ATLARGE 2005

Let me add my thanks to the others to Goldie who did an exceptional job in organizing and then running a smooth event. At Atlarge I was humbled by the poker gods. The prior weekend at the Bellagio I won about $5,200 in 6 hours of table play (see trip report which follows). In addition to the very weak play, the gods hit me in the face with winners consistently. Alas, the defending champ of the Atlarge HOE tourney was the second to bust with dead cold cards. That was also the case the night before at the Borgata and would repeat again at the NLHE tourney. I went home -$800, but I will take the juxtaposition of those two weekends anytime. When Matt Matros sat to my left in the NLHE about 4+ hours in and I, as usual, was short stacked, I knew I would be heading for the garage shortly. When I saw he only had about T400 more than I, I thought I might get that copy of his new book. Alas, it was the former, about 2 hands after Matt sat down I made a pre-flop all-in raise in middle position with about T2! 400 with KQo and of course Matt wakes up to his first real hand QQ and IGHN. Matt won my piggie but I did get to take a look at his book.... However, there was an incredible bright spot to the weekend as a result of my being placed to the right of Chrissie, a NLHE and Atlarge newbie. While her play was erratic, she was dominating the table and we would chat about each hand (after the play) and I would point out other ways to think about the play of the hand. It sounds like the coaching paid off since I heard that she came in third. Now we have to get her into shape for the WSOP double shoot out..... It was nice seeing and playing badly against many familiar faces, and missing the ones that were not there. It seems more like a family reunion when we get together rather than a bunch of poker players. There is something very special about that. My job takes me all over the world, I am Hannover Germany right now and I get to play almost everywhere I go. When I do travel I will use an 'arg' chip or spinner to cover my cards, and it always starts a conversation. Many times the folks have heard about BARGE and held it with some respect, and then go on to beat my brains out :) Looking forward to seeing all of you soon uncle al

Trip Report by 8-2 Cactus Kev CHAPTER ONE: A LATE ARRIVAL I had planned to leave around noon Thursday for the drive to A.C., but events out of my control had me finally getting on I-95 around 6pm. I was also bummed that a Saturday night Basia concert (at the Borgata) that I had tix for was suddenly cancelled on Thursday morning. (I later found out that it was due to visa problems). Anyway, I got to the Taj around 9:30, and didn't feel like playing that much "serious" poker; so I jumped in a 2-4 hold'em game, and instantly thought I had somehow driven to California instead and was playing at the Commerce. Seven to eight players on every flop, even with a raise. One of the funnier hands I won was when a two-Heart flop board caught runner-runner Hearts, and the table suddenly came alive. Thankfully, I had the Ace, but the three other players had the King, the Jack, and the Nine. I hung around for about two hours, won five bucks, and crashed for the night. CHAPTER TWO: A GOOD START Of the three tourneys, I enjoy the H.O.E. event the best. I get bored playing the same game for hours upon end, so anything to cycle the games is a good thing in my book. I wound up winning most of my early hands in hold'em. AQ vs A4 with a board of Qx4KK. AQ vs AK with a board of QxxJx. Pocket Aces actually held up once, bringing my total to T5400. I scored a monster pot in Omaha, when I raised pre-flop with Ad2d2h3c, the flop came 4d5dJd for the nut flush, and a 7h hit the turn for a low. Just the night before, 8-2 Mike had reminded me that scooping pots is how you make money in Omaha. That win, combined with a Hi/Lo Stud win of trip Aces beating trip Kings, put me at T10700 at the second break. One thing I noticed in this (and the other two tourneys) is that I tended to get crappy cards early on in the event, but later picked up some premium hands that paid off big in the later, more expensive rounds. So even though I was silently cursing all the lousy hands I'd have to fold over and over again, it worked out to my advantage later on when I started catching the good ones in the middle rounds. So I'll never whine about a slow start again. One other cool item of note. I happened to be at Goldiefish's table, and he taught me an insane game called "Chowaha". I can't wait to give it a try at the next dealer's choice night at the 8-2 Club. I held my own as the tourney continued, was very happy with my play, and found myself at the final two tables. The levels were 1000-2000 at this stage, so any hand I committed to would basically put me all-in. By now, it was around 4:30, and 8-2 Chris volunteered to grab me a sandwich, as I was the only 8-2'r left in the tourney. As with last year, it was an Omaha hand that did me in. In late position, I raised pre-flop with KcQcQdJc, and got at least one caller. The flop was Tc5d8c, so I had both a Straight and a Flush draw. I called the bet, and the turn brought a club Trey. I had the Flush, but it also gave someone a low. I threw in my remaining T2000, hoping to split, but my opponent turned over the Ace-Deuce of Clubs, busting me out at #16. I was sad to miss the final table, but I played well, and I did manage to last longer than my fellow 8-2'rs. Thirteen of us had contributed twenty bucks for a "Best in Show" pool. Whoever placed the best in all three tourneys combined ("best" being determined by arcane formulas courtesy of 8-2 Dave, involving advanced hypermath, logorithms, and the golden ratio) won the $260 prize, so I was at least ahead for that award. CHAPTER THREE: 8-2 COSTS ME A BENJAMIN I take a quick snooze before heading back down for ring games. 8-2 Mike cons me into joining him at a 5-10 hold'em table, and after an hour or two of play, I'm up about fifty. Then, I'm dealt the infamous 82o hand. I smoothly call the bet, and flash my cards to Mike, who has already folded. He whispers back, "You should have raised." I'm thinking he's right when the flop comes 8Q2 rainbow. Me and "Big Matt" Ivestor get into a raising war, and finally put in four bets. The turn is beautiful 8, and I keep raising until I realize that Matt isn't going to stop raising either. Hmmmmmm. Could he have pocket Queens? Nah, he would have raised preflop with Queens. He must be betting his trip Eights, so I raise again. He re-raises. Okay, now I'm scratching my head and just call. The light bulb goes off above my head, and it suddenly dawns on me that he might have Q8. The river is a brick 7, he bets, and I sheepishly call to see his Q8. Oh, that cruel fickle 8-2 hand. Now I'm down fifty, and I lose another fifty before calling it a night. CHAPTER FOUR: TIME PASSES Although I wasn't relishing an entire day of playing Hold'em, I sat down vowing to do better than last year's abysmal outing. We started with T3000, and for the first three rounds, I got nothing but dreck. I had T2875 at the first break, and the exact same amount by the second break. By break three, I had been blinded down to T2400. If I didn't catch a hand soon, it didn't look promising. I finally went all-in with QJs, and got one caller with pocket Tens. A Queen flopped, and the Tens got no help, so that got me to T7600. With over 200 players, it was hard to see who busted out when the clapping was heard. I would try to see if any 8-2'r was standing with the applause, but sometimes I couldn't tell. I think by the third break, three club members had been eliminated. Because of the large number of entrants, a good finish in this tourney would weight extremely heavily in the "Best in Show" prize pool. So I needed to hang on as long as possible. My table is the first to break, and I think I get moved two times. I'm finally seated at table number one. CHAPTER FIVE: A DRAMATIC ENDING I'm the big blind, and look down to see JT suited in Clubs. UTG calls, and the little blind calls. The flop comes a lovely Ad Kc Qh, giving me Broadway. I decide to slowplay my monster, and bet T2000. UTG goes all-in! Yes!!! LB folds, I call, and turn over my Straight. UTG turns over my worst nightmare -- pocket Aces. Holy crap! I start screaming "No Pair! No Pair!" to the dealer, and he flips over my second worst nightmare -- the case Ace!! Quad Aces. IGHN. But WAIT!!! Matt Matros, who is sitting in seat 8, notices that the turn was the Ace of Clubs. Believe it or not, I actually have ONE out card. If the Queen of Clubs falls on the river, I have a Royal, and news of this suck-resuck hand will be echoing through the ARG distros for years to come! The dealer burns and turns. Alas! No Club Queen. IRGHN. I bust out just about at the halfway point, at position #103. I later compute the odds of my opponent beating my Straight after the flop. Turns out I am a 2-1 favorite to win, so I am happy with my all-in bet, and would have done the same thing even if I had known he had Aces. CHAPTER SIX: HOW TO LOSE $300 IN ONE HOUR Later that evening, after eating a comped meal at the buffet with 8-2 Chris, I ventured back into my final ring game play of the weekend. As the day before, I was playing well, was catching cards, and found myself up a hundred after two hours. Then, it started. I'd call with A7s, and make a set with a flop of 779. Queen turn. Bet and numerous callers. Trey river, bet and one caller, who shows QQ. Well, I suppose I should be glad he wasn't raising. Later, I get the pocket ladies and raise. Flop is 862 rainbow. Bet, numerous callers. Turn 4. Bet, and still some callers. River Jack. Bet, and numerous callers. Lose to 84o. Huh? Did I sit down at the 2-4 table by mistake?? Shortly thereafter, I have KJs and raise. Bet a hunk when the flop show K7J. Turn Deuce and bet. River Nine and bet, with it raised back to me. Hmmmm. "He must have QT for the Straight," thinks I. I call to see. He turns over 43 suited in clubs. Double huh?? Oh, I see. He caught runner-runner clubs for his Flush, with absolutely nothing until the river. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. This type of crazy play continued for the rest of the hour, and in that short time, my hundred profit had transmorgrified into a two-hundred loss. I played my final hand in the dark just out of frustration, since looking at my cards obviously wasn't helping my play one iota. I turn in after reading up on some Stud strategy for Sunday's event. CHAPTER SEVEN: THE LAST HUZZAH Well, we were down to the last tourney, and so far, the 8-2 Club was a no-show at any final table. The streak was in serious jeopardy, as there has always been at least one 8-2 member making the final table in at least one of the three tourneys. I like Stud, because of the additional information you get from other player's up cards. I also wanted to place high enough in this tourney to assure my lock for the annual "8-2 Best in Show" pool. The first round was a bizarre one, where Aces and Kings would get beaten by rivered trips, and trips would lose to runner-runner flushes. It got to the point where I really didn't want to get starting cards of a high pair, as the chances of them holding up were apparently extremely slim. 8-2 Dave took some substantial hits from major suckouts, as 8-2 Cary and myself just shook our heads in disbelief, silently glad it wasn't happening to us. By the end of Round One, I had increased my starting stack of T3000 to an "impressive" T3200. Shortly after the break, I got moved to another table -- this time, against two other 8-2 members: Graham and Ron. I won the first hand, but then hit an incredible dry spell. Things were looking bleak chipwise, when I looked down and saw (98)7. Not seeing any Sixes or Tens, I decided to call 8-2 Graham, who had completed the bring-in bet with a Jack showing. I catch a Five, and Graham fires off a bet. I decide to pay for one more card, and lo! it is the magical Six, completing my straight. However, Graham has caught another Jack. He bets, and I raise, expecting him to just call; but he raises! Now I figure he must either have Jacks-Up, or worse yet, trip Jacks. Either way, I've got him beat at present, so I raise it again. Now he's thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more. Finally he calls. I catch an Ace, and he catches a spot card. Since I don't know what card he needs to make his boat, I have no way of telling if sixth street helped him or not. He checks, I bet, and he simply calls. Now I'm sure that sixth street didn't help him. I don't even bother looking at my down card, and bet when he checks to me. Mister Cool, that's me. Sort of like Bond, James Bond. I'm not just Cool, I'm Suffe-cool! When he pauses, I know he didn't make his hand. He thinks for a while longer, and finally calls, revealing his trip Jacks. I turn over my cards, showing my Straight on the first five cards, and then seeing that a river Ten gave me an even higher Straight for added effect. Shazam. More tourney chips for me, and I took them from a possible contender for the "Best in Show" pool. Afterwards, I computed the percentage chance Graham had to make either a boat or quads. Assuming his other two non-Jack cards were all "live", he had a 311/861 = 36.1% chance of beating me. I actually thought his odds of making his hand would be higher. Thrilled with my victory, I take a huge hunk of chips from 8-2 Ron on the very next hand, when he makes an A-J Flush on fifth street, but I make an A-Q Flush on sixth street. I'm on fire, and wind up with T7900 by the end of Round Two. I really liked playing at that table, and not just because I won a hunk of chips from both Graham and Ron. We had the funnest (is funnest a word?) table in the room. Poor TrayRacer was getting hit with a huge disproportionate number of bring-in cards. It got so bad, he started actually putting out his bring-in money before the cards were even dealt. And sure enough, he'd be the bring-in! Then, other players started announcing that THEY would be the bring-in player by advance posting their chips, and shazam! they would be right! We were actually having more fun calling out the bring-in's than with the actual playing of the hands. It was one of the highlights of my week. At Round Three, I get moved to yet another table. This one has 8-2 Mike at it, and not only does he have a goodly amount of chips, he is also an excellent Stud player who has placed in the money upon numerous occasions. Plus, if he finishes high enough compared to me, he could sneak in a "Best in Show" win himself. So I really don't want to go head-to-head with him unless absolutely necessary. At this level, we're playing 300-600, and I start with three Hearts and call. When a player pairs her Nine and bets, I call as I caught a fourth Heart. Again, I like Stud because I have seen that Hearts are very live, so I am willing to draw out on her. I brick on Fifth Street, but catch my Flush on Sixth Street and raise her back. She just calls, so I figure her for two pair. I bet the river without looking, she calls, and mucks when I show the Flush. Another sizeable pot won, and angry scowls from 8-2 Mike as my chip lead increases. Shortly after, I'm dealt (AA)K, but another Ace is showing. I raise, and get one caller. I catch the case Ace for trips, followed by a Queen and then another King. With me showing KAQK, my opponent finally tosses away her hand in disgust, and I show my Aces Full of Kings for dramatic effect. My trough is overflowing. CHAPTER EIGHT: A COSTLY ERROR 8-2 Mike finally busts out when his pocket Tens don't improve, and with 8-2 Graham also out, I'm now a lock for the "Best in Show" pool. $260 bonus for Cactus Kev, baby!! Okay, play continues and we're finally down to two tables. I'm doing extremely well, and then I make the one major mistake of my entire tourney play that week. It probably cost me my shot at winning in the top three places. I'm dealt (J9)J and raise when an Eight completes the bring-in. Fourth street doesn't seem to help either of us, so I bet and he calls. My opponent pairs his Eight, and I catch another brick. This time he bets, and I call. I brick again on Sixth Street, but he checks this time, so I do as well. That should have been my clue that all he had was Eights, but alas, my brain must have taken a bathroom break. Well, I catch a Nine on the river, giving me Jacks Up. My opponent bets. Great. What could he have, I wonder? All his up cards are lower than an Eight. Could he have started with Queen or higher in the hole, and paired up on the river like me? If so, his two pair would beat mine, and it would cost me another T3000. Well, I think and think and think some more. I really don't know what to do. I should have looked at all the money in the pot and just called, but I was also trying to play smart poker, which says to fold if you think you're beat. "Save yourself that 3000," I kept hearing my brain say. "He's got Queens-Up or Kings-Up, so fold already!" Reluctantly, I toss my hand into the muck. Half my stack is now gone. I later ask him if my Jacks-Up would have won, and he says yes. He made two smaller pair on the river. Oh well, live and learn. Shake it off and move on. CHAPTER NINE: A CHIP AND A CHAIR We're down to two tables of five each, and playing hand to hand. The antes are now huge, and I'm quickly running out of chips. Finally, two players bust out ahead of me, and I find myself at the final table, in the money! The 8-2 Club final table streak continues!!! The other 8-2'rs decide to hang around to see me through to the bitter end. I appreciated it, guys! I am the shortest stack at the table, but want to do the best I can. I move up in rank when Mordacai gets knocked out, but am still the short stack. I'm waiting to commit my chips on a worthy hand, but I'm catching hands like (83)6 and (T3)7. The antes are T500, and I'm down to my final T1000. I have two hands left in me. But no!! The timer goes off, and the antes bump up to T1000. Great. I'm forced to go all-in on my blind. I announce I'm all-in, put my bust-out 8-2 poker chip token in the pot, and don't even look at my down cards as I stand up, ready to exit. My up card is a 7 of Spades, but my neighbor also has a 7 showing, so that doesn't bode well. An Ace gives the obligatory "complete" steal attempt, but TrayRacer raises with a King showing. The Ace decides to fold, and I get to see what type of hand I'm up against. Well, I find out where the three Wise Men went after delivering their gifts to the baby Jesus, because Peter turns over trip Kings. Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi. Talk about putting the dagger into my chest. Well, I turn over my mystery hole cards, and find a Three and a Ten -- but they are both Spades. Hmmmmmmmm. Three Spades is good. I vainly try to remember how many Spades have been mucked, but I haven't a clue. Fourth street is brick for Pete, brick for me. Fifth street is brick for Pete, Spade for me! Hmmmmmmmm!! This is interesting. Of course, if Pete pairs up, it's over. Sixth street is bricks for both. The down cards come. Pete turns his over first. Brick. All he has is trip Kings. I pause for dramatic effect. I put the voodoo monkey dust on my final down card, and turn it over quickly. Two of Spades!!! Boo-ya!!!! Still alive, baby! Chip and a chair!! My T1000 just turned into T7000. Riding the rush, I ante my T1000 and look down to see pocket Nines. Again, Peter raises with a Five, and I go all-in. Nines for me, (5J)5 for him. Hey, Presto is no g00t for Stud hands, Pete! Let's deal the rest of 'em. Queen for me, brick for him. Brick for me, Jack for him, giving him Jacks-Up. I need help. Lo! another Queen for me, and brick for him! The river helps neither of us, and I nearly triple up to T19000! Cheers from the home team sweating me out! High fives around the table! That's why I like playing with ARG'rs. They are competitive, but friendly, even at the final table. You would never see this in a non-ARG tourney. With ARG events, everyone is there to have a fun time, and if you wind up winning, that's just iceing on the cake. And it's looking like I might pull an "Oscar", just like in yesterday's NLHE tourney. Well, the rush is doomed to not last, and I get all excited when I see (QJ)T. A King completes, I raise, he re-raises, and I'm forced to go all-in. As expected, I'm up against a pair of Kings. At least it's not three of 'em this time! The top end of my Straight is in trouble, with him holding two of my Kings. We both brick on fourth and fifth street, but I catch a Nine on sixth street. An Eight or King on the river will make me another "comeback kid" story. Can the magic possibly continue?? I turn my down card over. It's a Six. Game over, man. Game over. What a wild, wild ride. I get my $158.40 prize money, and head over to the Bombay for some road-food with my last food comp. Lastly, my tradition has always been that upon leaving the Taj, I take twenty bucks and place single one dollar bets for my close friends' numbers at the roulette table. Unlucky 13 turns out to be lucky this time, and my guitar-playin' buddy Scott winds up $35 richer this year. CHAPTER TEN: A JOB WELL DONE So all in all, I had another great ATLARGE weekend, and may have to try to catch my first BARGE this year. TrayRacer told me that SIGGRAPH is either right before (or right after) BARGE this year, so the timing certainly works out. We'll see if it all pans out. Props again to Goldie for another smashing ATLARGE. Love the commemorative poker chip, dude! We're gonna try for at least eighteen 8-2 attendees next year, so watch out. Rumor has it the club shirt color will be forest green in 2006, but maybe we'll make it pink in honor of the Pink Game :) -- "Cactus Kev" Suffecool

(Editor's note: The Author had planned a rather lengthy and literate trip report, going so far as to use a laptop and take notes. However, due to that lousy bastard's unfortunate physical condition and his typical redneck technical savvy, the notes are useless and The Author is forced back to his traditional style of just talking right out of his ass.) We got to ATLARGE a little early this year. Monday morning to be exact, trying to avoid the frozen wave of doom that swept the earth. I don't get to play live much at all outside of ARG events so I do try to push it where possible, and this time I may have pushed it too far trying to spend a solid week in the Taj... Everything was spiffy the first few days, beat up on the 5-10 and 3-6 games, managed to cash in one of the Taj tournaments. I like the structure of the Taj's tourneys... no rebuys, and the antes kick in at the third level (100-200 w/ 25 ante). Many of the players seem to be ignorant of pot odds and are fond of limping way too late in the tournament. At one point I from the button raise 3 limpers all in for my last T6800. I don't remember the structure, just that it folded back to me and I doubled through on the hand even though nobody called me... On Thursday other ATLARGERS begin to appear. Some wander into my 5-10 game, others I just see. For some awful reason at about 11PM or so a bunch of us decide we want to play 2-4 Omaha. The Taj relents and gives us a table, but then in typical Taj fashion tell us it must be a must move game for the main 2-4 O8 game. This of course, defeats the purpose and makes no sense seeing that it would really be a "must leave" game as nobody with any sense would willingly go to the main 2-4 O8 game for the same reason that people don't willingly go to prison... So someone, I think me, suggests a half HE half O8 game to avoid the must move, and the Taj people agree. So we have a little rocking 2-4 game where I show off my advanced skill at hitting two outers on the turn and overtipping dealers. Unfortunately I'm starting to feel notsohot, and this is where the whole trip starts to come apart.... Ironically, the list for the above game got long enough where a second non-ATLARGE two-way 2-4 game got started, and wound up breaking the main 2-4 O8 game... So Friday morning I'm really feeling like crap. I vaguely remember the HOE, the only concrete memory I have is busting out in the omaha round with something along the lines of AA35 with a suited ace that got beat both ways. I was short stacked and got about half of my chips in pre-flop and when the flop didn't brick me I felt committed. What I do remember is turning over my hand, and when Goldie (who had the high) started clapping the thought passed through my head that he was acting rather oddly... I guess I was dazed enough to sorta forget about the bustout applause thing... but I soon remembered where I was and what was going on and waived to the applauding throng... Then I went to take a nap. After an hour or so I felt duty bound to try a little more poker, see how it goes. I decide to try a little 3-6 as I am a bit fuzzy. Crappy game, table that time (or at least the floor) forgot, short handed and so forth. I want to leave but the banquet is in less than an hour so suck it up... I torture myself for a while over this, then get up. While walking to the banquet I begin to now REALLY feel like poopie. So I abort and return to my room. Maybe a 14 hour nap would be just the thing before the no-limit. At least that is the plan. I maybe sleep two hours total that night. My throat is driving me nuts, I have some sort of world record for a tongue ulcer (from the cough drops) in that I can see it in the mirror across the room without using my glasses, and best of all the Taj beds and pillows seem to have been designed with the "Cell of Little Ease" as a model. If my tossing and turning could have been harnessed I could have provided a small village with electrical power for the next decade... I was on autopilot for the no-limit. I remember turning a nut straight and then folding on the river when the board paired. I remember a weird hand where I flopped top pair, bet out, was told it was not my turn yet, apologized, and then when the other player bet I folded. I also remember being moved to table1 seat 10, a seat only accessible by hovercraft, and getting to it just in time for break so I could leave and try to get back to it again only to bust out on a 77 vs. AK race five hands past the break so I could force my way out again.... I'm a wreck from lack of sleep, and the first thing that goes for me is my emotional control, so the above just seems like the Worst Thing That Can Happen To Anyone Ever. Totally irrational, but I'm feeling easily put out at this point. This is when I realize that I feel like acting the same way most of the people (not ATLARGERS of course) tend to act at the Taj. Being a Good Country Boy I tend to spectate the kind of urban rudeness here with some level of amusement. Unfortunately, I'm feeling myself slipping into what I mock. Ye gads.. I maintain for the most part though... OK... At this point I'm having No Fun. I appreciate the work done on the whole deal by Goldie and others, and I do wish I could enjoy myself, but I'm a mess. I've been looking forward to this for months and I'm here and I just want someone to shoot me, or at least teleport my sick ass back home. Back to the concrete slab mattress and maybe another 2 hour hot shower. That night I hang out a little in the suite... try to keep a moderate distance in case I'm spreading the SARS virus... hate the idea of just camping out other than the tournaments... hang until about midnight, get some sleep for the Stud tournament... I get up in time for stud. My first ever live high only stud tourney, as I didn't register for it last year. I've had some good results in internet stud tournaments, but I usually just play Stud8, and the big game back home in my youth was 7stud hi/lo no qualifier. I just never really grasped regular stud for some reason. Seems like every time I play it I keep getting great hi/lo hands... Second hand in I get dealt rolled up fives. Nice. I make quads on 4th street. I can dig it. Thing is we are playing 15-30 with a stack of 3K so I'm not going to win it here... I think it would be nice to get this a little later. Unfortunately I catch 2s on 5th and 6th so even though I think my opponent has trip queens he slows down and I win a nice pot rather than a really absurdly large one... From there I muddle on until there are about 5 tables left. I have about 2400, and am waiting for a chance at a noble death so I can sit in the pink chip game for a few minutes at least. Then I make concealed trips on 4th street and manage to almost triple up, and then win the next pot I think on a scary board and a bluff. So I'm doing alright when the table breaks until I get into my saga with Golfman. He has many chips and is playing very aggressive, seemingly completing the bring-in 70% of the time. When there are I think still 3 tables we play a series of crucial hands. In the first, he brings it in and I complete with an ace showing, and a suited QJ under. He calls. He catches small on 4th and I catch a 9. I bet he calls. On 5th street I pair the nine and he pairs a small card. I bet he again calls. On 6th I catch an ace, pairing the door card. He has 3 to a wheel showing. I bet out and he goes into the tank. I think he has a low draw or two pair and is contemplating dumping it. I have maybe 3 bets left and he is pretty deep. He remarks that he can't believe he is laying this down as he made his draw and shows a 6 high straight and folds. After a rather serious limit increase we went at it again. He brought in with a five showing for the full bet (I think... he had maybe raised a bring in), and I raised with an exposed 9 and a suited QJ under with larcenous intent. He called. We both catch 9's on 4th street, and I bet to represent the trips. He calls, which concerned me a bit. I was ready to fold up the tent on 5th street until I catch the case 9. I bet with my exposed trips, and he isn't folding yet. He's just tortured, and says something about it being a close call and now I know he started with rolled up 5s. He calls me down and my trips hold. Llew interjects: O.K, it's late and I spent the whole day giving trumpet and drum lessons to 9-12 year-olds, so maybe I am missing something. How does he call down your exposed trip 9's with rolled up 5's that didn't fill up? Rob "Suddenly" Catlett replies: I was probably all in. The limits were a bit insane. He called me on 5th and 6th and then either I had no chips or I assume I check there on the river with the exposed trips anyway... I can't really remember which, but there was a showdown... I'm somewhat sure I was all in though... The final chapter came with nine left in the tournament, and he again raised someone's bring in only for me to find rolled up queens. I reraised him all in and soon the final table was underway... The final table was quite mad. The limits for most of it were 6K/12K, heavy stuff with only 190K on the table. Then they were 10K/20K. I think I only played one hand without a monster when I completed with an A up only to be reraised by a queen. For some reason I decided a checkraise bluff on 4th street was the correct play, and to my shock I took down the pot. Other than that from what I recall I busted four of the eight remaining players in my march to the title. As I recall these were the hands I started with: (JJ)J (KK)2 (AA)K (77)7 ...given the limits we were pretty much playing no-limit stud anyway... So, I won the ATLARGE stud tournament. I didn't believe it then and I'm not sure I believe it now. I'd have given it to be able to at least breathe without having a knife stuck in my lung, but we all have our little problems in life I guess... Thus ended my ATLARGE. I made it back home where the recovery continues. What did I learn? Being sick at the Taj sucks. Seriously. If the structure is fast enough not really knowing the particular game in a poker tournament is not much of a liability. You can be rolled up 3 times in an hour and not get arrested. --- Suddenly (Rob Catlett)

Thanks to Goldie for organizing a great time at ATLARGE. I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend in spite of it being a financial loss for me. I enjoyed meeting a bunch of ATLARGErs. Everyone was very nice. The sweatshirt was a great surprise. The buffet on Friday night was very good. I enjoyed Saturday afternoon (or was it Friday afternoon?) playing in the pink game with ActionBob, Goldie, and a few other ATLARGE attendees along with three locals. It was fun seeing the locals get very perturbed at ActionBob and Goldie as they were cap blind-raising through the river. It was a little disconcerting when the local sitting to my right made some loud belligerent type remarks at one point. When I asked him what he was talking about he said to me through the side of his mouth "I'm kidding" without looking at me, but I didn't believe he was. At one point during the game ActionBob asked me to blind raise (when I was sitting to his right) so then he would blind raise but being a newbie to this stuff I just couldn't bring myself to do it. On Sunday afternoon while waiting for my brother to bust out of the Stud tournament I killed a couple of hours by sitting in a $3-6 game with all locals (of course) and tested ActionBob's blind-raising method of play. And it just so happened that the player sitting to my immediate right played every hand and raised most hands. Many times the rest of the table had to put in $9 or $18 to see the next card and most everyone was getting pretty pissed with one player in particular making belligerent type remarks towards me (but he was smaller than me so I didn't much care :) . I must say my play did soften up the table even more than it already was when I first sat down. By the time I left everyone (with few exceptions) were seeing every flop when it was one or two-bet. Now if I could only learn to be as lucky as ActionBob I'd be all set. :) I'm looking forward to future ARG events. Marshall (Snake)

Sitting here in my home office and trying to shake off the poker hangover from last week, I decided I'd better record some of the things that I remember from ATLARGE. Oscar and I arrived Thursday around 1 P.M. As soon as we dumped our stuff and got situated in our room, we headed over to the Taj for some low-limit action before dinner. Played an uneventful $1/$2 NL session and dropped $127 by only playing a few hands and second best a few times. Not a good start, but the trip was young and I had no worries. We met up with Russ fox and Barry Kornspan and headed off to A.C. Bar and Grill. Russ and Oscar had never been there before, so Barry and I decided it was the best place to start the ATLARGE festivities. John Harkness went with us, and we all crammed into Barry's car. Dinner was great as it always is there (the Crab Pie is not to be missed). John had given me a full set of chips from the set of Tilt (he's a poker consultant for the show), and I reciprocated by covering his dinner. I still feel like I owe him more. Of course, the conversation among 5 good friends made the dinner, and I knew it was going to be a great 4 days! Got to bed fairly early after getting back to the house to watch The Apprentice and Tilt (I had been up since 1:30 A.M.) and when 6:30 A.M. rolled around, it was time to get up. Russ, Oscar and I went to the local IHOP for breakfast. It was fine when we were there, but the food haunted me for the remainder of the day. It proved to be a bad omen too. During the H.O.E. event, I played some more $1/$2 NL (I decided not to play the tournament). I folded for 2 hours and finally picked up QQ. The table maniac raised to $17 pre-flop (rather high for $1/$2 blinds, but that's how the game was playing out). I re-raised to $40 and he called. The flop came A K x. Normal people with QQ would check and fold here, but not me, no, I had to push it. I bet small, around $30, hoping it would look like a hand that I wanted raised. He just called. On the turn, a T gave me a str8 draw, and I again bet a small $50. He thought for a while and called. I didn't interpret that small pause as strength, and I think he almost folded, so I wasn't worried. The river was a rag and I shoved the rest in (about $150). He thought for a long time and finally called. He had A4o. No, the trip wasn't off to a good start. I thought I read him pretty good, and I think he made 3 horrible calls, but I'm the idiot who over-played my queens, so I deserve it. **The above play is NOT in our book. I played the hand very poorly in spite of my reads. Sometimes I do things I know instinctively are incorrect. It's a leak. About this time, Barry comes over to my table and tells me they're getting a pink game going. for those of you who don't know, the pink game is $7.50/$15.00 hold'em played with all pink $2.50 chips. It's an action game, and a whole lot of fun. I thought to myself, gee, I can make up the $450 I'm currently stuck by playing the pink game with good players! Perfect! I bought in for 2 racks, and I was NOT the big stack. Also in the game were Barry, Goldie, Oscar, Chic, Steve C. and Heather, Mitch F. and a couple clueless locals. I hate to say it, but Chic was throwing a party. I hope he made it all back later in the week, but at the time, I decided to benefit from it. One hand went like this. We cap pre-flop 4 ways. I have 88. Flop comes 8 4 4. DING! We cap the flop and go 3 bets on the turn and I get paid off in 2 spots on the river. Chic was driving the action, actually. I never saw his hand. After about 4-1/2 hours of play, I'm up $467 and decide to rack-up. It was the perfect session, and I was actually ahead for the trip. Very cool. We headed off to the excellent PokerStars dinner where we had great food and conversation. I don't recall everyone who was at our table, but I do remember talking a lot to Reilly Matthews (sorry if I spelled your name wrong). He's a really interesting guy and fun to hang out with. Got up early the next morning (Sat.). Russ and Oscar and I headed over to the Stage Deli for breakfast. It wasn't our first choice. The food was decent but WAY over-priced for breakfast. Within 30 minutes of breakfast, Russ and I got into a $1/$2 NL game. Russ woke up with QQ on the second hand of the session, and he made a nice score from the table maniac (who was sitting behind about $1,500 and raising nearly every hand). This game was an interesting highlight in my poker career. In just under 2 hours of play, I voluntarily entered the pot ONE time. ONE. I had 22 early and limped. Russ raised and I folded. That was the ONLY hand I played in 2 hours. My cards were that bad. (If I see J3o again I'm going to scream) Off to the ATLARGE No-Limit tournament. We started with T3,000 with small blinds, so we got a lot of play. Let's see, at my table was ADB Timmy, a much thinner Eric Holtman, Paul McMullin, a cool guy from Pittsburgh, a really cute girl named Michelle (no, not Jerrod's Michelle), and a few other players who I didn't know. All were very friendly as well as competitive. It was a great table. Not many hands of note in the 3 hours I lasted. I stole a bunch of pots and had a fairly decent stack for a while, but lost most of it with QQ (I'm starting to hate that hand) vs. Eric's AK when he spiked a K on the river. The one memorable hand came when my friend of Pitt. raised and I looked down to see AA. DING! I re-raised about 3 times his raise. Immediately he shoves in. I expected to see KK, so I called. He had the other two aces and we split. After Eric crippled me with my QQ hand, I got it in with AT and lost to KJ and that's all she wrote. I was off to find a good side game. I actually ended up in a great pink game with Dilli and LenG and Barry and several other wonderful people. It was another fantastic game, and I had a blast messing with LenG (my favorite target). During the game, the tournament was still going on, and I kept going back to check on Oscar and Russ. Russ busted out a few hours after I did, but Oscar was still going strong. After a while, they got down to the final table, and much to my delight, Oscar was right there with a decent (but not huge) stack. I watched as they slowly busted out one by one, and finally, it was 4-handed. Noelle had a good stack, and another woman who was playing NLHE for the first time had a big stack as well. Oscar and (Bob?) had the smaller stacks, but no one was out of it. Finally, a big hand goes down and Oscar and (Bob?) get it all in. Oscar loses the hand, and the obligatory clapping commenced. But no one realized that Oscar actually was ahead by T2,000 before the hand started, so he was left with 2 orange chips. With T600,000 in play, T2,000 is not a big stack, but nobody told Oscar. In about 9 hands, he turned the T2,000 into over T80,000, and then he was off. Noelle was the first to go after a deal was refused by the chip leader (I'm sorry I don't remember her name). Shortly after, (Bob?) busted her and heads-up play commenced with Oscar having about a 3-2 chip lead. They made an equity deal and played for the presto plaque. Oscar finished it off in short order and became the 2005 ATLARGE NLHE champ! It was very cool, and I was extremely happy for him. I was especially happy when he bought dinner that night! I didn't play the Stud tournament the next day. I got into a really good $10/$20 game where I proceeded to drop about $300 after getting 2 sets cracked by runner-runners, but that's poker. Russ has made dinner reservations for us at 7:30 at the steakhouse at the Taj, and we've got some time to kill, so Barry and I head to the Borgata with Oscar since he's never seen it. We check out the casino and the poker room and all, and then head back to the Taj to have dinner. The steakhouse at the Taj is decent, but not the best I've had. I think we would have been better off going to Old Homestead at the Borgata (which is excellent), but we had over $150 in comps to help us with the bill (nearly $300 for the 4 of us), so we got off cheap. We had a great time and all of us were too stuffed for desert. And after 4 days of constant poker, we called it a night and headed back to the house for some good conversation and relaxation. After reading Harrington's excellent book for a couple hours, I headed to bed. The trip home was 7 1/2 hours, but fairly easy going. Oscar is excellent with navigation, and we had no trouble finding our way thru Philly and back on to 80 W. heading home. Of course, we had a lot of great conversation about poker and ATLARGE and everything else. Final Thoughts Finished the trip at -$417. Not a good result, but it could have been a lot worse. A good chunk of that was my misplay of QQ in the NL game, so I'm not beating myself up about it. I thought I played pretty good during the weekend, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the daily grind of online poker. It was fantastic seeing all of my friends again. Thanks to LenG, Dilli, Mitch, Dave Fruchter (thanks for the Tenacious D CD), Chic, Reilly, Joan (and junior), Big Boy Bruce, Eric and Kim, Steve and Heather, the 8-2 guys, John Harkness, Action Bob, all the cool people at my NLHE table, and everyone else for making this a great weekend! Special thanks to my good friends Oscar (NLHE champ!), Barry Kornspan and my co-author Russ Fox. You guys make these trips for me! And a s00per special thanks to goldie for putting on another great ATLARGE and for the use of the Goldie Nugget. You rock! See you all next year, and please, email me and stay in touch! 77 scottro http://www.livejournal.com/users/scottro/ www.scottro.com

Brief, as in my stay in the tourneys. If you blinked you didn't see me. I was 5th out in the nlhe, getting crippled when I couldn't get away from KK (having made a preflop raise) versus Q7 (flop of 77Q). But I did well enough (actually, quite well) in ring games playing mostly $1/$2 nlhe and the pink game. I enjoyed meeting many new faces and getting reacquainted with some people I rarely see. Pizzaman, Tom Kelly, Jester, and many, many others are in this group. I hope many of you -- especially the 8-2 group -- will consider BARGE. You'll have a blast. Much kudos to Goldie for running an event that ran like clockwork. I know what's involved in organizing an ARG event so his hosting (and hosting of me) was greatly appreciated. As to the Taj, here's the good, bad and ugly: The good: They ran the games we wanted, and the tournament structures generally were outstanding. If anything, the nlhe ran too long! The bad: Some of their dealers were clueless. Reading a board? We don't need to read no boards! The ugly: The chips. Binion's never looked so good. Overall, I wish this could be on my calendar annually. Thanks again for the break from drudgery (taxes). -- Russ Fox

As you've read elsewhere, AtLarge was a blast... Thanks Goldie and the Taj. Here are a few observations: Taj accommodations I: My wife (Edith) can walk a bit, but is very uncomfortable walking very far, so we travel with a wheelchair. She also sleeps sitting up most of the time because of her hip and back; when I made the hotel reservations with Marsha(?), I was assured that the Taj had been renovating the rooms, and that each room had a comfortable chair that should be acceptable for her use. However, at checkin, and again at "guest services", I was told that the desk-style chairs that were in the room were all that was available. Edith spent an uncomfortable Thursday night in one of them, and had pretty much decided to drive herself home on Friday... but I cornered Goldie in the poker room Friday morning before the start of the HOE event, and he allowed me to swipe one of the SIGNIFICANTLY more comfortable chairs from the hospitality suite (Thanks Dave F. for assisting me with the furniture arranging!). Edith was assuaged, and I returned the chair Sunday morning. [I don't know if they have security cameras in the elevators or not, but I'm thankful that I didn't have to explain WHY I was moving furniture between rooms when I couldn't get any of The Donald's Staff to do it for me.] Worst overall(?): As Goldie was saying his goodbyes on the way out of the card room on Sunday, someone asked about the "best overall" award, but when Goldie denied any knowledge of the tradition, there were three people within earshot claiming to have "AtLarge Best Overall" jackets to verify that it HAD been awarded in the past. Perhaps it was a computation that Crunch had been managing. In any case, I've GOT to be in the running for either the "best" or "worst" overall performance of the weekend: I finished on the bubble in Friday's HOE tournament (10th/96?), and made it to the bubble table in both Saturday's NLH (28th/200) and Sunday's Stud event (17th/67). Lots of play for no prize money. IGHN. Is this a great seat, or what? In the stud event at my starting table, Michelle was on my left. I'm pretty sure I had both her and Russ Fox on my right last summer in Barge's Stud shootout event, and turned to Edith before the dealing started and told her that I expected Michelle to be the most aggressive player at the table. That didn't stop me from shoving in a raise on about 1/3 of the hands that came to me unraised, and she never really seemed to get a chance to push back much - Edith seemed to think that I had been mistaken, but I think that the "human card rack" trick that I had going for the first two hours put Michelle a bit off her normal game - you just don't really want to mix it up with someone that is going to show you a flush or boat every time you get to the river with him. I'm certain that I would have had much more trouble had she been on my right again. (First raise wins; what a great seat!) Event structure error(?): When we sat down for the NLH event on Saturday, there were T3000 in chips at each place at the table, with the smallest chip being T25, but the tournament clocks were showing that the first round would have 5-10 blinds (or did we start at 10-20?). In any case, the directors scrambled around selling two stacks of red chips to each table, and then came back and sold a third stack. It turns out that someone had agreed to add a couple of blind levels at the beginning of the tournament as of last Wednesday - which turned out to be something of a disaster for the Taj because it extended the tournament into an 11 hour affair! At the end of the first hour only 10 or 12 people had busted out; we weren't down to 1/2 the field until about the third or fourth hour. While this was great for the participants, it was lousy for the Taj - we were NOT busting out and then playing in their ring games, and they had so many tables in use for the tournament, for a short time they were running ring games outside in their "auxiliary tournament area" because they didn't have free tables in the main playing space. Consider that there were nearly 600k tournament chips in play with four players at the final table, and the blinds were 10k and 20k without antes. Great for the players - with 100k you could wait for an orbit or two before you were in real pressure, but it meant that the final table lasted quite a while. I am mildly concerned that the fact that the tournament ran so much longer than was expected may mean that the tip pool may not have been as generous as had been planned. I KNOW that the floorman 'Brian' was annoyed about the change in the structure and how long our tournament lasted. [GOLDIE: please let us know if an after-the-fact-collection is in order to make up a shortfall to the tournament dealers.] Taj accommodations II: The tournament directors that were handling seat assignments were very accommodating, allowing me to "randomly" get a table assignment before each of the three events that was accessible enough that Edith could sit behind me (in her wheelchair) and watch me play... she spent about 15 hours between the three tournaments watching me avoid busting out, and was present at my two-hand-collapse in the stud event after watching me dominate the table for the first three-and-one-half-hours. She used to direct bridge tournaments for a living, and was quite the bridge player herself before she became so active in directing, and had a few comments about my play and "table presence" that may help improve my play in the future. In any case, thanks again to the Taj staff for making it easy for me to arrange for her to watch. The ringing in my ears has stopped now: After I busted out of the NLH tournament and visited with Edith for a bit, I managed to snag a seat at one of the TWO tables of the "pink game". Sitting between LenG and Dilligaf was a riot, but it wasn't until just this morning that my ears stopped ringing. One "local" sat down and played four hands before he got up and went over to the podium... we watched him "conversing" with the person managing the board (this conversation included several 'thumb pointing over the shoulder back at our table' motions) followed by a shrug by the staff member; the local came back to the table and stacked up his pink chips to leave without sitting back down. After he left, LenG declared it a new 3'42" record for hyper-tilting a local out of the game. Too bad he only donated a stack or so before he left. Welcome to California-in-NJ: I bought in to the pink game for 10 stacks at about 8:00PM. At 10:30PM I was down to about 3 1/2 stacks, having played several hands that I've given up playing in the online ring games, and feeling mildly annoyed at myself for having done so. No problem, this is the pink game! When I reached my pre-determined go-to-bed 11:30 cutoff time, I was selling 10 1/2 stacks back to the table and the dealer [keep the pink chips on the table if you can, to avoid 'fill' problems for the house]. Reminded me of the California games I'd visited a few times [you're not stuck if you're within 2 pots of your buy-in!]. Taj tournaments: I played in the Taj's $100+20 tournament Thursday night and their $200+25 tournament on Friday night. They start you off with T5000, which seems pretty generous, but the blinds bump every 20 minutes or so at the start: 25-50, 50-100, 100-200 + 25 ante, 200-400 + 50 ante, ... the jump from 150/orbit to 550/orbit was a bit of a shock, and then to 1050/orbit again means that the field is down to about 1/3 or 1/4 within about two hours [thanks for coming, now go gamble!]. I suspect that the "locals" have a HUGE advantage here over the "tourists" because of the adjustments that you need to make for this sort of structure [lull you the first 40 minutes, then sock you the next 40], but I *hope* that I could make the appropriate adjustments if I got to play that structure a few times myself. Final remarks: All of the AtLarge tournaments were great fun, with LOTS of play. Got a "8-2 poker club" chip as a bustout prize. Nice touch guys! It was great seeing Rev. Holtman outlast Eric in the NLH event. Also great seeing all the west coasters that traveled - I'll have to figure out how to get out to Escargo(?) next spring. Thanks again Goldie! See everyone at Barge! -prm

Jazbo talked me into signing up for ATLARGE, 2005. Even though I have been playing a lot of 10/20 holdem at the Taj, it turned out that most of the folks that I recognized were fellow video poker players who also play table poker. I was in town on Thursday and Friday playin VP and holdem. I went home on Friday afternoon and I came back on Saturday with my better half. I arrived just before the 11am NLHE tournament start, which was the only one for which I registered. However, I spotted a VP progressive at a very attractive level and decided to postpone my tournament. I then noticed that Jazbo was also playing four seats away. Jazbo left to play in the NLHE tournament, but came back almost immediately. He had busted out on the second hand! Meanwhile, I lost 400 bets chasing the VP progressive for an hour before someone else hit it at a level of 1660 bets. I sat down at my tournament seat, mildly suprised at how few of my chips were blinded away by noon. I was also suprised that everyone at my table still had at least $2500. Hmmm, no gamblers here. I made two semi-bluffs with overcards and a gutshot straight draw. I ran into pairs both times and was down to $2500. Then, on the button, I picked up pocket nines. There was a raise to $60 from Tom just to my right. I raise to $200 and only Tom called. The flop came K94 rainbow. Tom checked and I checked my set. The turn was a queen and Tom bets $3000. I am thinking the most likely hand is KQ, or maybe AK slowplayed. I call all-in and Tom shows me a set of queens! The river was a blank and I was out of my first tournament ever without winning a single hand. And it was not even a bad beat that knocked me out. I returned later to watch the final four. I saw Oscar's amazing comeback from a positon of $2K vs $100K, $200K, and $300K stacks. Oscar had actually stood up after being put nearly all in. The crowd gave him the obligatory applause until the dealer counted out the chips and left him with the two $1000 chips. He ended up winning. I wish I had more time in the tournament to meet folks. Maybe I will recognize more of you the next time we meet at the Taj or Borgata. The weekend was a success for me. I lost $40 in 8 hours of 10/20 holdem and $75 in the ATLARGE NLHE event. However, I hit three top-line jackpots in four days of video poker play. One was for 1502 bets, another was for 800 bets, and the final jackpot was for 1262 bets. Over the four days, I played over 25,000 hands of VP and had a 5.6% ROI. Ciao, Ned

Okay, so here's my (late) ATLARGE trip report. I spent the week in AC because I was traveling for work and I didn't go over to the Taj until Thursday night. Gamble and NotACmputr were playing in the $100 tourney. Apparently, Cmputr busted pretty fast and I never got the whole story, but Gamble was still alive when I got there. There were about 40 people left with 18 places paying (18th was like $160). Gamble had about 7.5K with the blinds at 500/1K, so it was pretty much all-in or fold mode at that point. I look around the room for a bit, talk to Cmputr (playing 5/10) and when I come back I see that Gamble has pushed. He turns up the only hand he could possibly have (presto) and the caller turns over AJ. The 5s hold up and Gamble has about 10K. A few hands later, a big stack raises in EP, Gamble comes over top for his whole stack from MP and the original raiser goes into the tank. Eventually, he folds showing A8s. Gamble shows 66. Next hand Gamble gets into a big pot with JJ (didn't see how it happened) and he outraced AQ to bust another player. He gets involved in a few pots and his stack is at about 18K when they break to 3 tables. Soon after, the key hand comes up. I really didn't see how it developed, but Gamble got his chips in with KTs against A-junk. No help and he was down to about 10K. Next hand he busts with ATo going up against KK and AJ - the KK took down the pot. We decide to head over to the buffet, then we realize it might be closed (it was about 10 PM at this point). Our suspicions were confirmed by a casino employee at the Bombay Cafe. Instead, we went to the Hard Rock as it was the only place open (for some reason, Gamble insisted upon calling it the Home Run Cafe). You'll have to ask him why). We had a nice dinner and headed over to the pit to lose some money to the casino. Gamble and Cmputr did just that at the craps table - DEDUCTION! - and that pretty much concluded the evening for me as I had to get up to work the next day. Friday's tournament was HOE and I didn't hear all that much about it (I couldn't play in it because of work). I did hear that Cmputr's 8s full got busted by a Royal during Stud H/L. I think he was eventually busted by Harkness's two pair during hold em. I made it over to the Taj at around 5:30 and I decided to play a couple of hours of 3/6 LHE until the PokerStars dinner. I get a seat immediately (didn't even go to the desk. Literally just went right to the floor) and I sit down at a table full of 60+ year olds with HUGE stacks. One lady must have had 1.5K+. At a 3/6 table, lol. Anyway, they're giving their money away left and right, just as I had hoped. One guy can't even read the board because his eyes aren't good enough. He's asking me every other hand what the suits are, whether that's an 8 or a 9, etc. Most of the conversations went something like this: "What's that?" "Uh, that's a 9 of hearts sir" "Is there another heart?" "Yes, the 3 of hearts is also on the board" [Looks at his cards] "Okay, good. I bet" The funny part was that he NEVER deceived people. If he said "great" or stopped asking, he had something good. If he kept asking what the next card was, he hadn't hit yet. This actually saved me some money later on when I flopped middle set with 88 and he turned a J high straight. Once he stopped asking and there was a rainbow board, I knew he'd hit. Not that I'm bragging about picking up a 3/6 tell from an 80 year old. Anyway, I hit a few hands, lose two big pots with two pair vs. a set (one rivered - granted, it was an overpair to the board, but still frustrating) and I'm up $45 after an hour and a half. Not that great, but it's limit with calling stations... not much you can do without the cards. I head up to the PokerStars dinner and find a table with Gamble, his girl, Cmputr, his girl, Harkness and another ARGer. The dinner was really good... PokerStars really went all out for the ARGers. Harkness turned out to be a great guy. We talk about everything from his day job (film critic) to his days as an alpha tester for Stars. His payment for that? An ownership stake in Stars. BEST. DEAL. EVER. He's also a poker consultant for Tilt. Not quite as good, but it's kinda cool. We go up to the ATLARGE hospitality suite and hang out a bit with the old-time ARGers and some of the newer ones, including former WPT 25K final tabler Matt Matros. Matros and a bunch of other break off into another room and play a SnG. I talked with Jeff, the head of PokerStars support, and ADB Fich, an old-time ARGer and supposedly a very good player. He finished 3rd in the HOE tournament. Gamble, Cmputr and the crew left long before I did and I didn't know where they went, so I went back to the poker room. I thought about getting into the infamous pink chip game, but I quickly decide I don't want THAT much action from the rest of the table. Just too high variance for my liking. Instead, I sit down for 5/10 (the line was a little longer this time) and the table is donkified like I'd never seen. The guys had NO CLUE how to play limit and they would do just about everything wrong. They would fold when they should call, they'd raise when they should fold, etc, etc. I managed to get a pot HU with this guy with my KK, flop is AKx, I just call the flop, we cap the turn, he CAPS the river with QQ. Really unbelievable. He later 3-bets a flop when he flops the nuts with AQ of diamonds. Surprisingly enough, everyone check-folded on the turn and he missed out on at least $40 in bets from bottom set and two black aces (that's what they said they had, but only after he showed). What an idiot. Anyway, I take down a monster when I flop a concealed straight in an unraised BB with 75. A few other people made TPTK-type hands and one made two pair on the river. Turned out to be a good 2.5 hour session and I go away up another $115. I went back to the hotel and went to sleep excited to play in the ATLARGE NLHE main event. I woke up Saturday morning, drove over to the Taj, got my seat assignment and tried to get myself mentally ready for NL tournament play. I've been playing so much limit ring online and in the casino - it's a complete different mindset. I actually think it hurt me because I reminded myself to tighten up and I think I did that a bit too much. Here's the structure of the tournament: 3K in chips, 30 minute levels, blinds go -> 5/10, 10/20, 15/25, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, etc. A VERY good and slow structure. I was seated at table 2, seat 9. Seat 8 was Amanda, aka widowmaker jr, aka junior, aka niece of aunt joan, etc. Seat 10 was Peter Segal. Other than Peter, it was a bunch of ARG newbies. Here are a couple of hands that I was involved in - none are really that interesting except my bustout hand. I pick up AA 3rd to act with blinds at 10/20. Unfortunately, I hadn't opened any pots yet and I was unlikely to get any action. Surprisingly, I get some action on my std raise, flop is K high, all fold to my flop bet of about 2/3 of the pot. I told people that I had QQ so they would think I'd bet out regardless of overcards. I pick up 44 in the CO, make std raise, BB calls, flop is 4Ax, he checks, I bet (knowing he would be suspicious if I didn't bet with my raise and an A on board, I basically figured my action was killed by the A and I wanted him to pay for any draws if he wanted to stay with them) and he folds. I chip up with a few hands here and there and I'm at about 3400 after a few levels. Considering the structure, there's no rush. Then Amanda makes a minimum raise directly to my right UTG. I look down and see 99 and I immediately feel pain. This is a terrible hand to pick up when the tightest player at the table (this was her first hand in hours) raises UTG and you're second to act before the flop. I decide to muck. She gets couple of callers late. Flop is T9x. ARRGGGHHHHH. Sure enough, she had AA and she takes down the pot on the flop. Obviously, I probably could have busted her with that hand, but it's my fault for being a bit of a tight pussy there. On the one hand, I made a good fold by getting rid of a dominated hand, but I should have realized that her raise just didn't threaten my stack and I needed to try to hit a set. After all, I KNEW she had AA or KK and I would have been able to get away from the hand on a rags board. Llew interjects: OR, you could have flopped your set, checked to the AA who bets big, jammed, and been called, only to see an A on the turn. Talk about AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!! Ok, I owe you a dollar. I make a couple of preflop raises, take the hand down on the flop and I'm at about 4500 when my bustout hand comes up. First, I should say that there's a monster stack at the table. He has 20K plus and he's been running over the table with it. I see a free flop in the BB with Q9o (not the best hand to bust with, lol) and the flop comes 789 with two spades. At this point, the pot has about 1000 in it and I check it to see what I can get in terms of a read on other players. All check to the button (big stack) and he bets 600. I immediately put him on a draw and realize that I may have the best hand with TP. I think and decide I need to go after the pot. The big stack has laid down some hands to big bets and I don't believe he wants to chunk off 4K on some silly draw missing. I know the other players behind me won't be in the hand, so I'm just worried about the big stack. I realize that, with the blinds and antes, I don't have much longer before I'll be in all-in or fold mode (this, of course, isn't correct, but I believed it at the time). That's not my style. I USUALLY play better after the flop and I don't like the push and pray type game. Anyway, with what I thought was the best hand and TP, I didn't want to go away. I then decide whether I should push, make another size raise or just call. I immediately rule out calling because I don't want the other players in the hand and I want a fold from the big stack. The problem with pushing is two fold: first, it looks like I'm on a draw and somewhat desperate, and two, I want to be able to bet on the turn and give him another chance to fold - even if he will have odds. Anyway, I decide to raise to 2K (about half of my stack). This lets him know I'm committed so he won't try to bully me with nothing and it lets me bet another 2K on the turn. My strategy backfired, BIG TIME. He says all-in almost as soon as I say raise and I realize I'm in trouble. I've just put in half my stack with a crappy hand and I'm going to be screwed if I fold. I know I'm at best 50/50, but I decide I have to go with my gut and call against the draw. I don't mind trying to dodge outs in one big hand to give me the stack to play my game. Bad call. He turns over T4 of spades, to give him an up and down, the four flush and an over. CRAP. He's like 3 to 2 to win and pretty much the whole deck is an out for him. I put him on a draw... just not three draws. He hits the flush on the turn and I'm bounced in 133 out of 200. I'd be interested in comments, but don't tell me to check fold on the flop. I know I probably should have done that and I don't need to hear it again. Anyway, that was my NLHE tourney and I decide to head home and get some sleep. I didn't play in the Stud tournament on Sunday as I had a lot of stuff to get done at home and I SUCK at Stud. All in all, it was a funny weekend and I can't wait for FARGO (don't think I'll be able to make it to BARGE). Later, ------------------------- Nat Arem aka N 82 50 24 www.PSCrew.com -------------------------

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

What a great time at ATLARGE 2005, finally the trip paid off. My fifth ATLARGE and making it to the final table and second place was unbelieveable. It's hard to remember all the hands after playing for almost 11 hours..memorable ones I didn't play are just as important. Sitting at table 4, and next to the big blind, I folded A5os - three players stay, the flop AAT - I think it was MikeD in seat 1, goes all in and is called - he's sitting there with AT, full house on the flop. I would have lost this hand and been knocked out - Another hand I didn't play was at the final table with Sean and Chrissie. Sean goes all in, I folded and Chrissie called with a short stack - I folded pocket 3's - a pair of queens and three clubs showing on the turn - river was a 3 of clubs, giving Chrissie a flush - and my full-house not played. Oh well... Hands that paid off - at the final table, I have pocket 9's go all in and Chrissie calls with p3's - the nines take it. And Oscar, what a story - I thought that I knocked him out with K9 and he's left with 2,000 in chips out of the 600,000 on the table. He roars back winnning the next three hands. Oscar and I are siting at the final table with the short stacks and fortuntatley for us, Chrissie and Noelle went heads up a few times, with Chrissie gaining more chips. The women had lots of chips and us poor men were just hanging in there waiting for good cards to play. When the dust settled, it was Oscar and me heads ups - we decided to chop and play for the poster. On the first hand, Oscar with 4-6 to my AK - he caught one of his cards the flop and takes the poster. Other notes: Flowerman, thanks for your cheerful spirit (you should of folded those 5's with p7's showing)- your flowers carried Oscar to the win, how appropriate, For me, Budda was my lucky charm that I got for busting out ???? - I would like to know who that was?? I was too focused on the cards to recall names of so many fine players - Thanks to Pokerstars for a great event and the dealers/managers at the Taj. An idea for next year, instead of having Pokerstars pay for the banquet, use the funds to pay for the NLHE winners' entrance fee into WSOP - $65 per person and 200 people is enough for one entry into WSOP. This would eliminate chopping for 1st and 2nd. Another suggestion, I heard several comments from dealers about the tip - all dealers received a tip, even those not dealing in ATLARGE. Let's explore tipping only the dealers in ATLARGE - they are the ones who earn and deserve a generous tip. And thanks to all the 8-2ers'- nice showing. And to Michael and Joan (alwaysaware) for their support at the final table. Finally, special thanks to Goldie for organizing a fine event and getting the suite for us. Next time I'll make sure the Woodford Reserve from the fine Commonwealth of KY makes it to the suite.... Hope to see everyone next year and maybe I'll make my first trip to BARGE or MARGE with my bankroll from ATLARGE. JAB

I would like to say THANKS to Goldie and Poker Stars for a wonderful experience and to the Taj for a taking care of all of us. Everyone in ATLARGE Thanks for giving me the opportunity to play in your tournament and join a group of great fun and excitement. I have been to Atlantic City plenty of times but was never involved in Poker at all. Never even walked into the poker room for that matter, didn't interest me. Then about a year ago got invited to play in a home game, enjoyed it and started playing in local games all the time and never experienced the huge tournaments like this weekend. I was so excited to take 13th in the NL Texas Hold'em tournament at the Borgata on Friday which was an experience in itself $100+20 buy in and then all the rebuys an add ons, that was pretty scary for me but enjoyed and learned that I don't like the rebuy at all. I saw a guy buy in 9 times and still didn't make it to the final table, YIKES.....Not for me. I would like to say though I really enjoy poker and am very pleased with my 3rd place finish in the NLHE on Saturday, I just cant believe I even made it that far. Uncle Al great thanks to you also for the coaching and pointers that you gave me, I couldn't have done it without you...I came into this thing thinking I have no chance I know very little about poker and I don't know the rules, odds and all the percentages, literally nothing but to play and have fun as long as I was having fun it was money well spent. Uncle Al you really helped me examine the hands and play the best possible plays that I could. THANKS AGAIN. "Now we have to get her into shape for the WSOP double shoot out...." What is this? Welp thanks for the wonderful experience and look forward to seeing all of you again next year. V/R Chrissie

Thanks once again to Goldie for working to hard to put this weekend together. You make it seem easy and I am sure it is not very easy. The Taj once again was a excellent host site and I think they do a good job of handling the group. Poker Stars also has been a great support to our group and I thank them. Additionally they sent Jeff, and it is always great to see Jeff. I also need to thank all of you who played in the tournaments for making sure I did not have to waste too much time in those events. Gosh knows getting back to the lively games at the Taj was much better than having to hang around a tournament until the bubble. I stayed until just after the break in NLHE outlasting about 25 people, but it was in stud where I managed to outlast only a single sole. After winning two years ago I had to work hard to get out that fast. On the other hand I did not have a losing session in live action over the weekend except for playing triple draw lowball in the suite. I lost $21 at the triple draw game, but easily made more back at 3 card poker later in the night. I had a great moment in the Pink game with ATM Chick on Fri when he whined about not being able to win and said he should just give us his money. Chick then proceeded to throw his wallet out on the table and without missing a beat I said " I will cash that in for you sir" and tossed him 5 pink chips while snatching his noticeably lighter wallet. I proceeded to have some good 10/20 sessions over the weekend. I managed to get home up about $800 after absorbing about $500 in dinning costs over the weekend. I guess that is the price one pays for dinning with Timmy, but it was good company. The Hospitality suite was a wonderful place to have a cigar and I enjoyed catching up with friends there. I thought the smoker was great this year. It seemed like just the right number of people with a pleasant combo of new and old friends. It is also a huge plus to be able to actually smoke at the smoker. I look forward to next year. ADB Bigboy Bruce

My apologies to everyone I busted out on Sunday. I have no idea how I did anywhere near that well -- this was my first Stud tourney, and ended up being my first real-life final table (I've cashed at a couple of the weekly tourneys at Foxwoods, but never made it to the final table). Especially since I got whacked three times by rolled-up trips at the final table (including on the last hand, where my illustrious opponent picked up JJ(J) and neither my straight nor flush draws came through after I went all-in on fifth street). Rob "Suddenly" Catlett interjects: "Illustrious?" I'd think "sick card catching prick" to be more accurate. I do recall that I "only" had rolled up sevens, not jacks in the last hand though. I earlier had rolled up jacks to bust Harkness, which I think he appreciated greatly considering the invaluable trinket he gifted me. I "only" rolled up twice at the final table, but since I rolled up on the hand that led to the final table, and busted two others at the final table by getting all in on 3rd street with concealed kings and aces... well... it got a bit out of control. Then again 10K/20K stud with only like 190K total chips on the table isn't exactly a recipe for order and decorum.... I was less successful in the other tournaments -- 7Stud/8 was killer for me in the HOE event (that, and not catching many good hands in the Holdem and Omaha segments), and I got knocked out of it by Nick Matros making a full house on 7th street to beat my flush (he also KOed Russ Fox in the same hand). NLHE was even worse -- I administered a nasty self-beat (there's a moral here, so I feel like I can tell the story). With 500/1000 blinds, and about 25ish players left, I'm third to act preflop with a stack of about $24K. UTG and the next player folded, I made it $4000 to go with JTos. The next player moves all-in and it's folded back to me. I somehow end up thinking I have more chips than I really do, or that his bet is smaller than it really is, or something (I thought I'd still have about $15K afterwards, but I really only had him covered by $8K - a big difference!). QQ versus JT, outcome not so good. The blinds go up to 1000/2000 a couple minutes later, and I get knocked out shortly in 24th when I go all-in with 88 and the SB turns up JJ. Learned an invaluable lesson: double-check the size of your stack *and* the bet when you're going to make a big call! Hey, at least I got to knock out Joan (and a few other folks, but the pocket bass was just priceless). I had a great time this weekend, as did my dad ("Doomster"), who enjoyed himself despite not playing a hand of poker all weekend! He's just learning, and felt a little intimidated... I'll try to get him to Foxwoods for some practice. I met a lot of fun people, came out WAY ahead between the tournament and ring game action (despite never getting into the pink chip game, sadly), and just generally had a good time. I don't know if I'll be able to make it to BARGE, but I should be at FARGO this fall if at all possible, and I can't wait. Thanks a million, --"Big" Matt (Ivester) 'Matthias99' on PP, PS, and Paradise (mostly on Paradise). PS: for struggling through my story, you get a shot at a bad beat (story) jackpot! When I got home, I found $15 in Taj slot machine payout tickets in my pocket, which are only good for 90 days according to the fine print on the back. I probably won't be back in AC before then, so they're no good to me. The most entertaining (and/or pitiful) bad beat story from this weekend wins them.

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

Random Thoughts by 8-2 Mike Random ATLARGE 2K5 Thoughts I'm hesitant to call this a trip report. This is more of a collection of random thoughts, as well as a few items I jotted down on my notepad since I'm utterly incapable of remembering anything on my own. I enjoyed meeting new players; every year I meet more and more of the "regulars" that I hadn't previously. A couple notable hands I had written down: Somewhere in the first round of the NLHE tourney, the blinds were $5 and $10. I was in the big blind and looked down to find the ultimate powerhouse: 2h 4s. So you can imagine my angst when it was folded all the way around to the small blind (8-2 James) who simply called the $5. I decided to just check, in order to conceal the power, with the intent of trapping later on. The flop came down 3 5 9 rainbow. Wow, I'd flopped an open-ended straight draw. 8-2 James bet the minimum ($20) so I called. The turn was the miracle Ace, giving me the wheel. Again 8-2 James bet $20 into me, so I raised to $100. As is his style, James immediately raised me back (to $500). So I pushed all-in. To my astonishment, he called! So I turned over my nut straight and he turned over a hand that looked very familiar: 2 4 offsuit. The river was a 6, giving us both the higher straight and we chopped it up. If only I hadn't slowplayed the monster preflop! Heh. :-) Get get moved to a new table with Lauri, Noelle, Lori, 8-2 Cowboy, Action Bob, and others. This time I'm in the small blind, and look down and find the magical, mystical hand of 8 2 offsuit. 5 or 6 people limped in, so I paid the half-bet. The big blind checked, and the flop was 6 5 A. No help. Where's the 8-2 magic??? I checked, and so did everyone else. The turn is an offsuit 7, giving me an open-ended straight draw. I checked again, and so did everyone else, again. (What the heck did they all have???) The river was the 9, so I got my straight. I bet, everyone folded, and I got to show my 8-2 monster. Other than those hands, I was pretty much cold-decked the rest of the tournament, and I busted out 98th. I sucked in HOE and Stud, too. :-/ The side games were pretty juicy, but I didn't have the stamina to play very much after the touraments and huge dinners. I pulled in $359 in 4 hours on Thursday playing 5/10 at the Taj. Then I ended up -$48 after 2 hours i $1/$2 NLHE at the Borgata. Then another 3 hours at 5/10 at the Taj netted me another $308. Saturday I was pretty much flat with +$12. So in the end I netted +$631 in 12 hours ($51/hr) which is certainly way more than I deserved, considering that I suck. But speaking of sucking, there was one particularly horrible dealer at the Taj. His name was "DAI" and he made so many mistakes that I ended up writing them down. Here's what I was able to record: I had AJ in middle position. It was folded to me so I raised. Everyone folded. I held my cards under my fingers until the dealer pushed me the pot, and then I released them. The dealer then picked up my cards and turned them over for everyone to see! What the....? I looked at the dealer and said, "Why did you expose my cards?" He just looked at me and shrugged. Wow. Welcome to the Taj! I was in the small blind with trash, and someone in middle position raised, so I folded. I had put up a $5 chip for the $2 blind since I didn't have any white chips. The dealer took my cards and my red chip and continued to take the discards from players on my left who'd folded. I'm in the 6 seat, so I'm sitting directly across from the dealer, I said to the him, "I need my change." He nodded to me, and continued to deal out the flop, turn, and river. Then he makes change, taking a red chip from the pot and replacing it with white chips, but he used the change to pull out $4 for the rake. I again reminded him I need my $3 change. This time he doesn't even acknowledge me. He stacks up the pot and proceeds to award it to the winner, at which point I'm forced to slap my hands down on the table and yell "WAIT A MINUTE!" I again explained that I was the small blind and never got my change from the red chip he took from me. So then he had to make change again since there was only one white chip in the pot. But he got all confused, because after he gave me the change, the size of the pot changed he had to recalculate the rake. It ended up costing the winner $1 less in rake. The ordeal took several minutes to straighten out. Welcome to the Taj! The dealer misread two hands: The board was 5d Ks 6d Td 2d, and he announced "three sixes!" and pushed the pot to the guy holding pocket sixes, and everyone yelled "FLUSH" because another player held Ad Ah for the flush. The dealer pushed the pot to the player holding AA with a board of 249JK when the player raising the whole time turned over 99. After several dealers had been begging floormen for a fill of white chips, they finally brought over several racks. This dealer turned the racks sideways to remove the chips, and the stacks spilled out all over the table, even mixing with my stack across the table. And he was *VERY* slow at organizing the white stacks into the tray in front of him. Every other dealer I'd watched manage a fill performed it smoothly and efficiently, but this guy was awkward, clumsy, and obviously unsure as to how he wanted to organize the stacks, since he changed things around multiple times after he's placed them. I think the entire process took 4 minutes, which is a long time when we're all just sitting there watching him. The guy sitting next to me who also witnessed all the other mistakes snickered and said aloud "Welcome to the Taj". A few hands later a few players limped in preflop, another guy raised, a few folded, and the action was up to the guy in the cutoff position. While everyone was looking at the cutoff, waiting for his decision, the dealer proceeded to scoop up the bets and deal out the flop. *sigh* Welcome to the Taj! The guy sitting to my right (in the 5 seat) turned around to chat with a buddy that came up behind him. The dealer and other players had to remind the guy twice to act. On the turn the guy was again turned around, chatting, so the dealer took his cards as if he'd folded and the hand continued. Nobody said anything. Finally the guy turned around screamed "hey, where are my cards???" and the dealer told him that he folded. The guy said, "oh, what was the river, I was going for a flush, I didn't realize I folded". He was fooled. I'm not sure if the dealer's actions were correct or not, but we sure all appreciated it since the guy was consistently more interested in his conversation than in the game... Well, that's all I can remember. I did have a great time, as did all the other 8-2 Club members. Only 358 days until ATLARGE 2K6! -- 8-2 Mike

Extremely slow day at work here, so I thought id regurgitate some of the more memorable experiences from my ATLARGE weekend...Before i do though, let me echo the many who have already thanked Goldie for puttin on such a fine shin dig. Thanks, Stevan. So It's Friday morning in Albany, NY. I had planned on Leaving around 5:00 am to allow for plenty of time to make the HOE trny without having to rush, but somehow managed to oversleep (woke up, alarm was off and it was already 5:00. D'oh!) and didnt get on the road till 5:30. Thank you biological clock. Do you think on any other day I'd manage to only oversleep by 30 minutes? Hells no... My drive was uneventful till i got close to the city - i was scanning the radio stations and found myself stopping momentarily on a christian rock station - listening bemusedly as the DJ ran down the songs recently played..i dont remember the exact name but they were titles like "In you lord", and "all for him", "My life for yours", "divinely severe", etc... anyway, as it turns out, i received a little divine intervention when the DJ suddenly announced there was a major Traffic accident on the garden state around exit 140 - They reported some kind of car explosion on the guard rail/median, closing 2 lanes in one direction and one lane in another. Traffic backed up for 15 miles in both directions---woah! The DJ actually said to use the NJ tpke! Now Im really worred about getting there on time, so on impulse i take the exit for 287 south, not even knowing if this will get me close to where i need to go. Well wouldnt you kn! ow it, but praise the lord, 287 was the way to go---hooked me back up onto the GSP about 20 exits past the accident where im sure i would have sat for hours lamenting my never ending string of bad beats...nevermind that someone else probably took a much worse beat in that traffic snafu than I. Anyway, its just kind of cool that i happened to be listening to the radio - i dont usually do that. Ok so I get to the Taj with about 40 minutes to spare before HOE. HOE itself was so uneventful for me I dont even recall how i busted out. I just remember being somewhat glad it was over in plenty of time to make it to the Borgata's 100 R+A NL. I run into Uncle Al in the poker snack shop, and we decide to head off together. You'll find references this trny in Pizzamans 2004 ATLARGE report where we ran into eachother. Last year, I managed to build a stack of 20K without rebuying or adding on - i was looking forward to the same this year with the intent of playing much better in the later stages. Last year i pissed most of my stack away by jammin with AKs preflop and losing to QQ - a rookie mistake i think, given i had no need to gamble at that stage of the game. Oh well, this year will be different - this year I will nurture and love my stack, not treat it with disdain....And so, this year that is precisely what i did. Once again, no rebuy necess! ary, but i did take the addon. by the break i had a modest stack of 9K. If i hadnt played a single hand for the first hour, and just took a rebuy and an addon (double) id have 8k with which to work - so im happy with where im at. After the break I see how Al is doing and he is still on the same patch of ice since that morning when we shared the same table for HOE. Al has 1 hand left to play... and we're already talking about whether or not he should wait around for me or if i should just grab a cab when im done. Anyway, at the table, me and the big stack to my right take turns pushing the table around - im getting hands, not stealing, and build my stack to a nice comfortable 30K when the following hand comes down (for those who have already heard this story, i owe you another buck): With 30+ players left and blinds of 800/1600 (9 get paid) i look down at AQ off in early position. I know I know, AQ isnt all that from early position - moot point - i make it 4800 to go and all fold around to the sb who smooth calls. I dont take this player to be a very savvy player. He was calling a lot and showing down some pretty mediocre stuff so im not too terribly concerned. As a matter of fact, Im almost positive i have the best hand at this point as he probably would have rerraised if he had anything better than AQ. BB folds. so the flop comes down 9J2 offsuit and the SB picks up his cards and looks at them again, then moves all in for a little over 15K. there is now north of 25K in the pot and i am contemplating a call. i am 90% sure he is just on a draw - with what hands would you raise all in with in this spot? i could only come up with 1 legitimate hand - AJ. i figure an overpair would have been reraised b4 the flop, and a! set would most certainly be slowplayed in this spot... so im counting down my chips, considering all this while i count the 1k chips, when suddenly the dealer says, "thats a call". "wha? huh?" - "Yes sir. here at the Borgata any chips placed in front of your cards is considered a call." Great. Well that made the decision easier i guess, but no less painful. As it turns out, the guy had QT and flopped an open ended draw. Despite being ahead, I was pissed. pissed that this guy took a stand with QT, pissed that i was forced to call a hand that i could easily have passed on - so what if i have the best hand. on that flop, take my 4800 - nice bet sir - lets move on...long story short the little sonofabitch hits a K on the river and Im back to being a small stack. I never recovered from this. I get moved to another table right in front of the blinds. In the sb i see 77 and move in against the BB who woke up to JJ. ighn. Taxi!!! So I finish right around 8:00 and take a cab back to the Taj to join everyone at the banquet where countless peeps heard a less robust version of the aforementioned. Sorry guys. "Im gonna call just cause.... what the fuck..." So Friday night im still sort of licking my wounds from borgata, not really feeling in the right mindset for cash games. If there has been any evolution at all in my game in the last 2 years its been to recognize when i shouldnt be playing it. So as opposed to dropping 400 playing 10 20 i ambled up to the hospitality suite where i found a sit n go about to take off in one of the side rooms. 20 dollar buy in, 100 in chips to start. attendees were harkness, Oscar, Zippywon, action bob, Matros, Pizzaman, Golfman?, Joans Neice (amanda?), and i apologize but i think im forgetting one person. I suck. Joan "AlwaysAware" Hadley interjects: Barry is your missing man. Amanda? nah, "junior" This was fun and a lot more unorthodox. Before it starts I ask if I can coach Amanda instead of playing, it allows someone else to play and Amanda can learn to play bad poker :-) They was no rebuy rule until ActionBob busted then he immediately inquires if he can rebuy for $40 for a stack of $100. A bit of discussion, then sure, why not. ActionBob tells Matt that he will be rebuying and Matt assures him it is so negative EV that he will not. Well, Matt busts and sure enough he rebuys. At this point it's a bit clear that Amanda, er I mean junior is getting a bit frustrated because I am telling her to fold every damn hand. So, Matt asks if I want to play his chips. I play Matt chips and he becomes junior's mentor. ActionBob continues to be ActionBob and goes all in on almost every hand and a lot of them blind. It is jammed to Amanda and Matt asks what she wants to do. They decide to call down Mr. Action with KJ of clubs and Action produces a real hand, I forget what it was..... Whatever it was, Action wins and Amanda is busted I then inquire if Amanda can take over Matt's stack, and instead of moving her we move Matt's stack to where Amanda is sitting (because we can sit/stand behind her whereas Matt's former seat, then my former seat you can't) Amanda makes a standard raise with pocket 3's (or maybe she called a small raise?) and there is 4 way (five way?) action. The flop brings a 3 and I tell her to check (thinking that other will think she missed, make a play at the pot and she can break them) Everyone folds and Matt is dismayed saying she should have bet it out since so many were interested preflop. Junior also seems a bit frustrated with me, Matt asks her what she wants to do, I tell her what to do (go figure) So, I decide to leave the coaching to Matt. Chris/Tick leaves to get Kem cards and I play his stack. He has a huge stack and pocket 9's when it comes all in to him (but short) and I suddenly wish I hadn't begged to play his stack while he was gone. So, I pull out the "red card" and ask for the pro. Matt blurts out "you kidding? you're all in" Everyone else folds and the opponent (who was short) shows AK or QQ forget whatever it was, it was good or hits the flop or something. It gets three handed and those that rebought (total of 4 I think) have to make third (3 spots paid) to break even. Amanda makes second and Matt graciously lets me take my 20 back, he takes his 60 back and gives Amanda $20 for playing, leaving $20. Matt and I look at each other, it should really be his, but since there's a 10 and two fives I give him the ten, a five to amanda and five to mayself. So I made $5 and Matt $10 in our backing of Amanda. But she made $25.... hmmmm, lol. But she had a great time, but decided to go to bed when we switched to live play and triple draw 2-7 lowball. this was perfect for me - even if i blow up in classic tick style, most im gonna lose is 20. And Who better to lose it to than this fine bunch.... Everyone was having fun. Harkness dealt and we used a bar of bathroom soap as a button ('Soap moves'... 'who's got the soap'...). Anyway, Action Bob was busy doing his action bob thing - raising blind, going all in dark and ut! g, etc... as a result of his play, he occasionally lost a hand, so they adopted a 40 dollar rebuy policy that was allowed until there were no more chips to dole out. A couple of times in my BB, Bob had gone in and I'd look down to see a medium pair, so id call and It'd actually hold up. Once all the chips were doled out, things seemed to wind down pretty quickly. I had chips the entire time- no rebuy - maybe pissed away half my stack on a bad call but no memorable hands to speak of. Made it to 3 handed and we had Golfman?, myself, and Amanda?, who eventually took 2nd place. Amanda had joan advising early on and Matros Advising for the later rounds - but towards the end there she was cognizant of a lot of the correct moves before confirming with one of said advisors. So if youre reading this, well done, and im sorry for being unsure now of your name. Short story shorter, i sucked out on both Golfman? and amanda? in classic tick style to win the thing. 180 for first. woot! I think after that i pissed away 130 playing 3 card poker with some argers. Good times. time for bed. Like so many others, I had a tough time sleeping that night. I can usually rely on modern science to assist in a good nights sleep when not in my own bed, but was s.o.l. that night. Woke up with a headache and still more than a little sleepy. I really wasnt in the right mindset for the NLH trny. We hadnt even started yet and i was already bummin about how long it was going to take. I ran upstairs to starbucks and slammed a double espresso to try and charge myself up a bit. Bought one cold espresso can to go. i think it might have worked for about 5 minutes tops. I dont think i made it farther than level 3 - we started with 3k and i was down 1k after playing 2 hands in not the smartest fashion. I walked away from the table for a few minutes. Shortly upon my return i play my final hand . The guy to my right makes it 700 to go - a sizeable raise for the level - and I look down to see QQ. Im a little worried im up against a bigger pair, and i have no clue who this player is or how he plays so I smooth call intending to let it go if an ace or king hits the flop and he comes out firing. (So Its already been brought to my attention that ive been playing in a manner that maximizes my chances of folding - live and learn). Jerrod Ankenman interjects: This isn't the same situation. If you think the other guy is usually going to be on AA, KK, or AK, which I think is wrong, but is consistent with your play, then for some stack sizes it's right to play it the way you did. If your opponent has AK, he'll be forced to fold and miss out on his opportunity to see the turn and river which could be AK. Also, you get away from QQ vs AA/KK when an A or K hits, which is nice. Now, in real life you should probably just jam because raisers aren't that tight. QQ, more than any other strong hand in NL, benefits from seeing the flop against another strong distribution. I'm not trying to browbeat you or anything...:) Flop comes Jack high with 2 spades and he checks. there was 1400+ in the pot and he checks. Ill blame it on fatigue, but i only bet 500. He check raises me all in. and i call. him: AK spades. The dealer has already dealt the turn card giving him the flush before i even see him flip his 2 cards over. nh.! I dont see him folding if i go all in preflop, or on the flop when he checked to me, so this was to be my fate. Pink Chip games... Never had so much fun losing in my life - ok, well - i lost on Saturdays game but managed to eek out a win on Sunday - which was in and of itself a major achievement for reasons ill get into later on. Let me first mention that as i was waiting for the pink game to start up, I got a seat in a 10 20 game that was just opening. As i was waiting for that game to begin, i chatted with a gentleman who remarked as he surveyed the ATLARGE tourney that he lacked the patience to play in those types of events. I immediately took him for a live one, and sure enough, when the game began my very first hand dealt was AA. I lost to our friend who held QT of clubs and jammed and rejammed with 2 clubs on the flop. He got there on the turn and i paid him off for 2 more bets. First hand of the cash games for me that weekend. yay. Within minutes of the 10 20 opening, the pink chip got started and i immediately decided if i was gonna lose money, I would have fun doing it. And so within minutes of the pink chip game beginning i picked up AA again only to get roasted by dilli when she hit a set of 6's. In sympathy, she tosses me 6 chips. thanks for that. Dilli would be owning me for pretty much the entire time that day - didnt matter what i had she would end up turning it into the 2nd best hand. Others can attest to her prowess that day. SO i wasnt doing well - was down 150 or 200 and had taken a break, when i returned i sat out the remainder of the round while waiting for it to be my BB. I was one hand from posting when Action Bob, who had been sitting at the 2nd game with endless rows of pink and was now standing behind me and says to me, "Aww you gotta straddle that!" He says "dont even look at em" as he puts up 6 chips out of my stack. At the other end of the table was Len who i believe 3 bet it. I forget the exact action, maybe there was a caller around the button or bb, but anyway bobs like "lets see what we have to work with" and we look down at 56 spades... "Aww... we gotta cap THAT!" We actually ended up taking the pot down when our 5 paired the river card. but the flop and turn gave us a ton of outs as well. Thanks Bob... So Im actually up for the first time that day, but i slowly bled it off and eventually picked up the last few chips and bills an hour or 4 later down 250. Sorry Bob... Sundays game followed a disappointing finish in the Tajs's 100+20 Nl - I made it down to 3 tables when i woke up to KK in the BB and it couldnt hold up against AT. I echo other comments that the structure of these taj trnys leave you desperately short stacked in the blink of an eye...nuff said here's the incredible thing about Sundays Pink game: In 3 separate instances I would make a raise in early position with AK, only to be 3 bet by Zippywon across the table when it came around to her. On the first hand, The flop came A high, followed with a lot of betting. She had AA. Case Ace on the flop. 2nd time, The flop came AKX, lots of betting, and she ultimately flips over KK. Case King. 3rd time, A high on the flop, lots of betting - AA again. Case Ace. This was within a ten minute span. Even the 2 locals at the end of the table actually came out of their comas to comment. Anyway i managed to take down a huge pot against a local with 7's full and had one or 2 other good pots so despite my crushing losses to Zippywon, i managed to walk away up a couple hundred. After a short time at the game it was time to head for home. Not counting the atlarge trnys, I blew a little over 400 for the weekend on tournaments and cash games. Not a very good weekend for me poker wise, but one of the richest times in all other aspects. Thanks everyone for helping to make atlarge a blast Chris

Readers know I got some challenging news to deal with last week and at the last minute needed to change some travel plans. Once completed, travel from the midwest went according to schedule with the "positive ev" exception that I got to Philly two hours early. This translated into catching earlier trains and checking into the Taj on Thursday afternoon about an hour and half early. "Wow, time for rest".(ding!) At about 6:00PM I was up and in the poker room ready for the Taj $120 NL Tourney. Last year I missed cashing by two places but thought I really played well; that is for a guy with lousy cards. This year I didn't last long enough to remember any details of play. What I do remember is a very different structure than the year before. This year, after what seemed like only three rounds, we started paying antes, "wtf!". So there was forced gambling and the field was quickly decimated. At this point, if I recall, my QQ went down easily with players looking at draws to stay alive. Note: Next year try the Borgata. "Ok, lesson learned! Now for some kibitzing." There's Suddenly (looking green around the gills, prm (always good to see), Goldie(terrific guy and a great organizer), some assorted ADBs, with, I'm sure, many more familiar people coming tomorrow. Friday morning with coffee and eggs at the Taj's Bombay Restaurant and in comes Barry K.(Mr Raise), and Russ P., the man who would become this years HOE Champ. Barry asks me to join their table and I'm glad to do so. Casual conversation ensues until we drain the extra cup of Joe and head to the poker room. Goldie's there, Russ F., many 8-2's and other familiars as well. This year's "sooper secret" surprise was really a pretty nice hooded sweatshirt with an Atlarge emblem on the front. "Well done Goldie!" Last years HOE Champ, Uncle Al, and Lew are at my HOE table. It's a fairly active table and Uncle Al is the first one busted! How can this be? Then I met Steve C.(Death Valley). This guys has an absolute knack for dragging river cards. He put me out of my misery with completed back to back straight draws against high pairs. Later, in the NL Tourney I was at his table again. He can play. Later that afternoon I played $5-$10 for an hour; plus $90! (ding!) The Pokerstars Banquet was simply superb. There was so much good food, fresh fruit, plentiful desserts, drinks, and good company. I sat with Scottro, Oscar(tomorrow's NL Champ), Nick and Matt M.(brothers and good guys), Barry K., and Russ F.(cali Russ, the accountant). (I apologize, as I may have overlooked someone.) While walking down to breakfast Saturday morning and passing the poker room, I saw some die hard argers still hanging in from the night before. "More power to 'em!" The No Limit tournament was a gas. Goldie and the Taj modified the structure to accommodate us and in the process we played a long time for the buy in. I ran for periods hot and cold and thought I was getting enough good cards to keep me in until the later rounds. That turned out to be false. I ended up on a short stack at an active table. John H., Oscar, a new arge acquaintance Mitch K.(a slightly older guy like me), at least five newbies and Steve(Death Valley were at there. Desperate at one point, I went all in with pair of nines and got two callers. I didn't improve and won the hand. "That's an active table!" When I was short stacked again, and in the small blind, I called a small raise. Pizzaman, in the big blind, re-raised and two of the three of us were all in again. This time I was dominated and went out 89th in the field. By this time John H., Death Valley, and Mitch were all busted out. "Time to find the pink chip game" What fun! The Atlarge pink chip game is just a blast. This year I was at a table that didn't get awfully "lit up". We were playing close to the vest and fairly straight forward poker. There were fairly decent sized pots, yet I don't think the entire time we played anyone was more than two stacks off. There were two locals, Marshall, Jerrod, Jeff S., Michelle, Kim and Eric H. A good time was had by all and I think most of my donation went to Kim and Eric. (Apologies again to forgotten players at the table.) By about 10:30 I'm in bed thinking about traveling home early the next morning. If I haven't mentioned it, thanks to Goldie for all his work in organizing this event, Pokerstars for sponsorship, and the Taj for all they do to make us welcome. This was an great arge event. Out.

Results for ATLARGE 2005.

Partial bustout list for ATLARGE 2005 tournaments.