Trip Report
by Jeff Goldberg
I'll apologize in advance for the length of this report (220+ lines). I
had such a great time, that I wanted to re-live the weekend.
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Jazbo great job in organizing a road trip for some 60 people dispersed over the
eastern seaboard. I am sure that you have a future in organizing spring
break trips if your day job and/or poker playing goes south!! There is a big
market in this at Universities.
********************************
Thursday PM: Its snowing in West Point and I am getting ticked off.
One of the things I don't like about New York is that you cannot plan more
than 3 days in advance in the winter. I start watching the weather channel
and rooting against the radar. After 3 cycles (about 1.5 hours) it is clear
that the storm will be over by noon and I'll have no trouble driving down
the coast to AC. Might not make the 4:00 Friday tournament, but at least I'll
be there
+1 weather unit
Friday AM: Spent my usual 5 minutes packing and I forgot my lucky hat (that is
why jerry Gerner beat me out of a pot on Saturday AM). Good start. Arrive at
work and find out I have to make corrections to a presentation that is for
Tuesday 4/2 in DC. I may not get out of here until 3 and I am on tilt.
The weather is still bad and I am getting more tilted.
Did a guest lecture for a friend and had a great hour. Now I'm just a little
on tilt. Finish the presentation and edit the report. Leave at 12:30, only
2 hours behind schedule. At least the snow has stopped.
I had a less exciting drive than Nolan. After I was 35 cents'ed to death on th
e
Parkway, I pulled into Resorts at 3:45 (being careful to note that the garage
door was higher than my truck (thanks Arti)). Forget checkin, I want to be in
that tournament!! Ran to the sign-in podium and got right in (what luck) with
the help of the desk person (she was super helpful as were all of the staff at
resorts, I would definately go back to this hotel!).
Friday Tournament: Got lucky to survive the 4th limit when I hit a gut shot on
the river when all of my chips were in the center. Called down a bluff with
middle pair to keep my head above water. Then the deck hit me for
about 5 hands and I ran T400 to T1200 to sit pretty. Finally we are down
to 2 tables and I was with all of the big stacks. I mentally said to slow
down and wait for the other table to bust out. That lasted all of
3 hands after the break. Picked up AK in the small blind, late raiser,
so I made it 3 bets, middle
limper called also so I have 3 way. The flop is ATx rainbow and I am counting
how I will spend the tournament winnings since I have tripled up to around
T2400. OOPs, bit early there. Pre-flop raiser was on AT suited. I couldn't
lay my hand down so I was all in and drawing to 3 outs at the turn.
This is not a profitable situation.
Great playing Sippy in the endgame!!! You really played well against the short
stacks to keep in the game. At the start of the final table you were a big
dog, but you played super.
Played 10-20 at Taj and won $140 to get back my tournament money. Met the
world famous (Poker World famous that is) Don Smolen. Made a mental note to
buy his CP book from Conjelco now that I know he has a LOT of ability.
Day totals:
| -2 | work pressure units |
| -9 | 35 cent tolls (these guys need a more effective way to collect those quarters. One at a time doesn't work well with me ) |
| -115 | tournament |
| +140 | 10-20 live action |
| +15 | new friendships (big winner for the day) |
Saturday: Got a bagel for breakfast (Jewish brain food) and decided on how
I would play early in the no-limit tournament. Since my no-limit experience
is about 20 minutes at the end of a small limit tournament at the Excalibur,
I thought it would be best to go in with a plan. My goal was to win at least
one pot other than a blind steal.
Bad start, Scott Byron and Jazbo to my left. Last time I tried to get cute in
a pot with Scott, I lost half of my stack in the 4 Queens limit holdem
tournament (with only 80 players out of 290 left!! Scott put my chips to good
use by going on to get in the money).
I was glad when someone won the bustout hat at hand 3 so I wouldn't feel as
stupid if I made a terrible mistake.
First hand played JJ - raise blinds to 30, called by the button. Flop is
beautiful, 9 high rainbow. I bet 40 and got called (I learned over the course
of the day that the button player called a lot). The turn was a Q, not too
good, so I lost my nerve and checked. This is why I am not a good no-limit
player. Button checked (thank god or I wouldn't
have a clue on what to do next). T on river, I checked and button bet 100.
At this point if I were no-limit holdem world beater
Doyle Brunson, I would have "put this boy in for
all of his chips (said with a Texas drawl and remembering the Post-Oak bluff
line in Super-System (What the hell is a Post-Oak))"
Instead since I am variance
minimizer jeff goldberg, I crying called the 100 and beat ATx with my JJ.
I became the table chip leader and won a pot in a no-limit game. Mission
accomplished.
Over the course of the morning, I had AA twice, KK once, and QQ once. All
won the blinds, including one of the AA where I put in a 100 chip without
saying raise. So my intended raise became a call. Excellent deception on my
part. I am sure they were confused. On many of the other hands, I leaked
away my stack 20 and 40 at a time by making small raises and then releasing
my hand under pressure. It seems that an extreme point strategy would have
had better performance. It also seems that I should know that from multiple
degrees in operations research. Basically I was a non-player except for
2 or 3 hands.
Scott Byron played a great game. He took one of the worst beats
I have ever seen in a tournament and didn't even wince. Scott 99 Jerry G 66.
Scott puts jerry all in (now this is after the MATS tournament beating from
the night before). Flop 96x. Jerry is all in for 1 out (but 2 draws at it!!).
He needed the 2nd one when the 6 hit the river. Great omen for Jerry, but
bad break for 1/2 of Scotts stack. I would have been in tears at this point
and would have quickly lost the rest of my chips. Scott remained patient
and re-built and eventually busted out after I did. Actually, our table
busted out very few players and it took something like 3 or 4 limit increases
before we had our first empty seat.
I busted out when the guy I should have killed with JJ on the early hand caught
a gut shot 10 on the river for a straight. He had made a lot of draws all
day and this was just one more in a long line. 19th was OK and a lot
better than I expected. For those keeping score, thats 2 tournaments and 2
times I busted out when a 10 hit my opponent.
Saturday PM - Sunday AM: Played about 10 hours of 15-30 and 3 hours of 10-20.
Started in a tough 15-30 game. Player to my left was a solid professional
and I thought that I would take advantage of that. After about 2 hours of
my standard tight play, I raised the blinds with JT suited. He re-raised to
45. I know I am beat at this point and we are head on. Now twice previously I
had made it 45 post flop after being check raised to 30,
only to have to throw my hand away when I missed
and a solid opponent bet 30 at the turn. I knew that this opponent remembered
those plays. This time the flop hit ATx rainbow. Bet 15, he raised and now
I just called to set up the play. Turn was a blank. I checked,
he bet 30 and I hit it to 60.
If he calls I know I am dead, however after about 2 minutes that seemed like
20, he put his hand in the muck with the saying "I lose even if I make
aces up." Hey, that Sklansky and Malmouth multi-level thought
stuff really works!! Couldn't have done this move if the guy didn't remember
those other folds and hadn't developed an opinion of how I was playing.
I got a bit more aggressive after that play and finished the afternoon with
a nice profit to cover this AC trip and my trip to BARGE in August.
After giving away $100 betting a couple of harness races, I got into the
softest 10-20 game I have been in for months (just ask Sippy and
Russell). There was a calling station that had a mountain of chips and was
on a huge run. I moved seats to get this boy on my right and was all set to
transfer a portion of his stack to mine. Unfortunately, the cards were not
cooperative. I had a set beat when a flush hit the turn and the river didn't
pair. My cards iced up
and like a genius, I got impatient and tried to run a bluff
on this calling station. Bad idea. $300 later, I moved into the 15-30 even
though the 10-20 was still good. I guess that it doesn't matter how good the
game is if you are playing awful.
Next, I saw a player actually thrown out of the casino. First time for this
event. Player is stuck about $1500 (which is a lot of $30 bets). He has KQ,
and raises. Triple raised to $45 by AK. Eventually about 600 in the pot and
board is like K Q 9 4 4. AK says "2 pair" and tables his AK. KQ looks at
cards, holds them out in front of his chest, and then says "you win" while
throwing them face down into the bottom of the muck. OOPS $600 mistake (Q hit
the river I think so the guy must have spaced out when he saw the 2nd 4). Now
KQ Player wants pot since "Dealer" saw his hand (dealer actually did see it
as did player in 9 seat, however both cards were still in the player's hands).
Floorman called over, and there is more yelling.
Shift boss called over and there is more yelling. I walk away to avoid getting
hit in the mouth for laughing and calling the guy a fool.
Final result is the guy tries to tear up his
Taj comp credit card when they won't give him the pot. I think this is
physically impossible since they make those things out of the toughest
plastic on earth.) Player is told to leave and
threatened with security. He leaves mumbling. The whole show cost me about
$4 since it took some 20 minutes and we were paying $6 per half hour.
I think it was worth it.
The game stayed good after the guy left
and I got back the $300 and made a good piece of another
trip to BARGE. All in all, a good day in the cash games. I was tired so I
left, however this game would certainly have been one to play in.
I didn't think that the games at the Taj were that tough. The best players
in the 10-20 game were the rec gamblers. There is probably a large
weekend factor and I got lucky with the line-up in the short run.
I really like the way they had the lists televised
so that you could easily see where you were. Many of the players were betting
horses as well as playing and they got distracted. I was able to pick
out the better players pretty easily and had no trouble avoiding them or
manipulating them to get the pots head-on with the weakies. I probably played
a bit too tight, especially on getting extra bets on the end. I simply called
or showed down many hands that I think in hind-sight, I should have bet.
This is one of my common mistakes especially when playing with players that
I am not familiar with.
Day totals
| -65 | tournament |
| -100 | horses |
| -300 | 10-20 holdem |
| +1.5 | BARGE trips, +1 AC trip, +300 15-30 holdem |
Sunday:
Left for West Point around 11:30 and got home in time to prepare for Monday's
class. Its important that the nations future military leaders are not
disappointed. All in all a great weekend.
Glad I got to see some of the faces associated with the names.
Sippy, get rolling and good luck on that dissertation.
Chuck, I'll try to get to Pittsburgh on my way back to Arizona this summer.
By the way Chuck, your game is good enough to compete in the 10-20 that
is usually in casinos. You might want to give it a try using low
variance strategies.
I don't know if I can come east next year since I
won't be on sabbatical, but I am sure that I will be at BARGE in August.
If anyone is going to be in Tucson, be sure to stop in. The indian games
are really good (and have been for the past 1.75 years); the rake is small and
the players are lively.
jeff goldberg
