Another Cash at The Showboat. 11/24

Dom (AKA as Jihad) and I head on to AC after work on a Friday afternoon. Is there any better activity to be involved in? Driving South in anticipation of retrieving cash.

Our first stop is The Borgata. Did you expect anything else? We sit down at a brand new 1/2 table. I prefer new tables and seem do quite well at them, and so the streak continues. I am dealt pocket KK, JJ 2X, and pocket QQ and play them for a combined net loss. Not a big loss but you would expect to be pulling in at least a few chips with those hands. On the QQ hand, I get a raise to $15 in front of me from a Loose Passive player (fish). I re-raise to $45, he calls, the flop comes A 9 10. I feel at this point that he has a big hand to call my re-raise. AA, KK, AK is what I am worrying about. Since he is LP I also put him on a suited A, or any somewhat big A. I check, he makes a small bet of $20. I feel like he is trying to extract chips from me with that bet, I fold fold. I could have been wrong but I did not want to play a big pot with the A on the board.

I end up with a small win of $125 for the session by getting 2 nut flushes, and one flopped flush. Dom finished with a loss. At about 10:00PM we head on over to The Showboat for the 11:00PM 50+10 MTT.

When we get there, the place is packed. I try to sign up for the tourney and it is sold out, so I put my name on the alternate list. Dom has managed to secure a seat so at this point I am not sure if I will be seated. Luckily, they had more dealers available and ended up opening an additional 2 tables for 7 tables with 77 players.

I had 2 beers at The Borgata that as of now is my unofficial limit, while Dom had 2 or 3 double or maybe by the looks of them triple Tequila shots, so he was feeling fine. He continued to take advantage of the free booze that The Showboat provided. Numerous Bourbons where being consumed as he played in the tourney. It seemed we were both coasting along for the first hour or so as Dom held up his chips from the table in front of me. During this time, Dom was so gracious as to offer a bounty at my table to whoever knocks me out of the tourney for the sum of $5. It was agreed by all who heard his offer that Dom was a true friend for if he meant me any harm the bounty would have surely been for a higher sum. We will soon see that I had no reason to fear for my head from the bounty.

Finally, Dom was dispatched from the tourney. I continued slowly rolling along, never accumulating a big stack, but stealing pots when necessary when the situation made itself available.

It took a bit of luck to make it to the final table. This pivotal hand allowed me to get there when the tourney was thinning. A player in early position raised 2X the BB, ordinarily I would assume a strong hand from that play, but not this player, I had a read on him and I put him on a steal. Not a well-advised attempt but a steal attempt nonetheless. I am on the short stack so I decide to make a play to steal his small raise and blindss by shoving J10s. He agonizes while I think to myself I was right and he will fold, but no he decides to gamble and calls with his QJ, oh misery I am dominated, but the Poker Gods smile down on me with a 10 on the flop that holds up. This double up gives me the ammo I needed to make it to the final table.

Once seated I find my chip stack leaves me in about 7^th place with a short stack. I go into Short Stack Ninja mode and proceed to knock people out and accumulate chips. The 2 hands that actually got myself out of the short stack and into the chip leaders position was when I was in the BB, all fold to the the SB with a big stack who completes the blind. I look down at a 10 4 and call. The flop comes K 10 3. I feel I am good because I am assuming he is raising with a K, so when he bets on the flop I feel he is on a steal, I shove and he calls with KQ, sneaky sneaky. I stand up and wait for the 2 cards 2 come before I shake his hand and check the winnings chart to see how much I won, the next card is a blank, and the river is a glorious 4. BANG! I double up, nice, very nice.

One rotation later, it is folded around to the same guy who now is in short stack all-in mode with 4BB. He shoves, and I look down at my cards and see KQ, the same hand that he held which he lost to me earlier. I do the math and find that it I must call, he flips over K7 and my hand holds up.

Now we are down to 3 players. Old-Timer to my right is sitting on a big stack, with The Kid to my left who with whom I am in all-in mode with shorty stacks. I see that the old timer is eyeing the winning amounts list so I ask The Kid if he wants to chop second and third place. He agrees, I then ask Old-Timer how much he would give us from the first place prize if we decide to chop. He pauses and offers $200. We both agree giving him $1400 and me and the Kid $782 each. I get the kid to sign for 2^nd place and avoid the tax implication that The Showboat forces on winners of more than $600, another good reason to play at The Borgata. So we call it a night and start our journey back North at 4:30AM.

The ride home is long and dark but I have no complaints this night as AC fades in my rear view mirror.