Boring AC trip report: MTTs & some $1/$2 (tl;dr)

[bluesbassman]

(sorry for the previous incomplete post; I had a posting/computer issue.)

Background: I'm an old dude who has been playing online donkaments for about 3 years. I never play cash, and I'm bad at poker. However I have a decent real job and no family or life, so I can afford to keep donating.

I've decided to play one of the WSOP Circuit Events ($1K NL event) at AC Harrah's next month, so on a whim, I decided to go to AC the weekend before last to get some live tournament experience. My only other live poker experience was a weekly tournament at the AC Trop about 1.5 years ago, when I was an even worse player than I am now.

I arrived in AC about 3pm on Saturday and checked into a Days Inn. My plan was to play the 6pm, $340 buy-in tournament at the Taj. I had a few hours to kill before the tourney, so I played craps and lost $300 in about 20 minutes. Duh! Serves me right for playing a dumb -EV table game. There seemed to be some type of Russian "event" going on at the Taj, since half the men in the restroom and at the tables were speaking Russian, and there were scads of drop-dead gorgeous Russian/Eastern European women walking around. I dunno, maybe that casino is a Russian hang-out?

Anyway, the tournament started with 15K in chips with a 50 chip BB, and there were about 65 players. Most of my table was composed of middle-aged to older men who weren't very good; they played either too loose-passive or weak-tight, and were pretty easy to read. So, during the first hour I
stole occasional small pots from the weak-tight nits by being aggressive in position, and busted the loose-passive donks when I did hit a big hand. I'm not used to live play, so I was pretty nervous at first when I would make a big semi-bluff raise on a draw over some old weak-tightie's bet, and the guy would stare me down before finally folding his marginal hand.

I built my stack up to about 40K, and then my table was broken-up. About half the field had busted by that point. My new table was more of the same, except there was a young Asian dude (21-24) who was obviously a strong internet player. The other players were too loose-passive and I continued to exploit them. Then the following hand occurred: Loose donk open-limped from middle position, and I raised 5xBBs with A9 sooted, expecting to take down the pot. The young Asian guy however called my raise from the SB, and the weak donk folded.

Now, I should have known that Asian guy had a real hand. If I were playing online, I'd take a line postflop to keep the pot small, but I got over-confident and went into donk-mode. The flop came A-rag-rag, and Asian guy bet. I shoved all-in, which is a terrible, inexplicable overbet in that spot, and Asian guy thought for a minute, then called with AQ. I didn't suckout a 3-outter, his hand was good. I had him covered but I'm crippled with only 10BBs left in my stack. One thing I had trouble adjusting to in live play is stack sizes -- it's much more difficult to assess the stack and pot sizes, which obviously is crucial information needed to correctly play a hand. So I would sometimes panic and just shove all-in in spots where that's a bad overplay.

A few hands after the above I was forced to go all-in preflop as a shortstack with A7, and one of the blinds called with AJ and busted me out of the money. It serves me right for losing most of my stack by making a bad play against a player I knew was strong.

It was only about 10pm when I busted, so I decided to try my hand at a $1/$2 cash game at the Tropicana (next to my motel), even though I never play cash games online. Nevertheless, I bought-in for $200 and decided to give it a shot.

I was seated at a table of mostly young college-aged guys, some of whom were drunk. OMFG, most of the players were horrible!! They were either way loose-passive playing every hand, or just spewing chips playing like loose-aggressive maniacs. I just played solid, tight-aggressive poker and got paid.

Here is one example: I open raised pre-flop with AA, and a really drunk frat boy called. (He had almost passed-out at the table a couple of times.) The flop came A-T-T, giving me the virtual nuts. I bet, and drunk frat boy shoved his stack all-in! Obviously I called, and he showed.... Q-rag. LOLOLOL. Thanks for giving me all your money buddy.

This continued until I was too tired to play at 2:30am. I walked away from the table with about $1000, ship it!

The next day, my plan was to play a $120 buy-in tournament at Caesar's Palace at 1pm. So I headed over to Caesar's in the morning, and decided to play in another $1/$2 NL cash game for a few hours until it was time for the tourney to start. I bought in for $300, which was the table max.

Unlike the previous evening at the Trop, this table had some decent players. Most notably, there was a smokin' *hot* Asian chick, about 25-30 years old, sitting directly to my left. She had apparently been playing all night, was obviously an okay player, and had a $800-$1000 stack. I first established a tight table image by not playing many hands, and then made a couple of moves against the hottie, who was being aggressive against the other donks. I bluffed a couple of big pots against her when I knew she had a marginal hand, but she called me down with hands like top pair weak kicker, or middle pair. She had a good read on me and was not going to let me run her over.

I almost went busto, then finally won a big pot against hot Asian chick when I hit a well-disguised 2-pair against her whiffed draw. That brought my stack back up to about $170, when the following hand happened: Passive donk open-limped for $2, I called from the button with 7-5 spades, and hottie Asian chick raised to $15. Donk limper folded, and I called her raise in position. Flop came 3-4-8 with 2 spades, giving me a spade flush draw & a gutshot. Hottie chick bet about $30, and I immediately shoved my remaining $150 all-in. I figured this bet would look very strong to her, and I had about 12 outs.

The girl then went into the tank, and thought for a looooong time. She literally squirmed her tight little ass in her seat and mumbled to herself about whether to call. I just stared down at the table (while stealing glances at her heaving cleavage), trying not to give her a tell. A couple of the other players at the table whispered to each other about what they thought I had. It was quite a fun moment. Finally, she said she thought I had her beat but that I might be on a flush draw and announced call, showing QQ. Wow, I almost got her to lay down queens
on a raggedy flop! Unfortunately for me, I missed all my outs on the turn and river, and shipped my entire stack to the pretty lady. Oh well, at least I lost to a hot chick.

By then it was time to start the $120 buy-in donkament. To make an already too long story shorter, I again overplayed a couple of hands early, not being cognizant of stack sizes. Lost half my stack with QQ vs KK, then got it all-in with KQ against AA on a J-T-rag flop. My straight draw missed, and I busted out within the first hour.

At that point I had planned to go home, but couldn't resist entering a $120 buy-in (+ $100 add-on) tournament which started at 4pm at the Borgata. There were about 70 players, final 9 get paid. Finally, I settled down, paid close attention to stack sizes and the size of the pot, and played reasonable tourney poker. I built a nice stack by busting donks and stealing pots from weak old nits. One hand of note: A bad loose player open-limped utg, I called from the button with 77, and a middle-aged
Asian (again) man who had been playing tight made a 5xBB raise from the SB. The donkey folded, and I called getting good pot odds, though I was pretty sure the guy had a big pair or AQ-AK based on the size of his raise.

The flop came 4-5-6, giving me an open-ended straight draw plus the overpair. The guy bet about 1/3 the pot, and I raised about 4x his bet, which was 5K in chips and almost half my stack. I figured he would either fold or shove (I had him barely covered), but he just called. The turn came an 8, completing my straight. Checked to the river, which I shoved, and he called showing AA. I busted him and nearly doubled my stack.

The blinds got big and I went card dead and got short-stacked, but I survived by stealing the blinds in appropriate spots. I made the money and the final
table, yay for me. However, I was one of the short stacks with about 11 BBs left. A young internet player with the shortest stack busted out in 9th place. A few hands later, I got it all-in preflop with AQ against (alas) AK, and didn't suckout. I busted out in 8th place,
which was good for about $350. Afterwards, I treated myself with my winnings to a nice meal at Bobby Flay's Steakhouse in the Borgata.

Overall, I had an absolute blast. I got live tournament experience and learned what my leaks are in a live game. Gotta somehow pay attention to stack sizes, since that info isn't automatically displayed on a screen. Man, it is SO FUN to play live. Not to mention all the casual bad players (even worse than me). Can't wait until next month when I play in the WSOP Circuit Event.

[punkass]

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However I have a decent real job and no family or life, so I can afford to keep donating.

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Immediate respect for the honesty.

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I arrived in AC about 3pm on Saturday and checked into a Days Inn.

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How was the Days Inn? Cheap? Not dangerous?

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I had a few hours to kill before the tourney, so I played craps and lost $300 in about 20 minutes.

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Craps is the bane of my existence. They put a craps table right outside the Borg Poker room! Hate them so much!

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I was seated at a table of mostly young college-aged guys, some of whom were drunk. OMFG, most of the players were horrible!! They were either way loose-passive playing every hand, or just spewing chips playing like loose-aggressive maniacs. I just played solid, tight-aggressive poker and got paid.

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Welcome to 1/2 no limit. It's fun.

Nice trip report. I enjoyed it. The thing about live play is...you don't have the be the best player or even a good player. An ok player will do well at some 1/2 tables that are filled with idiots.

Good luck to you in the circuit event!

[bluesbassman]

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How was the Days Inn? Cheap? Not dangerous?



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It's the Days Inn right on the boardwalk, adjacent to the Trop. It was nice as Days Inns go, and seemed quite safe with valet parking and security.

Since it's on the boardwalk, it's not exactly "cheap," but less than the big casinos. It's a decent compromise in price & quality between the big casino hotels on the boardwalk and the cheap motels a couple of blocks off the boardwalk.

[ssnyc]

good report...Borg 1/2 games are soft...it takes a death threat and a court order to get most of the players off top pair and they bet too weak to protect...I was implied odds man last week and ran 300 up to 2500...to a lot of hours though