Trip Report
by Roswell
Disclaimer: Much of this trip report, including names, times, or what
the flop was, may be inaccurate or wrong, or I might have made it up.
I woke up early Friday morning and set out for AC. The drive
usually takes me about two hours from Rockland County (suburbs of NYC)
and traffic was light so the trip down was uneventful. I checked into
the Taj a little after 11. Taking the advice of Roy West via Tiger,
the first thing I did upon arriving was UNPACK. I guess this is
supposed to help with your patience or discipline or something.
After a bit I headed down to the poker room. The Taj has always been
my favorite place to play in AC; the wide open space and bright
lighting keep me in a better mood. I can usually play for nearly four
hours at the Taj without getting severely depressed and bored. At the
Trop it takes about two. Unfortunately the Taj usually doesn't spread
H/L Stud which is the only poker game I'm any good at so I have booked
most of my hours in the Trop.
The poker room was quite sleepy at first. The ATLARGERs were playing
in the HOSE tournament and the rest of the room was pretty dead. I
started up an interest list for 1-2 PLO/PLHE and waited for people to
bust out. Shortly afterward a 3/6 HOE game started. I sat in this
game and played with a bunch of folks including Jerrod from
California, a rather nice woman named Laurie, a guy named Len who I've
played with online, and Steve Carbonara whom I had met before.
So I sat in the HOSE game for a while and started getting really
bored because I hate 3/6. I was a little wary about wearing my
"Roswell" badge because I always insult people when playing online and
I was afraid someone would see it and want to kick my ass. But
eventually I put it on and wore it with pride. Since I was so bored I
started playing a little nutty. At one point when we were playing
holdem I raised it up with 92s and kept betting the whole way. Steve
Carbonara called me down and checked on the river. The board was
something like KJ8 with a flush out there. I had to check it back and
he won with pocket 6's. That hand really steamed me. He probably
would have mucked if I bet. I mean, if I was going to play like an
aggressive monkey I should at least follow it through to the bitter
end. Despite my monkey play I left this game down about $20.
At this point me and Steve started up the 1-2 PLO/PLHE game I tried
to get going earlier. It quickly filled. I bought in for around $400
and most folks had around two, except for ADB Fish who had me covered.
I thought it would be all RGP'ers but somehow an Eminem-wannabe-kid
found his way into the game. At first he appeared to know what he was
doing, but it soon became evident that he had no clue when he said "I
call your 25 and I raise 50." Of course everyone jumped on his ass
for that as they well should have. Steve Carbonara was the first guy
to take this kid's stack with a brilliant read, then ADB Fish busted
him for another $500 or so when Fish flopped a set. Fish filled up on
the river, and the kid bet his whole stack into him and got sent
packing.
I played only one big pot this whole time. Basically I didn't want
to get involved with ABD Fish without the nuts, because he was the
only who had me covered. So on this hand he raised to $7 from the
button and I called with a crappy KJ of clubs. The flop was AQc4c. I
checked to him and he bet the pot. Thinking I could blow him off I
checkraised him the pot. He thought for a few seconds and called. So
here I am in the worst situation in pot limit: out of position with a
draw against a deep stack. Lucky for me the turn was a 2c giving me
the second nuts. I decided to get cute and knuckled the table
quickly. He didn't bite and checked right back. The river paired the
deuce and I quickly bet the pot ($175) without thinking. Of course
this is not a very smart bet; if I think I'm best I should bet
smaller, maybe half the pot, so I can make a little money from the
hand. Then again he probably wouldn't have called anyway because ADB
Fish seemed like he was too smart for that shit. In any case, he
mucked.
This was the only big pot I was involved in, and I won it, but
somehow I managed to lose $200 in the game, mostly from seeing flops
that missed, then mucking. The game broke soon after the Eminem kid
busted out. At this point I was really steamed because I couldn't
remember where that $200 went. I think I went over to the Trop for a
while but I couldn't get a game, so I headed back to the Taj. We
tried to start pot limit again, but this time the ATLARGERs put on a
$200 buyin cap. I was a little annoyed by this so I was playing a
little nutty preflop, raising and straddling a lot. Then a hand came
up where I had QQ in the BB and there were like 6 limpers. I popped it
up and everyone called, there was about $75 in the pot. The flop was
Q47. I wasn't giving any free cards into 6 people so I led out for
$30 and everyone mucked. I was kind of annoyed about that. Soon
after, I noticed the Taj had a 10-20 H/L Stud for some reason, so I
went and played in that for about five hours. An RGPer named DavidK
was in the game and shortly afterward a very nice gentleman named Bo
joined us. Apparently he had won the HOE tournament earlier in the
day. He was doing a crossword and needed a four letter word for Bob
Dole's running mate in 1996. "Jack Kemp!" I said. I think I was
right, I'm not really sure. At some point during this period, the
room started to go nuts over something on TV. The cheering got so
loud that I thought maybe we won the war, but it turned out to be some
stupid basketball thing.
So I hung around there until about 1 AM until I just couldn't take
anymore. I left even from that game and called it a night.
After a completely unrefreshing sleep I woke up ready for the NL
tournament. This tourney had a very good structure, giving us T1500
with only 5/10 blinds to start, and 30 minute rounds. To the best of
my recollection, my table featured Sabyl, Big Al (I think), Bill Chen,
some guy named Garnish, Jester, some guy who looked like Chris Kattan,
and some other people I don't remember. Quickly it became known as
the busting table because some double-ups happened right away. I was
playing good and getting good cards. One hand I limped with PRESTO in
a 5 way pot. Flop was T95 no flush draw. I bet T25 from UTG hoping
someone would pop it, but I got two callers. Turn is a 3 and I was
through screwing around so I bet 150. The Goldiefish called. The river
was a K and since QJ was a reasonable hand for him I checked.
Goldiefish bet 300. I called... he showed K5 and I took it down with
PRESTO amidst many oohs and aahs. So now I had run my stack up to
about 2500 and I was feeling good, like I was r00ling the table. Few
hands later I make it 100 UTG with Aqo. Two callers including Sabyl on
the button... flop is Q55. I liked it. I checked and Sabyl bet 200. I
popped it up to 600 and she flat called. Now I should have known I
was in deep shit. Turn was a blank... I shoved it allin. She beat me
into the pot with her 55 which had flopped quads.
Now of course everyone feels dumb when they run into quads, but I
made a huge mistake here. Basically you should never go all-in in a
NL tourney unless
1) You think you might get called by a worse hand
2) You may get a better hand to fold
3) You are bluffing
Obviously none of these conditions were true... I had about 500 left
and hung around for a while longer but couldn't do much and that was
that. I really have no one to blame for this besides myself. I was
running really hot and getting cards, getting lucky, then I blew it.
Ah well.
So now it was off to the Trop to play 15/30 H/L Stud, which is my
main game. I'm pretty much a loser at every other form of poker, but
I have a good hourly rate in this game. Well when I got there the
lists were full... and I noticed a 30/60 two way game, omaha and eight
or better. I made about the 142nd mistake of my ATLARGE trip by
sitting in this game, where I got pounded right in the ass. It was a
good game, and I was playing good, but a bunch of starting cards that
don't get there in 30/60 can easily make you lose more than a dime,
which is exactly what happened...
Around this time I was pretty disgusted so I moved over to 15/30 H/L
Stud, which I had wanted to play to begin with... once more I was
getting crushed... Then I got into an argument with everyone at the
table about the war in Iraq... without going into details it was pretty
much all seven other guys against me. A shouting match broke out and
two floor people came over... I said "Let's just play poker." I had
pretty much said my piece and didn't see the point of continuing to
argue. Everyone was pretty steamed and there was even more hatred and
animosity at the poker table than usual. I wasn't getting any cards
here so I moved back to 30/60 for a while... There was this one lady in
the game involved in an Omaha pot. The flop came down and her husband
brought her some food they had ordered. She started swearing at him
in Chinese. "I'm in hand! What's matter with you! Idiot!!" The husband
comes over and said "What did you say? Are you fucking crazy?? I'll
fucking crack you right here! Don't fucking talk to me like you talk
to these people!!" (indicating the rest of the room.) Witnessing that
little exchange made me feel a little uncomfortable.
Meanwhile I'm getting more and more depressed as I surrender
my $5 ante every single hand. The 30/60 game was just burning my ass
so I had to leave and go back to a different 15/30 h/l game, at which
point I got dealt rolled up 8's, made quads on 4th st, and got half of
a very big pot. "Didn't you just sit down?" asks the dealer. Yes,
but I've been folding every shitty hand for about 20 hours now and I'm
still stuck huge. Even making quads didn't get the gambling chemicals
flowing in my brain, I had pretty much stopped caring by this point.
I played another hour until the cards started getting completely
meaningless. My ears started ringing and my eyes grew heavy... I
just sat and sat waiting for the big scooper hand, but it never came.
Finally got up. Headed back to the Taj to look for RGPers... the
clackety-clack of the chips and the ding-a-ding-dong of the slot
machines was driving me nuts... Even though I had the room for another
night I just couldn't stand the thought of hanging around the casino
any more. I got in the car and headed back home broke. Overall it
was kind of a shitty trip.
Roswell
