Trip Report
by Jim Rankin
I had planned to take the train up Friday, to get some medium limit holdem
in before the tournament, but was held up at a conference. So, drove up
Saturday morning. I had an unusual room sharing arrangement - Robert
Jacobs had Friday night and I had Saturday. Got in about 9 AM (left DC at
5:30), and when I tried to check in, the clerk was a little dubious, since
she knew Mr. Jacobs was in the room. She asked me if I knew him, and I
had to confess not personally, but after explaining the tournament
situation all was ok. Left my bags in the room and headed down to the
tournament area. The only person in the ATLARGE group I had previously
met is Eric Holtman. Saw him there and met several others, including
Jazbo. My immediate impression of the group was positive, at least
partially because I wasn't the oldest fart in the group (probably close
though).
Tournament was fairly uneventful - I stole a few blinds, but never did
really play a big pot, due to lack of appropriate cards. Finally with
about T300 I had the big blind, with the blinds at 50 and 100 and R. Sooey
had SB. As someone else has already noted, Richard was playing some fairly
creative hands, and when he hesitated before calling my BB, I read him
for a fairly weak hand. I had an A x unsuited, and decided to try to
push him off, with the thought that I probably had the best hand if he
called. He did call with Q 6 off, but unfortunately a Q came on the turn
and I was out in (I think) 25th place. Not really a very solid play on my
part, but what the hell - I really came up for the ring games anyway (or
so I told myself).
In spite of what Nolan (Darkside) Dalla thinks, I had never been to AC to
play poker (and hadn't been there at all in ten years). Several of my
poker compadres from DC/Maryland rave about the action at Taj Mahal, so I
hied on over there (must have been about 1PM). Pretty dead - no 30-60,
one 20-40 (full with a ton of folks waiting), one 15-30 (ditto), and not
much else that looked interesting. Turns out I hit the room while a game
I would have played in was on hiatus (more about it later). I saw a
couple of acquaintances at the 15-30 table, and shot the shit briefly, ate
lunch, and went back to Resorts for pot limit.
Game kicked off about 4pm. I played straight through until 7AM Sunday,
hitting a few hands and making a reasonable profit. Unfortunately two of
the good hands I hit came against Jazbo - I almost hated to take his money
because (A) he seems like a good guy and (B) he did such a super job of
organizing the event, the tournaments and the pot limit games. But, you
take the acorns where you find them, and I think Jazbo ended up doing ok
in spite of these two beats.
Even though I never really did get on any rushes, I truly enjoyed the
game. Pot limit is my favorite game, and this was a good one, albeit a
comparatively small game due to the blinds (1 and 2) and mandatory $5
bringin. Some very good players (Nolan and Bozo stand out in my mind as
strong pot limit players, and there were several others). The dealers did
a real good job, particularly seeing they had no experience with PL.
Perhaps the best thing was the atmosphere provided by the ATLARGE group-
no whining, no yelling at the dealer or throwing cards, and a generally
convivial scene.
The only (relatively minor) irritant was a local known as the Mad Russian
(Sergei, I think) who complained about the format and his hands constantly
while chain smoking without pause. He no doubt considers himself a good
player, but he had very little shot in this game, since it was clear he
planned to play nothing but the nuts, and it was easy for everyone to push
him out of hands. Given the generally positive vibes at the table, he was
really more of a source of amusement than a real downer.
About 7 in the morning I finally decided I had better get some sleep when
I had KK and called two reasonable bets (total of about $200) when I was
sure Warren had AA. Sure enough, and the K didn't come (what a surprise).
I figured that was a bad enough play that my judgement was getting
questionable, and a break was in order.
We were getting shorthanded at that point (about 5 players left) so I
walked over to Taj to see if I could see any likely replacements for me.
Found two folks who would have been welcomed, but who were uneasy about
pot limit. Also found a couple of my regular opponents in DC playing
75-150 half holdem half omaha. This is a game I would liked to have known
about earlier, because there were a couple of real contributors in the
game, which had been running since Friday almost continously (they had all
gone to lunch when I had come over Saturday afternoon). Both of my
friends did real well (though one was stuck about seven thousand at one
point, he made a nice comeback and got some cheese). They all looked so
burned out I thought about getting in, but I remembered my KK misplay, and
decided I wasn't in much better shape.
Then I watched a short handed 400-800 stud game for a while. Five players
while I was there, three real good and two that looked a little marginal.
I might have been tempted if I had brought 20 or 30 thousand (and had had
some sleep). I later heard one of the good players scored over 100
thousand in the game.
Finally did get about two hours sleep, and came back down to watch a
little of the ATLARGE 7 stud tourney (and maybe play some more PL).
Unfortunately (or fortunately) the PL was full, and stayed full until I
needed to leave (about 2PM). Nolan needed a ride back to DC, so he and I
headed on back; I was very glad to have the company, and had a great time
talking poker with a strong pot limit player (and a good poker writer).
All in all a most satisfying weekend - the ATLARGE crowd impressed me as
boon companions all, and Jazbo (to reiterate) did a superb job of
organizing everything and keeping the games moving smoothly. The Resorts
poker room staff were great, and the hotel was fine (and a good bargain at
the poker rate Jazbo negotiated). All I can say is, let's do it again
soon.
Jim Rankin
