change, considering the very poor hitting at the mirage in Vegas) and head over to Caesars for s’more action action action.
I get to the table and proceed to not win a pot for the first two hours. Going cold for a few hours was the running theme of the trip. I was down around $80 at midnight and was considering going home but then I caught fire and went up $100 or so. Lost a few pots and then it was getting close to 2am. Knowing I didn’t need to stay up and the game was getting shorthanded again I was looking to leave soon. Then of course THE HAND happened to which everyone knows and I was out of there on my own power. I know I was close to having security help me out the door.
I’m pissed and the events are racing through my mind. I know that I can’t sleep now and I know I’m not gambling in Caesars. I decide to go back to that sklansky video poker game at the Sands and burn another fiver to calm down. I hit a straight flush and cash out $6.30 when they announce they’re closing this section of the casino for cleaning or something. I ask the floor lady if she’s serious about the casino asking me to stop gambling. She chuckles and clarifies that I just can’t gamble in the section anymore.
I cash out my 6 bucks and notice a really crazy wild loud craps game going on. It’s for a $5 min bet, so I decide to suck up the 1% HA on the pass line and play for fun. The table is filled with chips everywhere. I’d say there’s probably 300-400 on the table each roll. I break even for the first few rolls and suddenly it’s my turn to roll. I’m a little nervous because I don’t want to lose everyone’s money. I toss a 7 on my come out roll. That gets the table happy. I crap out on the next roll and everyone is happy because they’re all betting those crazy ‘craps and horn bets’. I toss an 11 the next roll and win then toss another 11 and lose. One of the guys that hit huge on the 11 pays my next $5 pass bet and I put up a point of 6 and hit it three rolls later. Next I put up a 10 point and complete it with a hard four (which they all love of course). Next roll I put up an 8 and 7-out. Good run and people are happy with me. Next four shooters go up and 7 out. I’m down my $20 but more importantly I’ve killed an hour, I feel good and Caesars feels like a distant memory.
I go back to the day’s inn. Swipe my key card and it doesn’t register. Try again. Nothing. I go up to the front desk. The doors are locked (??). The desk guy tells me to come to the side of the office and I pass my card through the broken screen window. I tell him my room number and he fixes my card. No need for any of those security checks in Absecon I guess because he never asked for ID. I make a mental note to deadbolt and chain up my door. I get to bed around 4 or 5.
Link to Days 3-5: http://www.pokerforum.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6877.0
Link to debacle over the caesars floor ruling: http://www.pokerforum.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6818.0
Link to the 2+2 guys mini report that included a reference to me: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4037548&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD
It’s the American thanksgiving, I have 4 days off. According to Google I’m about 7 ½ hours from Atlantic City. I’ve got a free rental car, free miles, free gas, free food and I don’t even have to burn vacation days (free bankroll!), so I leave work on Wednesday at 2pm and on the road I go. I’ve got no maps other than a trip-tic printed off the AAA website.
The path is Durham -> Richmond VA -> Washington -> Baltimore -> Delaware -> New Jersey. Two things frustrate me right out of the gate. One, Virginia must be home of the foot brake because all the natives queue up in the left lane and drive about 5 under the speed limit. They must also really love their NASCAR because its “3-wide†down the entire highway. IE: Three cars across a three lane highway, all traveling equally 5 under the speed limit. I’m a Toronto driver; I can’t deal with that crap. Second problem comes up in Delaware where they decide to open two cash toll booths for their shitty little state on one of the most congested weekends of the year. Spend an hour getting through it. Finally make it to New Jersey, where I screw up a turn and land up taking the US-40 all the way into town. The 40 is a two line ‘highway’ with no lights and no cars. Not exactly the most comfortable feeling of driving. I try my best to get the Atlantic City Expressway but overshoot the turn a few times. After the third miss, I almost hit a fawn in the middle of the road. Needless to say, I just want to get to my Days Inn. I finally fid the expressway and spend another hour or so driving around back alley highways to get to my room. Mental Note: Always carry a map of your destination city. So I roll into the hotel at midnight, tired as hell. Let’s have a quick chat about this hotel. I check in. There doesn’t seem to be anything strange about it. It’s your typical three story motel complex, except that the stairs are guarded by a door with electronic locks. Feel safe? Well that’s too bad because the door isn’t actually connected to anything at the hinges. You kind of just push it out of the way and step over it. Two sides of the building and both doors are beyond broken. I’m on the third floor and climb up the world’s dirtiest stairway. No bum would be proud to call that a home. I get to my room, open the door and turn on the light switch. Nothing happens. I find a light and turn it on. I check out the bathroom. No water in the toilet. I turn the water on and the toilet overflows. The Hilton, this is not.
I decide that since I have 3 full days to enjoy AC, I’m in no rush to screw up my sleeping patterns by hitting a casino, so I watch a little TV, find a wireless network and go to sleep. I won’t burn out this trip like Vegas.
Day 2 – Thursday Night – Mid Town casinos – Sands/ballys/(blech)Caesars
I decide to split my trip up with one day of poker on the middle of the boardwalk (the above casinos). Friday night is for the Trop/Taj and Saturday Night is borgata / harrahs time. So around noon I’m off for the sands. I park there because they’ve got free parking. Damn, I just remembered now as I typed this that I forgot to get my money refunded. You pay the fiver first and then when you sign up for a card you are supposed to have your receipt to get a refund. Anyway, I look for the poker room at the sands but I have no idea where it is. After about 20 minutes of looking I hear someone mention that it’s closed anyway. Apparently, it closes at 4am (!!). That told me there’s no action there.
After I get my players card, I see this video poker machine designed by Sklanksy. It’s called ‘All-in Texas holdem’ or something. The premise of the game is that there are three holdem hands delt. The player picks one, and then multiple 5 card boards are delt. If you hand holds up against the two opponent’s hands, you win with payouts based on the strength of your hand. Since I wasn’t in any hurry to play poker (knowing I had 30-40 hours ahead of me) I toss $5 into the machine. Also, at the sands they had a promo that said if you earn 10 slot points, you get a scratch card for $10-$1000 dollars. I play 10 hands for one nickel on each and play for what must have been 30-40 minutes. I was trying to figure out the return rate for this game but I have no idea. Considering you can choose the poker hand it probably makes the EV calc hard. I can guarantee you it doesn’t have a 100% return rate, but sklansky games tend to have very close to 100% with proper strategies. Anyway, after all that play I figured I collected my 10 points. 2. Not even close. I wasn’t prepared to toss $20 after a likely $10, so off to real poker I was. I stumble my way over to Ballys and find the poker room on the 6th floor.
Very nice room, reminded me a lot of Vegas’ MGM but smaller. It’s strictly a 2/4 1/2 casino and I get a seat in a 2/4 game. I can remember next to nothing about the game except for one bizarre smoking rule. You are NOT allowed to smoke in the 1 seat or the 10 seat. Smoke away in the 2-9 seats though. The table is shorthanded the entire time I’m there but I don’t really care because it’s 5 to the flop every time anyway. I play from around 1 – 6pm earning 50c/hr in comps before I decide I’m hungry and leave. Heck, there are more poker rooms to play in! I left the table +$175.
I go downstairs to the Bally’ buffet and wait in a pretty long line for 10 minutes. As I’m in line I see a sign for their stage show: The Price is Right! Live. I love this show. It’s $25 bucks and the final show for the day starts at 7:00pm. It’s a toss between food and fun. I realize that I won’t be back here for my trip, so I forgo the buffet and take in the show. When you register they make you bid on two prizes. One was a motorcycle + sidecar from 1980. The second was some ugly lamp for 1999. I bid $2500 on the cycle and $750 for the lamp. I get my ticket, first row 4 from the middle. It was a pretty good seat. I enter the theatre and find out why it’s empty. I’m between two very old and large women. I’m a big guy myself, so it was tough to maintain a little contact between them as possible. Anyway, the show was GREAT! They play about 8 or 9 games and always call down a new set of 4 contestants. In addition, after every game they call 4 more names that get food comps. I’d guess in general 1/3 of the audience get a prize in some way. Anyway, the show was highlighted by the 6foot 6 guy in his late 40’s that got on stage, jumping around and screaming’ with his pants halfway down his ass showing a massive crack to the audience. His game was Cliffhanger. That’s the one with the yodeling guy who moves up the mountain for every dollar away from the actual price the guesses are. Anyway, the first price is this cheap coffeemaker to which hero bids $40 bucks. He’s off by $15 and has only $10 in misses left for the two remaining prizes. His second prize is a cheap looking tool and socket set. Einstein bids Fifty bucks. Needless to say, that little yodeler ran up and off the mountain to his death so fast it was all a blur. The actual price was $20. They played hole in one or two and the poor lady lipped the putt twice. They showed some highlights of the previous 6,000 shows which included the highest bid in show history for someone on contestants show. $9,000 for two surfboards. Needless to say Bob had a great time making fun of her. The show lasts about 80-90 minutes and it was great. An easy recommendation for anyone that’s willing to get into it and shout prices at people.
I go back down to the buffet and it’s pretty good for $15 bucks on a weekday. I made a good dent at it (for a change, considering the very poor hitting at the mirage in Vegas) and head over to Caesars for s’more action action action.
I get to the table and proceed to not win a pot for the first two hours. Going cold for a few hours was the running theme of the trip. I was down around $80 at midnight and was considering going home but then I caught fire and went up $100 or so. Lost a few pots and then it was getting close to 2am. Knowing I didn’t need to stay up and the game was getting shorthanded again I was looking to leave soon. Then of course THE HAND happened to which everyone knows and I was out of there on my own power. I know I was close to having security help me out the door.
I’m pissed and the events are racing through my mind. I know that I can’t sleep now and I know I’m not gambling in Caesars. I decide to go back to that sklansky video poker game at the Sands and burn another fiver to calm down. I hit a straight flush and cash out $6.30 when they announce they’re closing this section of the casino for cleaning or something. I ask the floor lady if she’s serious about the casino asking me to stop gambling. She chuckles and clarifies that I just can’t gamble in the section anymore.
I cash out my 6 bucks and notice a really crazy wild loud craps game going on. It’s for a $5 min bet, so I decide to suck up the 1% HA on the pass line and play for fun. The table is filled with chips everywhere. I’d say there’s probably 300-400 on the table each roll. I break even for the first few rolls and suddenly it’s my turn to roll. I’m a little nervous because I don’t want to lose everyone’s money. I toss a 7 on my come out roll. That gets the table happy. I crap out on the next roll and everyone is happy because they’re all betting those crazy ‘craps and horn bets’. I toss an 11 the next roll and win then toss another 11 and lose. One of the guys that hit huge on the 11 pays my next $5 pass bet and I put up a point of 6 and hit it three rolls later. Next I put up a 10 point and complete it with a hard four (which they all love of course). Next roll I put up an 8 and 7-out. Good run and people are happy with me. Next four shooters go up and 7 out. I’m down my $20 but more importantly I’ve killed an hour, I feel good and Caesars feels like a distant memory.
I go back to the day’s inn. Swipe my key card and it doesn’t register. Try again. Nothing. I go up to the front desk. The doors are locked (??). The desk guy tells me to come to the side of the office and I pass my card through the broken screen window. I tell him my room number and he fixes my card. No need for any of those security checks in Absecon I guess because he never asked for ID. I make a mental note to deadbolt and chain up my door. I get to bed around 4 or 5.
Link to Days 3-5: http://www.pokerforum.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6877.0
Link to debacle over the caesars floor ruling: http://www.pokerforum.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6818.0
Link to the 2+2 guys mini report that included a reference to me: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4037548&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD
Comments
btw. the reason they don't let the 1 and 10 seat smoke is because they are physically right next to the dealers and some variant likely on it being an occupational hazzard / dealers just don't like it
Nice report, both parts actually. Not such a bizarre rule about not smoking next to the dealer. I recall when I first started dealing Poker (the room had swinging doors, you tied up your horse outside and ... OK I'm old), It was my 4th shift ever on the game and some dude with a cigarette in his hand managed to burn my cheek as he was talkiing to the player in seat 2 and trying to make a point by waving his hands around. Today it is virtually standard practice not to smoke in either seat next to the dealer.
Being an extra seat away doesn't make the smoke go away..
No question about the health and safety aspects of smoke; it is only done to keep a lit cigarette away from a dealer and hopefully prevent a burn or an inconsiderate player holding a lit cigarette inches from a dealer's face. There is no altruistic reason for this rule just a practical means of preventing a problem.
Cheers,
Lee