BBC Z's Nov 23rd - Nov 27th Atlantic CityTrip Report - Days 3 - 5
Day 3 – Friday – The Tropicana, Taj and Showboat.
Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock. I look at the clock 11am. Its housekeeping. I roll over in bed and expect her to go away. Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock. 11:05. Knock knock Knock Knock Knock 11:10. This goes on for at least half an hour as I try to fall back asleep. Finally the knocks stop, but I’m awake. I thank you very much most aggressive housekeeper ever. Did you see anyone come out of my door? No? Then why are you knocking again? Bah. I didn’t even have any Do Not Disturb signs anyway.
It is black Friday and that means it's time to hit the Tropicana. I get to the poker room and it’s PACKED. 2/4 was long gone. 3/6 packed too. The room itself is very packed and cramped and dark. 7.50/15 is the only limit with a reasonable 2 person waiting list but it’s only running on two tables and as I spent 5 minutes watching heads up and 3 handed flops I decided to boot it for the Taj. The Taj is so big you never need to wait, or so I heard. I eat at the world’s worst buffet (The trop is world renown for being bad) and head over to the Taj.
I get to the Taj and find the same problem as the trop. All the lists are huge. I guess Americans do two things on Black Friday: Shop and Gamble. I put my name on the 3/6 and 5/10 lists when I get my biggest break of the weekend. They’re opening a new 5/10 table. It’s right beside the brush and congested as hell. It’s a stud 8 handed table. Also, there are no chairs. The floor brings them over when suddenly they decide to open us up a table in the High limit section, safely away from the unwashed masses (It’s the Taj, they’re definitely unwashed). First hand delt, it’s folded to me in the CO. I raise and steal the blinds. Woo hoo. I contemplate leaving but there’s no way I’m getting another table in this city. I stay and proceed to go up $250 as the table is very loose passive with 7-8 to the flop and only raising when they had the goods. The second theme of the trip started at the Taj. My half of the table would be the tight half while the other side would be the loose half. Interesting thing was halfway though the session, the waitress disappeared for 2 hours. We’re playing in the high limit section and I had the floor call twice to get us drinks. He was pretty pissed, and so was our table. The Taj without a drink is a boring place to be. I pick up some big hands which lose to complete crap and whittle my way down to $100. I start feeling tired at the table about 6 hours in around and I notice that I’m not able to focus on the players as well as the start. I think I’ve found my current time limitation. Around 6 hours or so I’m fine. If it is any more than that, I stop paying attention. My stack slowly whittles down and I fear that I’m going to Wynn again. (When I was in Vegas, I went up $200 playing 4-8 at the Wynn and left the table breakeven). Suddenly, the tight player to my left goes crazy and starts playing any two making backdoor flushes on the river. He takes my last $100 of profit. I know that I’m not playing my good game and need a break (+ food etc) so I leave the table $+4 and curse my luck. It’s like background tilt. I’m not mad at any particular player but angry at fate. I eat some quick food at the pizza place and go slowly over to showboat: house of blues.
Showboat probably has one of the nicest rooms in AC besides the Borgata. Good distance between the tables and the place has around 25-30 tables. They have 2/4 3/6 and 5/10 and the service is pretty good. The poker room just opened a few months ago and it’s great. I landed up getting into the poker room around midnight or so. I sat down in the 3/6 game, not really feeling like I was going to play my best poker but I wasn’t going to o home. I figured I would have a beer or two, play for an hour or so and rest up for the Borgata tomorrow. I sit at the table and it is 7 handed to start. I drop a sup bro to the only tight player at the table and he responded. I comeback with a “Really?†and he says yeah he posts all the time. Now, I said “Really?†because I’ve never asked someone sup bro before. So I was more surprised that I actually picked a 2+2er out of the crowd. In HIS trip report, he interpreted my “Really?†was a comment on his play. IE, he was playing so crappy that I couldn’t possibly believe he reads the forum.
The table was pretty non-descript aside from a rock that was making hands constantly in seat 1 and a guy that would call with anything in seat 10. I decide that since I’m playing to kill some time, I’m going to build a little interlaced chip stack and pull each white chip out of it jenga-style until I knock it all over. Wouldn’t you know that first hand after I finish construction of the BBC-Z Tower, I pick up pocket kings? I raise in the BB (destroying the tower in the process) and tight seat 1 raises, someone else re-raises and I cap. (It is a bet and four raises to cap at showboat). Flop comes up 3 cards and I bet and some poker stuff happens. Anyway, I lose to jackshit suited. I probably could have won that pot if I wasn’t doing crazy things in previous ands like yelling at the board for cards or building up stacks of chips only to pretend I’m Godzilla and push them over again. They thought I was just a typical LAG. Then we pick up a new player.
This guy easily gets his own paragraph to talk about him. He sits down at the table and the floor is being very protective of him. She would tell him how much he could bet if we wants, notifying him of action etc. He started off very loose and passive and dropped a few hundred dollars. He was acting like he was completely wasted, but I never saw him take a drink. Some of the dealers knew him, so he must have been a regular local or something. Anyway, he starts of playing loose and passive. I’m happy because he’s beating up on some of the rocks out there and frustrating them. I pick up a few legit hands and win back to even. Then suddenly like a light switch, he decides to become the biggest LAG in the history of LAG-dom. His stats were easily 100% VPIP 100% PFR. “How much is it to me?†“3 dollars sirâ€, “Three dollars? Oh, Idon’tplayfonothreedollahs, make it sixâ€. Now, the fact that a LAG sat down at a 3/6 game isn’t a big deal, but what happened to the table was insane. Suddenly you went from a table that had maybe one raise and 2 players to a flop, to one where the betting was preflop capped 7 way. The LAG was in Seat 2 and I was in Seat 5. I decided my plan of attack was to tighten up preflop and isolate raise any hand I wanted to play preflop. I realize the other way of playing is to loosen up more, but I had variance on my mind and I already knew I wasn’t playing very good poker. I picked up Pocket aces and won a $150 pot. Now, on to my opponents. They played the lag completely wrong. They would play all their suited connectors and straight draws against him. They’d miss and the Lag wins the pot with a pair of 2’s. Yes, it happened about 6 times where LAG shows down middle pair and wins. Now, the other interesting thing about the LAG was that he had this uncanny ability to fold his hand when he was way behind. I had a river play with him where I made the nut 4 card straight on the river and he folded to my bet. This seemed to be lost on the other players are the table, so by the end the LAG had busted out about 8 players. I made one mistake at this table. I picked up 7c8c and LAG only limped. I limped along to a flop of T73r. It gets capped 7 ways on the flop and I can’t go anywhere, but I found myself with a hand I didn’t want to play. I was getting squeezed by the made hand and a lag. Of course, the bet odds paid for all of that. Turn put two hears on the board and it’s capped again. River completes some inside straight but not my straight and of course Mr. any two wins it. A turn out LAG was on the nut flush draw. I sat around, picked up KQ, raised him preflop got heads up. Flopped a king, capped the flop with him, 3 bet the turn and called his river. MHIG. I realize I should have capped every street with him, but again, variance reduction and it was a late night. Fast-forward the clock and its now 6am, 4 hours longer than I thought I’d be there. Again, I didn’t want to stay late because I had intentions of playing Borgata 6/12, so winning a few extra 3/6 bets weren’t worth going into Borgata tired. Lucky for me, LAG decided to leave around then too. He finished up about $600 bucks and I was happy for him. At one point he said he needed the money, and I have to say I hate hearing that at a poker table when you KNOW a player is playing badly. I leave the table +$130 and go home to sleep.
Get back to my hotel room and the card even works! Sweet.
Day 4 – Saturday Night. Borgata.
1pm. Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock. “Oh my god, I think I’m going to kill herâ€. Phone rings. “House keeping sirâ€, I reply that I’m not interested and she finally goes away. I go back to sleep and wake up around 5pm. Oops.
I take the US-30 down into AC (Great way to avoid the 50c tolls on the AC Expressway) and proceed to spend an hour missing the only turn I can find to actually get myself to the Borgo. I finally get in and the list of 6-12 is 5 deep. I put my name on and wait an hour to play. That sucked, but the lists for 2/4 and 3/6 were astronomical. Open seating for 10/20 though. I sit down at a pretty tight 6/12 table. Guy on my left had to be a 2+2er, very tight and the guy on my left spent all his time playing the horses. It was raised standard preflop, but there were 2-3 bad players at the table, so I felt fine. One interesting hand was I had AKo, preflop raised and it was called 6 ways. Flop was Q62o. I bet and got two calls from loose players and three reluctant calls. I bet the turn again when a blank hit and I dropped the reluctant players. River was a K, I bet get one call and MHIG. I consider it to be a standard hand considering the size of the pot and the fact that if I check, I’m getting bet into. Lady in seat 1 informs me she had a queen (AND FOLDED THE RIVER? TIGHTY ALERT!). So that was a nice win. Entertaining hand of the table was this loose kid playing against the young Asian lady. She raises preflop, he calls, flop comes J73. She bets he calls. Turn comes T. He checks, she bets. He goes into the tank for 3 minutes and declares “A caught a piece of this flop but I KNOW you have me beat†and folds his Q3 face up. Asian lady shows AK and the dealer rabbit hunts the river (not sure who asked for it) and it comes up with a 3. The entire table OOOHS and Amahs and the kids face is red as a beet. The kid was funny; he and his buddy would make up names for people at the table. I was MacGyver. Quote of the day was “Damn, MacGyver’s a Bully!†after I preflop raised and bet every street heads up. They were great. Finally left the table after Q3 guy flops a set against a flush draw and it was being bet by a guy with 2k in chips who raises every street. It raised preflop. Flop was K83 two diamonds. Flop is capped. Turn is a blank. Turn is capped. River is a diamond and 2K guy caps the river with AKo. 3rd player (the horse guy) shows the flush and takes down the $400 pot.
Another entertaining story was the house guy collecting $50 in chips from the players at the table to bet on a house in the next race. The table stopped while we cheered on #7 to a successful last place finish. I don’t think they have lastxacta tickets, do they?
Once again my cards go cold and my stack dwindled. I didn’t get a lot of premium hands. I’d get hands like ATs on the button with two limpers and I’d raise and miss. I don’t know if over-aggression is a leak in my game or not. It’s tough to tell. Anyway, I Wynn my chips away again and go down $80 when the game breaks up at 1am. I drop a quick 50 playing 3-handed and we high card for the two open 6/12 seats. I pull an ace and I’m off to the softest game of poker ever. I went from TA 3-4 in a pot to LP-8-9 in a pot. I pick up aces and win a $150 pot. Drop a few top pair hands to crap and at 4am I call it a trip down $60 bucks.
Day 5 – The drive back.
I am asleep at 7am, up at 10 to checkout. The roads are pure hell on the Sunday of thanksgiving, so it takes my 10 hours and a few wrong turns to get back to Raleigh NC.
Overall, the trip was fun. Going to a place like Atlantic City alone though can get boring at times. Like eating alone at the buffets a little depressing and the only conversations you get into are with people at the poker table who generally don’t care. If I had to do it all over again, I would. But it has to have the same exceptional circumstances (with my work paying a lot of the costs) to do the alone thing again. It was disappointing to play in bigger games and not come away with any of those profits, but I felt very comfortable at those tables and making moves with the larger bet sizes.
Trip results: +$260 in poker profit.
Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock. I look at the clock 11am. Its housekeeping. I roll over in bed and expect her to go away. Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock. 11:05. Knock knock Knock Knock Knock 11:10. This goes on for at least half an hour as I try to fall back asleep. Finally the knocks stop, but I’m awake. I thank you very much most aggressive housekeeper ever. Did you see anyone come out of my door? No? Then why are you knocking again? Bah. I didn’t even have any Do Not Disturb signs anyway.
It is black Friday and that means it's time to hit the Tropicana. I get to the poker room and it’s PACKED. 2/4 was long gone. 3/6 packed too. The room itself is very packed and cramped and dark. 7.50/15 is the only limit with a reasonable 2 person waiting list but it’s only running on two tables and as I spent 5 minutes watching heads up and 3 handed flops I decided to boot it for the Taj. The Taj is so big you never need to wait, or so I heard. I eat at the world’s worst buffet (The trop is world renown for being bad) and head over to the Taj.
I get to the Taj and find the same problem as the trop. All the lists are huge. I guess Americans do two things on Black Friday: Shop and Gamble. I put my name on the 3/6 and 5/10 lists when I get my biggest break of the weekend. They’re opening a new 5/10 table. It’s right beside the brush and congested as hell. It’s a stud 8 handed table. Also, there are no chairs. The floor brings them over when suddenly they decide to open us up a table in the High limit section, safely away from the unwashed masses (It’s the Taj, they’re definitely unwashed). First hand delt, it’s folded to me in the CO. I raise and steal the blinds. Woo hoo. I contemplate leaving but there’s no way I’m getting another table in this city. I stay and proceed to go up $250 as the table is very loose passive with 7-8 to the flop and only raising when they had the goods. The second theme of the trip started at the Taj. My half of the table would be the tight half while the other side would be the loose half. Interesting thing was halfway though the session, the waitress disappeared for 2 hours. We’re playing in the high limit section and I had the floor call twice to get us drinks. He was pretty pissed, and so was our table. The Taj without a drink is a boring place to be. I pick up some big hands which lose to complete crap and whittle my way down to $100. I start feeling tired at the table about 6 hours in around and I notice that I’m not able to focus on the players as well as the start. I think I’ve found my current time limitation. Around 6 hours or so I’m fine. If it is any more than that, I stop paying attention. My stack slowly whittles down and I fear that I’m going to Wynn again. (When I was in Vegas, I went up $200 playing 4-8 at the Wynn and left the table breakeven). Suddenly, the tight player to my left goes crazy and starts playing any two making backdoor flushes on the river. He takes my last $100 of profit. I know that I’m not playing my good game and need a break (+ food etc) so I leave the table $+4 and curse my luck. It’s like background tilt. I’m not mad at any particular player but angry at fate. I eat some quick food at the pizza place and go slowly over to showboat: house of blues.
Showboat probably has one of the nicest rooms in AC besides the Borgata. Good distance between the tables and the place has around 25-30 tables. They have 2/4 3/6 and 5/10 and the service is pretty good. The poker room just opened a few months ago and it’s great. I landed up getting into the poker room around midnight or so. I sat down in the 3/6 game, not really feeling like I was going to play my best poker but I wasn’t going to o home. I figured I would have a beer or two, play for an hour or so and rest up for the Borgata tomorrow. I sit at the table and it is 7 handed to start. I drop a sup bro to the only tight player at the table and he responded. I comeback with a “Really?†and he says yeah he posts all the time. Now, I said “Really?†because I’ve never asked someone sup bro before. So I was more surprised that I actually picked a 2+2er out of the crowd. In HIS trip report, he interpreted my “Really?†was a comment on his play. IE, he was playing so crappy that I couldn’t possibly believe he reads the forum.
The table was pretty non-descript aside from a rock that was making hands constantly in seat 1 and a guy that would call with anything in seat 10. I decide that since I’m playing to kill some time, I’m going to build a little interlaced chip stack and pull each white chip out of it jenga-style until I knock it all over. Wouldn’t you know that first hand after I finish construction of the BBC-Z Tower, I pick up pocket kings? I raise in the BB (destroying the tower in the process) and tight seat 1 raises, someone else re-raises and I cap. (It is a bet and four raises to cap at showboat). Flop comes up 3 cards and I bet and some poker stuff happens. Anyway, I lose to jackshit suited. I probably could have won that pot if I wasn’t doing crazy things in previous ands like yelling at the board for cards or building up stacks of chips only to pretend I’m Godzilla and push them over again. They thought I was just a typical LAG. Then we pick up a new player.
This guy easily gets his own paragraph to talk about him. He sits down at the table and the floor is being very protective of him. She would tell him how much he could bet if we wants, notifying him of action etc. He started off very loose and passive and dropped a few hundred dollars. He was acting like he was completely wasted, but I never saw him take a drink. Some of the dealers knew him, so he must have been a regular local or something. Anyway, he starts of playing loose and passive. I’m happy because he’s beating up on some of the rocks out there and frustrating them. I pick up a few legit hands and win back to even. Then suddenly like a light switch, he decides to become the biggest LAG in the history of LAG-dom. His stats were easily 100% VPIP 100% PFR. “How much is it to me?†“3 dollars sirâ€, “Three dollars? Oh, Idon’tplayfonothreedollahs, make it sixâ€. Now, the fact that a LAG sat down at a 3/6 game isn’t a big deal, but what happened to the table was insane. Suddenly you went from a table that had maybe one raise and 2 players to a flop, to one where the betting was preflop capped 7 way. The LAG was in Seat 2 and I was in Seat 5. I decided my plan of attack was to tighten up preflop and isolate raise any hand I wanted to play preflop. I realize the other way of playing is to loosen up more, but I had variance on my mind and I already knew I wasn’t playing very good poker. I picked up Pocket aces and won a $150 pot. Now, on to my opponents. They played the lag completely wrong. They would play all their suited connectors and straight draws against him. They’d miss and the Lag wins the pot with a pair of 2’s. Yes, it happened about 6 times where LAG shows down middle pair and wins. Now, the other interesting thing about the LAG was that he had this uncanny ability to fold his hand when he was way behind. I had a river play with him where I made the nut 4 card straight on the river and he folded to my bet. This seemed to be lost on the other players are the table, so by the end the LAG had busted out about 8 players. I made one mistake at this table. I picked up 7c8c and LAG only limped. I limped along to a flop of T73r. It gets capped 7 ways on the flop and I can’t go anywhere, but I found myself with a hand I didn’t want to play. I was getting squeezed by the made hand and a lag. Of course, the bet odds paid for all of that. Turn put two hears on the board and it’s capped again. River completes some inside straight but not my straight and of course Mr. any two wins it. A turn out LAG was on the nut flush draw. I sat around, picked up KQ, raised him preflop got heads up. Flopped a king, capped the flop with him, 3 bet the turn and called his river. MHIG. I realize I should have capped every street with him, but again, variance reduction and it was a late night. Fast-forward the clock and its now 6am, 4 hours longer than I thought I’d be there. Again, I didn’t want to stay late because I had intentions of playing Borgata 6/12, so winning a few extra 3/6 bets weren’t worth going into Borgata tired. Lucky for me, LAG decided to leave around then too. He finished up about $600 bucks and I was happy for him. At one point he said he needed the money, and I have to say I hate hearing that at a poker table when you KNOW a player is playing badly. I leave the table +$130 and go home to sleep.
Get back to my hotel room and the card even works! Sweet.
Day 4 – Saturday Night. Borgata.
1pm. Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock. “Oh my god, I think I’m going to kill herâ€. Phone rings. “House keeping sirâ€, I reply that I’m not interested and she finally goes away. I go back to sleep and wake up around 5pm. Oops.
I take the US-30 down into AC (Great way to avoid the 50c tolls on the AC Expressway) and proceed to spend an hour missing the only turn I can find to actually get myself to the Borgo. I finally get in and the list of 6-12 is 5 deep. I put my name on and wait an hour to play. That sucked, but the lists for 2/4 and 3/6 were astronomical. Open seating for 10/20 though. I sit down at a pretty tight 6/12 table. Guy on my left had to be a 2+2er, very tight and the guy on my left spent all his time playing the horses. It was raised standard preflop, but there were 2-3 bad players at the table, so I felt fine. One interesting hand was I had AKo, preflop raised and it was called 6 ways. Flop was Q62o. I bet and got two calls from loose players and three reluctant calls. I bet the turn again when a blank hit and I dropped the reluctant players. River was a K, I bet get one call and MHIG. I consider it to be a standard hand considering the size of the pot and the fact that if I check, I’m getting bet into. Lady in seat 1 informs me she had a queen (AND FOLDED THE RIVER? TIGHTY ALERT!). So that was a nice win. Entertaining hand of the table was this loose kid playing against the young Asian lady. She raises preflop, he calls, flop comes J73. She bets he calls. Turn comes T. He checks, she bets. He goes into the tank for 3 minutes and declares “A caught a piece of this flop but I KNOW you have me beat†and folds his Q3 face up. Asian lady shows AK and the dealer rabbit hunts the river (not sure who asked for it) and it comes up with a 3. The entire table OOOHS and Amahs and the kids face is red as a beet. The kid was funny; he and his buddy would make up names for people at the table. I was MacGyver. Quote of the day was “Damn, MacGyver’s a Bully!†after I preflop raised and bet every street heads up. They were great. Finally left the table after Q3 guy flops a set against a flush draw and it was being bet by a guy with 2k in chips who raises every street. It raised preflop. Flop was K83 two diamonds. Flop is capped. Turn is a blank. Turn is capped. River is a diamond and 2K guy caps the river with AKo. 3rd player (the horse guy) shows the flush and takes down the $400 pot.
Another entertaining story was the house guy collecting $50 in chips from the players at the table to bet on a house in the next race. The table stopped while we cheered on #7 to a successful last place finish. I don’t think they have lastxacta tickets, do they?
Once again my cards go cold and my stack dwindled. I didn’t get a lot of premium hands. I’d get hands like ATs on the button with two limpers and I’d raise and miss. I don’t know if over-aggression is a leak in my game or not. It’s tough to tell. Anyway, I Wynn my chips away again and go down $80 when the game breaks up at 1am. I drop a quick 50 playing 3-handed and we high card for the two open 6/12 seats. I pull an ace and I’m off to the softest game of poker ever. I went from TA 3-4 in a pot to LP-8-9 in a pot. I pick up aces and win a $150 pot. Drop a few top pair hands to crap and at 4am I call it a trip down $60 bucks.
Day 5 – The drive back.
I am asleep at 7am, up at 10 to checkout. The roads are pure hell on the Sunday of thanksgiving, so it takes my 10 hours and a few wrong turns to get back to Raleigh NC.
Overall, the trip was fun. Going to a place like Atlantic City alone though can get boring at times. Like eating alone at the buffets a little depressing and the only conversations you get into are with people at the poker table who generally don’t care. If I had to do it all over again, I would. But it has to have the same exceptional circumstances (with my work paying a lot of the costs) to do the alone thing again. It was disappointing to play in bigger games and not come away with any of those profits, but I felt very comfortable at those tables and making moves with the larger bet sizes.
Trip results: +$260 in poker profit.
Comments
Please do let us all know if that helps your drive at all, with practice and lots of reading you will also be a good tight agressive driver, as opposed to your current LAG tendancies.
best of luck
ps. great read
Pearly is the Skalansky of maps...I'm a Jones fan myself...www.mapquest.com
D
maps.google.com kicks mapquest in the balls. Seriously hard. Great report, BBC Z.
Anyway, my collegues went to Tennessee to climb some mountain for 5 minutes (when they realised it's COLD on a mountain in November) when they caught this sign driving into South Carolina:
http://www.forumsigs.com/users/bbcz755/Image1.gif
Notice anything interesting about it?
1) There are about 8 bullet holes in it
2) The "Masturbating is not a crime" sticker.
heh.
I have a one of those nametags with my name on it stuck on the inside of my jacket. That's it :-) When you underbid by $2500, you dont get to play many games on the show..
Crappy, but figured as much, since I'd guess they tape all those shows somewhere around Hollywood.
Clearly... housekeeping is getting paid by the bed!!!
It will help with my trip in April....
If you had to play in only one of those casino's, which one?
Scott
I'd rank the rooms for high(er) limit (5/10+) :
Borgata
Taj
Trop
and for low limit (2/4, 3/6):
Borgata
Showboat
Ballys
Taj
The borgata just does everything right. Good dealers, good atmosphere and good drink service.