Boosted J's Bahamas/PCA Trip Report with Hands

[Boosted J]

First off, let me say that this trip was fantastic. To anyone who didn't go, you missed out, BIG TIME. I met 95% of the people who I play against/talk to daily and every single HSNL player I met was a nice guy. (Hopefully everyone thought the same about me). I've been planning on writing this for a while and this is long overdue. This is probably going to end up fairly long, but hopefully it will be a good and interesting read to some.

My fiancee and my friend/business partner Jett flew out on the 4'th on Bahamas Air. My fiancee, Anita, was only going to stay a few days and Jett and I were going to stay 1 week. Jett told me there werent any rooms or they were too expensive or whatever at the Atlantis so we stayed 2 blocks away at the Best Western(which was actually pretty nice and much cheaper).

On the flight over and the past few nights I had been teaching Anita how to play 1/2 NL Full Ring as I was going to back her playing live there. I felt like she was more than well prepared to booooost them. Anyways, we arrived in the afternoon and took a taxi to the Best Western, got our things settled in, and headed over to the Atlantis. I wanted to meet up with one of my very old buddies who used to grind 1/2 and 2/4 NL with me back in the day who had stayed with me before.
After hanging out with him for a bit, I decided to check out the lobby since that's where I heard everyone was playing online last year(I was only 17 last year and was just a 2/4 player so I couldnt make the trip). The first person I spotted was YellowSub who was also hanging out with EmpireMaker and a few others. I also met gaucho2121(dlpnyc here), muddywater, and Green plastic shortly after. After that, I just chilled in the lobby when Grimstarr and HIV came up to me and asked if I was Boosted J. We then proceeded to the Pokerstars Welcome Party.

When I arrived at the party, I met Bet2Win from Pokerstars who then introduced me to H@llingol and twin-caracas. I hung out with H@ll for a while and then met N8/Nat who also took a picture of me, my fiancee, and H@ll chillin.


Now, I had originally decided to go down to the bahamas just to rip the cash games, however I decided I wanted to play the WPT tourney and donk it up, so I ran over to the ballroom and got into the $200R satellite to the WPT the next day. Basically I went bananas with rebuys but unfortunately didnt get a seat.

The next morning, I found myself paying cash to buyin to the tournament. I didnt really have any memorable hands from the tournament besides my bustout hand. I played very very very well the whole day and the best hand I picked up was TT twice and busted the second time I got it to David Singer all in pre-flop vs. his JJ which held up. I was fairly disappointed being that I was looking forward to actually playing in a WPT tournament and had high hopes of going far since I made it through 90% of Day 1.

(an online tournament pro named Meatloaf was on my left, maybe some of you guys know him)

Since I was out of the tournament, it was off to my bread and butter, to play the cash games. I sat down at 25/50 NL with Genius28, YellowSub, Martine, Strassa, and some other guys. No particular real interesting hands besides the very first hand this kid posted, he got AA and I busted him with a set of 8's in a re-raised pot. Greg Raymer and Victor Ramdin were tag teaming the seat to my left and had some pretty good conversation with both of them. I then got called for 50/100 NL and went over there, I ended up losing some over there, and it broke so back over to the 25/50 NL where Antonio Esfandiari had sat. I stayed there for about an hour and won a $20k coinflip all-in on the flop with my 96s on a Q78 two spades flop vs. "Persian Steve"(well known regular throughout the country), he claimed to me the next day he had the nut flush draw. I finished up the session $5k or so.

The next day Anita wanted to go swimming in the badass Atlantis pool and go down the slides near the sharktanks and stuff so we did that in the afternoon and had a lot of fun. I then met up with CTS aka Muckemsayuhh and my friend Ben from 1/2 and 2/4 NL back in the days and went out to "Nobu" to eat sushi. We had a good dinner and had a lot of fun hanging out there. Here's some pictures of me and CTS and also CTS's first time trying wasabi(lol



I sat at 50/100 NL and at about 3 a.m. The hand was between me and this wealthy guy from South FL named Tony. I raised LP with 47, flop came 356r, DINGGGGGGGGG, he c/c's with 44, turn came my dream 2, he checked, I bet $4k, he raised to $14k, I made it $35k, and he went all-in and I called. That was about a $110,000 pot which had been my biggest hand I had ever played with. I was very very happy that I had such a good day.

Anita left on January 7'th and I was kinda sad she was leaving the day before my birthday(19'th), but her classes were about to start back up from winter break, so she had to go. The first day she played 1/2 NL and made $20, the second day she played 1/2 NL and lost $30 for a net total of -$10. I wish I could have that kind of variance [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] After she took off, I played the entire day.

I swung like I had never swung before.Upppp and downnn. I was going back and forth between up and down $30k, every hour it was swinging back and forth it was sooooo insane. I did manage to pull out a $10k or so victory though. I was sitting next to Strassa for most of the day in the 50/100 NL game and I enjoyed our good conversation, and then some more good conversation with Phil Laak who replaced Strassa when he left. Ozzy87 also sat in the game for a little while.

The next day was my 19'th birthday but I really didn't have much plans besides playing poker. That day I played with the live regulars and also with EmpireMaker for a short while on my right, and also MrSmokey1 the entire day. (EmpireMaker on my immediate right, and MrSmokey1 to his immediate right)


Both EmpireMaker and MrSmokey are good guys who I definitely enjoyed playing with. I have a very strong feeling that MrSmokey decimated me that day which people dont hear me say very often. He CR'ed me at all the perfect times and value bet the perfect times, he flat out played me very very very well that day. My birthday, of all days during the trip was a total disaster at the poker table and it sucked pretty bad.

There was a notable hand during around dinner time that was pretty insane. It was obviously posted here by someone else and a lot of people had comments on it.

UTG+1 raised, 2 callers, I called in the SB. Flop was K54 with 2 clubs, I led for $1700, UTG+1 made it $4800, I made it $16.5k, and he made it $37k'ish to go. I took about 10 minutes to make a decision before clock was called and ended up throwing away the winner and he showed T9o. I was pretty mad/tilted after that hand and also losing about $75k on the day so there was a 0% chance of playing good poker after that so I decided to go out with durrr and raptor to party a little bit for my birthday. We met up with Apathy, Bruiser, and some other guys at the Dragon club in the casino and hung out for a bit, then took a taxi all over the island looking for a club that was open but no dice so we just headed back to Atlantis and I went home for an early night.I also met Emil aka whitelime in the lobby that night I think.

The next day I put my game face on since I was about even for the trip and was determined to make a profit since I would have only 1 more day after that day. At night, the table was INSANELY wild, every hand it was immediately $2k to go with very deep stacks. The average stack was about $50k or so. Twin Caracas, MrSmokey, and Christian(TheElephant from FTP and also has some other names I believe) were all at my table. I ended up setting a new record for myself of biggest won pot ever to about $125k when I flopped KKK vs. Christian's 444 on a K42 flop.

At this point I was about a $40k or so and got tangled in some large pots since the average pot size was probably about $6k(no joke) and easily chips while tangling. Two more notable hands happened that night. The first one I was barely involved in, but it was INSANE. There was some re-raising pre-flop with it going 6 way to the flop for about $3200 each(lol, I had 44). The flop was QJ7 rainbow, I dont remember how the action went, but two guys went bananas betting each other along with twin-caracas, when the other 2 guys went all-in, twin folded 777 face up correctly very quickly. The other two guys showed QQQ and JJJ, the dealer put down the turn immediately which would've made twin quads to scoop a $200k pot. There were lots of people on the rail since the table was so nuts and they went absolutely wild.
Another hand went down that was between me and MrSmokey for the most part that I would like to ask for any opinions on. Thorladen happened to be sweating me at the moment and I believe Roman aka Empire2000 was at the next table over or also watching from the rail so he saw it go down also. I think at this point Dustin Dirksen was sitting in the seat to my left also. UTG internet kid I know makes it $600, I call with 77 on the button, MrSmokey(who showed down KK for the winner the previous hand), makes it $2100, internet kid calls, and I call, I have about $80k, and they both have about 50k. Flop comes KQ7 with the K and Q of diamonds. Smokey checks, UTG checks, I bet $4500, Smokey check-raises it $16k, at this point, I have no idea whatsoever what was going on, but I HAVE A SET!!! so I call lol. Turn is a 9 which also brings two hearts. Smokey thinks for about 60 seconds and pushes all-in $40k into about a $40k pot. I asked him if he hit with JT of diamonds, he replies "No, I was scared that's what you had". I think for about 7 minutes or so and end up mucking, he takes the pot with his cards face down. This was near closing time and after killing it all day long, a few big pots near the end made me break even for the day.

The last day of playing poker for me was January 10'th(as I would be leaving on the plane the morning of January 11'th). That day I played 100% power poker and it was 5-8 handed the entire time. I put most of the table on tilt by re-raising relentlessly pre-flop. I also met Monkey101 and played with him for a bit, but he actually didnt play that many pots. Persian Steve was on massive tilt raising lots pre-flop every hand when we played the following hand:
He Makes it $700 UTG+1, I 3 bet to $2300 from the CO with KQs, he calls, flop comes JT9r 1 heart, he c/c's $4k, turn comes an X of hearts, he c/c's $9500, river comes the 8 of hearts and he bets $30k into basically a $30k pot and I call in about 20 seconds. He shows KJh and scoops a $90k pot. I thought he could have a naked queen or maybe even a bluff, thoughts? I still ran over the table even after that setback and cashed out $120k for about a $70k profit on the day and also the trip.

Me and my friend Jett woke up kinda late the next morning and had to tip the luggage guy to get us through customs extra quickly only arriving at the airport with 45 mins before our flight was scheduled to take off. I sat in the very back seat next to a young guy who after talking with him a bit realized it was SamENole. He was a very nice guy and it was cool to talk about poker with a highly skilled online donkament pro.

Overall, it was an amazing trip and I definitely look forward to doing it again next year. If you were with me at some point during the trip and I left something out please put it in here, I met well over a hundred people and had lots and lots of fun. It was nice meeting everybody there and hopefully I was nice to be around also.

P.S. also met newhizzle and hung out with him a little bit. Very very nice guy please nobody give him anymore flack about that one crazy brandi girl. I talked to Phil Laak lots during the trip and he also introduced me to Jennifer Tilly which was kinda cool to see in person.

[React1oN]

A+

Great Trip Report.

[snagglepuss]

nice report boosted.

[cmitch]

Good Trip Report. Nice score on the last day - not quite sure how you handle those swings. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

It was good to finally meet you in person.

[HERE_2_gamble_]

V good read... and congrats with the final day

[JMa]

very nice...but bring back the booostache!

[fsuplayer]

[ QUOTE ]
(EmpireMaker on my immediate right, and MrSmokey1 to his immediate right)

[/ QUOTE ]

[PartyGirlUK]

Why does CTS look severely constipated in every photo I've seen of him?

[Squareview]

LOL , who pulled empires t-shirt collar down? looks kinna streched out. to me it looks as if smokey1 did it based on the facts that there is a noticable curve to the left, (his right) indicating a grab and pull motion fron his(empiremakers) right. also boosted seems to be leaning away counting his roll while smokey1 looks to be a little angy?

[coxquinn]

[ QUOTE ]
nice report boosted.

[/ QUOTE ]

I may be a donkey but I'm never folding a set of 7's there to smokey