Trip Report
by Jazbo Burns
First of all, let me thank everyone that came to ATLARGE -- what a
great group of people! A special thanks goes to Kman (for running the
mailing list, keeping up web pages, taking pictures of the winners,
etc.), to Tiger for keeping notes on the Hold'em event, and for
Foldem/Sneezix who kept track of the Stud tourney.
I also want to express my appreciation to everyone that participated
in the pot limit game. The game was so good (and so rare for me) that
I played straight through the night (4PM to 9AM), broke for the stud
tournament, and then jumped back in around noon, finally being pried
up with an offer of a (partially) comped meal courtesy of Peter Secor
and the dice shooting crew (thanks foldem!).
Anyway, back to the game. In the first session, I danced around
carefully with my $200 buy-in, never getting fully involved while I
got the feel of the game (and waited for the nuts :-). I do remember
getting QQ twice real early, losing with both (but not a lot since I
was able to dump them when overcards hit). I did win a $50 pot with
AA when I was bet into on the flop and reraised. I was basically
oscillating between $100 and $300 for several hours, never doubling up
or busting out. Eventually, I got Aida (Alan Richter) to swap seats
with me so I could play with the second group of the pot limit afficiandos.
(We had two full tables going for more than eight hours.)
At table two, I got several lessons in pot limit from JR (James
Rankin) and watched in awe as Darkside Dalla sliced and diced the
table. I *know* he was bluffing often, but I just didn't have the
stones to get involved with him without a quality hand. I guessed he
picked up on this -- *every* time I reraised him he dumped it, and he
was right. Example 1: Nolan raises the pot with AJ, I reraise the pot
with AK, Nolan folds. Example 2: Nolan raises the pot with 88, I
reraise with JJ, Nolan folds. Some day Nolan we're gonna pick up AA &
KK in the same hand ...
At some point when Darkside was off earning his new nick, I picked up
A3s and got to see a flop of (approximately) T45. The betting was
light, and I managed to see the turn of 6 and the river of 7. I took
down a nice pot with the ignorant end of the flush from Warren Sander
who had this misfortune to hold 67 for the nut straight draw all the
way, making two pair. This was the first time I had been up more than
$200, and I said "That's a going to bed pot." However, it's rude to
leave just after winning a big one, ain't it? Anyway, I had AsK? on
the next hand and got to see a flop of Jxx, all spades for $5.
(Actually, I don't remember my second card, except that it wasn't
important). I called a pot sized bet from JR with my nut straight
draw. The turn was another J. JR checked & I checked. The river
completed my flush and JR checked. Here is where I had a real mental
lapse. Unaccountably, I bet $100, and then called JR's $100 raise. I
wouldn't be surprised to see a full house, but his Quad Jacks did wake
me up. Thanks for the lesson, JR, I won't be making *that* mistake
again.
Sometime after midnight, the list of ATLARGE'rs on the pot limit list
was exhausted and some of the local semi- or would-be-pros got in.
Two of these are a husband and wife couple, Jesse and Karen that I
know well from the Taj. They had never played pot limit before, but
it didn't take Karen (a better player than her husband) long to figure
it out. Here's one interesting hand involving Aida, Jesse, and a
local I didn't know that I'll call WS (for white sweatshirt). There was
$85 in the pot preflop (four way I think). The flop came JT9 with two
diamonds. WS bet out $80 and Jesse raised $245. Aida showed me his
hand QQ with the diamond queen. Aida had only about $75 left and
dumped the hand(!?). WS called. I don't remember the remainder of
the betting, but WS bet big and was all-in by the river. I was sure
we would see both players show down KQ, but WS had KK and Jesse had AA
(that he had not raised with preflop)!!! After this, Jesse
essentially (and almost literally) went to sleep and hardly played a
hand, holding on to his big win. I do remember that he got chopped in
half before the game broke, but I don't recall the circumstances. I
think (hope) that JR or Bozo got to him.
After the stud tournament, I bought back in the game for $200. I
quickly picked up JsTs and caught an amazing flop: 9s8sx. I stood a
pot-sized bet ($25?) by Darkside Dalla. The turn was another 9, and I
dumped it for the expected $100 bet. This was probably a mistake, but
I didn't like the possibility of drawing almost dead. I picked up
exactly the same hand right away, and again had to dump it. In just a
few hands, the Master of Disaster (aka Darkside Dalla), had cut me
down to $60, probably with pure bluffs. At this point, I just started
paying my $3 per round in blinds waiting for a good hand. When if
finally came, I was down to $40 (no doubt a mistake to get so short,
but I had decided I wouldn't lose more than my $200 buy-in in the game
and guarantee a profit for the weekend). Anyway, I picked JTs again
(clubs this time), managed to make the nuts and quadruple up. Within the
next ten hands I had AA *three* times, managed to double up once, win
a nice pot once, and get away from a loser cheap once. In one round I
went from $40 to $350 -- ya gotta love that game!
There is one other local player I have to talk about. Sergei, the
"Mad Russian", joined our table and proceeded to be continously
annoying with his complaints about not getting cards, criticizing
everyone else's play, and generally making an ass of himself. He was
especially obnoxious to me for some reason, perhaps because I didn't
mind his act a bit and gave him back what he was serving (but with a
smile :-). He especially like needling me about my mistake against
JR's four jacks. When he found out that I (appeared to) hold the key
to getting in the stud tourney he suddenly started making nice. I let
him in, after telling him it was a "no complaining" tournament (I hear
he didn't respect this warning -- I'm glad he was busted out early).
Anyway, after the game reformed when the tourney was over, I finally
got in a hand with Sergei. (He played *very* few hands and got out of
my way when I raised.) On the hand in question, I held KTs. The
unraised flop came down J9x with two of my suit. I can't recall the
betting exactly -- I think there was $25 in the pot, I bet, he called
and we were heads up. The turn was an 8. I bet a testing $50, and Sergei
raised $80 (well below the pot). Given his history, the only hands I
could put him on were JJ or QT. I knew I was behind, but with 12
cards to make the near-nuts, I decided it was worth taking a card off
(he could have bought the pot for a full bet). The river was a lovely
deuce of my suit. It was really sweet when Sergei called my $100
river bet. After bragging that he would drive me to the felt, it was
good to cut him in half and send him scampering off to $10+20 stud.
Later I learned from Beavisbot that Sergei flashed QT when he folded,
so he made a real mistake when he let me draw cheap.
Well, I up over 100 lines, which means this will probably never get
off my server, so I'll sign off here. Besides, I still need to catch
up on sleep!
--jazbo
