Trip Report
by LIVESOUP
so - we all had a great time. i kinda sauntered in very early friday morning after missing the thursday night smoker as i promised myself that i would be there. the budget and family obligations dictated - i also do not do well in crowds - background noise and a small hearing problem. however, drinking scotch does help. as last year i made my plans late and got a great room at the sea view marriott, which is about 10 miles away. if the weather was right i would have stayed an extra night and played golf.
so there i was at 8 am playing in a 2-4 holdem' with two guys from pittsburgh. yes i left my home in keyport, nj, drove to the hotel, checked in, valet parked and played my first hand by 8am. one pittsbrugh player was very drunk and uh! acting pretty stoopid and the other was minding his own business. i couldn't catch a hand, played way too loose and played stoopid cards and was stuck about $120.
the HOE began. i and played tight and never had a bunch of chips in front of me the whole game. it's a hard game to enjoy - especially playing omaha - when you play a lot of holdem'. omaha is not my game and i found playing just about every hand was becoming fun. so i eventually busted out on a bad beat - (no story). i think! is there such a thing as a bad beat in omaha???
i intended to play on friday night but wound up back in the hotel room with room service and a six pack. two beers later and some buffalo wings and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. don't ever go back to your room to lay down for a while - the next day happens. so i work up early saturday - about 5 am and went to the poker room.
again i got into another 2-4 game and this time broke even. i met a nice guy named chris. it was his first atlarge. we had breakfast and talked about pokerstars and fargo. he won a big time satellite on pokerstars and played in a tournament at the atlantis in the bahamas. we talked about growing up in new jersey and avoiding starting hands with 9's in omha.
the n/l holdem began and i caught AA (twice) and hit a set within the first 20 minutes, quite unlike last year where no set nor AA was very had the entire weekend. again i played tight and played and played with never a large amount of chips in front of me, i met some very interesting people. mordecai schwartz, flowerman, kim and her husband, a woman from nyc, farmboy and other some very nice people. the 8-2 poker club members. heh! remember the pittsburgh drunk from the previous day. there he was sober and talking to himself. it seems everytime it was his blind - someone always pushed their chips in or went over the top of him. he was talking a lot to himself. i leaned over to my poker neighbor and said he's ripe and will make a bad call next hand. he did. buy buy! then there was this guy who had a lot of chips and was pretty lucky and constantly making large opening bets ! with out any callers. he began to amass a lot of chips. we figured this guy out and when we came over the top he folded and folded. then we had him talking to himself too. again i leaned over to my other neighbor and said he's ripe for a bad call too. i was wrong - he made a real bad call against qq and only one overcard. went tilt on the next. cya - buy buy! people were dropping out and i ducked and weaved until there were 24 left. bang, bang, bang - someone yelled - we're in the money.
i was telling bad jokes everytime i changed tables. no one was listening.
i made a bad play and lost half my stack late but continued and built it back up a bit. the cards went flat and i thought about just moving up in the standings and blinded away 1/2 of my chips. i had a plan. time was not on my side and i timed the button perfectly before the next rise in blinds only to get blindsided by being moved to the final 2 tables and then having to draw for the button that i worked to hard to get. poker shenanaigan!.
yada yada yada! k j loses to qq and i went away in 14th.
i was in my car and on my way home 20 minutes later - heading back to reality, my wife with a cold and to my daughter who was at a sweet 16 birthday party.
ty goldiefish - and i hope you enjoyed the cigar i gave you. perhaps next year we can smoke one together at the smoker - yeah right!
flowerman - here we were in the late stages of the game with about 30 players left. flowerman as dapper as he was had played sainly until he got pocket 5's. he was rambling about the mistical powers of the 5's. the hand was check until after the river. 5 over cards including a pair of 7's were on board. flower goes all in. the man with the king 7 from the big blinds calls and flower wilted. luckily we have spring every year and he'll be back.
personal achievement - i do recall knocking out 6 players and receiving one 8-2 poker chip set in a clear plastic holder, a coin of some type wrapped in a clear celophane wrapper with the whitehouse on one side and the president of the united states seal on the other, someone's at large token and $194 bucks for 14th place and a sweatshirt.
when i got knocked out i gave the player his choice of a poker chip from binnion's horsehoe or a pack of matches from "pine valley" golf course. he asked whether that also include on round of golf there also. for all of you that are not golfers - pine valley is rate the #1 golf course in the world and it sits about 35 miles due west of atlantic city next to the clementon amusement park. yes, in new jersey. the matches did not include a round of golf. he took the poker chip.
please excuse the spelling - the lack of caps and any other gramatical errors as you may think i be stoopid. i are.
regards
LIVESOUP
