Went to AC and met an old friend. 1/2 NL Cash Game

Upon arrival at The Showboat, I sit down with Lisa at Black Jack table to see what it is like to donate money to a casino and I find I do not like the experience as I watch Lisa leave a donation envelope of $40. We head up to the poker room where I sign up for the 11:00AM 50+10 MTT. In the meantime Lisa and I sit down at the only table that was running which was 2/4 limit. I normally will not sit at that game but since Lisa wanted to try it out I sit down and lose about $25 and Lisa loses $7.

The morning tourney has a big turnout with 120 players. 4 hours later, I manage to finish in 15th place close to the bubble with 12 places being paid.

On to The Borgata where I decide to visit my first poker friend, he is 1/2NL. I sit down with $200 and win a couple of small pots. After a couple of hours I'm up about $100, There is a raise to $6, a reraise to $24, I take a peek to find KK yahoooooo, I raise it up to $75, all fold to the $24 raiser, he starts to talk so I know I have the best hand and I am praying for a call. The player to my left said he laid down a big hand and the raiser starts trying to find out what he had and again the player to my left tells him it was big. Unethical I agree but to my advantage nonetheless. After talking himself to the point where he felt brave, he puts me all-in for $200 on top of my $75 raise. Since he was talking, I feel he did not have AA. He might have been trying to trap me with his speech and that would have been a good move had he had AA, but he had JJ which he turned over when I called, flop comes no help for him and the turn is a K hooray, ship it over sir!! The player to my left had QQ.

The next morning again I am at The Borgata starting at a bright and early 5:00AM, plenty of tired freaks in attendance so I feel quite comfortable in the environment. I am on the button an early raiser makes it $6, one caller and I look down to see J7s, now this is not a hand I usually play but I have fond memories of this hand that maybe Stinger might recall. I call the $6. Flop comes J 2 rags, rainbow, early bets 10, a call, I raise it to $20, call call, turn is 7 hehe. I bet $25, call, call. Now I know I have operators here because they are both donk-calling stations so I feel I am good. When the flop comes J I know I am golden and am trying to extract chips, I do this by betting just a bit more than my turn bet feeling I can get donk #1 and donk #2 to come along. I bet $35 and it proves to be the right number, they both make the call and I turn over my boat, ship it baby donkeys!!

1 more hand, I get AQ in late position 2 limpers, I make it $15 get I caller, flop is 10 with 2 smaller rags rainbow. I bet $25, he calls, turn another rag I bet $50, after considerable thought he calls, ugggh, the river comes another rag less than 10, he checks, I think the only hand that beats me is A 10, and I don't think he has it because I have an ace. At this point, I know in my heart that I should shove all in but he has me out chipped and I do not want to lose my stack on a bluff. I check and say, I have a big A, and he says AK? "Nope just AQ" and he takes it down with AK.

Later on, I find myself at The Showboat 11: AM 50+10 MTT and finish and eerily 15th out of 101. I finished in 15th the day before, next time all I have to do is adjust that number to first and all will be well.

All in all a good trip with 2 nice winning sessions at The Borgata for a $400+ cash game profit.