Trip Report
by SCSUhockey
Id 1st like to start off by congratulating Chic on an amazing performance
over the weekend. Two 2nd place finishes in these events is absolutely an
amazing feat and you should hold your head up high I promise to make the race
for best over all ARG as exciting as I can just for you And I Will have a
t-shirt saying Chic's #1 FAN ..lol I love yah Thank you to Goldie as
well for an excellent show.!! As always perfectly run! As for my trip, we
arrived late on Thursday night and met up with a few people that I met last
year in Atlantic City for a couple drinks and then it was off to bed.
As far as the H.O.E tourney was concerned it was absolutely terrible for 3
full levels. Either being card dead or coolerd to dump my stack down to 400
chips. And No lie ask anyone that I played with I was down to the felt 6-7
times for all my money in the earlier levels.. Till eventually I hit a nice
stud 8 level. Pretty much scooping 4 huge pots in a row to have a chip stack
again.
I played some great poker to the final table as pretty much the chip
leader. Play battled back and forth with some amazing hands thrown in the mix
to see my chip lead vanish to Chic. As the final table whittled down I
basically tried to lay low with everyone at the table having very few chips to
in retrospect to the blinds. Till the Limit Holdem round where I felt was my
strongest game in the rotation and I would be able to play Poker more than
playing hands. My strategy worked to my advantage as I once again amassed the
chip lead. Im pretty sure at one point in hold em I had raised 5 straight
hands uncontested. As things turned out Chic and I ended up heads up. Not
really knowing Chic all that well before this year. Id have to say I met one of
the most sincere, caring individual with some crazy antics. Man I Love the duck
card protector and the quacking I never had so much fun playing poker in my
life. Chic is so awesome. He truly symbolizes the epitome of what it means to
be an ARG player in my mind, A great card player a great person and even a
better friend Being relatively close in chips we decided to chop even money and
play for plaque.. Being that neither of us had a full 10 big bets I was
assuming that it would end in omaha no matter what happened.. But boy was I
wrong We started off with I believe 18 min left in the omaha level.. Played all
of omaha all of stud 8 and about 15 min of holdem before it was over. Talk
about an intense short stacked heads up. Chic played fantastic. Only one real
major hold em hand sticks out that may have been the major swing of things was
my Kh 10h vs his KQ neither of us had a pair or a draw but chic was very
aggressive and played his hand perfect. If I remember it was raise and a call
preflop with chic on the button . Flop came all low cards no hearts. I checked
to him and as he should he bet. I honestly felt he missed this board also.. So
I called to see either A I could hit my hand or B I can see if the turn card is
bluffable. So out came another small card. Im pretty sure the highest card out
there was an 8. I check to chic again and now he bets 12k .and I make it 24 he
thinks for a few min and calls. Now the river comes a J another great bluff
card for me and I lead out on the river and he thinks I feel that he may still
believe his hand is good but he really cant make a call here with K high so
Chic folds KQ face up. Usually I wouldn't show a hand at this point but I felt
Showing my K10 was ok. And would give me the confidence in my play. After that
he was left with only 4 bets we both traded blinds till the hand when Chic
flopped mid pair and I flopped an open ended strait. And well my J9 got there
so did his 2 pair . And that was all she wrote. Chic Played amazing heads up
poker I was very impressed. He deserves a trophy and will get one at BARGE
I know how it feels I now have 3 2nd place ARG finishes myself. A pairs, A NL
holdem and a Stud As for NL goes I played very well to get about 7k in chips
till My QQ ran into AJ for an 8k pot then left with 3000 chips I was UTG with
the great J9 I had to win the night before and pushed got called by AK as sick
as it was I flopped a strait and well he turned a flush and Good Game Bob at
about 80th place..lol.. I ended up going to dinner with my friends who went
down with me ate had a few drinks at the bar and came back to watch the final
table of the NL tourney.! and who was there none other than CHIC!!! Man this
man is amazing!! Also a shout out to rich another HOE final tablest who also
is an amazing player!! I decided to stay and watch my Man play amazing NL poker
at the final to a heartbreaking 2nd place finish again!! God bless you Chic you
played amazing a hell of a weekend!!
Then came stud.. Now don't get my wrong I have a clue how to play stud..
Well a small clue. Ok a very small clue... Just kidden.... I was telling
everyone that!! But probably learned so much over the course of Sunday that
will make me play so much better. As things went some how I pulled running 9s
for quads to crack aces full. Hey I had a flush draw and 9s in the hole! LoL
and got there! Ok so I take that back I HAVE NO CLUE.. But somehow I got to the
final table with a decent chip stack . I looked around to see some of the most
amazing players Raydon and Jarrod alike. Clueless and saying in my head well
here goes nothing I tried to use as much poker sense as I have..to pick up
pots based on my reads on them. Or at least that is what I was pretending to do
I managed to win a few pots in stud and at the levels we were playing no one
had even 8 Big bets so chip counts meant very little it was pretty much pick a
hand an go And I guess I picked wisely Made it to 3 way when we cut a deal
everyone took 2nd place money and play for the rest and the trophy Raydon
dominated the whole final table and played great stud I feel I learned so much
from just watching him play and talking to him that in the course of the few
hours at the final table my stud experience greatly increased. Id like to
think him for my complete Butt kicking heads up And I knew it was coming
But Hey a 1st and a 2nd in one weekend is great for me So now in 4 out of 6
ARG events this year I have a 5th in pairs a 2nd in NL from FARGO a 1st in HOE
and a 2nd in stud from ATLARGE Ok so I guess I am the luckiest guy in the
world. Im going to do my best to be at BARGE I love Vegas and from all of you
who I talked to about BARGE its like ATLARGE and FARGO on steroids. MAN that
sounds great Im also planning to try to win another seat to the main event
on poker stars as I did last year. Hopefully I will see many of you out there
for that..(if I get in).. If not I know ill be playing a few of the smaller
events and some supers for the Foxwoods events coming up Id also like to thank
Goldie - Amazing as always - I had a blast I love you guys its so much fun
every year to come out and play - BARGE 2k7 ill do my best to be there - God
Bless all of you - And may all your flops be with you - Best of luck - Bob
Lauria - SCSUHockey - aka CHICS#1 fan~!!!!!!
