Trip Report
by Timmy McGarvey
Timmy's Tournament Trip Report: Alliteration by the sea
The plan: blow off work on Friday and head up to AC for ATLARGE.
ETA 12:30 p.m. What actually happened: woke up at 2:45 p.m. because Steve
was screaming "Get out of bed, you stupid IDIOT!!" at the top of his lungs.
Okay, not really. But he should have been. At this point, I'm thinking that
we might not make it to AC in time for the 1:00 buffet.
We do eventually make it into town at about 6:00 p.m., and check into Resorts.
We go up to the room to drop off our luggage, and then head back downstairs to
check up on the ATLARGE folks still in the holdem tourney. Turns out we
still had 5 or 6 at the last two tables, but every one of them was at the
same table. Bad beat there. I sit down to a 5-10-15 stud game with a few
rec.gamblers playing (frank fish, I mean irwin, was one, but there were others
... can't remember everyone's name though.) A few hands of note played
against fellow ATLARGE attendees... First hand I play is a four flush and
a small pair on fifth street, heads up against Irwin. He sucks out on me by
making aces up on fourth street, or some such thing. Said later he was ahead
all the way, until I mentioned that my adjusted odds made me a 3 to 2
favorite to win the pot, and I can't believe he was playing such trash
hands. You know, I was playing the Dalai Lama in a heads-up karmic
freezeout once ....
Anyway a few hands later I make queens up against Frank's AKJ suited
board, and check and call the hand down to beat his Jacks up. A few
dollars ahead now. 10 minutes after this I get rolled-up sixes
(SATAN!!?!) and put in a raise on third street. A woman who had just
called with an ace up now reraises, apparently very happy about being
able to put in two bets on third street with aces. My subsequent
raise on fifth street may have briefly annoyed her. Up $180 now. It's
about time for MATS to get underway, so I cash out, having played my
last limit stud for the weekend.
It's about this time that I go on permanent tilt from hell for the rest
of the weekend. I'm not at all sure what put me on tilt, but something
did. As MATS got underway, I decided to forget everything I ever knew
about nolimit tournaments, and play like a complete fish. First hand I
get involved in I cold call a sizable raise with AKs. I'm not sure what
made me decided to cold call with that hand, when I really should have
reraised. Anyway, the flop come QTx with one of my suit and I call a
T100 bet from Jeremy. My stack was only T500 at this point, so calling
here was pretty much a bad decision. The turn brings a rag, and I call
another T100 bet from Jeremy. Where's my brain? River is crap, he
checks it, and I consider pushing all in. But my read is that he's on
AQ, and he would call that bet. So I check and subsequently fire my hand
in the muck when he did in fact turn out to have AQ. One hand horribly
misplayed.
Don't remember what I busted out on, but I made sure to wait until
someone else busted out first. Then I took a shot with a pocket pair I
think, and had to ditch after the flop when two overcards and a big bet
fell. All in on my big blind (turns out I had 92 off) and Timmy is
busted, Timmy has quit.
After the tourney is over, Jester is trying to get up a floating craps
game, and some people seem interested. I take my chair back to my room
and head down to the casino floor to find some ATLARGErs shooting dice.
Nobody around but Jeff, and his table is pretty busy. I wander around
looking for an empty table to hold the game, and eventually do find one.
Settle in playing the dark side, and I'm eventually joined by Jeff. Some
other folks are around shooting dice, but they never do come over. I win
a few dollars, and seeing that the dice game isn't really going to come
off, Jeff and I color up and hunt up Jeremy and Peter for some serious
drinking.
This is where things start to get a little hazy. I know we played red
dog for a while, and some blackjack, and some pai gow. The pai gow
sucked a lot. We've gained a few people and lost a couple of folks, and
at this point Jeremy, Peter, Eric, and I head over to the coffee shop for
a comped breakfast. At breakfast there was a Keno syndicate formed, and
we all trade 5% of our action in the morning tournament. And then there
was some rumpleminze, and they tell me something about a wall and a ramp,
and a very few hours of sleep.
In the morning I get to the tournament on time (just barely) and settle
in to play. Poorly. I only made one good hand, and I foolishly jammed
the nut flush when it hit on the turn. Great. Made about T75 on that
one. Where's my brain? I don't catch many cards after that and finally
bust out in about 30th place or so. Steve, who basically never gets his
stack above T1000 hangs on for fourth place. I dub him zitboy (from our
days playing partners pinochle, in which he often "rides along like a zit
on your ass" cashing in on the strength of his partners hand.)
While this is going on I play in a 5-10 holdem game with 8 rec.gamblers
and two locals (not happy locals either) in which I break even.
Highlights include Loboc sucking out a set of sevens on the turn to crack
my queens which flopped an overpair. Also dtm capped the betting preflop
with sixes against loboc's aces. The sixes flopped a set. Not a good
session for big pairs.
Soon the pot-limit game starts up. I'll just say that I didn't play
particularly well, but I still would have wound up even if peter hadn't
sucked out on me for a $300 pot. I drop $200 in the potlimit game before
calling it quits. There's talk about a rocks-n-beer game over at the
Taj, so I head over to check out the action.
I find about 3 or 4 people each playing at separate 1-3 stud tables. Not
a good showing for rocks-n-beer. Jaeger, Spiney, and I help start up a
new pink holdem game, which breaks after about 45 minutes. I lose a
little bit, but Spiney was on one heck of a heater. Ah well. Head back
to Resorts to play some 5-10 holdem. I'm playing at a table with 5 or 6
of the local semipros (what are they all doing here?) who want to make
the game 10-20 or better. No thanks. I win a few dollars (got aces
twice in five hands, and grab a seat in the potlimit game when one opens
up.
I am not playing real well now, and lose my buyin pretty quickly. I
think about rebuying, but just then another seat opens and Jesse (a local
semipro) sits down. His wife Karen is also at the table. No thank you.
I'll just say this about them: I have been involved in filing former
complaints with both the Taj poker room and the casino control commission
about these two. Nothing, to my knowledge, has ever been done about
them. But the two times I've played with both of them they are so
obviously wired it's pitiful. They're not even particularly good at it.
Anyway, I'm certainly not going to play potlimit against a wire. Good
night folks, see you at the tournament tomorrow.
The stud tournament was, well, interesting. I'd never played in a stud
tournament before, and didn't do particularly well. I've been trying to
teach myself stud for the past 6 months though, and have found the 5-10
games in AC remarkably easy to beat (3.4 SB/hr over 94.5 hours, very
short sample size I know) so I figured I wouldn't be a complete fish.
But on 3 hours of sleep and no shower, I didn't figure to be playing well
either. I never really won a good pot, and busted out in the 25-50 round
playing something stupid. Ah well.
Head over to the Taj to play some pink holdem before I have to head
home. Finally get in the game, only to have Davles raise 53s from under
the gun, call two bets cold with a gutshot draw on the flop, and then
make a wheel on the turn. Warning, warning, Danger Will
Robinson Danger! Timmy is tilted, Timmy is playing like a fish. $400
later, Timmy is busted. Not my finest hour.
Anyway, I get up, find Steve, and begin the long drive home. Somehow it
never seems that long when I'm not stuck over a grand. Anyway, ATLARGE
was loads of fun, very well run, and a great experience. Kudos to all
who were involved in organizing the event. I'll see everyone again at
BARGE hopefully!
Timmy
now known as ADBTimmy
--
Timothy J. McGarvey
tmcg...@gl.umbc.edu
