Trip report: AC 12/27 & 12/28 (Borg and Trop)

[jenson]

Greetings all,

My wife and I headed down to AC for a one nighter on Wednesday. Here’s a trip report.

We made it to the Brogata around 1:00 PM. I went straight to the poker room and my wife went to play video poker on the casino floor. I played in the 2/5 NL game. This is only my second time at 2/5 NL as I usually play 1 / 2 NL. I find the players in the 2/5 are incrementally better than the cast of characters that frequent the 1 / 2. I only played for a couple of hours and nothing too notable happened. I left Borgata up $65.

I can’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said about the Borg poker room. In my experience, it’s truly a first class operation.

We headed over to check into our room at Tropicana. We got the poker rate ($49) and were put in the South Tower. Our room looked like it hadn’t been updated in decades, but after all it was just $49 bucks.

The first thing we did was eat a great dinner at Ri Ra. It’s an authentic Irish pub. At least it appears authentic to me. I’ve never been to Ireland though I’m going this summer with the family. There are a number of “authentic” dishes on the menu. Again, I’ve never been there but they sound authentic to me. Here’s their web site. http://www.rira.com. We shared the James Joyce Oysters (they had a dash of Tabasco), Winter Brie, Potato Leek Soup, Ri Ra Salad, Spicy Bleu Burger, and Garden Burger. Hey, it’s about as Irish as I get. lol

We then proceeded to have some quality time at the video poker machines. It didn’t take me long to loose $40. Oh well, said goodbye to the wife and off to the Trop poker room.

I’ve played at the Trop poker room quite a few times now. Here are my comments on the “atmosphere”.

1. The drinks suck. Is it really too much to ask for a real beer? Come on! When your main competition (Borg) provides first class service and drinks don’t you think it would make some sense to try to step it up a little?
2. Not only are the drinks bottom shelf, the cocktail waitresses are simply sad. It’s like I’m getting served drinks from Flo from the 70’s show Alice. Please… I beg of you…. Hire some hot chicks!
3. Clean the chips! I know the Taj is supposed to have the dirtiest chips in town but these chips are disgusting too.
4. Turn on the AC. I don’t remember having a problem with this on my prior trips to the Trop but the room was steaming hot. I was sweating my balls off.
5. The tables are too close together. If you end up in their “high limit” room, which by the way isn’t a high limit room at all, and end up in a corner seat then all I can say is “good luck” if you need to get up for any reason. The chairs are way too close to the wall and the adjacent tables.

Sorry for nit-like comments on the Trop. It’s just annoying that they haven’t made any noticeable effort to improve since the Borg opened their new room. I guess I’d be less annoyed if I could get a poker rate room at the Borg. How does one qualify for their poker rate anyway?

As far as actual poker goes, things did not go well for me at the Trop last night. I started out playing 2/5. I started thinking about switching tables after about 40 minutes of playing at a very solid table. Of course I got lazy and decided to stick around a little while longer… I got two black Aces under the gun and raised to 20. One guy called, then a middle aged Asian guy raised it up to 80. He had been playing pretty solid thus far. Since I was under the gun and would be out of position the rest of the hand I decided to put it all in at this point. I figured I’d get two folds but at least I’d get the $100 already in the pot. Well the fist caller folds but the heretofore solid Asian guy goes into the tank. He flips over his pocket Queens and starts asking me questions. I keep my ball cap low over my head and just stare into the pot. All the while I’m praying for a call. After a couple of minutes he says in a thick Chinese accent “I never fold Queens preflop”. He’s got me covered and all together it’s about a $850 pot. It’s the biggest pot I’ve played in live poker. The flop comes with a Queen and the Asian starts celebrating. I nearly puked right on the table but managed to say “good hand” and gently pushed my chips to the center of the table.

I was surprised that he called a big all in with QQ and disappointed to lose such a big pot. Oh well. I took it like a man and went out to the casino floor to find my wife. She was playing video poker. She was playing video poker. I broke the news to her and she was cool as always. She, like me, has grown accustomed to bad beats. I play a lot online and she reminded me that I made more money online this year than I did the first year after I graduated college. We went out on the boardwalk for a few minutes, then back to a bar in the Trop for a beer.

We said goodbye and I went back to the poker room to donk it up at the 1 / 2 tables for a while. I would like to think that taking a walk and drinking a beer with my wife helped me avoid tilting too badly. In fact I think it did just that. However, my interest in playing well did diminish somewhat and I found myself drinking many vodka and tonics as the night wore on.

There were a couple of solid players but many, many horrible players at the 1/ 2. Unfortunately, I couldn’t manage to catch anything the rest of the evening and cashed out at 3 AM with only 2 more dollars than when I started at the 1/ 2. Oh well, I had some fun anyway.

My wife woke up early and went to the Trop’s gym. She woke me up 25 minutes before check out time and we headed back to the Borg for a little action before heading home to pick up the kids. I played the 1 / 2 at Borg and ended up down about $65 after about three hours. Oh well, I was hung over and really not at the top of my game anyway.

Well folks… that’s about it. Sorry if this trip report is boring and long winded…

Edit: Forgot to mention that any comments are welcome!!!

[Mattyspin]

good read, jenson. last time i played 2/5 at Trop, i lost a MONSTER pot when my AA got outflopped by KK for a $1400+ pot. all profits down the tube.

[davebreal]

I was at the trop on the 26th, and played the morning tournament on the 27th. no great successes for me either.

by the way, i stuck to vodka tonics, not beer.

[Befolder]

nice report

[Messiahkid]

Nice report, agreed on all aspects of trop and borg.

Trop has been a nitfest last few times I have been.

Oh, and I don't find that 2/5 noticeably tougher than the 1/2 at the borg.