ATLARGE!

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2006

Trip Report

by TIGER123
hiya, folks!
here is my report about the no-limit texas hold 'em tourney, held this last saturday as part of "atlarge iv" at tropicana hotel and casino, atlantic city, new jersey. $50 of the buy-in went to prizes, and each player started with T500.
i'll post a separate trip report about some of my various adventures this weekend, including the 1-5 "white chip" high-low 7-card/eight-or- better game, and including the "mats" mini-satellite.
my name isn't tom sims, and my name isn't mike paulle, and i've got my very own particular style of writing. i don't do this to earn my living, and your opinions about my reports will vary. i write this stuff to tell you all about what happened, and (if i'm lucky) to entertain you to a small degree.
enjoy!!
tiger
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late friday night, your doughty reporter was busy consuming multiple scotch units while whiling away the hours chatting with nanette (alan richter's ladyfriend) in a 1-5 no-smoking game of 7-card stud. i also won $44 before staggering off to bed at 7 am. but as i was leaving the poker room, i saw tom goodwin dug in at a lively 10/20 hold 'em game. tom had won the trop's regular friday no-limit game several hours earlier, and he was practicing his usual routine of collecting all the chips on the table. he promised to get a little bit of sleep before the tourney....
although 72 people registered for the no=limit texas hold 'em event, only 71 people showed up. i am advised that the no-show was yuri sorkin. i don't know yuri, so i can't tell you if he was there or not. the tourney started roughly on time at 10:00 am (no, i wasn't there. "i don't play hold 'em!"). the tropicana tournament director was tom "tk" kraus. tk told me later that he'd never seen a better-played tourney! i finally wandered down to the poker room around 1 pm, just before the remaining players took their final break. there were only 11 people left, and the two tables played "hand for hand" until they got down to the final 9. the big stacks were dave trinidad, herbie allen and tom goodwin. pete segal and rob jarman were "on the bubble."
barry kornspan became a new acquaintance of mine. unfortunately, i met him as he busted out in 11th place, losing to local tournament pro herbie "hollywood" allen. herbie and patty allen lurk at rgp, and i've mentioned both of them on several occasions. after barry went down, the short stacks were bob jarman and wes tilly. bob was all-in and survived with a KQo against dave croson. however two or three hands later, wes took two red nines against dave; this time, dave turned a jack to leave wes one place short of the money. wes was also a new acquaintance. :(
the dealers at the final table were tina and john. both of them did a terrific job!! tk also told me that all the players at the final table were quite generous to the dealers, and i'm glad that we didn't have any mavericks around to sully rgp's reputation.
here is the lineup and stack sizes of the final table:

bob jarman 1000

mordechai schwartz 3375

dave trinidad 8525

tom goodwin 4850

herbie allen 2500

pete segal 1250

franky casino 2500

dave croson 5625

llew213 6075

here are the scheduled payoffs: 1 $1420.00 2 816.50 3 390.50 4 248.50 5 195.25 6 159.75 7 124.25 8 106.50 9 88.75 play at the final table began with an ante of T25 and blinds of 100/200. in the first big hand, only mordechai and dave saw the flop, which came Qc 6s Jh. mordechai checked; dave bet 500 and mordechai raised to T2000, which put him all-in. dave called, and showed a KQo. mordechai had QJo for two pair. 5d on the turn and 4s on the river didn't help either player. mordechai won a big pot to challenge dave trinidad for the chip lead. soon thereafter, mordechai raised with an offsuit slick. herbie allen called all-in with a pair of tens. the flop hung "hollywood" out to dry: 7s Qs Ah. Jh on the turn and 9h on the river ended herbie's tourney. [in a no-limit game, your entire stack is always in jeopardy. players thrust, parry and feint, and you're never really sure of where you're at until someone is all-in and the cards go face-up on the table. so, there were several hands where an all-in thrust by one player ended the hand.] for example: tom goodwin raised. it was folded to dave croson who thought a long time. he pushed his entire stack into the middle of the table, and it was tom's turn to think. discretion became the better part of valor; tom mucked; and we never got to see either hand. franky casino came all the way from the netherlands to attend atlarge! he and his wife had a great time and were enormously popular during the weekend! franky found an A8o and bet. mordechai, holding two queens, raised him. franky called all-in, hoping for a good flop. he surely got one with 2s Ah 8h. the turn was a meaningless 7d, and franky got even more help with the 8d on the river. franky decided that he was on a roll, and raised pete segal's big blind. earlier, when there were only 15 players remaining, pete was the short stack. he went all-in about six times, coming off the floor each time to get to the final table. pete is a true veteran of atlarge final table play, and he likes to say that he's got the best fingernails at rgp! he's certainly got the most experience in hanging on to his last chips! this experience served him well, and pete folded to franky's raise. then came the strangest hand at the final table. short-stacked bob jarman raised T725 all-in under the gun. pete called. franky called. dave croson called. llew called. hey! did bob get maximum action for his all-in bet?? the flop was 2d 8h 2c. llew (who was the big blind) bet T1000. bob was all-in; pete folded; franky folded; and dave croson (little blind) called. the turn was 6s. dave checked and llew bet T1500. dave folded. the river was 4d. llew's As 8s stomped on bob's K10o. bob got 8th place. the antes went up to T50 and the blinds were 200/400. dave trinidad, holding the ace and 10 of clubs, raised. pete used up most of his chips to call with a pair of tens. dave croson, with the 6 8 of hearts, also called. the flop was 3s 4h 9c. dave croson checked; dave trinidad bet T225, which just happened to be the rest of pete's stack. he called, and so did the other dave. the turn of 7h gave the wharton school professor a gut-shot straightflush draw, but nobody bet. the Ks on the river gave the pot to the guy with fingernails of steel and tens in the pocket. the professor was seriously short-stacked. dave croson was the little blind on the next hand, and the blind cost him the rest of his chips. nobody called llew's big blind. the flop didn't help either player; llew turned a pair of kings; dave rivered a pair of jacks, and that was good enough for seventh place in the tourney. tom made a big raise. llew and mordechai mucked. franky made a big raise, but dave trinidad in the big blind came back at him to win the pot. tom raised T1200. franky re=raised all-in and tom called all-in. tom had As Kd and franky had the Q9 of spades. the cards on the board were the ace, four, ten and queen of diamonds, and the jack of clubs. tom had a flush. franky had T800 left. within one or two hands, franky put it all-in, with a KQo. "iceman" trinidad was there with the 10 9 of clubs. the board was 9d 3h 5s Ad 7h, and dave's nines were the winner. franky stood up to a big round of applause as the sixth place finisher. mordechai raised on the button. small blind iceman came over the top, and big blind tom and mordechai mucked. on the next hand, llew had the button, so she raised. mordechai re-raised all-in. llew called with the J 10 of diamonds. mordechai showed a KQo. three diamonds, a spade and the Qh gave llew a flush, and gave mordechai fifth place money. [a note about llew. she started this tourney with a couple stacks of real white chips. each time she won a significant pot, she would toke the dealer!! the dealers had never seen this before!! wtg llew!!!] llew raised T1500. pete called with a significant portion of his chips. the flop came Ad 5d 10d. pete checked; llew bet T2000. pete consulted the list of payoffs, and called. the club ace on the turn gave llew trips. pete checked with a flush draw and a gutshot broadway draw. if llew knew how many outs pete had, she probably would not have slow-played. perhaps she thought that pete was slow-playing a flush. the club jack on the river gave pete a pair of jacks, and he put the rest of his chips in the pot. llew called with three sharp-tops to file mr. fingernails away into fourth place. the three remaining players asked tk to stop the clock, and the players counted down their stacks. llew had T21675; dave had T7725; tom had T5900. llew and tom already had qualified for mike sexton's tournament of champions. there was $2627 in prize money available to be chopped. they reached a deal: llew got $1100; dave and tom split the rest 60/40, or $916.20/600.80. you math whizzes will notice that, as between dave and tom, the ratio of chips was 57/43, so tom may have short-changed himself by a few bucks. the balance of the deal was that llew got to play poker room manager kate dumas in a $500 "beat the boss" freeroll, and dave got the entry to the tournament of champions. :) back to the game! dave raised; llew called. llew made a big bet on the flop and dave mucked. llew made a medium raise. dave re-raised and llew mucked. llew raised and dave called. the flop was 9c 3h 9s. llew made a big bet and dave mucked. llew raised on the button, and tom called her. after the flop of 3c 3h 6d, tom's all-in bet won the pot. tom raised. llew re-raised to win the pot. llew was in the little blind and raised. dave in the big blind re-raised; tom mucked and llew called. the flop was 3h 9d 7c. dave thought his pair of fours in the pocket were enough, and he went all=in for T2250. llew called him with a K8o. the Kc on the turn meant trouble for dave, and the Qs on the river was the end. they were now down to head-to=head. the antes went up to T75 and the blinds were 300/600. tom only had about T3000. it didn't take very long. tom raised all-in with the A4 of hearts. llew called him with the QJ of diamonds. the flop came 4d 5h 4s; the turn was 8d; the river gave llew a pair of queens. not enough, yet. tom was still alive. but, pretty soon, tom had the Ah 9s and committed all his chips to a raise from llew. she had a big lead with a pair of kings, and they held up! wtg to both!! what a great tournament!! congrats to all who played!! special congrats to those who won!! :) and many many thanks to tk and the rest of the tropicana staff for one terrific no-limit tourney!! tiger p.s. a couple final notes: at 7 am, when i went to bed, tom had promised me that he would get some sleep before the 10 am scheduled tourney start. yeah....he got about an hour's worth, showered and shaved....and picked up second place! all right!! although llew is a frequent visitor to the tropicana poker room (and can sometimes be seen in front of the video slots....), she and kate dumas had never actually met. the "beat the boss" freeroll solidified the instant bond between the two of them! :) and llew's quads gave her an extra $500. :D bill alan was seen hanging around the final table. he claimed to be reporting about this tourney for "cardplayer" magazine. despite the fact that this was a "no-smoking tourney", i saw him smoking lots of cigarettes, taking lots of drinks from cocktail waitresses, and chatting with lots of people. but i didn't see him taking many notes. if any stats or description of hands appear in his "report", we'll all know where he got them......