Trip Report
by Eric J. Holtman
On the drive down to ATLARGE, it was snowing. And it's almost April.
-1 weather unit
I get to Resorts around 9am. There's absolutely no one I recognize
in the poker room, so I ditch my bag and head over to the Taj. Their
On the drive down to ATLARGE, it was snowing. And it's almost April.
-1 weather unit
I get to Resorts around 9am. There's absolutely no one I recognize
in the poker room, so I ditch my bag and head over to the Taj. Their
poker room as just as dead, so I decide to get started early on the
negative expectation games.
A half hour of mellow multi-action blackjack brings a quick $40 profit
+40 BJ units.
The Taj actually has $5 craps on dead weekday mornings, so I plunk down
some cash. Now, I'm pretty much a dark sider, but I decide to try some
$5 line/$10 odds right betting. Of course, the next two shooters are
3 numbers and out. DOH!!!. However, I stay with the dice, and cash
out $120 to the good.
+120 dice units.
Over at Resorts, I hook up with Loboc and Jeremy Miller, and after
watching Jeremy get brutalized in 1-5 stud, we decide to play some
negative expectation games. We were thinking "PaiGow". We played
"roulette". Yup. Roulette.
-80 roulette units.
Jeremy's all pissed off at pissing away $100 on the roulette table,
so he sits down at a $25 BJ table, buys in for $100, and says: "I
gotta win my fucking money back". 6 hands later, he's up $100.
It's now time for the buffet. As I walk up to the cashier, I see
Chuck Weinstock, Sippy, and a few others (all with their backs to me).
I yell out "FISH!". They all turn around. Yuk yuk.
After the buffet, I hung around Resorts for awhile, checked in, and
then hit the Taj. Around 6pm, they finally get a Pink Game fired
up. I'm in seat three. Action boy in seat 5 blind raises (which isn't
even live at the Taj), jams the pot the whole way, shows down Aces
for a winner. Fasten the seat belt, kids. About two hands later,
Action Boy is small blind, but he's busy raking in chips from another
pot, and until the raised action gets to him, he doesn't notice he's got
three cards. Floor is called over. We were all willing to give him back
his small blind (he's Action Boy, don't want to piss him off), but
Kimmy (a.k.a "Pocket Pair Girl, a.k.a Table Captian (very annoying
Oriental woman who plays 15-30)) insists on keeping the $5 in the pot,
which she wins.
Action Boy goes ballistic. Says "OK, that's gonna cost you. I'm gonna
raise *EVERY* pot you're in, Kimmy". Kimmy comes back with "you don't
have enough money for that". Action Boy says "I could play this game
for 20 years straight and not go bankrupt". Kimmy reaches into her
purse and pulls out a choking 7000-10000 bankroll. "Oh Yeah?!?!?!".
O.K., fasten the seat belt, and couldya hand me that crash helmet?
Action Boy does indeed raise *every* pot Kimmy is in, for the next
2 hours. Sitting after Kimmy but before Action boy, I had great
position, never had to even bother raising my good hands, and for
mediocre hands, I could count on Action Boy three betting it for me, to
drive out the competition.
6 hours later, thouroughly drunk, and flush with $450 win, I quit to
Jeremy, Peter Secor, Bruce, and Russell Rosenblum appear like demons.
They want to play some low limit table games. I'm thinking "blackjack".
We played "Red Dog". Yup. Red Dog.
I have no idea how we did, but we did manage a short heater after convincing
the dealer to turn the dog so it faced away from us. Yeah, that's the
ticket. We also played some blackjack, I think, and then, thankfully,
landed back on the PaiGow table. By now, I'm so grilled I'm in
serious danger of fouling my hand. Somehow, we manage to escape the
table, I suffered only minor damage to the bankroll, and with a
fistful of comps, we (at this point Jeremy, Peter, and Timmy), head
over to the Bombay Cafe for breakfast.
During breakfast, we played Keno (bad), but also exchanged 5% of our
action in the next days tourney with each other (good). After leaving
the Cafe, Timmy insists on Rumpleminze. So we stop and the Princess
Lounge and indulge. The gods get even with Timmy, though, as on the
way back to Resorts, he walks full speed right into a wall. The rest
of the group had wisely chosen the door option.
Back at Resorts, the four of us must have been a casino's wet dream.
I believe (but am not certain) that we played Blackjack for a short
I wander down, and Peter stays for one roll and abandons me. Sigh.
I'm playing the dark side. I start cheering as sevens start coming.
Woman next to me says "Do that again, and I'm gonna slap you silly".
guy, so I say "O.K., go for it. I'm sure security would just love that".
Which I'm sure sounded more like "OK... ga f'it.... sh ss-s-s-s-ecurity
w juz l'that". Yup, I was hurting.
As the dice continue to "not pass". woman gets more and more irritated,
and moves to the other side of the table. Timmy comes up, and I believe
places one dark side bet. Woman says "Oh great, another asshole". Woman
sevens out. I color up, a nice hit, and as I pass by her, wave, and say
"have a great morning".
Urk.... it's 6:00am.... I crawl into bed, bother Ramesh for a while raving
about how great the Pink Game was, and then suddenly, it's 9:00am. After
a quick shower, a quick aspirin, and a quick $80 score at the dice table,
the tournament starts. Seat #2 at my table is empty, and we start to blind
him off. On one hand, guy in seat 10 can't see past the dealer to
notice he's heads up against the playerless stack, and the playerless stack
takes down the pit with 6-4 offsuit. Yup, that was Peter Secor's
(eventual champion's) stack.
After busting out, I head up for a nap, and return around 4:30. After a
short wait, I get seated in the pot limit game. Nothing exciting happens
for about an hour (as one might expect with 10 tightassed rec.gamblers
playing PL for real dough), but finally I flop a set of queens, and
Mr. Secor is kind enough to pay $100 on the turn for a straight draw
which misses. I cash out.
Head over to the Taj, where Timmy, Spiney and I play in a 2nd Pink Game
which only lasts a half hour or so. After dinner, we snag Jeff Woods and
head back to Resorts to shoot dice. Timmy, Jeff and myself all start
playing the dark side. Things are not going well, and after an hour or
so, Timmy busts out and disappears. Jeff and I both rebuy, and continue
on. Funniest moments of this game:
(1) a couple shows up and is standing behind us. Guy has played before,
and is attempting to explain game to his wife. Normal stuff, 7 and 11
good, points, etc, etc. Except that all she can she from where she's
standing is Jeff and my action. She's very confused
(2) at one of the low points in our play, we've just gotten all but one
point covered. Jeff turns to my and says: "I feel like Chekov in
Star Trek IV, where he's to beam off the aircraft carrier". Now, I
love the Trek films, but I drew a blank. Jeff says, in the Chekov
accent "Now would be a good time, Scotty". I burst out laughing, and
the **next** roll is a beautiful seven. Ka-ching
(3) three drunk college boys step up next to us. One has played
before, the other two haven't. They buy in, and (like Jeff and myself)
drop $10 on the Don't Pass line. Point is established, and the guy is
telling his buddies how now they need that point again to win. I lean over
and say "You do know you all bet AGAINST the dice, right". They look
don't, say "shit", and wait. Shooter sevens out, their mistaken bets
win. Ka-ching.
To make a long story short (TOO LATE), Jeff and I both manage to dig out,
I pocketed a big fat $20, Jeff took off about $100.
The next day, while the stud tournament is going on, I decide to complete
my tour of the negative expectation games. First, I play short handed
pot limit with Karen and Jesse, two local semi-pros who are married. You
make the call. -300. Then, to complete the tour, I play Let It Ride.
Yup. Let It Ride. After about 1 and a half hours, I cahs out -10 bucks.
While I was playing, there was a woman there betting, I kid you not, $200
a spot, or $600 a hand. Now, not only is she taking the worst of it in
a major house game to start, she's crippling herself by betting so much,
since the max payout on any bet is $50,000, so hitting the 1000:1 royal
or 200:1 straight flush isn't going to be full pay. Some people definitely
have more money than brains. Of course, she won about $4,000.
After a quick stint in a Sunday afternoon Pink Game matinee, I decide to
drive home.
ATLARGE..... it r00lz.
