Trip Report
by TIGER123
prelude - "dealer's choice"
on wednesday night, peter and stephanie secor, their friend jim
lane, michael mantel, scott byron, mitch firestone, and myself
attended an off-broadway play by patrick marber entitled "dealer's
choice." the action takes place in a small restaurant in london,
where every sunday night after closing, the owner hosts a poker
game in the basement. the play is about what happens one night
when a professional poker player joins the game.
some good lines from the dialogue:
1 "i can't play poker tonight. my doctor told me i have a heart
condition!"
2 "you expect *justice* at the poker table?"
3 "ah....a game for men of vision: omaha!"
4 "you're on tilt, mugsey!" "no, i'm not! i raise!!"
one waiter in the restaurant wants to move to las vegas to become a
professional poker player. he has visions of being comped to a
"five star suite in caesar's palace!" too bad this guy doesn't realize
that poker players don't get comped to rooms (much less a suite),
and that the poker room at caesar's closed in the early 90s!! ;)
one player wears an obnoxious orange-printed shirt, with a
bilious green tie. when he donned this "lucky" attire, peter leaned
forward, and muttered loud enough for our group to hear,
"if that guy puts on a white "qb1" hat, i'm leaving!"
in any event, the author is certainly a poker player!! and i'd bet that
the director is, too! together, they work marvelously, and the play and
the performances were superb!! if you ever get a chance to see this,
don't miss it!
-------------------
thursday
mitch and i meet in the port authority bus terminal for the 3:00 pm bus
to resorts. peter secor is a no-show. we're about 45 minutes out of
atlantic city when i hear an advertisement on my walkman radio for a
bar in tom's river, new jersey ("the sportsman"), which actually features
the "qb1" online interactive game!! as many of you know, i usually wear
a white baseball cap with a red "qb1" on it. i won the hat playing trivia
online from a group in california (ntn - national trivia network) that
pipes live interactive trivia games into bars and hotels throughout the
country. when there is a live football game (such as monday night
football),
ntn runs the qb1 interactive game instead of the trivia games! this is
the
first time i have ever heard a bar advertise the game! :)
we arrive at resorts at about 5:30 pm, and check into our room. the
thursday
night smoker isn't until 8:00 pm, so what are we going to do until then?
duh.....play some poker, perhaps? mitch and i are seated at two different
5/10 stud games at the taj mahal, and we both book a win at our first
poker
session of the weekend! yay! :)
all right!! the safari steakhouse is located on the convention floor of
the taj mahal (one floor above the casino). when we arrive at the bar in
the lounge adjacent to the restaurant, jazbo burns is distributing our
individually-customized weekend packages - name tags, schedules, entrance
tickets, etc. we're all seated in a corner of the restaurant at three
tables.
22 people actually show up for the dinner (out of 24 who swore they would
attend). it doesn't take very long for the boys to fire up their claros,
panatellas and magnificos! and it doesn't take very long for some other
patrons of the restaurant to complain, either! the restaurant manager
quietly asks us to tone things down a bit, and the boys nod their
acceptance.
but nothing is going to stop messrs. fruchter, kramer, et al., from
enjoying
their stogies at a smoker dinner.... };) so the request is otherwise
ignored! peter secor favors some very special people with hats emblazoned
with their nicknames below the acronym "a.d.b".....i kept on trying to
figure out what "a.d.b." meant, but i was just too drunk.....
virtually everyone (with one or two exceptions) really enjoys dinner! and
just as we're finishing dinner, some surprise guests show up! tom gitto
(taj mahal poker room manager), tony marino (poker casino host), and ron
garvey (shift supervisor), enter the restaurant carring bags of
promotional
gifts for all of us!! the bags contain taj mahal hats, taj mahal
t-shirts,
a copy of mike caro's "fundamental secrets of poker", two souveneir decks
of
cards, and some promotional literature! wtg tommy, tony and ron!
nolan dalla calculates the over/under for the dinner tab at $1225, but
doesn't
get anyone to play. the actual tab was #1300.
hehehehehe...and although "atlarge" was actually held at resorts, i
spotted
an awful lot of atlarge name tags in the taj mahal poker room.....
after dinner, mitch and i play some more poker, but we retire to our room
to crack open the new bottle of macallan's single malt scotch which i've
carefully tucked into my bag....
-------------
friday
"through the looking glass", or "mitch and tiger's adventures in slotland"
trump castle and harrah's (both located in the marina district) have been
running a guaranteed no-lose slot promotion for the last several months.
at harrah's, you are guaranteed reimbursement up to $100 if you play slots
for 60 minutes. at the castle, you are guaranteed reimbursement up to
$100
if you play slots for 30 minutes. friday morning, we take the jitney bus
to
the marina, and get out at the castle. first thing to do is get
breakfast! :)
during breakfast, we solemnly pledge to be lifelong equal partners in this
slot promotion (which should last a few hours, anyway). after getting our
trump castle cards, we each buy $80 of $1 slot tokens, and $20 of quarters
(which we'll use to complete the 30 minutes if we run out of tokens).
now,
the hard part. what machines shall we play? we've been advised that, for
the
purpose of this promotion, we should avoid the progressive slots, and
those
machines that offer large back-end payoffs, in favor of those machines
that
offer more and larger payoffs for small wins on the front-end.
i feel like one of those decrepit old ladies, as we wander up and down the
rows of slot machines. which machine has the prettiest front? which
machine
has the nicest-sounding "dings"? we finally sit down at two adjacent
"double
diamond" machines, which each take a maximum of two tokens. i'd reproduce
the payoff schedule for you, but how compulsive a note-taker do you think
i
am, anyhow?
we dump our $80 in tokens into plastic buckets. we'll play from the
buckets,
and leave any winnings in the hoppers. mitch carefully writes down the
time
in five-minute increments - if we can't do anything at these machines
within
ten minutes, it's "goodbye, double diamond!" we're almost ready! we
synchronize
our watches (okokok...mitch synchronizes his watch - i don't wear one!)
and
at exactly 12:55 pm, we each drop two one-dollar tokens into the slot.
the
wheels spin, but nothing happens. we're determined to learn the best way
to
drop tokens into the slot. i try give each token a half-flip, and mitch
is
experimenting dropping the tokens from different heights, which range from
.01 inch to all the way up to 3/4 inch.
i've played about eight or ten pulls, when something happens! i've won
$20!
yay!! of course, i do my best to duplicate the exact half-flip i just
used,
and sure enough! two pulls later, i win another $10!! yay!!
unfortunately,
mitch is still on the schneid. and three minutes later (i've perfected
the
half-flip by now), i hit a winner! bells start to ring, and tokens start
to
drop into the hopper!! i've just won a $320 payoff!! as the tokens
continue
to drop, mitch tells me that i better get another bucket! we don't want
the
damned machine to jam as it is paying!! i walk away for a moment, and
spot
another bucket in a nearby row. and as i'm walking back, bells start to
ring
and i hear the lovely clink of tokens dropping into mitch's hopper!!
yay!!!
he's hit the very same $320 payoff!!! and if his wheel had taken an
additional
1/32 of a turn, his payoff would have been $1600!! mitch needs another
bucket,
too!! but before we can get one, his machine jams!! lol!!!! eventually,
i
find a slot attendant, who opens his machine, clears the chute, and the
rest
of mitch's money comes pouring down into the hopper!!
rofl!! we've played for exactly 8 minutes! and we cash out for a net
total win of $611!! mr jitney is waiting for us at the front door, and we
decide to bag the side trip to harrah's!!
we check out the scene at the blackjack and craps tournament in a private
room on the dining floor of resorts. there's lots of folks there, and we
greet some old friends, and meet some new ones! :) but it's time for
some
poker. not much doing in the resorts room, so it's across the street to
the
taj mahal for a couple hours, and then we play some more poker at resorts!
and then it's time for the reception! this isn't anything special, but i
manage to drink a couple beers, so it couldn't have been all that bad....
we're asked to fill out some psychological survey for a grad student. i
didn't see the point of the survey, which was all about current risk,
future
risk and lotteries.
back to the poker room. i watch jim karlinski play a hand of 1-5 7-stud.
he's made a diamond flush on 6th street and raises an obvious straight.
but
jim is re-raised by another guy who's also showing three diamonds
(including
the ace). jim calls. jim checks blind, the ace of diamonds bets, and jim
calls blind. the ace shows a diamond flush to the ace. jim faces his
hole
cards, and says, "yeah, i got a diamond flush, too...." but jim doesn't
notice that his rivercard has made a gutshot straightflush! i lean over
the
table and say "seven, eight, nine, ten, jack of diamonds! that's a
straight-
flush!" just as the dealer turns over jim's hand and mucks it. but the
guy
with the ace flush saw the hand, and conceded the pot to jim. well, jim
was
prolly thinking about his overdue term paper..... ;)
mitch and i meet up with a friend of ours from home, who was in town for a
trivia convention at another hotel. we head off to the tropicana, where i
meet with poker room manager doug dillon. i tell him with regret that,
although i really do love the management, staff and players at the
tropicana,
and although i really do think that the tropicana poker room is the nicest
in town, my records show that i make an awful lot more money playing at
the
taj mahal.... :::sigh:::
after dinner, mitch and i play at the taj mahal for a couple hours, and
manage to consume *many* scotches before we decide to cash in for the
night!
well....mebbe we might have had one or two more nips from the single malt
bottle before we turned off the lights....
----------------
saturday
saturday 10:00 was the scheduled time for the start of the no-limit hold
'em
tournament. since (as we all know) "i don't play hold 'em!", i've agreed
to
track the bust-outs for the purpose of calculating the overall champion.
i'll post a separate report about the tourney, and the important hands at
the final table, later in the week.
after the tournament, i walk across the street to play some 5/10 stud at
the
taj mahal. i'm seated almost immediately, and proceed to get hit with the
deck unlike any other time in my life. within 45 minutes, i make kings
full,
aces full, 3 jacks, kings up, aces up, 3 sevens (which was my only losing
hand), rolled 9s and kings up. i cash out for a $376 win. lol...later
that
night, a friend tells me that the woman who took my seat won more than
$600
in less than three hours....
the saturday banquet was held in a private room upstairs at resorts. the
food
was okay, but this event (alone of all the atlarge events) wasn't worth
it.
nevertheless, spending time with the rest of the atlarge crowd was fun!!
jazbo was given a free ticket to "target" later this year, in recognition
of all
the many hours of hard work he did in organizing the event. and this
writer
was honored with a bottle of dewar's scotch for organizing the smoker.
(thanks so much, gang!!) bill alan was awarded an honorary "a.d.b" hat,
by
virtue of the fact that, when last spotted at 4 am on friday night at the
craps table, bill announced that it was time to *really* start drinking!
:)
mitch and i play some poker at the taj mahal. after a while, i wander
through
the room, and tell every single rgp'er i see that i'm going to be pouring
scotch in my room starting immediately, and that everyone is invited! and
i wander over to resorts and make the same announcement!! but peter
secor,
richard sooy, and a bunch of the boys have got a "rocks and beers" game
going at resorts, and there's no way i'm gonna pull any of those
characters
off the table! :)
but nolan dalla, russell rosenblum and mark horowitz show up to join mitch
and i for some scotch, some stories, some discussions of poker ethics, and
some good conversation! mark wants to tell a "bad beat" story, and i tell
him, "the scotch is free...but i charge one dollar to listen to a bad beat
story!" lol...he actually stands up, and reaches into his pocket for a
buck!!
ok! here it is! he's playing hold 'em and plays a 10-9. the flop comes
7 8 j rainbow, giving him the nut straight! the jack pairs on the turn,
and
a third jack hits on the river. some fool wins the pot with a pair of
kings
in the pocket for jacks full of kings! ::::sigh::::
later, russell says that the ultimate act of poker deception is to tell
your
opponents exactly what cards you have! i laugh out loud, and promise to
send
russell a copy of my "i think i have three aces!" post from last december!
mitch and i kick our guests out at 3 am, because tomorrow is the 7-stud
tournament...and i intend to win it! :)
----------
sunday
the tournament is to start at 10 am and mitch and i leave the room at 9.
i need a breakfast before i start playing poker. we get to the resorts
poker room at about 9:50, and i wander around, wishing everyone good luck!
i'm seated at a pretty tough table! tom mchugh, jerry gerner, jazbo
burns,
palmer chappell, andy bloch and ray didonato are all staring at me when i
walk over to the table. thank goodness the guy sitting in seat #6 isn't
there - otherwise i'd have seven players gunning for me. in fact, #6
doesn't
show up at all, and we happily take his ante and bring-in each time! :)
as a member of "a.d.b.", i'm automatically entered in pool between a.d.b.
and wednesday night poker. each group has six (i think) horses in the
tournament, and whichever group has the last man standing wins. as an
additional side bet, dave fruchter and i agree that first man out will buy
the scotch next time we meet! :)
i don't remember too many hands from the tournament. i win one or two
hands
and lose one or two hands. by the time we get to 15/30, i'm not in very
good
shape chipwise. and by the time we get to 25/50, i'm short-stacked. :(
but then a key hand develops. ray (on my immediate right) is the
bring-in.
jerry raises. jazbo re-raises. i see pocket rockets, and make it three
bets.
jerry and jazbo call. i bet the hand on 4th street, and i'm all-in on
fifth.
i make a second pair on sixth street, and take down the money with two
pair,
to restore my stack to respectable size.
my table is broken down, and i manage to hold on for another round or two.
i make a bad play, and let david meeks take a pot from me - but two or
three
hands later, i outplay him and steal a pot with about five big bets in it.
ray didonato makes a play at me, and i don't bet my small pair on fifth
street. he makes a pair of kings on sixth to win the hand. ::::sigh::::
nevertheless, i'm in ok shape (about t900) at the break. and a.d.b. has
nolan
dalla, bruce kramer, bill alan and myself alive, but wednesday night poker
ohly has palmer chappell! some time after the break, at 150/300, i only
have about t500 left. i'm the bring-in with the four of hearts up. fold,
fold, fold, but palmer chappell raises with a nine. i see an ace of hearts
and a jack of hearts in my hole, and re-raise. palmer makes it three
bets,
and i re-raise all-in. yeah. he's got a pair of nines. i'm told that i'm
a small dog in this situation. palmer makes nines and tens on fourth
street,
but i get a deuce. i get a five on fifth street, and an ace on sixth! a
trey gives me a wheel, and any other pair is aces up! my rivercard is
another four!! all right!!! but palmer gets another nine to make nines
full and i'm outta there!
bruce kramer and bill alan go down soon thereafter, and it's nolan against
palmer on the side bet! when palmer busts out, adb rooooooooools! and
the
ten bucks i win in this side bet just might pay for the scotch i have to
buy
david fruchter! ;)
after the tournament, i play some 5/10/15 stud at resorts with john walsh,
and finish the weekend with another winning session!
i had a great time!! mitch had a great time!! i think everybody had a
great time!! once again, many thanks to jazbo for making it happen!!
let's do it again next year!! :)
and i'm looking forward to meeting the nevadans and west coasters at this
year's barge!!
tiger
