Trip Report: First time to Atlantic City (Fairly Low Content)

[rminusq]

[Oops. This time in a potentially appropriate forum.]

I spent the day at Harrah's AC yesterday, and had a kickass time right up until the time I lost a whole mess of money. So without further ado, here's how my day went. Note in advance: No drunken debauchery.

Part 1. Getting there: half the fun or half the battle?
I wanted to play a tournament. I also was only bringing $200. I decided at the last moment to make it $300 just in case, but the point remained that I didn't want to lose a huge chunk of it in a tournament. So it had to be the $40+10 at 1:15 at Harrah's. Since my location is the Baltimore Beltway, that left a good deal of driving ahead of me. Leaving town at around 10, I figured to be in good shape. Entering Jersey at 11:30, I decided to be a cheapass and not take the Expressway, but rather US 40. Brilliant decision. Side note: My only prior experience with B&M tournaments was at Harrah's STL where the tournament sold out before it started, so I figured I had to be there at1:15. Every 20 minutes or so I was figuring "Am I gonna get there?" with answers being Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, probably, yeah, no, no, goddammit why doesn't the traffic MOVE?

Now, in my haste to get the hell out of the house, I hadn't made a full note on what to do once I had arrived in AC. Looking at a map, I still couldn't tell you what roads I was on, but suffice it to say, I was on life tilt before even getting to the casino. Luckily I was allowed to buy in at the cost of a small and a big posted into the first pot I was dealt in for. So I sat down with 9700 at newly-raised blinds of 200/400. Game on.

First hand, pocket 7's, second to act. Lady to my right calls, as do I, already short-stacked woman to my left raises to 1200, I'm the only caller. 955, I bet 2k, she calls. 7. Ding. I bet, she folds, and I show just to prove I'm not being a maniac off the bat. A short time later, I pick up QQ in the SB. Two or three callers in front, and I pop it to 1200. Guy across the table calls and the flop comes As-Qs-X. I check-call 3000. Turn comes 9s. I check-raise him, he comes over the top for just less than my stack and shows Ks 8s. Oops. River card is the Ad, and I pick up a whole mess of chips.

Part 2. I run good
In the big blind, I have AT and decide to just check it. Flop comes A-T-x and by the river I've gotten the woman three seats to my left to put all her chips in with AJ. The first level I play ends with me sitting at 35,000. I start making notes of the interesting hands that come up, leading me to pull a Moneymaker when I jot down my stack while a hand begins ("What's that, I have cards? It's my turn? We're playing poker?"). I pick up some pots over the course of 3/6 and 4/8 blinds and sit at 50,000 as the 100s get colored up. No, actually I'm at 44,500 because I can't count. Still enough to be the chip leader.

We compress to two tables (tourney started with 36, pays top 5) and I have Q5 on the SB with a short stack in the BB. Flop comes T54 and I bet 1500, he calls. Turn is a 6, and I check-raise him all-in, figuring I can get him off a weak pair. No, he calls with 63 and it holds up. No matter, as I get those chips back when I get them all-in holding K4 to his 27 on a K22 board. Turn is a 4, river is a K, he is a goner. I'm at 72000 entering 1k/2k blinds. In the SB, I hold JJ and UTG raises it to 6k I re-raise to 16k and we see a flop of 442. He's my closest competitor at the table, so I want to get him off his hand now. "All-in." "Good bet, I fold," he responds mucking AK face-up.

As the final table begins, I'm the chip leader at 87k. Three seats to my left is a guy I wanna call Ted or Tim for some reason, and he's barely behind me. At 2/4 blinds, I hold QKc in the SB and UTG raises all-in for 15. Ted/Tim calls and I do as well. The BB folds leaving him with 3000 (which I'll take from him the next hand). Board comes 9cJcX/X/T. I bet the river, holding the nuts, but T-man doesn't call. Still the original 15 he put in puts me head-and-shoulders above the table. With 7 players left, T-man and a player to his left wearing a San Diego hat get it all-in. San Diego doubles up to equal me in chips, and T-man, crippled, goes on to finish 5th.

Once the minuscule stacks stopped hanging on, we were down to 3. San Diego holding a slight lead over me and the old guy to my right. We had joked about joining forces to knock off the other side of the table and had also exchanged a few blind steals. The 3/6 level was comprised entirely of blind steals, generally from SD or me. I think we saw one turn card the entire 20 minute round. The old guy essentially let himself be blinded away until he wound up out in 3rd. I started heads-up down 2-to-1, and gave away chips trying to win a pot with KT on a JJ8 board. The final hand had me trailing 3-to-1. I raised the big blind to 25 with AJ, he shoved and I called instantly. He showed AK. Q2Q leaves me in trouble, K puts me away, K rubs it in. $360 for 2nd is not shabby, though.

Part 3. No patience for donks
After the interminable wait to Get Paid, I decide to spend my newfound not-poverty at the table games. I was annoyed that the minimum on just about anything was $10, but I used that to my advantage by getting lucky as [censored] and turning $200 into $600 just in time for San Diego to come by and joke "Don't lose your bankroll here." Of course, table games = -EV, and the profit was worn down over the course of the day.

I put my name on the list for 3/6 hold'em and sat down at a 2/4 while waiting. The very first hand may have been The Worst Hand I've Ever Seen Live. About 14 people see the flop, and about 20 see the turn. Heads-up, a guy check-calls a set of sixes on the river with no straight or flush possibilities. The guy to my right, not in the hand, asks to see the losing hand face up: AQ for absolutely jack-squat. After six hands of this, I said "Screw this, I'm going to no limit." There, instead of 9 people seeing the flop for $2, you had 4 people seeing the flop for $2, then a $15 bet on the flop. I remembered that's why I don't like no-limit cash games, and got called for 3/6. It was no better than 2/4. I joked at one point "I raise, or is raising preflop not allowed at this table." I think someone thought I was being serious, the way they answered "It is."

Part 4. Were you on TV?
At the urging of some of my table mates from the first tourney, I played the evening $85+15. By that time, I'd lost my pen, but it was OK as there were no notable hands except my rapid exit. I did then ask of the player who busted me "This is gonna sound stupid, but have you been on TV?" "Wha?" "OK, guess not." I could've sworn he was one of the players from the 2006 USPC (the name that came to mind was Jordan Morgan, but the picture doesn't quite match up), and someone else at the table said he could see the vague resemblance, but no.

I played some Stud, and did fairly well at it, as I have done the few times I played it. I would've loved to get some Omaha H/L action, but with the only such action being over my head and across town, and hold'em being donkilicious, it was Stud. Until we compressed to one table that featured an old lady who couldn't hear, see, bet, or think as well as a dealer who yelled everything at/to the lady and everyone and was saying "Yeah, my shuffles will suck, because my finger's got a bandage on it." And yet her tip box was full because she was a she.

I gave hold'em one more shot, sitting down at a table with two people who were "trying to win the bad beat" with their dealer. As soon as I sat down the table filled. Even before that, though, I got tired of 3-bets with junk from the established players, and I slinked away to give the table games one last shot. Four-Card Poker was no longer as friendly as it had been, and for the first time since my arrival, I dipped into my base funds. When I lost some of that, I moved onto the Texas Hold'em Bonus table game.
This features a side-bet which pays off on AJ+ or any pair. When I'd played it earlier, of course, I got AT twice. This time, willing only to wager $50, I did not place the side-bet on my first hand. Of course I get Ac As. Pocket aces pays 30-to-1. As word gets around the table at snail speed after the hand, each other player incredulously asks, "You didn't play the bonus?"
As I left the casino, the $150 I would've made on that was the difference between break-even and not-so-break-even.

Oh yeah, then I was tired as ass and had to drive back to Maryland. I wound up parking at a travel stop just before the Delaware River bridge and napping for a few hours. Good times.


Cliffs Notes:
If you were at Harrah's AC yesterday and saw an unshaven college-age kid who finished second in the afternoon tournament, was taking notes for most of the afternoon on how well he was doing, sat down at and left three hold'em tables in the span of 15 minutes, sounded like a fanboy asking if the player who busted him in the evening had been on TV, was about half the age of anyone else playing stud at night, and didn't play the bonus on a table game at the worst possible moment, that was me.

Cliffs Notes on the Cliffs Notes:
I'm looking to see when I can do it again.

[hyper_dermic]

Sounds like a good time =)


Next time check out the Taj..
or the Borgata.
A buddy of mine likes Ballys' but i dont think the games are any better/worse than Taj.

Taj is huge and always has game, but the chips are beyond filthy. might want to wear gloves.

Borgata is not as big, but atleast the chips are clean.
Its way off the main strip, but its a new casino.
Nice place to stay if you have $$$, Bring a date if you want to impress.

Between the 2 i like the Taj.

Weekends are a Zoo, lots of drunks.
anything under 3/6 is gonna be no-foldem-holdem.
5/10 is fun, still plenty of calling stations.

On weekends I dont see much difference between 1/2 and 2/5 NL except for the stack sizes, they are both pretty loose.

And as always, beware the table games!!
during the week the min bets are cheaper, on the weekend they hike them up.

I only play craps, and i dont play for much. So i usually hunt down a $3 game and play for an hour.