Borgata 5/20/07 Trip Report

[hamsamich]

I was supposed to play in the 1000+100 250k guarantee at Borgata on Sunday and I’m kind of glad I didn’t. I was delayed in getting there and when I arrived at 12:30 the room was packed tight as a drum and there were around 100 or so people on line to get in as alternates. I think the final number I heard was somewhere around 800 entries which made first place just over 200k. A nice pay for who ever took it but 800 was just too many for me so I bailed on even trying to get in. In a totally uncharacteristic move by a poker player what put me over the top was forgetting my LOL donkaments shirt at home. What’s the point of entering an $1100 buy in if I can’t get a few laughs out of it???
With this many people in the tourney the cash games were far and few between. The lists were probably the longest I have ever seen. With two full tables of waiting players for even the higher games. I got onto the 5/10 list at number 18 or so and started wandering. This might be a good time to point out that since my last visit to Borgata they have restricted smoking on the gaming floor even more than before. Now there are little maps hidden throughout the Casino to tell us dirty disgusting filthy murdering smokers which two square feet of the precious real estate we can foul with our stench. After waiting several hours the tourney tables finally started breaking down in the high limit room and some games were put together. If the 10/25NL guys were waiting upwards of two hours for a dealer and table can you imagine the poor 1/2 guys? At one point I know the list for 5/10 grew to almost 65 people. We finally got a spot and made a new game which was nice (no deep stacks yay!). The table was playing pretty tight except for this one asian fellow who kept calling people down with gutshots and flush draws and of course getting smacked with the deck. I didn’t enter any pots with him but I think he pulled about 4.5k out from the game and then vanished. Most of my hands were not too memorable, except for one where I had to call $350 into a $750 pot with a set of aces on an all spades flop and villain who called my re-raise PF and led out on the flop. He had a mini meltdown berating me for taking as long as I did (which really was only about 3 minutes) to call.
So around 7:30 I am up just over 1k and Rocco sits down and starts doing his thing moving in on the short stacks pulling in chips when it works and just smiling that crooked smile of his when he doubles them up. I decided that with Rocco there and my head POUNDING the way it was this was my cue to exit. Does anyone else get bad headaches sometimes while playing? Any advice to ward them off?
Only other thing of interest that I heard was that someone in the 10/25 game built a stack up to over 30k and then lost every dime all in one sit.


Cliff notes. Borgata was a madhouse on Sunday with 800 entries to the 250k guarantee. Made 1k playing 5/10NL

[clearcut]

Nice report... that's precisely why I made the mistake of playing in the Hilton tourney. Never again! I'll stick to the Borgata, Taj or Trop. Worst dealers and worst tourney I've even played in... just a bad combination all around.

[NA_kicker]

I popped into the Borg around 12:30 and left about 12:40 after checking out all the lists. That place was a zoo. I couldn't believe they had that many entrants for a 1100$ tourny.

[SellingtheDrama]

[ QUOTE ]
I popped into the Borg around 12:30 and left about 12:40 after checking out all the lists. That place was a zoo. I couldn't believe they had that many entrants for a 1100$ tourny.

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Was there Saturday, the super-sat was sickeningly huge. Can't say I'm surprised that it would be like that yesterday.

[killsadie]

you know i would have read this if it had paragraphs

[TiK]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I popped into the Borg around 12:30 and left about 12:40 after checking out all the lists. That place was a zoo. I couldn't believe they had that many entrants for a 1100$ tourny.

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Was there Saturday, the super-sat was sickeningly huge. Can't say I'm surprised that it would be like that yesterday.

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This started out as a response to the above post, but then I got carried away and it turned into a trip report. My apologies.

I was there on Saturday as well and played in the Satetllite. There were about 450 players and top 90 got seats. Unfortunately, with 93 people left, I was short stacked with the blinds quickly coming around. I moved in with AA UTG, got called by QQ, and lost when the dude flopped a Q. Busted out 93rd. Four hours of playing and bupkis. I rule at bubbling and almost bubbling.

Sunday was ridiculous. I showed up around 8:30AM because I'm a degenerate and was gonna play some early morning cash games, but then saw maybe 2 people on the tournament line and decided to sign up. I had degenerately taken Harrah's for about 2.5K playing Blackjack the night before 'til about 3 in the morning, so I said [censored] it. Play 10-20 limit for a couple of hours until about half an hour before the tourney starts, then get some breakfast at the cafeteria-type place called "Bread + Butter", where they have a fantastically delicious Portobello, Provolone and roasted tomato sandwich. Head over to the tournament and see that the line has now extended past the entrance to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant...suckas.

I make my way over to my table and find that it's in the High Limit room, where the red bull and fiji water flow freely. I sit down and hear that they've got over 750 players registered and a huge alternate list. They then decide to start making some of the tables 11-handed, mine was one of them. It sucked.

Either way I'm slowly plugging along, plugging along, and boom, I pick up TT and nearly triple up to about 35K against AQ and AK, but then proceed to donk away a good portion of it trying to bully the table. Oh well, worth a shot. I'm back to even. I pick up another couple of smallish pots and I'm still plugging along. They're breaking all the tournament tables in the high limit room around us, but for some reason, they seem to have forgotten ours. We're there for a long while after the others had been moved, until they notice and break us up (beat), but not before I managed to order another red bull and a fiji water (brag), but then in my haste of moving to my new table, I forget my Fiji water that was nearly full at the table (variance).

New table, new faces. My new table is in the tourney area in the back right corner of the room. I sit and to my immediate left is a monster chip stack (who has built his stack by hitting sets with every pocket pair he's been dealt AND getting paid off while doing it) but he's pretty passive though, so it's not too bad. I'm plugging along, plugging along with my dwindling stack being blinded away. Until this huge hand.

I'm in MP and find AA with blinds at 500-1000 with an ante. three people limp and I jack it up to 5,000. folds around and two of the limpers call. I'm prety sure they've got smallish-medium pocket pairs because niether raised preflop, and they wouldn't call that big a raise from me with just face cards. Flop comes QT3 rainbow. Brilliant flop for what I put them on. They check to me and I push. I get one call and the other guy folds. He turns over 44 and I win a huge pot when the turn brings an A. The other limper had 55 and they both tell me that they put me on AK. Awesome. I now have about 35K in chips again.

I plug along some more until dinner break. I call my friend who was already knocked out and now playing blackjack and we go grab some delicious fatburger downstairs at the cafeteria. I'm still pretty pumped about the big pot and I'm feeling better and playing better since the donking off of my initial 35K in chips. F-it. It's on, I say. I'm taking this [censored] down.

I sit down after the dinner break and 15 minutes later, I look down and find red QQ in MP. Ooooh. Blinds are now 800-1600. It folds to me and I jack it up to 5K. Blinds are pretty big and with the antes, the pot's pretty nice. I'd be happy to just win the blinds and antes and move on to the next hand, but noooooo. SB decides that he's gonna push all-in for another 30K on top. F!!!!!!!! I have him barely covered so losing this pot would cripple me. Damnit!!! I look at the pot. I talk to him a little and he seems talkative enough. I ask him if he has a pocket pair, at which point he tells me "I'll show if you fold." in the way where I feel he doesn't have a big pocket pair. I insta-call after his comment and he turns over AQ. DOMINATION! If I double up here, I'm gonna be golden, and I can definitely coast for a little while. There're about 290 people left and with 70K in this pot; I'd have a healthy stack. Flop comes all low cards AWWW YEAH!!!! I start dreaming of cashing in this tournament where first place gets over 200K. Turn is another rag. Awww yeah. Booyah. 70K in chips, here I come. River A. AWww ye... Oh wait, OH NO. I go from being 90+% to win on the turn to the big L(oser). I'm left with a little over 2K in chips and proceed to bust out two hands later. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I go join my friend playing blackjack and win another 600 or so and hop on the bus back to NYC.

Cliff Notes: I spend 8 hours playing two tourneys at the Borgata and all I get is a sore ass and some bad beats. Blackjack though (oddly enough), treats me well. Also, I think I may be a masochist because I play in tourneys.

[punkass]

cool report TiK. I knew how this one was going to end though.

At least you had fun and some good eats.

[clearcut]

Hit up Tony Lukes next time... it makes it all better! (not as good as the one in Philly but it does the trick)

[Riverman]

Rocco is such a nit

[soh538]

Nice Report Tik, i used to love playing tourney's, but i hate sitting there for 4 to 6 hours and not getting paid. When you get paid, if you are lucky to cash, the money you win might cover expenses.