Trip Report
by Aloha Mike
First, let me add my thanks and Kudos to Goldie for an excellent event. I
had an excellent time, and will be back next year. I didn't get the full
experience, mostly because I booked too late to get a room at the Taj and
ended up camping at the Borgata for the weekend.
I was mostly limited to some ring game action on Friday night (couldn't get
in the Pink game, and that's probably good ... bankroll is ill-suited to
variance like that right now) and the NLHE on Saturday (I'm too lousy at
Omaha and stud to consider donating my money, even to you nice folks).
Friday night, I got the pleasure of watching TBird flop a straight flush
(holding 65C) and manage not to fall out of his chair until *after* he had
raked a too-small pot. I had folded pre-flop, so none of my money went away
that hand.
Saturday morning found me at a starting table with one of the 8-2'ers (can't
remember which one started there ...by the time I busted there had been like
4 of them), and among others, Llew, TBird, JazzyJay (I think I'm remembering
the nickname correctly), Zippywon, Mordecai Schwartz, Kim Holtzman, and
Flowerman. I confess I put a horrendous, rnner-runner bad beat on Jazzy to
bust him out, and he took the news with class and grace. Though I promised
to do my best to use his chips well, I wasn't able to cash (or even get
close). Zippywon observed (correctly) that she just seemed to have my
number that day, and took a fair chunk of my money. Kim didn't actually
take many of my chips, but seemed to spend a fair amount of time stacking
everyone else's. Mordecai took a big chunk out of me with a large re-raise
over my pot-sized raise.
In retrospect, I probably should have been willing to at least see the flop,
hope that he didn't have an overpair, and take my shot at a coinflip, but I
wimped out and folded. From there, it was a valiant struggle to an
unpleasant end. I finally fell victim to Flowerman (I s'pose that means I
got flowered, and I finally know what the antonym to deflowered is). I'm
telling people I busted out with a full house that lost to quads. That's
true, of course, but like any good lawyer I'm spinning the story a little
(ok, a lot). Short-stacked at 200-400, I move in with 66. Flowerman calls
with TT. While the dealer burns a card, I realize that I've already used
one runner-runner suck out, and silently promise the poker gods that if I
win this pot, I will play the rest of the tournament with a bag on my head.
Suddenly, I have a small part in a Monty Python movie:
Flop: 2 5 T rainbow. Movie-in-head: "Bring out your dead! Bring out your
dead!" (a villager enters, carrying a feeble old man over his shoulder).
Turn: 6. Movie-in-head: "I'm not dead yet! I'm feeling better!"
River: T. Movie-in-head: "No you're not!" (a soldier clubs the old man
with an enormous cudgel. A THWACK is heard. The old man grunts as if he's
just been hit with an enormous cudgel, then dies.)
Much better to tell people I busted out with a full house when a guy hit
quads on the river.
I had an excellent time and am already looking forward to next year (BARGE
is uncertain right now because of a wedding shortly thereafter, and I have
no information on any of the other ARG gatherings). Special thanks to Llew
for the info on where to find playable Jacks machines at Borgata. Hope to
see you all soon (and the 8-2 crew perhaps at a home game near you).
Aloha Mike
