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