Trip Report
by Jay Sipelstein
Sippy's ATLARGE Report
The worst part about these rec.gambling trips is trying to adjust
my sleep schedule so that I can wake up early enough the day of
my flight. ATLARGE was no exception. I met Chuck Weinstock at
Pittsburgh International at 9:15am or so, and for a change, USAir
was delayed only 10 minutes. Arrived in Phily an hour after takeoff,
got our rental car and drove off for AC. Tried to check in when we
got to Resorts, but our room wasn't ready yet. Oh well. We checked
bags and headed towards the poker room to sign up for the Friday
Limit Holdem tournament. Just outside the poker room we ran into
the vmark.com crowd, in the persons of sneezix, dtm, and filaman.
Signed up, ran into Jazbo, met kman, and headed toward the buffet.
While waiting for the cashier to deal with Chuck's Diner's Card,
I hear "FISH!" in a loud voice. I, and everyone else on line,
turn to see Eric Holtman who's now saying, "see, I told you they're
all fish". Buffet was pretty good, and I had a good time BSing
with everyone and matching faces to IRC nicks.
[OK, time to get to the good stuff: poker]
Checked in after lunch, and then went downstairs to get in some
action before the tourament. Before sitting down, I introduced
myself to Don Smolen, who was kind enough to answer some Chinese
Poker questions I had. Sat down at a 5-10 holdem game and won $40
in the hour before the tourney. Had one interesting hand that I'll
share: Get AA in the big blind, and raise after 5 people limp in.
Flop comes K Q low, rainbow. I lead off my checking: I'm hoping
that someone with a K or Q will bet, and I'll checkraise; if noone
bets, I'll have a better chance to win the pot outright with a bet
on the turn. I've been trying to understand "manipulating pot size"
and wanted to try this check approach since Mason Malmulth brought
it up on r.g.p. Anyways, pot gets checked around, and I bet out
on the turn and river, getting 2 (maybe 1?) caller on the turn,
and 1 on the river. Beavisbot, who's at the table but not in
the hand announces that he's sure I have AQ. I show the bullets,
and drag the pot with a smile.
The limit tournament started at 4. The one other time I went to AC,
about 4 months ago, I played this tournement and finsihed 7th of 55
or so, good for $300+. With all the ATLARGE people this time, the
tournament was a sellout, with 72 players. Nothing too interesting
happened the first half of the tournment (going from 6 to 3 tables)
for me. I basically stayed even, winning a pot here and there.
An ATLARGEr, Mike, who also seemed to be a regular in that poker
room, was running over the table, playing very loose but showing
down ragged winners when anyone called him down. I lost about half
my T800 stack in one hand with dtm when he just wouldn't lay down
his hand to my steal attempt preflop and flop.
With about 25 players left (3 tables), the following hand ensues.
Blinds are something like 50-100, I have about T450 with J8s in the
small blind. Folded around to me. The big blind has only slightly
more money then I do, and has let me steal once or twice before.
I raise, he calls. Flop is QT8, one of my suit. I bet, he calls.
Turn is a J, I bet, leaving me with one chip, T100. He raises,
which would put me all in. He starts counting his chips, since
it's not clear that he has enough for a full raise. I say that
I only have T100, so he doesn't have to count out the whole thing.
I'm sitting there, playing with my chip, staring into space trying to
decide whether I should call with a 9 probably being my only out.
Suddenly, he turns over his cards, showing QJ, saying that he
hopes I don't have a 9. I'm stunned that he's showing me his
cards, and then even more stunned as the dealer burns and turns
the river card (which isn't my 9). At this point I look down to
see that my last chip isn't in front of me. I announce: "umm,
I never called that final bet." Everyone stops, the dealer and
the other player look at me like I'm mad. I repeat myself a bit
more firmly. Everyone agreed that I never announced the call.
Frankly, I'm not sure why the dealer thought I called. Afterwards,
Jeff Woods said that I placed my chip on the table when I tranced,
but that I never pushed it towards the pot. Anyway, they call
the floor. I let the other player describe what happened, and he
basically said what I did above: that I never announced my intention
to call, but that I had a responsibility to protect my chip from
the dealer and should have said something when the dealer burned.
[As an aside, I always protect my cards, but I never heard of having
to protect my _chips_ before.] I replied that I didn't even know
it was happening and was too suprised when he showed me his hand to
react to anything. The floor ruled in my favor, and I got to keep
my final chip. To be quite honest, at the point when everything
happened I still hadn't made up my mind about whether call or not.
The opponent asked me what I would have done if the river was my 9.
I truthfully replied that I didn't know; I may have very well taken
the pot.
In any event, I'm now down to one chip. The maxim is "chip and a
chair", and well, that's all I had left. I folded a few hands,
and then doubled or tripled through at some point, and won some
blinds, because when our table broke up to move to two tables, I
had about T450 or so. My table had 5 ATLARGE folks: dtm, jarman,
russell, clarko, and myself. Jarman and dtm had reasonable stacks,
while clarko was in worse shape than I was. Luckily, there was only
one seriously large stack at the table; most of the money, and two
other ATLARGErs were at the other table. My plan was to play like
a rock, and fold my way into the money. I think I won two hands,
both all-in, before busting Russell with J9 in the bb, and a flop
of 99x, bringing it down to one table. I was in the money!
Unfortunately, dtm was the only other ATLARGEr left at this point,
(after having given Jarman lessons about not betting when it was
2-1 against an all-in player) the table lineup forcing us to go
against each other. I had about T800 at this point, not the smallest
stack, but pretty low. dtm was in much better shape, but most of
the money came in from the other table. The next few orbits are
mostly a blur, but I just kept folding. The big stack at the table
(call him NY, because he looked like a typical New Yorker, that
is to say, he might be a relative :-) was a few seats to my right,
and never let my blind go unchallenged. Luckily for me the people
around me kept getting involved in hands and busting each other out.
NY was doing most of the knocking out and continued to pile up chips.
Soon it's down to 4: (from my left) Old Guy (tourist, not too clued
in) with 2nd biggest stack, NY with about half the chips, dtm with
about T800, and me with about T650. At this point I'm gaurenteed
about $500, which makes me QUITE happy.
Soon after we get down to 4, dtm and I get involved in a hand where
(IIRC) dtm raises from button, I call with 99, Old Guy folds,
dtm calls. Flop has a 9, I bet, dtm puts me all-in and I win.
Unfortunately, this cripples dtm who's out within a few hands.
Sometime just after dtm gets eliminated I get involved in a big
hand with Old Guy. I have JJ in early position and raise, Old Guy
calls, NY folds. Flop is 9 high rainbow. I bet, (limits 150-300?)
OG calls. Low on turn, I bet all-in, OG calls and turns over QQ,
saying that it was clear I was going all-in, so why should he raise.
As I prepare to get up, the dealer burns and then turns a J!
I make my 20+:1 shot on the river to win a nice size pot, causing
a nice hubbub from all the ATLARGErs gathered around the table.
In the midst of the chattering, from just behind me I hear:
The poker gods appreciate a fine schmegie sippy
Many thanks to Jeff Woods for that. It really helped to relieve
some of the tension I was feeling. As I was sipping my cola,
I could SWEAR that the stuff was sloshing around like crazy,
although other people later said that this was all my head.
Now that I had a bit of a stack, I decided to play a bit more
aggressively. I figured I was better than Old Guy, but the NY was
good, and would be hard to beat with that stack of his. I go on a
betting spree and steal a few blinds to get my stack up to about
T4000, and then win a nice one from NY to move to about T8000.
Somewhere around here I think I mommentarily move into the chip lead,
but that might also have been in my head. I lose a pot to NY, and
then Old Guy gets eliminated when his presto is cracked by NY's Ax
(to a HUGE roar of PRESTO, of course). [This is how I remember it.
Luboc's trip report claims that NY had the presto and got a set.
He's probably right, since most of this is a blur now, and he was
taking notes.] Now we're heads up, with $1224 going to 2nd place
and $2450 going to first. NY has about a 2:1 chip lead on me.
Once we had gotten down to 3 players, NY never let my bb go through
unchallenged from the sb. It probably took about 10 hands until
the end came. In that span I got 77 three times, winning once,
losing once, and once having the hand fouled when one of NYs cards
was flipped. I don't remember the last hand, but Luboc claims it
was my A4h against 6-highcard, with a 6 coming up on the board.
I got a nice round of applause and lots of congratulations from the
assembled ATLARGE folks. It was most excellent to do that well in
front of the "gang."
Tipping: I tipped the dealers $50 on my $1224 win. Is that high
or low? I've never been in this situation before. I was annoyed to
find out that tips are pooled in AC. In some way I felt cheated in
that my thanks to the dealers (who did a good job, with the exception
of the guy who tried to take my last chip!) ends up going to other
people who aren't even in the poker room.
MATS was supposed to take place right after the Resort's tourney,
in Jerry Garner's room. I'm sure you could imagine how psyched
I was to play a no-limit tourney right after the grueling 4.5
hours of this game, after having little sleep.... People were
talking about getting some food before MATS. I knew I should be
hungry, but was so pumped on adrenaline that it didn't bother me.
Chuck was kind enough to point out that if I didn't eat, I'd soon
crash badly pretty, and I realized he was right. So after getting
the MATS people together and agreeing on a 9:30 start, 7 of us
headed to the California Pizza Kitchen. That Peking Duck pizza
really helped me settle down and relax.
MATS wasn't too eventful for me. I didn't play too many hands, and
got caught once or twice when I tried to be aggressive. There was
one memorable hand when, with about T450 and the T75 big blind
Bruce Kramer raises under the gun. Folded to me, and I look down
to see AA. I jam (about T100 more) and Bruce calls, showing AK,
and my bullets hold up. I finished 6th or 7th, getting knocked out
by Jerry's AA when I called his raise in the big blind with 86off.
If I folded, I'd only have T125 left after posting the small blind,
and I figured it was best to make the stand now while it could do
me some good. Jerry went on to win the whole event. Many thanks
to Jerry for organizing the game. Hopefully I'll be able to get
my revenge on him at TARGET.
After going back to the room to freshen up (now about 11pm) I decided
to go back downstairs and try to find a good 10-20 game. Maybe it
was a mistake to go as tired as I was, but hey, I was here to play.
There was a loose 10-20 half holdem half omaha high game going on
at Resorts. The big omaha pots seemed to really liven things up
for the holdem rounds. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to get cards
in any of the big omaha hands, or got sucked out (to be expected
in omaha) when I did get cards. I lost $250 in about 2 hours,
went upstairs, hit the bed and crashed bigtime.
Woke up at and headed down to the poker room with Chuck to check
in for the no-limit tournament. I was hoping my win the day
before would give me a little edge in the fear of my opponents.
Unfortunately, my table was such that rational fear didn't play
a part. First, we had an empty seat at the table since Peter Secor
slept through the first few orbits. Of course, that didn't stop him
from winning a hand in the big blind as the button and small blind
checked the hand down, and Pete's 64off held up. The other character
at the table was Taj luminary Rich Sooy. Now, Rich was great fun to
play with, but I don't think he'd ever played no-limit before :-)
That didn't stop him from winning many hands with either bluffs or
J3 off that would hold up. I managed to steal one nice pot from him
when, on the turn, he bet only 25 into a 300 pot with 2 spades on
the board. I called, and then bet about 50 when another spade fell,
along with a remark like "thanks for letting me get there." I took
a major beating when kman made a small raise in early position,
and I reraised all-in with QQ in middle position, and kman called
with KK. That left me very short, and I couldn't pull out the chip
and a chair miracle for the second time. I finished in 41st place.
I quickly got a seat at the same 10-20 game that was still going
from the night before, with many of the same people. There was
one guy who looked like he was going to fall asleep in his chair.
While the game was good, my cards weren't and I managed to only
win a few hands, losing $130. I think I was playing well, and had
a good read on things. There were alot of hands (5?) I folded on
the river to bets when scare cards hit; turned out I was ahead
on the turn and behind on the river in all them. I just have to
chalk it up to the variance gods.
The game broke up around 5:30, with some of the players having left
to join one of the two pot-limit tables Resorts was spreading for us.
The locals were shocked at the interest in pot-limit action. I think
Resorts has my favorite casino poker room in terms of ambiance: soft
lighting, good ventilation, good service, good dealers and brush,
far away from annoying bell ringing. Unfortunately, I prefer to
play 10-20 holdem, and they just don't spread the game that often.
I walked over to the Taj and after a 30 minute wait, got into a 10-20
game. There were a few good players, but most were too passive.
Within 2 hours I was up over $500, having flopped a few straights
that got paid off. There was one guy sitting across from me who
had a huge pile of chips, and looked like he was playing every hand.
This guy (call him Bruce, not his name, but he looks like a friend
of mine named Bruce, and that's how I thought of him) was catching
cards like crazy: rivering a second pair to go with his low pair
on the flop, runner-runner str8 and flush draws. I found out later
that he was up $2500 in 8 hours of 10-20. Yup, you read that right.
About half the pots I was in turned out to be three-way with Bruce
and another loose-passive player who was on my left. Made one major
mistake that cost me 3 big bets when I flopped a flush (to go with
my 92h in the BB), and checked-raised Bruce on the turn, and called
his reraise and river bet, to find he had A3h. At around 9:30 I
was still up about $400. Then things changed: a loose raising type
(CA, for Crazy Asian) say down right on Bruce's right. Now any
raise would result in CA reraising, and of course Bruce would call.
CA was also in many pots, though not as many as Bruce. I watched
several competant players go on tilt and get chewed up. Over the
next 2 hours (in which Bruce saw EVERY flop), I played past the
flop in 5 hands. In each of them I was ahead and betting/raising
the flop and turn. In each I was rivered. This put me at -$100
for the table. Around midnight, the seat to Bruce's left emptied,
and I immeadiately asked to switch to that seat. This was perfect!
At least one of the other players knew it, since I heard him say
to someone else "I think things are going to change now." Well, my
friend was wrong. With full intentions of isolating the lunatics,
I got nothing for the next hour or so. I won one hand from my
bb in an unraised preflop hand, but other than that nothing.
I was very tired at this point, but felt I was playing ok, and
had no intentions of getting up from that seat until after the
two fish on my right had quit. Well, I finally got a few hands,
succeeded in isolating, and by 3am had worked my way back to +200.
Just after 3, both fish got up, CA ahead $400, and Bruce ahead $2000.
Within one orbit, the table broke up :-) I got to overhear Bruce
talking to his SO about the table. He was saying that we didn't
know how to play, because there were few raises preflop, and of
course he'd call $10 with anything to have a shot at a $200 pot.
In a sense, he was right; the other players got so gunshy after
being rivered on, and reraised by CA preflop, that they were
stunned into utter passivity. Of course, this doesn't explain all
his bad calls on the flop that turned into runner-runner wins....
I was pleased that I managed not to tilt and adjusted my play
to reflect the table conditions. I like to think of myself as
pretty tilt-proof, and this game reinforced that feeling. Note:
this isn't a challenge to the tiltboys or anyone else :-)
During the game, I got periodic reports of the rocks and beer game
going on at the other end of the casino. Sounded like a blast,
but getting up from that table was too expensive a proposition.
I was also giving Russell an occasional omaha 8 lesson (he was
playing that game for his first time at a nearby table).
As I walked back to Resorts I stopped by the poker room to discover
that there was still a pot limit game going. I watched Jazbo win a
nice hand with a low straight. Everyone seemed to be having a fine
time! I stuck around to watch for a bit, but was ready to collapse,
and knew that I'd have to get up in 5 hours for the stud tourney.
Since I've never played structured stud before, I wasn't expecting
to do well in the tournament. At the start, I made sure to ask
lots of questions and make sure everyone knew I was a fish :-)
I've read S&M's Advanced 7-stud a few times, and figured that,
plus good tourney strategy would have to suffice. Well, I got
two basic things out of S&M: first, the importance of live cards,
and second that being aggressive was important. I'm not too sure
now I did on the first point, but I sure did ok on the second.
Since I was playing probably twice as many hands as I should have
been, I had ample opportunities to be aggressive, and it worked!
After the first hour I had over T800, having started with T300.
My favorite hand was when the player to my right raised with a face
card showing and I reraised with (KQ)J. He raised, and I called.
I caught a J on 2nd street, and reached for my chips the instant
it hit. Opponent folded, turning up AA, "knowing" that I was
on trips. If I knew how to play stud, I'd probably never have
been in that hand! Unfortunately, having the big stack at the
table let me put myself in the position of pot police, staying
in to try and eliminate players. This cost me most of my edge.
Worst was when Ross on my left goes all-in against me when I have
789T, and he's pairs his door card. I ask if he has a boat yet,
he says no and I call. He was lying, but he ended up with quads,
and I didn't hit, so I guess it doesn't matter. I decide to switch
gears here, and make (my now much smaller) stack last for a while.
I doubled through against Ross an hour later at another table,
and survive to the noon break, and two tables, with about T600.
Only played 3 hands after the break: I took the antes and bring-in in
one hand. I raised with (33)K, K live, and 3 players showing a Q.
JP reraised with one of the Q's. JP was doing a pretty good job of
stealing, but I know that he has to give me credit for something,
and therefore he must have something. My K and 3's are live, his Q
is very dead. I only have two more bets left. I decide to fold.
JP says he had 88 down. Was my fold a a mistake? After this
I raise all-in with split aces, but Tiger knocks me out with an
openend str8 and 4-flush draws, catching the flush. I finish 13th.
Not too bad for never having played.
After the tournament, I played about an hour of 5-10 holdem,
winning $3, until Chuck and I had to leave for the Phily airport.
I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting many of the IRC and
rgp people for the first time! Hope to see you again at BARGE!
For anyone still there reading this, I apologize for the length.
I tend to run on writing these things, mostly because I enjoy
reliving the experiences after the fact. Plus I know I'll be able
to reread this in a few years time and do it once again. Besides,
if you think this is bad, you should see of of my date reports....
-- Jay Sipelstein, s...@cs.cmu.edu
