Short Stack for a Short Profit

I had an interesting day in AC with many low points and just enough of a run to save me in the end.

I start off the day early at The Tropicana. I register for the 100+25 Freezeout tourney. While I'm waiting I take a seat at a 1/2 game and proceed to get hurt. A few sad examples are

I get QQ in EP and raise it up. Get 2 callers. Flop comes 228, both guys check, I bet out $20 and one guys smooth calls me. Next card is a 4, check check, J on the river I check he bets out $40. I'm thinking he's trying to steal, I call. He turns over Q2

I get 77 in EP, I limp with 2 others Flop 759. I check thinking I'm going to trap. I end up losing a bundle when guy hits his straight on the river.

And finally lose again when my full house, 5's full of 9's looses to 5's full of K’s.

Down almost $300, I wish everyone good luck, as if they need it, and head over to the tourney tables. In the first hour the blinds are 200/100 and I have a stack of about 3200. I get 10 10 in LP. A very loose player limps in. He has gone all-in 2x already showing down A7 and Q7 when he shoved in after the flop with top pair. I raise it up to 800 he pushes all-in and has me covered. I call and he turns over QJ and hits his J on the flop to knock me out. I should have probably folded, but I felt that I had the better hand going in and you have to win some races to get far in a tourney, so it was not my day to pull off a hat trick.

I'm down 1 buy-in and am out of the tourney and its only 11:30am. It has officially become a bad day so now I need to start getting back on track. First thing to do is get out of The Tropicana. I find that when I start to get cold it's a good idea to move on. A new atmosphere can sometimes do wonders. So where do I like the atmosphere? One place jumps to mind immediately and you guessed it, The Borgata!

I head over to The Borgata and decide to use a strategy that I have been experimenting with on the internet that has been working out quite nicely. It is The Short Stack Strategy that Ed Miller wrote about in his book Getting Started in Hold-em. It involves buying in for 20 Big Blinds and playing only premium hands. I decide to try it out at a 2/5 table and buy-in for $100.

I proceed to loose that buy-in quite quickly when my trip K's get beat buy a flush. Now I'm down close to $500 for the day and I think I see a black cloud forming somewhere close to the ceiling near The plasma TV's that are showing the Mets destroying their arch rivals The Atlanta Braves.
I rebuy for another $100. I did not show down my trip K's, so now the table thinks I'm a loose cannon and I'm glad. The short stack strategy starts to work when I double up with QQ against 33, and then again with AA against 88. Now I'm no longer short stacked and am playing my regular big stack game and all is well when I leave the table with $650 making me a small winner for the day.

Lighting Strikes 2x at The Borgata

After cashing in a Showboat Tournament last week, lightning strikes twice and I finish in the money again and cash at The Borgata.

I arrive at The Borgata early Sunday morning with enough time to get in an hour or two on the cash table before the 50+10 with 1 add on 11: AM tournament. I've been contemplating the possibility of playing a Short Stack game on a 2/5 table, but I decide that I will hold off on that and sit down at a 1/2.

Here is a hand I believe I misplayed. In early position at a somewhat loose table I raise to $16 with AKo. I get one caller and the button re-raises to $41. I have about $180 behind and the raiser has me covered. Should I call and then have to act first and face the possiblility of another raise from the third player, re-raise to $85, re-raise all-in, or fold?
I folded, I think I played it poorly. I was tempted to go all-in but I didn't want to play my stack for a coin flip.

I end up losing $45 in an hour and a half, playing until I registered for the 11: AM tourney

The Tourney was a 50+10 plus 1 add on after the 3rd level which in reality made it a 100+10 because everyone took the add-on option. The field consited of at least 111 players. I basically used the same strategy that worked last week at The Showboat to get to the final table. I got minimal improvement post flop on my hands. I actually never showed down a hand better than a pair to win, but when I did get those pairs they were big pairs for big pots.

I make it to the final table 6 hours after the start of the tourney with a short stack. I manage to make it to the top 5 as Short Stack with only 3BB worth of chips. The blinds are 30, 0000 / 15,000 with a 5000 ante. Someone suggests we chop 5 ways for $1400 each. I wholeheartedly agree, but the Big Stack resists and suggests that I get only $1000 and the other 4 split the rest. I have to agree because 5th place is only $550. I actually end up with $1031 for a personal record of 2 cashes in a row!!

Won The Showboat Friday Night Tourney (well almost)

I was in the mood to play some tournament poker yesterday so I headed to AC. I went to The Hilton to play in the $120 MTT to find that it would be for only 10 players. Since I am feeling like playing a MTT I have to set my sites elsewhere. In the meantime I sit down at The Noodle Bar next to the Poker room and proceed to wolf down the worst Wonton Noodle soup of all time. After having used the dirty bathroom and witnessed the weak cash games that were taking place I've decided that I will not patronize The Hilton again anytime soon.

I head on over to my old favorite, The Showboat just in time for their $75 MTT. With about 60 players sitting down I find my seat and let the fun begin. On my way to the final table there are a couple of memorable hands such as when I limp in from the BB with Q3o and see a Q36 flop. I raise and am reraised when I 3bet all-in. I say ”Do you have a set" fearing that my tourney was over, but my read was right, he said with a look of puzzlement "no" and flipped over JJ. He started walking over to shake my hand, but I said hold on just a sec fearing of the inevitable suck out, but it did not happen. This makes me big stack at my table. I end up knocking out a couple of more players with smaller stacks and cruise into the final table with a large stack.

I knock out another medium stack and am now chip leader with 9 players left. First place pays out $1100. I lose a medium size pot, and then while trying to knock out a small stack with pot odds to call I lose another. I'm now medium stack with 5 players left and in the money. I manage to win a couple more pots and watch a few more players get knocked out when I find myself heads up with a 3:1 chip disadvantage. I offer to split the total prize pool of $1700 50/50 for $850 each but she declines, I go all-in 4 of 5 of the next hands and she makes an offer and I counter $950 to her and $750 to me which she accepts,. I was still at a 3:1 chip disadvantage so I thought that it was a good deal considering 2nd place paid $550.

Afterwards I decide to stay for the cash game but can't seem to get anything going and end up down $40. All in all it was a fun night. Hope I can keep up my tourney play.

Borgata's New Poker Room Grand Opening Trip Report

I heard that The Borgata's new Poker Room was opening yesterday so I decided I wanted to see it for myself. After unsuccessfully attempting to recruit Bill and Dominick to accompany me on this trip I realize that I would have to go it alone.

I leave from work at the stroke of 3:00pm to begin my adventure and encounter some resistance from the Grand Central Parkway's Friday Holiday traffic. It was manageable so I arrrived at The Borgata at 5:00pm.

The new room is awesome. It has 85 tables and is now the largest Poker Room in AC. As I start walking through and taking in the sites I see a charity Poker tournament in progress with Charles Barkley playing at one of the 3 tables. This section has a grandstand for spectator seating so I take a seat and watch the action. After about 2 minutes I grow bored and walk over to watch a few hands of the 550 man $275 tournament that has been in progress since 11:30am. First prize is about 38K. Again after about 2 minutes I'm bored. It's time to play.

I put my name on the 1/2 list and go to the new food court and have a burger at Fatbuger. It was absolutely great, I highly recommend The Kingburger. After a wait of about an hour due to a system malfunction and the general confusion that I attribute to it being the new room's first night, I grab a seat at a new game. Generally I like to sit at a table that is just being opened, where all the stacks are equal and no one has any reads. This time it works to my disadvantage somewhat and I find myself down almost $200 within the first 2 hours. I attribute my deficit to general bad play where I have a semi-strong hands yet fail to lay them down.
1. I lose with trip 8's to a full house
2. I lose with a 9 high flush to a straight flush (ouch!!)
2. I lose a busted nut flush draw

It is somewhat debatable if I should have folded the first 2 hands on the river, but I always find hands better than 2 pair hard to fold.

Now before anyone gets ready to criticize my skills I am letting you know I finished up for the session. I ended up stacking 2 small stacks for my profit, but was unable to win the pot when I went all-in on two occasions.

In one hand I am dealt 10 J off-suit in late position. I call and get about four callers. I have over $300 behind

flop
7c 8d 9c

ep1 bets 12
fold
fold
ep2 raises to 30
I re-raise to 100
ep1 folds
ep2 calls

turn
7c 8d 9c Qh

ep2 checks
I' push all-in
ep2 calls for his remaining stacks

about $550 in the pot

river
7c 8d 9c Qh 10d

he turns over Jc4c to split the pot.
The table goes nuts and I congratulate him on his hand.

In the other hand I get AA in EP

I raise to 12
1 call
lp re-raises to 35
I 3bet to 100
1 fold
she pushes all-in
after I call I said "You got rockets" she smiles, give me a high five and shows me AA

Even though I only came out with a small profit for the night it was a good session for me and I look forward to going back. Stay tuned for a possible part 2 during this Holiday weekend. As always comments and questions are welcome.