AC Trip Report 10/28

I get to the Taj in the early morning planning to play in at least 2 tourneys.

Tourney #1 I play at The Taj Mahal. I hold a certain fondness for the Taj. It was where the NYC players went to feast on the tourists in Rounders, and that is why I made it the first stop in my poker career. Now I am back to play in an 80+10 MTT tourney.

The first time I played live poker I sat at a 1/2 NL table in that very room and won the second hand dealt to me when I had JJ and raised it up from middle position to 8 dollars. That got a chuckle going. I did not realize that it was a small raise at that table. I had a lot to learn. When the flop comes with a J, I begin to feel my heart pumping and my hands trembling as I reach for chips being first to act. I try to count out the chips but they were falling and rolling around my immediate vicinity when a player who is out of the hand to my left says "take it easy, take your time", another to his left said “first time at a table?". By now I am entirely overwhelmed, I bet out $25 and get 1 caller who it seems does not believe in physical tells. I bet out again when an undercard hits, not sure how much, and again on the river. He turns over 66 and I am thinking this is too easy. Well it does not take long to learn differently.

Back to the present I find myself at The Taj’s 80+20 MTT and I'm sitting with a group of solid players who are stiff as boards, I felt at one point I would need to tap one to see if I was playing with the living dead. The table consisted of a group of good players who were tight as nails. I did not get much in the name of hole cards and was knocked out in about an hour and a half.

I forgot to mention I sat at a 1/2NL table as I waited for the tourney to start and managed to leave with a profit of $35 in an hour and a half. I thought about sitting at another 1/2, but decided to give limit another shot after having had good results at The Borgata a few weeks ago at a 6/12 table. I take a seat at a brand new 5/10 and begin to run over the table. I am getting good starting hands, good flops, and making good bluffs. I end up with a $135 profit in about an hour and a half. As I am leaving one of the players asks me “Time to move to a better game" I tell him "yes, you guys play a good tight game, I want to get out of here before I lose it" which was true. The game at The Borgata was much juicier with an average of 4 to every flop.

I head on over to The Showboat to play in the 50+10 MTT. As I am waiting for the tourney to start, I said hello to a player who sits 2 seats to my left with whom I played with at a final table a few months ago. I asked him if he had cashed since and he said he did, but he was lying, he could not hide that tell and I put him on tilt. This info was useful in my biggest hand that I happened to play against him. I am on the button; blinds are 50T/100T. I have about T6500. 3 players limp to me, I look down to see JJ. I raise to T700. Tilter calls. Flop is all undercards with a possible flush draw. I know he did not call with overcards, because he limped and had been playing tight, for him to call T700 I put him on a small pair. A big pair he comes over the top. He checks, I look at him and I feel I have him. I over bet the pot to T3000 he looks nervous and he shoves all-in for another T2300 to me. I insta-call and ask him "do you have a big pair"? he said 10's. I flip over my cards and send him packing. All is quiet for a long while as I go positively card dead and the table starts to get hyper aggressive. I have to sit back and watch the action for a while. Then I notice something has happened that is to my disadvantage, the dealer forgets to raise the blinds to T200/T400, by the time I notice this we are getting ready to break. I don't know what might have happened had the blinds went up as they should of when I was big stack I believe it would have been to my advantage because a lot of players would have been playing short stacks, oh well.

After the break, I cannot seem to get a chance to make a move, there is a lot of raising in front of me and I have barely a chance to blind steal. I find myself short stacked with the blinds at T800/T1600. I am on the button and the cut-off min raises to T3200. With about T7500 left I look down at AA. I want to get it all-in but I am worried that the cut-off was on a steal. I act as if I am going to call and then make pretend that I just realize that I am short and say, "Oh, I did not realize I don't have too much left, I'm going to have to go all-in" and I shove. I was right; he was on a steal and folded. The SB bought the acting job, because he said "good bet".

On the very next hand there are 2 limpers when it gets to me, I see 99. I shove and get 2 callers. I figure I am beat. The flop comes with all high cards and the early position player shoves, the other person folds. I am still ahead but barely. My opponent had a flush and straight draw with AK of hearts. I am still alive after the turn, which is a blank, and on the river comes a glorious 9 to give me a set! Wait a sec, oh; I see it was a heart, oh well, off to the rail I go.

10/21 DDPT Game at my House, written by Bill

The Dirty Dirty Poker Tour – DDPT – is a home poker league which has been holding Texas Hold-Em tournaments for nearly two years. In that time, membership has increased from six when originally founded to the current fourteen. Member players are awarded points for first, second, and third place finishes in “minor” and “major” tournaments, culminating in a championship game held on the Saturday of Super Bowl weekend. Players keep all the money they win, although the buy-ins for most tournaments never exceed twenty-five dollars.

Most tournaments are held in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, but last Saturday nine members of the DDPT made a trek to Frank’s Big Slick Casino in Glen Ridge for a major event, consisting of one major and one minor tournament. The pre-tournament banter reflects the close-knit nature of the group. On this particular night, league Commissioner Tony, a.k.a. “T-Chill” or simply “Chill,” (all members use nicknames during tournaments; in this report last names have been deleted to protect the innocent and hide the guilty), is running late, so the other players play a joke on him. They make it look like they started without him, arranging the cards to give him pocket kings, with a king on the board, and a huge stack of chips in the pot. After he arrived, the look on his face when he saw the cards prompted peals of laughter form the assembled masses.

Once the first hand was dealt, the jokes subsided to a manageable level and it was mostly business for the DDPT. I didn’t see what happened, but Will “Suge” (short for “Sugar”) and Fee “Mania” were the first ones to bust out. Moments later came one of the critical, and most controversial, hands of the night, featuring Chill vs. Frank “The Unknown.” Holding AA, Chill calls, hoping to slowplay. Unknown raises to 175. Chill calls, everyone else folds, and three low spades come on the flop. Chill bets 300, but Unknown raises to 1000. While deciding his next move, Chill smiles and says, “This is gonna end up with an all-in, isn’t it?” Some mild laugher ensues while Chill deliberates. Finally, Chill puts Unknown all-in, and Unknown calls. They turn over the cards, and Unknown thinks he’s sitting pretty with QQ, but Chill turns over AA, one of which is the ace of spades. The flush never comes, but Chill didn’t need it as his rockets stand up, and the Unknown would be known for an early exit that night. The hand leaves Chill sitting on the big stack, which he would ride all the way to the final table.

Sitting to Front Page’s left was Terry, a.k.a. “Lefty,” who had been the pre-chip-up leader, but whose chips slowly bled away to Chill, Page, and others. One of the beneficiaries was “Dollar” Bill, who outlasted the left-handed one and Bryan, a.k.a. “Code Blue” to make the final three player table. But Dollar didn’t have enough cash in his stack to take on Chill and Page, both of whom had won significantly bigger pots. The Dollar managed to stay alive for while, even doubling up a one point, but lost when he pushed with QJ and Page got him with K8 and a K on the board.

So Chill and Front Page were set for the heads-up confrontation. With both having a reputation for aggressive play, this one figured to be over quickly. These expectations were met early in the heads up round when Chill in the big blind was dealt 23 of spades. Front Page called the BB and two more spades came on the flop. Both players checked, and Page caught his straight on the turn, but Chill also caught his flush. A cold wind blew through North Jersey as Chill took down his third major of the year, clinching a spot in the league’s championship game.

In the minor event – distinguished from the major in that it is worth fewer points to the top three finishers – which followed Frank’s wife Lisa played her first DDPT game. Although the players had no nickname for her yet, Lisa earned a ton of respect from the DDPT for her tight play which resulted in a third place finish. But the critical hand in this event came when Chill went all-in with KQs, and Lefty and Mania call with 55 and AA respectively. Lefty catches a five on the turn, and his fellow DDPTers could only watch him celebrate. But Lefty had nothing to celebrate after the heads up round, even though he was the bigger stack against Jihad. The holy warrior played a more disciplined game; in the final hand his AK held up against Lefty’s’s A10.

The DDPT maintains its own blog (http://dirtypoker.blogspot.com) which shows the current standings as players vie for the four automatic bids to the league’s championship game. The remaining players play one game for the final two spots in the event. With only two minor and one major event remaining, the competition has never been more intense. We’ll be keeping an eye on the DDPT as the season comes to its conclusion!

AC Trip Report 10/9

Usually I post these reports when I make a big win, but not this time. It was not a winning day yet it was interesting.

I started out in the morning at The Borgata sitting short stacked at a 2/5NL table. I lost my first $100 buy-in when I re-raised all-in for $55 with AQs. I know that the hand is generally not strong enough for this play but the 2 players in the pot were very loose so I put them on weaker hands and I was right. The guy who won the pot had KJ and took it down when he hit a J on the turn. I bought back in for another $100 and managed to win a couple of pots and get myself back to only a $28 loss.

Next was the 50+10 w 1/AO MTT. It was the toughest MTT I ever played in. About 130 players all seemed to be playing a solid game. I only got 3 raising hands in the whole tourney and that would have been enough if my QQ had held up against A5 when I put him all-in. The most memorable hand happened on the last hand before the first break and add-on period. I got QQ in late position. An extremely loose player raised in front of me to 600T, which was 3 BB. I had a choice here I could re-raise to around 1500T+ which would have left me with about 2500 chips or shove it all-in. Since he seemed like he liked to gamble I shoved and he called with AK and my queens held up to double me up. After 3 hours, I am finally sent to the rail with over 80 players still in the hunt!

Now this is the interesting part of the day. I decide I want to experiment with the limit game and sit down at a 6/12 limit table. I find that it might possibly suit my style a little better than NL. I like the fact that you can see more flops and stick around for the turn more. Yes there will be sockouts such as my KK getting beat by A 10, but you can suckout more yourself. I was able to stick around twice to catch flushes on the river to win big pots. It is a different game than NL that requires a different mindset. I ended up winning $75 at that table and I think I will be back for more sometime soon.

A 60+15 SNG is looking for players, I start packing up my chips and before you know it 3 more of the players at my 6/12 table are headed over to play in the SNG. It was a fun game, which resembled the SNG that I played in with Chrissy and Dom a few weeks ago. Everybody was joking around and having fun. I found myself short stacked and go all-in blind. I get a call and tell him that I did not look so I am probably beat. He flips over Q10 and I flip them to find QJ Yippeee! I win that one. A few hands later, I do it again and everyone folds. I take a peak and it was 73. Well you know that has to be shown, so I flip it over and the table is in an uproar. On the next hand, I look down to see rockets. At this point, I have a medium stack so I can put out a regular raise, but no I decide to push all-in again and see if anybody bites. It works and I get a call from a medium stack who flips over A5, hahahaha! I end up busting out a short while later, but it was a fun and memorable game and overall day.