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Trip Report

by Dave Meeks

Well, by now we must all be back to our normal lives, which means lots of avoiding work and even more IRC :)

I'm sure the net will soon be flooded with many a story, anecdote, or card story to tell from the wonderful event known as ATLARGE. So, why should I be any different, right? Here goes my version of the tale...

Wake up bright and early Friday morning after going to bed very late. Palmer 'Filaman' picks me up and we are off to meet up with Bozo and Irwin.

As usual with those two, we arrive 15 minutes early, they arrive 15 minutes late. But, Frank brings food so he's quickly forgiven and Bozo's driven, so I ain't saying squat.

We took what I like to refer to as 'The Postman's Route' down to AC. You know, we went through Rain, Sleet, and Snow to get to our appointed rounds. Some of the biggest mutant snowflakes I've ever seen in my life (it was New Jersey afterall...) were the highlight of the trip down. Even with the conditions being less than ideal, we make excellent time.

We arrive in AC and it's time to GAMBOOOOOL!!!!!

We try to check in, but the lady says no way.. bummer. Palmer and I store our gear in Frank/Bozos room. It would be tomorrow before we would see it again.

We head down to the poker room and notice how small and QUIET!!! it was. What a change from the noisy maelstrom most poker rooms seem to be. A number of games running, but we all gather to sign up for the 4pm tourney and head over for the buffett.

Wow... what a surprise this was. I finally got to put the faces behind the names and see people for what they truly are... and a motley crew we were too :)

Got to meet Chuck W. right off, along with Doug Anderson, Bruce Kramer, Jarman, and many others. Awesome. Already this trip was worth it...

Lunch was good, but I was itching to go lose some money, so I inhaled my food and got ready to bolt. Finally, it was ... The Time... Time to GAMBOOOL!!!!

Upstairs we head, getting onto whatever lists were running. A bunch of us get seated right away at the 5-10 Holdem. Hmmm.. this should be interesting, as I know most of the people there... Frank, Bozo, Palmer, Loboc, and some others, as well as a couple of unknown quantities.

From the very get-go, the cards were coming off pretty well for me. Took a couple of bad beats as the #1 seat (Oh god.. that wonderful #1 seat) was quickly identified as the Call Station Who Happened To Be a Bigger Fish Than Me.... in other words... Money!!!

I quickly got into a nice little groove, playing within myself and generally playing good poker. But, they were about to toss the cards in the air for the Limit Holdem tourney, and I had to leave the table. I was up +320, and feeling real good.

Then came the Resorts Limit tourney. I'd never played in a Limit tourney before, but I figured it was worth a shot. Spent most of the first hour or so trying to remember that this was in fact a limit tourney, and not a NL one. Dug myself a hole, but finally managed to get out of it. I was protecting my initial stack like it was my life savings, not showing much variance at all. But, like inflation does, that stack started to look smaller and smaller. But wait!!! The Miracle Occurs...

I finally get deal QQ on the button. I get some callers and I raise. I end up all in against someone when the Q comes on the flop.. All Hail The Queen.. Savior of the Good and Worthless!. I nurse that win a little while and get a few more to build my stack into one that wasn't easy to bully when IT happened. Yes, IT... I came to the rescue of a fellow ATLARGER and backed him up... Oh what a mistake this would be...

Sippy got involved into a hand with guy inbetween the two of us, and the hand saw Sippy nearly go to the felt. Well, the turn comes and obviously didn't help him any. He's down to his last chip. The other guy goes to bet and is starting to count/stack his chips. We tell him Sippy's only got T100 left, and we finally got him to understand so he only pushed in the T100 he needed to get Sippy allin. Then, the dealer, for some unknown reason, reaches over and grabs Sippy's last chip. The dealer then tosses over the river card and the other guy turns over his hand. Sippy looks up, confused, and announces 'Wait, I didn't call the bet'? The floor was brought over, and after some confusion, it was agreed that Sippy did not call the bet and could indeed have folded (which he did). Sippy survives, just barely.

After that, tables broke down rapidly. I found myself on the final two tables. Wow... 8 ATLARGERS left out of the final 18!!! Way to go guys... Many of the locals were teasing us, but I think some left with a little more respect. I started to roll at that point, winning some big hands. I soon became BigStack at our table and busted out Nolan with Quad Ks. Tables quickly dissolved, we broke down into the final table... YES!!! I'm in the money!!! And, I think I was #3 stack at that point. Hands go by in a blur, until we are down to 4 players.. Sippy and I make it to the final 4!!!! Awesome baby... As Dickie Vitale would say... Sippy was a true PTPPer (Prime Time Poker Player) and I was the Diaper Dandy!!! Guy in the seat to my right has huge stack, Sippy's almost done. Then, it all went down hill from there. I get dealt a couple of very nice hands.. AQs, AJoff, AKoff. All three I raise on, all three I lose to the guy on the right, who was calling with anything. I seem to remember losing to 46s, 87off, and Q3 or something. Blech. Now I'm hurting. I end up all in with the guy when I'm dealt AQs again. He calls me down, and wins with something like 83. Double Blech... Oh well, 4th place... I'm psyched. Cash out $596.

Moment of the Day though, was when Sippy has folded and the two other stacks battle it out. Guy to Sippy's left gets all in with top pair, guy with BigStack wins when the river brings a 5 and he turns over PRESTO!!!

THE CROWD GOES WILD!!! PRESTO IS PROCLAIMED FOR ALL TO SEE AND HEAR!!!!

It was awesome, the normally quiet Poker Room erupted with a exclamation of PRESTO, and Frank makes a mad dash for the table. Sippy ends up in 2nd thankx to the Magic of Presto..

A very auspicious start for this ATLARGE weekend indeed...

After the tourney, we went to dinner and eventually made our way back. Played 5/10/15 Stud with many ATLARGERs. Did well, ended up about +200 or so. Played some 5-10 holdem and 10-20 holdem/omaha split after that.

Saturday came in with a bang. Got down to the tables at about 9am. Signed up for the tourney and sat down at the 3-6 omaha/holdem split table. Went on a remarkable streak in the omaha portion that put me way up. Beat up on Loboc on great hand. I have 66 in middle position, so I play the rush and raise. Loboc grins back and reraises. Being very stupid, I reraise him right back. His capping the preflop betting let me know he had AA and I was a toastpuppy. But wait!!! Our hero spies a 6 on the flop. Hee Hee.. BadPlayBoy turns into KRUSHBoy!!! I think 66 was about the last hand Doug expected to see me turn over. After only about 1 hour, I found myself cashing out up $380. At 3-6... wow...

Tourney comes and goes. I get busted early when my AKs loses to Jeremy Millers QK, when the flop brought a Q and two of my suit. That's ok.. I go back to the tables...

Over the next 10 hours or so, I managed to bring in another +$500 on various tables. I did very well at the 5/10/15 Stud table again, and got sucked into trying my hand at the PotLimit table. Blech... Got to sit next to Nolan and watch him and Bozo roll over people. I quickly lost about $200. I got lucky when Steve, who had been straddling and winning alot, straddled with KQs, but I had AK. Flop brought the K and he raised the pot, which I also returned back. That win put me back up. I saw myself at +$50 at the PotLimit table and decided that was more than I'd ever expect to make at that game, so I quit. Decided to head over to the Taj. Quickly got myself into a nice 5-10 Holdem table, with Richard Sooy dealing. But, guy in 8 seat was a CallStation OnaRoll... I went into two or three hands with best hand only to see him RunnerRunner me... Booo.. -$200.

I FINALLY got over to the 5-10 Omaha 8/better table. This was why I came over here. Started very poorly, the dealers sucked, and it seemed like a very unfriendly table. David S. came over and we both went on a roll. I eventually got up +200 there, which put me even for the Taj, so I decided to go home. Dave and I ended up blowing about $100 at the 3-6 Omaha/Holdem split tables. We convinced ourselves to never play that silly game at 5am.

7stud in the morning!!! I get on a good table, with Jazbo, Keith Miyake, Tiger, Peter Secor, and others. I'm playing very well, stealing/playing it hard and tight. I build my stack up to excellent proportions when disaster struck. First hand, I split As and end up heads up with Tiger. I get him to push all in and I'm well ahead. He's showing a KQJT and I'm showing the split As and a 3 card str8. He hit's his 9 on 6th street, I don't improve. Tiger survives :( :(

Then, about 2 hands later, I get those silly split As again. I raise and end up isolated against Keith Miyake, who's showing a middle club. I improve to two pair and a 4flush by 6th street, and I'm betting it the whole way. But, on 6th street, Keith raises me back... DAMNDAMNDAMNDAMN... He ran me down and hit his ragged flush draw. Well, I call hoping for a flush (actually had a str8 flush draw) or a boat. The PokerGods give me a str8 instead. That's no good, I fold, but that hand took a great deal out of me.

A few hands later, after folding my antes away, I end up with AKJs, the A up. I get heads up with Jeff Woods when I hit a T of my suit, to give me the str8 flush draw. However, it was not to be on this day, as my flush/str8 never showed and Jeff's split As turned into trips...

DTM is dead...

Oh well, Palmer and I head over to the Taj and play some 5-10 holdem then 5-10 Omaha. I ended up in holdem and down in omaha, basically even for the day.

Time to head home... It's been a great trip though. I ended up finishing 4th in one tourney, and taking home almost +2000 for the weekend. And, I met a bunch of excellent people. One person who probably won't get mentioned, but I have to is Leslie S, the wonderful wife of David. Her and I ended up on a number of tables together and had (IMHO) a great time playing togeter, joking it up, etc.. If you are reading this, it was a pleasure..

Oh, and before I go... just one word to the MuscleMan on my right...

Pain... You are a GirlyBoy...

Part 2

Here is my unofficial list of the Top Ten things that happened at ATLARGE, at least for me...

10) Watching Doug Anderson's face when I flopped a set a 6s to beat his rockets, and realizing that with the capped pre-flop betting, he didn't have a clue why I played like I did (ok, 'fish' comes to mind)

9) Having a very profitable weekend (though my wife has already spent it :( )

8) Meeting the whole crew

7) Actually WINNING money in PotLimit (ok.. but $50 is $50...)

6) Busting Jazbo out for the 2nd time in a NL Holdem contest :)

5) Seeing the Mutant Snowflakes From Hell on the drive down

4) Playing at the same table with Leslie Schenkel (David's wife) over and over again, and having a lot of fun beating up on the other players (A9 r00lz!!). We had a lot of laughs at others expense :)

3) Hearing the crowd erupt 'PRESTO' and seeing Sippy take 2nd because of it

2) Coming in 4th in the Resorts tourney

and finally,

1) Sitting next to 'Pain', who is a rather well built young man, pull out a nice little flowered purse when he wins his first hand, and begins to pull out $.50 in pennies, nickels, and dimes for the dealer tip. And then calling him a GirlyBoy and living to tell the tale...

--
David T. Meeks