ATLARGE 2006 on BARGE.org

ATLARGE 2006 Bustout List

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Players in the order they busted.

ATLARGE 2006 Results

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Results for ATLARGE 2006.

Trip Report: Cactus Kev

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

CHAPTER ONE: "MMMMMMM, THAT IS ONE TASTY BURGER..."

8-2 Greg offered to drive this year, so he picked me up around noon on Thursday, and we headed north to White Marsh to pick up 8-2 Chris at his place. I had never seen his home, so he and his s.o. Maggie gave us the half-hour tour. Then, it was off to get some lunch before we started our three hour drive. Chris recommended a local burger joint called Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I'm always up for a good burger, so count me in. Well, I have three words for this restaurant: Best... Burger... Ever! And the cajun fries were just as spectacular! Beats Fuddruckers by a mile, and that's sayin' alot.

(At this point, I must jump ahead to Saturday morning at breakfast, when I am invited to sit down at a table full of fellow ARG'rs; some familiar, some not. Anyway, I look across from me, and some guy is there wearing, I kid you not, a Five Guys logo shirt! So, I immediately introduce myself, singing the praises of the food served there, and I find out that he owns four of the franchises in Maryland, and is planning on opening some more in the near future. In fact, one is due in Columbia in about three months! So chalk that up in the "it's a small world after all" category)

Okay, we manage to find our way to A.C., amusing ourselves with Greg's new GPS dashboard device along the way. Once checked in, three 8-2'rs manage to talk me into walking over to the neighboring Showboat casino to play in their 50+10 tourney at 7pm. So we get there, only to find that it's actually now a 60+15 tourney. Grrrrrrrrrr. Oh well, I reluctantly sign up and last an hour until I go all-in with KQs preflop, and lose to a player holding QQ when no King materializes. I grab a late dinner at the House of Blues (I highly recommend the Elwood sandwich), and then call it a night.

CHAPTER TWO: WHEN IN DOUBT, CALL THE FLOOR

Friday was the H.O.E. tourney, and we started with an even hundred players each with T1500 in chips. As before, the 8-2 Club has a "Best-In-Show" pool, where those members wishing to participate put in twenty bucks, and the player that does the best in all three tourneys combined gets the entire stash. This year, eighteen of us decided to join the pool, making this year's prize a sizeable $360. I was hoping for a repeat of last year, where I won the "Best-In-Show" cash pool. I get the pleasure of chatting with Chris "ABP Tick" O'Connor while we play, and upon seeing his bust-out prize of a CD of his guitar music, we strike up a conversation about our musical endeavors. When I don't bust him out, he promises to put some MP3's of his music on an FTP site for me to download and give a listen. We find out that a lot of ARG'rs have musical interests. Maybe we should entertain the thought of having an official ATLARGE band at the dinner next year! :)

I am playing reasonably well, win a sizeable pot on the Eight-or-Better round with (AK)2A47(8), and at the first break have increased my stack to T2375. I eventually get moved to a new table, right next to 8-2 Greg and 8-2 Sandra. We finally get to the 200/400 level, and then it happens. We're playing Eight-or-Better, and I get dealt (7J)A, all hearts. I raise, and Sandra is the only caller, and is showing a four. My next card is the Ten of Hearts for a four-flusher on four cards. Sandra gets a King, I bet and she calls. My next up card is another Ace, and she gets another King. I bet and she calls. My last up card is a black Nine, and Sandra catches another Four for two pair. She bets and I call, still hoping to either make Aces Up or a Flush on the river. We get our final down card, and I wait to see what Sandra does before looking at it. She bets, and I steal a glance at my last hole card, hoping to see a heart. It's the Eight of Diamonds. Now, here's where it gets hazy. For some reason, I think I have already said "I call." I probably think this because I have just pushed practically all of my stack into the pot during this hand, leaving me with a mere T500 in chips. My mind was still locked on hoping to get a heart, or another pair for Aces Up. When I see the Diamond Eight, I start turning over my entire hand and shaking my head in disappointment. Suddenly, as my hand is completely revealed, I see that I actually caught a Straight on the river. I wake up, and state "Hey, I have a Straight! That might actually be good enough to win." At that point, practically the whole table chimes in with an accusing "But you didn't call!!" I sit for a few stunned seconds, and then manage to sputter out a "Yes I did!" The table in unison responds "No you didn't!". I look at 8-2 Greg and say, "I really didn't call?", and he answers to the affirmative, and the dealer finishes pushing the chips to Sandra. I angrily get up and punch the nearest window. After a minute of cooling down, something dawns on me. Although I apparently didn't say "I call", I still hadn't really done anything yet. Well, other than expose my entire hand. All seven cards were turned up, but I hadn't officially said "I fold", or "I call", or even "I raise." The consensus at the table appeared to be that when I had exposed my hand, I was automatically folding. As it turns out, that is not necessarily true. The next day during breakfast, I asked various ARG'rs at the table what the ruling should be in such a situation. I got mixed results. Some said my exposed hand was dead. Some said I could still act. Some said it depended on which casino you were playing in, as the rules varied. Since there appeared to be no definite answer, I eventually sought out the tournament director on Saturday (I think his name was Marvin or Melvin). After filling him in on what transpired, he told me that my hand was indeed not dead. I could have still called or raised if I wanted to. So that was disappointing news, to say the least. I had been playing extremely well in the H.O.E. tourney, and probably could have made the final table had I not lost all those chips. I guess what is even more disappointing is that nobody came to my rescue after I exposed my hand. All I needed was just one person to inform me that my hand wasn't dead, or to at least call the floor for a ruling. Or instead of yelling "You didn't call!", perhaps said "You didn't call yet!" Oh well. Mark it up to experience, I guess. I busted out at #47, and joined other 8-2'rs for a late lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.

While waiting for the PokerStars buffet, I passed the time by playing 2/4 limit hold'em at an extremely easy table, and wound up winning $78 by dinnertime. The food was great, and the talks were entertaining. Still sorry that Wil had to cancel, though.

CHAPTER THREE: LIVING ON THE BUBBLE

Saturday, I started the NLHE tourney on a table somewhere in Delaware. It was pretty far from the main crowd, that's all I know. Saw a couple of familiar faces -- zippywon, adb bfb, prm, and suddenly. Eventually got moved to a table with 8-2 Dennis, and had T1525 at the first break. Was down to T1150 after break two, and then had a meager T500 after losing with KTs. Doubled up on the next hand with pocket Nines, and again when my A7s beat K9o. Have T1700 at the third break, with the limits going to 100/200. My pocket sixes double through against ATo when the flop hits a six, and shortly after, I jump to T6400 when my pocket Aces crush pocket threes. Right before the next break, my KJo wins with a flop of JJx, and I now have T8500 going into 200/400. I lose a chunk when everybody folds to my little blind hand of ATo, I raise all-in on a semi-steal, but get called by the big blind holding Aces. That knocks me down to T5200. By the time we get to three tables and thirty players, I have dwindled to T4200. I get another table change, but continue to catch dreck, and wind up with T3500 when we hit the 400/800 level. Finally, we are down to nineteen players. They pay the top eighteen, and I'm the shortest stack of the crew. Everybody tightens up their play, and I pray for a decent hand before the blinds reach me. Nothing comes, and I have T1100 when the T800 big blind hits me. I get one caller (fellow 8-2 member Jason Abell, who wound up placing sixth in the tourney), and look down to see J8o. Not the best hand, but not total dreck either. I raise all-in with my remaining T300, and my opponent shows A7s. Neither of us hits, and there is much rejoicing as I become bubble boy, busting out at #19 of 174 players.

I try to take some 8-2'rs to the House of Blues for dinner, but it's way too crowded. We wind up back at the Hard Rock again, and then I join 8-2 Mike for some 5/10 limit hold'em. It's a rollercoaster three hour ride, and I call it a night down $34 for that session.

CHAPTER FOUR: THE THREE STUDS

We had a short field of 49 entrants in the Stud tourney this year, and started with T1000. Stud's my favorite game, and I increased my stack to T1760 by break one, T2375 at break two, and T2625 when the levels went to 300/600. Only 8-2 Chris and myself are in the running for the annual 8-2 "Best In Show" pool, and I feel I need to beat him by at least ten or more players in order to win. I get moved to 8-2 Cary's table, and shortly afterwards, he and I get involved in a hand that generates a nice size pot that I wind up winning. At one point, I was getting hit by an disproportionate number of low card bring-ins. After something like four in a row, I went ahead and placed my bring-in out in advance, telling the dealer and the other players that I was officially buying the bring-in for that hand. Sure enough, the dealer gives me a Trey of Clubs for the bring-in, and the entire table erupts with glee. Great fun.

When we get down to two tables, there are only three 8-2'rs left in the game: Chris, Greg, and myself. Quite apropos, considering that we all drove up together. I get moved to Chris' table when somebody busts out, and I eventually get my chance to knock him out of the tourney. Chris is the T100 bring-in with a Deuce, everyone folds to me, and I complete it to T300 when I get dealt (QJ)J. Since another player had folded a Jack, Chris knows that one of my Jacks is dead. He goes in the tank, looks at his remaining T700 chips, and decides to raise to T600. I re-reraise him his remaining T100 to put him all-in, hoping to knock him out and increase my chances of winning "Best In Show". He turns over (82)2. How appropriate :) Or, should I say, how ironic, as he catches a third Deuce to make trips, beating my eventual two pair of Jacks and Sixes. With Chris taking a large chunk of chips from me, I don't last much longer. I go all-in with (AK)JJ against (QT)T8, but bust out at #13 when my Jacks don't improve, and my opponent catches another Eight. I grab a quick poker snack bar grilled cheese and fries, and return to find that Chris has since busted out. 8-2 Greg busts out shortly thereafter, so we pack it up and head home after my traditional single roulette wheel spin as I leave the casino. Number 3 hits, and my friend Sarah is the lucky winner this year.

Trip Report: Dave Fruchter

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

First of all, thanks to Goldie for organizing Atlarge and making it happen once again. What once was "this thing of ours" has now metastasized to "this thing of everyone's". The amount of grief he must have to put up with has got to be close to overwhelming. I truly believe that when he's had enough of it Atlarge will be no more. I usually organize a 10-20 person dinner at the various ARG events I attend and then just before each soiree I swear I'll never take on the responsibility again. I have nothing but respect for Goldie and the work he does. If everyone in the world acted like Goldie, then maybe his goofy left-wing/socialist utopian vision might have a chance. Good work Comrade.

The Great Pinball Heist

Thursday evening and the first pre-atlarge event is a pinball competition at the Scheinberg Compound. Kim Scheinberg, editor, writer, Tom Petty look-alike and arcade game enthusiast graciously opened her estate to the great unwashed of ARG.

About 10 of us made our way through the metal detector and past the pat down to her basement playroom(s). The main room is dedicated to classic pinball machines and three of the walls are lined with, I believe, 10 games in mint condition. I didn't investigate the rest of the basement, but I thought I heard chains rattling and some muffled screams off in the distance.

We all took some time sampling the machines. But just before the competition we were invited back upstairs to check out the new in-home theater. Three levels of lounge chair and sofa stadium seating. Massive screen, surround sound and HD projector. Not too shabby. Kim's husband is the proud papa of this project and he was eager to show us what this baby could do. We decided that the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan would be a suitable vehicle for a test drive. Very Nice. I'm still trying to clean the brains off my shirt.

Back to the pinball. Some idiot (with brains still dripping off his shirt) suggested we make the competition "interesting". We all kicked in $20 and it was decided (by Kim) that the tournament would be decided by total points scored on four machines (also selected by Kim). One small problem with this system was that on three of the four machines the typical score was in the millions while on the fourth machine the typical score was in the billions making the competition essentially the high score on that one machine. We divided into four groups of three and started to play. About an hour later three of the groups had finished playing all their games on three of the machines for a total of nine games played. At this same time, Kim was just finishing up on the third ball of her first game (the high scoring one) and had amassed about 60 BILLION points. The machine is literally flashing messages like "Total Devastation". Since we had to leave her home at about this time in order to make it to the "smoker" and she had the rest of the field covered, she won the cash by default.

DADDY, I HAVE CIDER IN MY EAR!!!!

Leave the "action" to Bob

The smoker over, about ten of us head back to the Taj to gamb00l it up. We decide that our fortune will be made at craps and look for a table. All of two tables are in operation and they are pretty crowded. We slide over to an unopened table and call the pit boss over. We reach in our pockets and collectively pull out thousands of dollars. Waving the bills for emphasis we politely ask the gentleman to open the table for us. Evidently The Donald has no need of surplus gamb00lers and we are denied. We all toast The Donald with bile.

Our quest for riches is temporarily stymied until one of our party is struck by the epiphany that there are, in fact, other casinos in Atlantic City. One of which is conveniently connected to the Taj by a sheltered walkway. We head to the Showboat.

The Showboat has all of one crap table in operation but luckily (for them) it is completely empty when we arrive. About 3½ minutes later all of us has had a chance to shoot the dice at least twice. Our quest for riches now permanently obliterated we shift our quest to one of drunken mayhem and head to the Showboat poker room.

The poker room has three or four tables of 1-2 no limit and 2-4 holdem going with a couple of open seats at each table. Tim McGarvey and I scoop up the no limit seats and a few others fill in the 2-4 seats. A few rotations in and I'm bored to tears. I turn to see what's going on at the limit game and notice that the entire 2-4 game has been emptied of locals and is now entirely populated by Argers. There is an open seat and I pick up my chips and fill it. I ask what happened and am told (surprise surprise) that Action Bob and Buckshot along with their protégé Kevin "Golfman" Conlin have blind capped the locals off the table muttering to themselves. Tanya the "Queen (Harpy?) of RGP" is busy ordering round after round of kamikazes for the table. Piled on top of my "smoker" imbibings I soon achieve a state of incoherence and cognitive impairment while trying to avoid incontinence (that would be pissing myself for the vocabulary challenged).

The madness continues for a while with the primary beneficiaries being the dealers who are tipped massive amounts for everything from the successful completion of a flop to bonus tokes for player cursing. A local returns to the table and I decide to get into the flow by having an "Action Bob Moment". I look at the dealer, point to the local and say, "If he wins this hand I will toke you whatever the size of the pot is." I figure this is a pretty empty promise since the local is going have stand up to the blizzard of bets that my pledge will guarantee, and even if he does he actually has to find a way to win the hand.

The Local's 8-4 makes two pair and I peel off two hundred dollar bills and hand them to the dealer.

Action Bob should be required to wear a T-shirt when he plays poker that reads:

"Stunts performed by professionals. Do not attempt to duplicate"

Trip Report: Doug Dunn

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

THURSDAY:

It's Thursday and its time to get ready for my trip to AC. I'd been putting off an alignment problem in my car that had been trashing my tires, so I decide its best to get that fixed before the drive. I drop the car off at Firestone, because they were the cheapest I could find locally for 4 tires and an alignment. I'm told it'll probably be 2 hours so I decided to walk across the street to the shopping plaza to kill some time. Apparently I look like an easy mark, because I'm propositioned by two hookers and a dealer before I can get to the Rite Aid which is less then 100 yards away from the tire place. I let them know that I'm going to AC and can find much higher quality hookers and drugs there.(just kidding if you are reading this Heather)

I kill some time looking around Rite Aid, and end up buying some Antacid and some cinnamon mints that contain all the crap that energy drinks do that keep you wired. Both of these came in very useful for the trip. I notice a barber shop pole farther down the plaza and decide that I could use a haircut, and it would be a good way to kill some time. I walk in and there are only 2 guys in the whole place, and they are in the back of the shop playing whatever the latest version of NBA Live on playstation is on a big screen TV. I was going to tell them not to stop as I was in no hurry, but they didn't look like they had any intention of stopping for me anyway.

I watch them finish up the game and the guy that appeared to be the one actually working there lost in the final seconds. Tim Duncan was the MVP of the game if anyone was curious. Fearing his emotional loss could impact the outcome of my haircut I offer to play him a game first as I was killing time anyway. He is a young skinny guy with a platinum grill that included large fangs. I throw the game to him, by picking the Wizards and he beats me by like 30 points ending the game with Yao Ming shooting 3 pointers.

I contemplate asking him why gangster vampires need day jobs, but still fearful for my hair decide to leave him in the good mood from stomping me at NBA Live and take a seat. He does a decent fade, but it takes him forever to do it. The haircut only costs 10 bucks which is amazing to me, so I give him a 20 and let him keep the change. I walk back to get my car this time avoiding the crosswalk and intersection.

The tire people tell me that there is more parts jacked up that are messing with the cars alignment, but I don't have the time to fix it as I have to pick up my girlfriend and get to the PHI airport by 430. I just won't mention this to anyone riding with me. Well we arrive at the Airport on time (ish) and call Tanya. She meets us outside the baggage claim, and I have to say that I didn't recognize her at first. She looks much younger in person then she does on her blog picture. She mentioned that she gets pissed of when getting carded for drinks, but I'd probably card her too. Lisa her friend that we were also meeting and taking up to AC was delayed a slight bit, but we found her with no problems as well and off we went.

Me and my GPS lady decide to take them on a nice scenic tour of a small town outside of Philly as they are tourists before we actually get on Interstate to AC.(If you here any accounts of this that differ from Tanya or anyone else they are lying!) I pull in to one of the left exit Gas/Food stations about 40 miles out as I was low on gas. All of the pumps on the left side were full so I drive around to face the other way where nobody is waiting. This Gas Nazi yells at me and says that my car can't face the other direction. I was unaware that which direction your car is facing makes a fucking difference while pumping gas, but since she is the expert and all I turned my car around and stretched the nozzle to the other side of the car. Gas Nazi yells again and tells me there is no self service at this gas station. I tip the Nazi anyway as I'm sure there is some anti tipping road spikes setup for such situations.

Traffic was a little rough and I had depleted my arsenal of small talk so I turned on some music. Little did I know my passengers were fans of hardcore rap, so we listened to almost the entire Lil Geezy CD before we got to the Taj where we are staying. Check in is a little slow as they only have 2 front desk clerks working, but we still manage to get settled in and meet back downstairs to head to the smokers dinner.

GPS lady and I take us directly to the Old Waterway Inn (anyone who disputes this is a liar!) The 4 of us walk in and there is a small group at the bar of who I recognize .... Nobody! I mostly just chatted with Lisa as Tanya was off and socializing. Lisa was really nice and we even convinced her to have more drinks then her norm. Although one of the younger guys from MD did actually recognize my name and says he loves my posts! (Chew on that Chrisbro!)

We have several drinks before moving to a large table for dinner and I lose a game of Roshambo to Tanya so I have to let her buy our drinks. She was very generous for a simple ride from the airport and even offered to pay for our dinners! No way I was letting that happen, as the bill was split evenly by the number of people and each persons share was around 100 bucks. I knew there had to be a reason everyone was getting the surf and turf with a bottle of wine! You guys just wait till next year, I'm calling ahead to make sure they've got some Louis in stock and going to town. There was a pool where everyone puts in 10 bucks and writes down the amount they think the bill will be including gratuity. Someone nailed it to the dollar, and I'm certain they are sleeping with the waitress.

I'm reasonably drunk now, but somehow convince our group that I'm the best choice to drive! It occurs to me that I may not have been the best choice to drive when I pull in to the Showboat self park instead of the Taj. I blame it on the GPS lady. We are supposed to meet back up with everyone but me and Heather get sidetracked at a bar on the way. We eventually head back to our room, with me having the intention of sneaking back down to play some cards. Heather has other intentions and that pretty much brings us well in to Friday morning.

FRIDAY:

This is the best night of my life. I can't believe I actually talked Jessica Alba into coming back to my room with me. Man I must have won a fortune last night there are stacks of hundreds all over the bed. Wait why is she beeping? There must be a bomb inside her! Huh? Oh it's the fucking alarm. (Jessica Alba is my pet name for you if you are reading this Heather I swear!) I wake up, hit the shower, and head down to the poker room around 10am. I get my ATLARGE badge, apply for a Taj Card, sign away the rights to my 1st born child, and register for the 11am Hose tourney.

I go to the first podium and ask to be put on all the NL lists. This consists of 1-2 and 2-5. I ask if there is anything higher, but this podium doesn't deal with that so you have to go to the other podium so that they can answer no for you. I figure they are just trying to help me lose weight so I'm not mad at them. I get called for a 1-2 seat and I kid you not when I say this is the absolute best 1-2 game I have ever been in. And that really means something coming from me.

I take the 8 seat and buy in for the max $300. There is an older middle-eastern guy(Meg) in the 5 seat with over 1k that puts in a raise or reraise preflop with any hand that he likes, and he likes a lot of hands. There is a French guy in the 3 seat that I'm pretty certain is using some form of randomizing device to pick whether he bets calls or checks on every street with no regard to the board or his hand who also has over 1k. The rest of the table is pretty much on tilt I'm guessing from giving the 2 big stacks their stacks.

First hand I watch there are 2 limpers to Frenchy who makes it 20. Another guy that I swear just sat down next to him with 600 chips smooth calls, and as expected MEG raises to 100. Frenchy smooth calls, and the 600 chip buying in bastard pushes. MEG declares all in as well and Frenchy declares call. The powerhouse hands you must be dying to know? ATo for Frenchy, QQ for 600 chipper, and presto for MEG. Well the stupid QQ holds up and I'm not happy about this at all. I'm sure he bought in for that just a few min ago. And to make matters worse the dealer just counts out the amount he had from the 2 big stacks and completely ignores the fact that MEG declared all in and his 55 beat the ATo. So now my main mark only has 400ish left.

Meg takes down the next 4 or 5 pots preflop with raises or reraises, then stacks the guy to the left of me when he rivers 2 pair against the other guys top pair. I limp in early position with Ad 9d. Someone else limps and Frenchy raises to 10. Meg picks up his hand so I can clearly see it from 3 seats away holding it over the table so I say to him I can see your cards. The table informs me he has been doing it often and has been told about it. Ok fine with me if its fine with him, he calls with 2h 4h. I call and the other limper folds??. The flop is Tx 8x 6x with one diamond. I check Frenchy bets 10, Meg calls and I call as well. The turn is another T not a diamond and it is checked around. The river is a 5 and meg bets 40. You heard me right, the guy who showed his 2 4 is now bluffing on the river. I raise to 80, Frenchy folds and Meg looks at me funny and asks "You have good card?" I see no reason to lie and tell him I have A9, he doesn't re-bluff and I take it down. A new guy sits down to my left and buys in for 200. Frenchy opens for 20, Meg raises to 40, I call with 55 (hey I AM at an ARG event, plus I'm pretty sure I'm still ahead) and the new guy Smooth calls on the button? The flop is 8 8 5! Frenchy checks, Meg picks up his hand and shows my half of the table 9hTh and checks, I'm not happy about this and check. To my surprise the guy on my left pushes for his remaining 160. Frenchy and Meg fold (damn you new guy) and I quickly call. New guy comments he didn't even know I was in the hand as I snap off his QQ.

Its already 1130 by now, and while I don't want to leave this game I figure I better get to my seat before they completely blind me off. Little did I know the tourney wouldn't even start for another half an hour! I don't know anyone at my starting table, but I actually didn't know very many people at all at the event. The table was ridiculously tight with the exception of Maverick who raised about every other hand. I took down quite a few pots with re-steals, then the one time he made a stand in Omaha I made queens full with my a q 6 4. Our table was the first to break, then my second table was the second to break.

I was at 3kish chips from my starting 1k and in the 100-200 level of Stud Hi/low when this hand came up. Paul Mcginis(sp?) He seemed to be taking notes, so you might get better details from his report. He opened with a K showing and I re-raised with Ad5dAc. All folded to him and he called. He catches a 4x and I catch a Td. I bet and he raises. I'm not sure how the 4 would have helped him other then 2 pair or adding some low possibilities to a flush draw, but since I'm going to be out of position I just call. On 5th he catches another K and I catch a 7d. He bets and I call (probably not a good idea, but I'm not sure he doesn't just have K's up and I did pick up a flush draw.) I don't remember what he caught on 6 but I caught a non diamond 4. He bet and I called. The river bricks for me with no low/flush or 2nd pair and he checks. I check and can't beat his 3 K's.

That table broke too and I went out in an Omaha hand where I re-raised the flowerman Steven Jacob's late position raise with Ax Ks 5s 3x. The 8-2 club guy in the BB called as well. I bet all in on the K 8 8 flop, both called and 82 guy's 8 9 7 2 takes high and flowermans A Q 3 4 gets the low. Out in 22nd for no loot. I stand up, kick myself square in the nuts for leaving the 1-2 game and go put myself back on the list.

Unfortunately both of my buddies had long since gone bust, so I get in to a 2-5 game. My first hand I play I make a sizeable river bluff with AhKh on a 4 spade board, and get insta-called by 2 pair. Good start! I had QQ hold up against JJ, but no other big hands of note and cash out 300 ahead to go to the Pokerstars dinner.

I met up with Heather, Lisa, 8-2 Goodfellas and the MD home game crew I play with occasionally and we hit up the Pstars dinner. The spread was really good. Prime rib, grilled veggies, some kinda chicken and fish, desserts ect. The main guest speaker was Tom McEvoy. He seems like a really down to earth nice guy, but his public speaking skills leave a lot to be desired. Instead of a pre-written speech, he babbled a bit awkwardly then opened up the floor for questions. Nobody asked one for what seemed like forever which was even more awkward. Then they bludgeoned him, or more importantly my ears with pointless drivel of the evolution of the WSOP. Our table started to slowly empty, I think the last one standing was Lisa who we left by herself. (sorry but I could take no more)

I intended to make it back to the card room, or another casino but somehow ended up at a bar or a club. I'm not really sure which, but there was music and lots of crown and coke's. Heather was drinking some Martini concoction that included red bull, a cool glass, and required 15 bucks. I guess the Taj's philosophy is that if you can't be a real classy casino you should at least charge like one. Anyway we got tanked and made it back to our room sometime in the A.M. I do remember someone dancing to En Vogue, and wanting to remember to write up something comical about it. Unfortunately the details escape me now.

SATURDAY:

I get woken by a call from my friend Jeremy who is driving up to AC to play in the NLHE tourney with us today. It is early and one of my eyes won't open. My other eye soon gets jealous and closes too and I'm sound asleep again. Jeremy gets there about 9:30 and finally forces me out of the room about 10:30. We run him through all the crap you have to do to get in to the tourney: see Thursday report for details, then jump in a 1-2 NL cash game as I know the tourney won't actually start till 12:00.

I'm at the same table with my friend Jeremy and a guy from my first table of the Hose tourney, but that's all that I recognize. The guy on my right orders a jack and coke, and asks if I'm going to order anything. I cave to peer pressure and get a crown and coke, when I realize he just wanted to use me to order another jack and coke so he could have 2 at a time! Our table is pretty boring, not much action at all. At one point I raised 4 straight hands taking the blinds, and I didn't look at my cards for the 3rd and 4th hands.

We're at the 10-25 blinds level I think. I cut my chips in front of my cards for a raise, which is apparently a big NO NO, and somehow the dealer determines my raise to be to 75 when I moved a stack of 1k out there to cut the chips and had cut a raise of 125. I have no idea how that was decided but am ok with it as I actually get 2 callers for a change. I have AhKh and the flop is Ax 9x 2x, I don't' remember the suites because its already Thursday and I'm just writing this. Its checked to me and I bet 200. One folds and the other raises me to 500. He only has 200 chips left so I re-raise expecting to have him dominated. Well he turns over As2s for 2 pair, but a 9 on the turn and blank on the river send him home.

I'm the chipleader at our table by far with over 3k from the starting 1k, but since our table has little action I'm probably pretty far down the totem pole overall. I don't remember any big hands of note after that until my bust out hand. I still had over 3k, but it was at the 50-100 blind level when Badman Dan raises to 400 UTG. I have QQ and raise to 1400. He asks me to count down and when I tell him what I have he reraises enough to put me in(I think he had like 5k) and declares that he is on a draw? I assume that means AK and call. He has AcQc, and hits not only an ace, but makes the flush too. Out in 58th or 59th, just good enough for the last longer bet I didn't get to make!

I hook up with Goodfellas crew, as they are staying at the Borgata tonight, and I wanted to check out there room. I call ahead because I heard the lists could be ridiculous(and they are!) and am told they have lists for 1-2, 2-5, and 5-10 NL. I get 3k from our room safe which I'm sure housekeeping probably has a master code too, I mean what do they do if someone forgets their code? We head over and I take off to the poker room while they are checking in.

The poker room, also has a race betting place and a lounge that need to be immediately removed and replaced with poker tables as I am still number 40+ on all 3 lists. I go back and check out their room, its nicer then mine and they are paying $225 less! I kill time, by tipping over old people at the slots, then go check on my list progress. Still waaaaaay down the list, but I notice on the automatic board that there is open seating for 25-50 NL??!! WTF they told me there was only 1-2, 2-5, and 5-10 on the phone. I ask one of the podium people and they confirm that there is open seating, so I go get a rack of green and sit down in time to post the blind. Well for some reason the 50BB minimum buyin that they use for EVERY other table is different for this game. I'm told I have to buy in for 5k minimum. Well I don't HAVE 5k on me, because I thought 5-10 would be as high as I would get to play. I look like a complete jackass, and have to pick up my chips and endure the list.

Fortunately not long after that they start up a new 10-25 NL game that had a 20+ deep list. Only 3 people showed up so I got to get in immediately. The 3 that were there bought in pretty deep all having at least 5k, but they hardly ever played a hand even though we were 4 handed. I was up 500 without having gone past the flop when a 5th player sat down. He was a younger guy with a really hot girlfriend. He didn't want to endure the list either so had decided to play a bit higher. He bought in for 1k and was given shit by the other players, but I was friendly and he seemed cool. He gets his stack in the very first hand against the guy that was giving him shit, and wins lol. I never make a pair that I didn't start with or better, but am up 1200 when they call my name for 5-10.

I loved the game I was in, but the young guy said he was soon leaving for dinner, and on of the originals had already left. We had been playing over an hour with nobody else joining so I feared the game might break and didn't want to have to go to the bottom of a list to play again. So I took the 5-10 seat, which was at a great game. There were multiple stacks over 3k and TONS of action. The table quickly informs me that only 1500 of my chips can go in to play. Everyone is so concerned with what I buy in for here! One lady is moved to our table with 1500ish in chips and calls a 600 all in bet on the river, where the board is A K J T 5 with 8d 9d. And no I don't have the board or her hand wrong. AQ takes down a 2k pot. And she happily rebuys, well at least I'm happy about it. She pays off a few of my big hands, although not quite to the same extent.

There is one Swedish guy that has around 3k in chips that lost a big hand where his q 4 filled up on the river against aa on a a q 4 j 4 board who goes on major tilt. He raises every hand for the next few rounds, and every time someone makes a stand he hits a monster lol. He snaps off AK with K8 for about 1k ect ect.. The guy on my right is obsessed with the floor lady Anne(sp?) who I must admit is model quality. But he is making some pretty derogatory comments and it pisses off the ATM lady and she leaves. Right about this time is when Heather comes and gets me for dinner. I hate to leave now, as I've worked my stack up to over 2500 and I just KNOW the Swedish guy is going to eventually give me his chips.

We eat at the Metropolitan café or somesuch place. I had the garlic mussel steamer and it was pretty good. She had some salad creation and said it was good too. Dinner takes about an hour and when I get back there is virtually none of the same players. What a bad beat. I lose a few hands, including the one I posted the other day to RGP, and cash out 1700 which was quite a disappointment all things considered. I'm a little bummed at my bad play towards the end of the night, so we had back to the TAJ around 1am. As well pull in to the parking garage the lady asks for our room #, and we find out that we didn't have to pay for parking after all if you are staying there. The other lady must have pocketed my cash to support her family/crack addiction. For some reason Heather orders a movie of which we don't pay any attention to anyway(obviously part of her overall scheme to keep our expenses above my poker profit). And that's it for Saturday.

Trip Report: Gabe DeVitto

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

(From his blog: www.deucehighnogood.blogspot.com [dead link —ed.])

This is my first trip report, so I apologize if it is choppy or poorly written. Friday morning I hopped on the train from Philly, and arrived at the Taj around 10am. The poker room was already hopping, so i quickly registered for At large and the 11am HOE tournament. This was my first time playing At large, and I was struck immediately about how friendly everyone was. I really didn't know anyone here, and I was worried about feling awkward, but everyone was very nice. I was more nervous than usual to be playing a tourney, since I never played Stud Eight or Better in person before, and in fact, had only played it online the first time earlier in the week. Well, I figured, this would be a nice lesson. I arrived at my table, and was immediately shocked about how few chips we would be starting with. Fortunately, this situation was quickly rectified, as we received an extra 500 chip, to give us a total of T1500 to start. Luckily we were starting with limit hold-em, a game I still consider my bread-and-butter (even though I probably play more no-limit at this point). The first few rounds were uneventful, as I didn't play a single hand outside of the blinds in Hold'em. Omaha and Stud didnt go much better, and i was quickly down under T1000. Then came my first lucky break, (and one of the few hands I remember), as I was dealt a suited A, 2, 3 in Omaha.. Better yet, the board came 333, and I was called down to the river. That put me right at my starting stack again, and that is where I stayed until the first break.

Right after the first break, I got involved in a big Stud pot, where i made a 6 low, and two pair and scooped the whole pot. Now for the fist time, I had some chips. From there I won a pot here and there and kept my stack about steady. At that time, Bill Chen was moved to my table. Now I had never met him, but I knew that he was writing a book on game theory (along with Jerrod Ankerman, who unknown to me had been at my table early on in the tourney). I asked Bill about the book, and he was nice enough to tell me some details in between scooping some big pots. Meanwhile, I noticed people were dropping like flies, and for the first time I wondered if i had a chance to sneak into the money. Right as that thought hit my mind, I was carded off my table and onto another table with 2 huge stacks. We were on Hold'em and I picked up KK on the button. It was raised and called when the action got to me, and I three bet and got two callers. The board came three rags, two of them spades, and I was check-raised, at which point I three-bet. We were heads-up until the river, and when a queen hit, my unlucky opponent had to call me down with AQ spades. That was a huge pot, and I quickly became the chip leader at the table.

Naturally, I was almost immediately thereafter carded from my seat. At this point in the tourney we were down to about three tables. My new table turned out to be fairly aggresive, especially a woman across the table who raised almost every pot, much to the consternation of one member of the table who dubbed her a "raising station". This strategy turned out to be highly successful, and it would not be the last I heard from Jodi (I soon thereafter learned her name). Meanwhile, we switched back to hold em, and I picked up QQ on the cutoff, raised, and Bill Chen called from the BB. The flop came 10 8 2 rainbow, and Bill check-raised me. I three-bet, but was somewhat worried that I was behind. Now, for the first time in the tournament I got lucky and the board paired deuces--I didn't find out how lucky I was until the river when Bill turned over 10 8, and I scooped a big pot. I now had a huge chip stack, and with the bubble approaching, quickly used it to my advantage, stealing a fair number of pots. Finally, after a annoyingly long period of hand-for-hand play, we were in the money, and down to 2 tables.

Once the bubble burst, people were dropping like flies, and quickly we were down to the final table. I would say I had a slightly above average stack at the start of the final table, and I felt good about my position. Unfortunately, the cards had another idea, as I went through an entire rotation of games without playing a single pot, save for two blind steals with garbage. Fortunately, a very nice woman named Llew entertained me with great stories as I folded hand after hand. Also, this quickly became the final table where no one would die, as anyone that was all-in was guaranteed to stay-alive. After about an hour, however, people began dropping like flies, and we must have lost 5 people in 5 hands. I was able to eliminate two players when my aces held up in Omaha, and we were down to 4 players, me, Bill Chen, Rob Catlett, and Jodi Neufeld. Bill, who was due to speak shortly at the poker-stars sponsered buffet was eliminated by Jodi, and if memory serves me correct, she eliminated Rob on the very next hand.

I started heads-up at about a 2-1 chip deficit to Jodi. The blinds were so high, and it was so late, that we just decided to play No-limit Hold em with blinds of 5000/10000. There were only 150,000 chips in play, so I knew there would be a lot of pre-flop pushing. Jodi , of course, quickly informed me that she had won theFossilman heads-up championship at FARGO, and I could quickly see why, as she was very aggresive and difficult to read. To compound my problems, I feel like heads-up is the weakest part of my game. I was, however, able to push over the top of Jodi on a couple of hands and get the chip lead. Very shortly thereafter, Jodi raised, and I looked down to see AT0. I pushed in, and Jodi correctly called with KQ. The flop came down KQx, and I was down to hoping for a J, which did not appear. Jodi had seized the chip lead back, and from that point on, she plain and simple whooped me, and earned the title and the majestic plaque that came along with it. After collecting our loot, Jodi and I went to the buffet dinner, and I enjoyed both great food and a great presentation on game theory.

After about an hour i excused myself, checked into my room at the Taj, and laid down to take a brief nap with the intention of meeting some friends at the Trop for some later night NL ring games. After 11 hours of poker, though, my body had different ideas, and I woke up at 5am not knowing where the hours had gone. I eventually fell back asleep, and woke up just in time for the NL tourney the next morning.

The NL tourney was much less eventful for me (although I did receive a bottle of cider as a bustout gift) About two hours in, I called a raise from the big blind with T9d. The flop came Q and two baby diamonds, and I raised the flop. The pre-flop raiser thought a long time, and pushed the rest of his chips in. I had him covered, and the pot was offering me almost 3-1, so i called. Alas, no diamond came, and i was down to T400. Shortly thereafter i pushed on the button with Q9, was called by KJ, and did not improve. I was out in 133, but I still had a great time. After playing some ring games for a couple of hours, I had to head home, and didn't get to play Stud on Sunday. Neverthelss, I had a great time at ATLARGE, and met some really nice people, and can't wait to play again next year.

Trip Report: Jodi Neufeld

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

(From her blog: http://www.noninetofive.blogspot.com/ [dead link --Ed.])

Matt and Ivy picked me up bright and early and we left Brooklyn for AC. The first thing Matt told me when we got in the car was that the gas gauge was broken (permanently stuck on "E"). He then informed me of something even more hysterical: that I would be playing the H.O.E. tournament when we arrived at the Taj. I hadn't planned on playing this event. I've had historically abysmal results in limit hold 'em tourneys. My Omaha game is so-so on a good day. And before this weekend, I had played Stud O8 exactly once in my life. Overall, not a lot of reasons to play a $120 tournament involving these three games.

We arrived just as the tournament registration was finishing up, and since I couldn't check into my room until noon I decided I might as well pass the time reuniting with fellow ARGErs at the poker table. Matt finally convinced me by offering to take half my action. I told him it was a lousy investment, outlining my reasons from above, but the long drive and lack of breakfast must have addled his brain because we ended up making this deal anyway. After a mad scramble to get a Taj card, I signed up for the tourney and took my seat. I was about to play my first H.O.E. tournament.

I played at so many tables in this tourney that it's hard to recall who was at each one. Please yell at me if I forget you or get this wrong. Players I remember from my first table were Kenny, Matt, and Laurie Caulkins. Laurie had a nice set of chopsticks from her recent trip to China as her bust-out prize and I eyed them covetously. I don't remember any hands from this table, and in fact the most memorable thing that happened was Ivy Janet bringing us all a box of sinfully delicious Krispy Kream doughnuts. Mmmm, doughnuts.....argharhgahrargh.

I found that the rotation game format really kept me paying attention in this tournament. Having to think about a different game every half hour or so kept things interesting, and I really enjoyed it. (Anyone know of any rotation tourneys online?) I found that my Omaha game was on par with the players around me, and I muddled through the Stud rounds without spewing too many chips. My basic strategy in Stud early on was to fold almost every hand except the ones I was 100% sure were playable, pinpoint the players at my table who seemed to understand the game, and watch them play theirs. (I also saw a fair number of examples of what not to do...)

My stack remained healthy through most of the early rounds. As the blinds increased, I started to worry more about the fact that I would not be able to make it deep in this tournament without winning some Stud hands. The pots in Stud were the largest being played, and I needed to get my hands on those chips sooner or later.

My first huge pot was not in Stud, but in Omaha. One player limped and I limped behind with A4xx double-suited (sorry I don't have more precise hand histories). The flop came with two low cards and one diamond. I held the Ax of diamonds. The turn paired the board, and I donked along to the river, where I hit my flush. I called one bet, as did the limper behind me, and when we turned up our hands I was up against a smaller flush for the high and ended up with half the low as well.

I was accumulating chips nicely and never had much concern for my chip stack. Until I was moved yet again and found myself with Jeff Caulkins and Bill Chen on my right and Rob "ActionBob" Hwang on my left. And oh, good, the Stud round was beginning.

Bill wonders if he'll make it to his speech on time.

I don't know much about Stud O8, but it seemed to me that as long as I went for the low, I could sometimes back into a decent high and still win. I scooped two huge Stud pots at this table, both with two pair. How could this be?? On one hand, no one had a low, so and on the other my two small pair were good. Is this common in Stud? My only other experience with split games is Omaha, and two pair are rarely good for the high in that game.

Stacking my chips, I looked up and saw that Jeff had a pair of chopsticks as his bust-out prize just as Laurie had. I wanted them. During the Hold 'Em round, I looked down at two red sevens. Jeff was short-stacked and called my pre-flop raise. The flop came ten-high and he moved in. I wanted those chopsticks real bad so I called. Jeff showed two overs (ace-jack, I think?) and got no love from the turn or river. Jeff was out and the chopsticks were mine! Woot!

Now I had a serious stack, and entered my favorite part of a tournament: the part where I have chips and start raising like it's going out of style. During the course of this tournament, someone gave me the nickname, "Raising Station." I took that as a compliment. I was able to steal some blinds/antes/pots during the next few rounds (and to be fair, I was also getting smacked with the deck) and built my stack even bigger. One by one, players were getting knocked out around me (and sometimes, *by* me!). I started to think I might have a shot at going really deep in this thing.

The raising station (center).

Thank goodness I've built up my tourney stamina online during the past few months, and thank goodness that the deeper you get in a tournament, the less the specific game matters. Nine hours after we began, I found myself at the final table. The blinds were insane, and any given hand could turn the short stack into the chip leader (and vice versa). I made this swing a couple of times myself as we remained eight-handed for nearly an hour. Then there was a rapid series of bust-outs and we were four-handed: Rob "Suddenly" Catlett, Bill Chen, Gabe DeVitto, and me. It was approaching 8pm, when the banquet was supposed to begin, so we had a pitiful number of sweaters. They were busy admiring the Poker Stars ice sculpture upstairs.

Since I was a moron and didn't record any of this sooner, I have no remarkable hands to report. Bill busted fourth, followed by Rob, and that left Gabe and me to duke it out heads up for the trophy and the money. After some brief confusion, Gabe and I decided to switch to NLHE, since it would make everyone's lives easier. After several hands, I thought it would be sporting to mention to Gabe that I'd won the Fossilman heads up NLHE event at FARGO in October. Upon hearing this he decided to come over the top of me on most of my (steal?) raises and put me in some very tricky situations. The blinds were 5K/10K and there were only about 150K chips on the table.

Gabe had the chip lead and I held KQo. I raised and he pushed all-in. I only had about 3BB in my stack so I called and he showed ATo. The flop treated me well: KQx. No help came for Gabe and I was back in it. We traded the chip lead back and forth and played heads up for about half an hour. By 9pm it was all over, and I had emerged victorious, scoring my first official ARG tournament win. This meant several things:

I was a HOE champion (NOT a champion HOE).
I got a fascinating plaque.
I was in the running for "Best All-Around."
I owed Matt Matros two thousand bucks.

So apparently the theory still holds true that I should play any tournament Matt tells me to (I always win them). Apparently I am also a good investment. Interested? :)

I don't know why I even went on so long about this frigging tournament since the real fun began once it was over. Gabe and I sashayed over to the cashier to collect our winnings and then set off to find the banquet. Ten hours of playing makes a girl hungry! The food was excellent, and we even made it in time to hear Bill and Jerrod speak. After feasting in celebration of my victory, I met up with Ivy Janet and we headed over to the Showboat for drinks. Then we found Matt, Kevin, and Buckshot and continued the fiesta in the Taj's lounge. The conversation was great and the company was even better. It's so nice to have so many friends gathered in one place. It just doesn't happen that often, and I really feel blessed when it does.

After one last late-night cameo in the poker room, and some pit game nonsense with Steve and Ivy, it was time to retire. My awesome roomie Joan and I recounted the evening's adventures and then got some shut-eye in preparation for the next day's event: No Limit Hold 'Em.

Saturday Night Fever

I got a decent amount of sleep and woke up ready to play the NLHE event. I went downstairs to buy in (Taj card at the ready this time) and then grabbed some breakfast with Rob "ActionBob" Hwang, Steve "Buckshot" Benton, and Chris O'Connor. The service was slow but the food was decent, and after loading up on eggs, home fries, rye toast, and coffee, I headed over to the poker room.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I consider NLHE to be my best tournament game. I felt relaxed and ready for action as the first hand was dealt. Coming off of a four thousand dollar win helped a bit to boost the ol' confidence as well.

As the first cards were in the air, Jeff Caulkins found his seat at the next table over. You may recall from my last post that I won a lovely pair of chopsticks from Jeff the day before.

"Ten dollar last-longer?" he said to me. I quickly agreed.

I got few hands during the first couple hours and hovered around 1K in chips, winning most of my hands by living up to my new moniker ("raising station") and stealing blinds or whole pots. Still, after having 150K in chips in front of me the night before, my stack felt woefully small, and I was wondering if I'd get to experience that again at any point today.

My first chance came when I was dealt KcQc in early position. I raised it up and got called by the short stack and by the woman in the big blind. Unfortunately, once again I do not remember the specific action. I know the flop had two clubs and a queen, and I know the river was a third club. The short stack was all-in on the turn, and I bet the river and got called by the big blind. I won the side pot and was ready to rake in the main pot with my king-high flush...when the short-stack rolled over Ac9c. Sigh. Nice hand, sir.

I was moved to another table and found myself across the table from none other than my breakfast buddy Buckshot. ActionBob was hovering behind him, and I soon realized that Steve was more interested in busting out of this tourney and going to gamb00l it up with Rob than he was in accumulating chips. This was good information to have when I was dealt AQo in middle position. I was short-stacked at this point and moved all-in. Steve went into the tank. He said, "I have two over-cards," so I knew I had the best hand. I then reached into my bag of tricks and did what I could to induce a call. (Sorry, I won't reveal exactly what that entails -- if you were there, you got to witness something truly special. j/k). In the end, Steve's desire to bust and go gamb00l it up probably induced his call more than anything I was doing, and he rolled over AJ.

"Don't worry," I said, "the suck-out is coming." This always seems to happen when the player who is behind wants to bust out (ie, players online who have to leave the tourney and are trying to dump off their chips). For once this didn't happen and I doubled up. Woot!

I was moved to another table, this one over by the wall. The wall is actually mostly windows that separate the poker room from the hallway (read: smokers' paradise). There was actually a crowd, some smoking, some not, pressed against the glass watching this table. Apparently there isn't much to do in New Jersey at noon other than watch a $120 poker tournament. Feeling like a fish in the aquarium, I sat down and took stock of my new table. Players there that I recall were Eric, Stephanie Sommers and TracyB. Others I remember are Matt Hawril, Jeff Caulkins, Bill Chen, Dave Fruchter, and 8-2 Chris. (Again, please yell at me if I forgot you).

Tracy had a sweet clock as her bust-out prize, and Jeff had another prize from China, this time a kick-ass wine cozy which was a miniature embroidered, traditional Chinese garment. I wanted it. I also wanted to win our last-longer bet! Soon I had my chance at both. (Jeff, let me know if I get this hand wrong.) I think I had pocket sixes on this hand, and Jeff had two overs (I think KJ). He was very short-stacked and pushed all-in. The price was okay and I had a decent stack behind, plus there was a Chinese wine cozy up for grabs and two red Taj chips with my name on them. I called and my small pair held up. For the second day in a row, I had knocked Jeff out of the tournament. Nothing personal, Jeff -- you just have to stop bringing such kick-ass bust-out prizes!

8-2 Chris pouting because he wanted the wine cozy.

So now I had chips. Here is the part of the tournament where I have chips and start raising like it's going out of style. Unfortunately, today was also the day I decided to misread my hand. I was on the button and on a steal with Ad 6d. The small blind folded and the big blind, whose name I don't remember but who plays very solid, called my raise. The flop came Kd Qd x. Beautiful! I lead out with an almost pot-sized bet. The big blind pauses thoughtfully, then moves all-in. Wonderful! I look back at my cards to check on my two diamonds...and see that Lord Voldemort has transformed them into two hearts!!! Cursing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and my own fricking stupidity, I am forced to muck and surrender a huge chunk of my stack. Now I need chips again.

So anyway, steal steal steal, I hang around for a while. I'm dealt Qd Jd. Wary of suited cards (and dark wizards), I check the suits carefully and limp under the gun. Usually I would raise, but I felt like mixing it up, getting lucky, and doubling up in brilliant fashion. Alternatively, there was still time in the day to go to the spa with Ivy, so busting would be fine with me too. Dave Fruchter obliges me and raises, and I call. The flop comes 8d 9d 9x. I check. Dave, who has exactly two thousand chips left, bets a thousand. I raise and put him all-in. He shakes his head, thinks for a bit, and then...mucks?? I shrug and take down the pot.

The blinds are huge and I steal some more. Eric is getting sick of my "raising station" ways and starts to push back at me. I'm dealt QJo in the big blind when Eric raises under the gun. (I apologize once again for the lack of blind or stack sizes. Suffice it to say that the raise represented about one third of my stack.) I knew I had the worst hand but decided I might be able to outplay him with a stop and go. If he had a big pair, I would head to the spa. The flop was not bad: 2 3 4 rainbow. Not great if he had an ace, which he very well might, but I thought he might even fold an ace if I did this right. I pushed all-in for another 2800, which was about two thirds of his stack if I remember correctly. He thought for a long time and was muttering things like, "I raised under the gun. Under the gun! And you called...and then you pushed in on that flop..." etc etc. He seemed indignant that I would be so aggressive when he had raised under the gun. Eventually he mucked his cards. A la Chao Jiang: "I like play pokahhhh."

Eric beats himself up for folding a winner.

Eric was to get the better of me in the end, though. With the blinds up yet again, I was short-stacked yet again after losing a coin flip to Bill Chen. We were about twelve players from the money when I picked up A4o in the small blind. It was folded around to me and I raised (big surprise). Eric didn't surprise me when he moved all-in. He had me covered, but I needed chips, and my goal was to win this thing, not finish 18th, so I called. I was surprised when he turned up A8o. The flop came ace-high, but the rest were low cards and there was no split pot. I was out of the game in 32nd place.

Just like the day before, even more fun awaited me away from the poker tables.

I first headed over to Red Square, a bar at the Tropicana. Matt, Ivy, Kevin, Rob, Steve, Dave Fruchter and his wife Leslie were all there and on their second round of appletinis when I arrived. The drinks kept coming and the conversation was lively, ranging from poker to politics, mixed with lots of laughs. We had an eight o'clock dinner reservation at Cuba Libre, but before that we decided to engage in some karaoke antics upstairs. I think we scared the crap out of everyone else in the place with our fervor for this art form. After showing everyone my very convincing Cher impression and ripping the hell out of "Love Shack," I had worked up an appetite for some Cuban food.

We all trooped down to Cuba Libre and met up with the Kuznicks for dinner.

Someone ordered mojitos for the table, but I couldn't drink mine because it was way too sweet. I enjoyed some sweet potato and ground beef croquettes as an appetizer, followed by the "El Churrasco", a delicious steak with garlic potatoes and yucca fries, washed down with a spunky 2006 Coca-Cola. Richard Brodie, eat your heart out.

Matt and Ivy were moving from the Taj to another hotel, so I helped them move their car after dinner. We had an unexpected adventure at the new hotel, which had its parking garage on the second floor. This garage was only accessible by a car elevator. Since I obviously lived to tell the tale, we can laugh about this now, but it was pretty touch-and-go as we maneuvered the car into the elevator and rode up to the second floor. While I'm glad I can cross "drive car in elevator" off my lifetime to-do list, I'm also glad I will probably never have to do this again.

Back at the Taj, I decided to check out the action in the Poker Stars hospitality suite, since no pink chip game was going in the poker room. Up in the suite, a rotation game had sprung up, $1/$2 HOE. Since Kevin and Steve were hanging around, I knew this could get silly pretty fast, so I grabbed a seat and joined in.

While I was there, Goldie was kind enough to bring me an ATLARGE hoodie, which I had been wanting all weekend. Now would be a good time to add my own accolades to those expressed on the ATLARGE listserve, because Goldie did a fantastic job of organizing and running this event. Thank you so much for all you did, Goldie -- your energy and your dedication are just amazing. And thanks for the hoodie!

The biggest pot I won in the rotation game was one where I decided to straddle blind (hold'em round). Of course it was capped pre-flop, and on every street, and on the river the board was like J T 9 7 3. The pot was huge, but then Chris O'Connor bet the river and two people folded. I looked at my hand and saw I had a seven. I didn't see how I could fold for one bet, even with Steve behind me. So I called. Steve mucked a nine face-up and Chris confessed with a grimace that he had absolutely nothing. I won the pot with my pair of sevens. Thanks for the "protection," Chris!

We ended the poker action with a NLHE sit-and-go. We had ten players, including Kevin, Joan, Rob, Steve, Chris, Kenny, Matt Ivester and others. By employing my typical "raising station" strategy, I quickly had everyone pissed off. Kevin had the misfortune of running into one of my real hands, KK, and busting. He got another chance at me when Kenny had to leave unexpectedly and Kevin took over his stack. Too bad I had AA this time. And that's how I was able to bust Kevin twice from the same tourney. ;0)

Eventually it came down to Steve, Matt, and me. We traded the chip lead around for a while, and Steve was rivaling me for the title of "raising station." Finally I picked up AK against one of his crazy over-bet all-ins, and I called. He turned up 34. I rolled my eyes. It was my deal and I stared at the deck in my hand, knowing somehow that I was about to get outdrawn by this monkey. Sure enough, the turn paired him up and I was reduced to a very grim stack of chips indeed. I didn't last much longer and ended up finishing third for a profit of $20. Woot!

After this I meandered down to idly observe one of the most absurd things you could ever see: professional poker players handing their hard-earned money back to the casino in a pit game. Kevin, Rob, and Steve played three-card poker while I rolled my eyes and inhaled second-hand cigarette smoke. Kevin of course had to go and turn a nice profit, so he learned nothing about the folly of pit games. We swung by the poker room to see if there was anything interesting going on there but didn't end up playing. After some more late-night meandering it was time for bed. I had decided to shoot for Best All-Around Player, which after my poor showing in NLHE meant that I would have to kick as in the next day's tourney, a game I had never played before: Seven Card Stud.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Only a final table finish would do in Sunday morning's Seven Card Stud tourney to win me Best All-Around Player. I took my seat and saw to my dismay that we would be starting with only 1000 chips and that the blind structure was very fast for a stud tourney. I was either going to have to miraculously pick up this game or get very lucky early on in order to have a shot at the title.

Unfortunately, neither of these happened and I donked off most of my starting stack by chasing crappy draws, putting too much faith in one pair, and basically looking like a moron at the poker table. I hate looking like a moron at the poker table. It's not something I'm accustomed to and it's not fun. Fortunately the company was enjoyable, and I still managed to have a good time despite my obvious lack of skill or experience. I did make one good bluff, but of course I can't tell you what it was! j/k

In the end Bill Chen put me out of my misery with trip jacks over my measly pair of sevens. To give you an idea of how poorly I was playing, despite the fact that I looked up from my split sevens and saw that Bill himself had one of my remaining sevens as his door card, I went ahead with the hand anyway and was just hoping to pair another one of my cards by the river in order to beat him. Merrily I donked along and called him down to the bitter end. Then I passed my chips across the table and put my last ATLARGE tourney of the weekend to bed.

Except for this pitiful showing in the stud tourney, I was extremely pleased with my playing for the weekend. I even added a few new plays to my arsenal, so next year I'll be more dangerous than ever. Watch out!

After the insane blinds did their worst to Kevin and Matt, we headed over to P.F. Chang's with Ivy for a tasty Chinese repast. We enjoyed dumplings, spicy scallops, and other delights as we waxed nostalgic about the great weekend we'd just enjoyed. Our waiter also gave us an expert demonstration in mu shu pancake wrapping.

After lunch it was time to say goodbye and head back up the Jersey highway to Brooklyn. I can't wait for my next ARGE event (I will likely skip BARGE since I will be going to Ireland in August, but stay tuned for updates -- I am working on a plan that involves cloning or supersonic travel, whichever I can get a permit for.) The pressure will be on since I have now won big at both ARGE events I have attended. I'll be ready, so you should be too!

I am considering trying to win a seat in the WSOP but can't decide what the best satellite route is. Any recommendations? I generally prefer supers to double shoot-outs and would not want to invest more than a few hundred dollars in this. Also if anyone is interested in investing in my road to the Series, let me know.

Similarly, I will be trying to play more bigger buy-in events and more live tourneys. I enjoy them a lot and think there is some element of surprise that gives me an advantage in a live game. If anyone is interested in backing any of these exploits, shoot me an email.

For now it's back to the grind, limit hold 'em on UB, some deep stacks and 180-person SNG action, and a big Sunday tourney when I feel like it (although not this week because it was my birthday and not next week because it's book club day). I am also still in the hunt for my first score in the Friday night tourney I've been playing. I'm just biding my time, boys. Your money won't be safe from me much longer.

One hand to finish things off. This is from the Sunday Million Guaranteed on Stars from last week:

PokerStars Game #4265024157: Tournament #20354660, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/03/12 - 16:45:38 (ET)
Table '20354660 4' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 5: hotcookie42 (1695 in chips)
Seat 7: chanukya (2050 in chips)
Seat 8: IROCHIMA (2670 in chips)
LUHMAN: posts small blind 15
chanukya: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hotcookie42 [Ac Ad]
IROCHIMA: calls 30
hotcookie42: raises 90 to 120
LUHMAN: folds
chanukya: calls 90
IROCHIMA: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [5s 4h 6d]
chanukya: checks
IROCHIMA: checks
hotcookie42: bets 330
chanukya: calls 330
IROCHIMA: folds
*** TURN *** [5s 4h 6d] [7d]
chanukya: bets 300
hotcookie42: calls 300
*** RIVER *** [5s 4h 6d 7d] [2d]
chanukya: checks
hotcookie42: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
chanukya: shows [Jc Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
hotcookie42: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
hotcookie42 collected 1635 from pot

I realize this is not the best flop for my hand, especially after my flop bet gets called and the turn puts four to a straight on the board. Does anyone fold on the turn? After thinking through the hand a bit more, it seems to me that calling is probably the worst option. If my opponent has made his hand, I'm probably going to have to call his river bet (unless it's all-in) now that the pot is so large. Raising would probably be better, because if he does have a set or a straight, he might reraise here and give me a better idea of where I stand. If he is drawing, my call doesn't put any pressure on him. Checking behind on the river seems like a no-brainer to me -- anyone value betting here?

Also, anyone disagree with the way my opponent played his pair of jacks? I think the pre-flop call is okay (unless he knows me, in which case he should definitely reraise!). I think his call on the flop is as bad as my call on the turn, and for similar reasons.

People play spectacularly badly in this tournament. Every week I am amazed at the many creative ways that they take my chips. (Please read "creative" in its most pejorative and sarcastic sense.)

Play good!

I heart wine cozy.

Trip Report: MissT74

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

As on my blog: www.misst74.blogspot.com [dead link —ed.]

First of all, allow me to apologize for not blogging a farewell message last week before leaving for Atlantic City, I was busy getting ready for the trip and I forgot. NOW, onto the TR!!

WEDNESDAY:

I left my house around 7pm, stopping first at the gas station to buy some Kingman, Arizona shot glasses as my bounty prizes. I was paying for them when I saw some little pug dog keychains with a "Push Me" sticker on their stomachs, so I picked one up, pushed it's stomach and was serenaded by Kenny Roger's "The Gambler", how perfect was that?? I added 3 of those to my bounty prize and bill and headed out.

I was hoping to arrive in Vegas 30-45 mins late for the 8:00pm Binion's tourney. However, the Arizona Highway Patrol had different plans for me and decided to pull me over PLUS two other cars (we had a caravan thingy going) at the same time and ticketed me for going 96 mph in a 65 mph zone, apparently if you go over 20 mph, it's considered a felony and therefore I shall be going to court in April. : )

I arrived at Binion's with 420T left (I called ahead and the TD bought in for me so that I could play) and just enough to go all in with AJ, I doubled up and then moved all in with A8 and lost to AK, so 2 hands and I'm gone. I then head over to Golden Nugget to play a little 4 Card Poker, then head to Plaza for the midnight event.

The event was short handed with only 12 players and I was at a table with 4 others and a few dead stacks. My labels for my opponents: Seat 2: Newbie; Seat 4: Gambler; Seat 5: Drunk guy; Seat 7: BRILLIANT Player, BEAUTIFUL as well; Seat 8: Tight-Passive young WPT'r.

So, adapting to the short handedness, I'm raising and stealing all the dead stacks blinds and no one is really fighting back at all. I thought if anyone was to fight back, it would be Seat 8, he was the only one who seemed to know what he was doing, but he was so passive. He should have been raising as soon as I folded the few hands that I did.

Anyway, the Gambler (Seat 4) started making it a habit of raising UTG, blind. The first time, I let it go and folded. The 2nd time, I moved all in over the top with K,9; he folds. The third time, he warns the dealer that I'll be going all in and I do with K, Q (da Miss T!) I got the Gambler and the Drunk to call me for all their chips with 4, 8 s and 10, Q os respectively. I busted both of them out and we're at the final table now with 9 players left. I have about 2,467,000 chips and the 2nd largest stack has 750.

I proceed to knock out the next 4 players, and when we get to 3 people left, I was awarded 1st ($415 woo hoo!) and the other two chopped 2nd and 3rd. Totally feeling like the female version of Johnny Chan, I go over to Binions and play the 2am. Well looky here, turns out not only is VeeRob in the 8 seat (I'm in the 10 seat) but good old Leet, is in Seat #1. Nice to have met you Leet, even if you do hate me now.

So, I'm on the button, and I raise the normal 3X the blind, I'm-on-the-button-steal. Leet decides to bump it another 1000, and I feel like calling, so I do. My cards? 2c 3c. The flop? Ac, 4c, x. So not only do I have a flush draw, a straight flush draw, I also have a straight draw. I have 13 outs. Leet checks the flop, I move all in, he calls and shows AQ. My club comes on the river and I "suck out" with my 13 outs on his beautiful hand.

2 hands later I call his all in with 10,Q; He has A,K and I proceed to bust him out when the 10 flops. Like it was MY fault the 10 came. Needless to say, both VeeRob and Leet were astounded by my play and I'm surprised they didn't ask for an autograph, but they must have just been shy. Either that, or they were too busy cursing me and calling me a bad player behind my back...oh no wait, that was in front of my back. Anyways, the tension was getting a little thick so I had to hurry and bust out so that I could leave the negative vibes (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I head to the airport and proceed to drink my breakfast and board my 8:40am flight to Philadelphia.

THURSDAY:

I arrive at the Philly airport right on time, even after circling the airport for 20 mins. I've never circled before and I must admit, I got dizzy, so I slept the last 15 mins. I headed down to baggage claim area and waited for Lisa, my friend from WPC, who was going to be my roomie for the weekend.

Her plane ended up late, so Douglas Dunn (or whatever he feels like calling himself TODAY) arrived before she did with his girlfriend/fiancee/wife (WTF was she??) Heather in tow. Heather was gorgeous and reminded me immediently of Julianne Moore (although it took us all about 45 mins to remember her name). So once Lisa arrived, we headed off for Atlantic City, along with the GPS Lady.

Now, at first, I must admit, I thought the GPS thingy was pretty damn cool. She's this lady that lives in Doug's dashboard and proceeds to tell him where to go. (No, Hell was not mentioned.) I first realized that GPS Lady might be out to sabotage Doug when he proceeded to exit the freeway because she told him too, but I could clearly see a very large green sign that said "Atlantic City/New Jersey Exit 2 Miles". Turns out with the GPS lady in the computer, Doug does not read nor see signs. We traveled through a quaint little town called Who-Knows-Who-Cares and then got back on the freeway where the off ramp sign was still standing and waiting for us to drive underneath.

Doug's account of the gas station was dead on and I found it amusing. What I didn't find amusing was the actual gas prices. $2.15 a gallon...WTF? I'm here in Arizona paying $2.65 and New Jersans get to pay $2.15? I'm so jealous.

We arrive at the Taj and after checking in and changing clothes, we head for the Smoker's Dinner. As we entered, I recognized no one but was approached by Steven Phillips aka FlowerMan and then proceeded to make my socializing rounds, after making sure that Lisa, Heather and Doug (and myself, DUH) all had drinks in hand. Turns out there is only one check and everyone splits the total cost of the dinner with drinks, but since we were all newbies, we had no idea, so I took care of the $60 bar bill when I won Roshambo vs. Doug.

Dinner was very entertaining, I was able to chat it up with quite a few people. I met the BARGE organizer, not Peter but the other one, crap, I'm so bad with names, it's ridiculous. Anywho, it was announced there that I had been announced as the BARGE Virgin Queen and we drank a toast to that, or maybe I drank one to myself, who knows. I will say that when we left, I had NO CLUE that Doug was tipsy so his driving was excellent despite the Showroom parking lot mishap.

After getting back to the Taj, I had agreed to meet Steven at the poker room and we were going to go dancing. Turns out no one likes to dance in AC on a Thursday, so he headed to bed and I headed to the pit. I ended up getting caught up with a group of guys that had been to the dinner, and all 10-13 (?) of us headed to play craps with my role being the "Blower" as I do NOT play craps. Taj wouldn't open a table for us, so we walked over to the Showboat where we found an empty table. I blew on a couple of dice, watched them 7 out and left them to play some Texas Bonus Hold Em. They started dropping like flies and we headed up to the poker room, only about 6 of us now, and proceeded to alienate the entire poker room with rounds of shots, loud voices, and in the dark cap raising on every street play. Good times, good times. I left them around 4:00am when I decided I was hungry, drunk, and tired. Went back to Taj, had some spaghetti and meatballs, and crashed into bed around 5am.

FRIDAY:

I woke up and headed downstairs in time to register for ATLARGE, get my awesome name tag and free Polo Shirt, then sat down and waited for HOE to start. Started getting tired and grumpy when no waitress came until the 2nd hour, so I started double fisting my drinks to get me in a better mood and to get rid of the dark circles under the eyes. Nothing much to report about HOE, although I did end up in about 87th place, if memory serves.

I then played the 3:15pm NLHE event that the Taj holds and was awarded a Polo Shirt by the 8-2 gang and was announced an honorary member. I was so moved and touched that I proceeded to change my shirt right there in the poker room. Apparently, when a female changes her shirt in a poker room, she's suppose to announce it because if she doesn't, then no one sees it as they are all concentrating on their cards and then they will proceed to ask for an encore all weekend long since they missed it the first time.

It was getting close to the 6:15 NLHE event, so I bought in for $200 and then went to get something to eat before it started, since I busted out around 5pm in the 3:15 event. I ate some more spaghetti and meatballs and then started to feel a little sick from the all day drinking with spaghetti on top of it and went upstairs to my room to try and throw up so that I would feel better. I ended up laying down for a quick moment and woke up around 8:30pm. Oops. I rush to the poker room where I am told that I just busted out 2 minutes earlier. My bad.

I run into Steven Phillips and he escorts me over to the Casbah, the Taj's version of a night club. I must say I was impressed, it was very colorful, very loud, and good music was playing, what more could I ask for?. Steven was a great dance partner for being an "older" man (Mental image: The man looks JUST like Albert Einstein) and was asked a few times by these HOT, YOUNG, ladies if they could have a picture with "My Man". Turns out I had a sugar daddy for the night, and didn't even know it, but everyone else knew it, interesting. Steven called it quits after a few hours, I stayed with a few new friends I made and then left when the capacity got to around 2,000 people. WAY too crowded.

I head to the pit, play some house carnival games and end up ahead $900 and the proud owner of a purple chip. Not TOO proud though as I proceeded to lose the chip, and I don't mean gamble or spend or cash in the purple chip. I mean LOSE. I, Tanya, being an idiot, dropped a $500 chip somewhere on the floors of the Taj Mahal. Congratulations to the new owner of my chip! I played a little bit in the Pink Game, as how could I NOT being at ATLARGE and then headed to bed around 5am, after stopping for some more spaghetti and meatballs first.

SATURDAY:

I head downstairs to the NLHE ATLARGE event, and after whining about my purple chip loss to everyone within earshot, I head over to the video poker machine where Karma paid me back my purple chip plus $275 more when I hit 4 aces with no kicker. Whew! I start to feel better and walk around the poker room bragging about how much Karma loves me. I also go around showing off my bounties to all that were interested in hearing the dog sing "You got to know when to hold em....."

I, again, bust out early, something like 160th place (?? who knows??) and play the 3:15 tourney and the 6:15 tourney with no positive reports from these events at all. Can't really remember much of what I did that night, but I know it involved the pit and drinking, and I know it involved my owning (for a few hours at least) my first pumpkin chip ever, that was pretty cool.

At this point I've been continuously drinking since Wednesday night and I was starting to burn out, so after eating some spaghetti and meatballs (anyone noticing a trend here?) I headed to bed.

SUNDAY:

I wake up to go play some Stud, find out it's not 8/better and am bummed. HOW can a player get rolled up TWICE in the first two levels, get Quads in the 2nd level and STILL be the 2nd player out?? That was me, I guess I play too many hands, eh? I wandered around the casino and poker room a bit, played in the 6:15pm tourney where I was determined to cash or win as it was my last chance.

I was seated at a table with 4 other females, how odd was that? I make a bluff with 4,4 and have to lay down to an all in. Then this hand: I have J,8s and limp along with 6 other players in late position. The flop comes 3d, Jc, 8d and after everyone checks to me, I bet pretty big, 600, and get called by the blinds. The turn is 7c and the SB checks, but the BB flings in her chips like OMG, I HAVE THE NUTS. I go in the tank for about 1 min and there is NO way I can NOT put her on a bluff. If she had the J, she would have bet the flop, I've been watching her play. So, I bite the bullet and I call. The SB folds and she tosses her cards up saying "You got me" I see Kc, 9c and know that I now have to dodge a club and a K. I get comments from a few players on my hand about what a good call I made but lose it anyway when that damn K comes on the river. She then tells me that she did that because she wanted to go to dinner with her husband. RIIIIIGHT. Sigh, GG me as I'm out 2 hands later with K,9 no good against A,J.

I head back to my video poker and get lucky when I hit 4 aces with a kicker and win back almost all the money I've lost so far for the weekend, I'm feeling pretty good now as at least I can say I'm leaving even and just finish the night playing in the pit, gambling, etc. I didn't drink on Sunday at all until after the jackpot win, then decided to start drinking and have some last minute fun as we were leaving on Monday.

One thing I noticed about Atlantic City/New Jersey men. What PERVERTS. OMG, the men from that area (for the MOST part guys, and you KNOW who you are!!) are SO crass and BOLD, and the OLDER they are, the MORE sexually obnoxious they are. Men will flirt with me, I will flirt back, and it's all in good fun, however, I have never, ever had so many offers to "go back to my room" then in AC. 1 was 23, but the others were, oh I'd say about 60, 65. I laugh it off and tell them, "I'm married!" and one guy had the audacity to say, "Well, do you think oral sex (OK, ok, he said something other then "oral sex" but you get the point) is cheating?" Um, YEAH??? Good grief, the men out there (again, for the most part) are PIGS. I don't know HOW the women out there put up with it, but different strokes for different areas, I guess. It was totally disgusting to me, and there is no way that that kind of talk would actually get me to hook up with someone even if I was single.

MONDAY:

Lisa and I sleep in and check out around noon, then head over to eat some breakfast/lunch. We gamble for a few hours, then head out on the boardwalk to get some salt water taffy and AC sweatshirt for me, and fudge for Cherissa and Bill.

We headed back to the lobby to wait for our driver as we hired a Town Car to take us to the airport instead of trying to mess with the trains. (Another 60+ year old pervert by the way) My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40pm and after having a few drinks in the airport and on the flight, I laid across my row (only 21 passengers on the flight, how cool is that?) and slept for most of the 5 hour flight. I arrived in Vegas around midnight and got home around 2am. Didn't get much sleep though, due to my coughing fits, and here I am back at work, back to the grind and trying to get through yet another months end reports and meetings.

So that's my trip in a nutshell, I cannot stress enough how good the ATLARGE people were and how much I thank Goldie for setting it up. I can see myself in Atlantic City ONE time a year, and it would be for ATLARGE. GREAT people. If you've never gone to an ARGE event, you must, you simply must.

Some special, but few, shout outs.

Omaholic: As most RGP'rs may know, there are actually two of these guys running around. One that posts on RGP and plays with us on Full Tilt and one who plays on PokerStars but is not an RGP'r. I met the non-RGP'r this weekend by chance in a Taj tourney, that was kind of cool.

AlwaysAware: It was an honor to meet her in person, only because I view her as a legend of RGP and I told her as much, but I don't think she thinks I meant it. We didn't talk for too long and I could sense that we wouldn't be hanging out or doing anything crazy together, but it was still very cool meeting her.

Douglas Dunn: Very cool cat, has a cool car that has a lady in the dashboard but don't let his posts fool you, he seemed shy to me. Maybe it's just because anyone who isn't as loud and obnoxious as me just seems shy. Great guy with a hot girlfriend/fiance/wife.

Steven Phillips: Any guy over 45 who will go dancing with me is cool in my book. Plus with his hair, his style, and his personality, I knew instantly when I saw him that we would be buds.

Aardvark: It was cool to put a face to the name. Didn't really seem to interested in having fun though, a very serious player in my opinion.

8-2 Gang: If I live in Maryland, there is NO WAY I would NOT be a part of this group, what a great bunch of people!!

Big Syd: Even if I did only see you for a few hours, at least I got to meet you, I knew you would be cool, but where the hell did you disappear too? I couldn't find you after I paid you the last longer bet. It's like you left, next time, you better hang a little bit longer.

John Harkness: Awesome to finally meet him in person and I never knew he was an art lover. Quite a traveler as well, great game on Sunday John!!

Lisa: Not a regular RGP'r, but a good friend and I could NOT have had a better roomie.

SOOOO many people I'm leaving out, but these were the ones that stuck out in my mind first as I was typing this. Don't feel left out if I didn't mention you, just remember I was drunk almost the entire weekend. : )

Trip Report: Rob Catlett

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Suddenly's ATLARGE Trip Report, or "Mangos, threes, and other perversions".

...and then the Rabidly Outspoken Evangelical Christian Asian Law Student suddenly confessed a statutory rape to the entire table. You see, God would protect him if he just told the truth and accepted his sins.. Which may or may not work but I can say that no lawyer would be able to unless he would shut the heck up.

We are getting ahead of ourselves though. Because of a series of events probably only slightly below the "ye gads" factor of the above, the trial on Monday didn't go so I wound up in AC a few days early for ATLARGE. Which I think is a good thing. So I spend some extra time in the splendor... er... squalor... of the Taj low-limit section.

The trip in wasn't all that eventful. It was about 65F when I left Charleston WV, so I of course didn't think to take a coat or anything. On my way I had to stop in the northern part of the state to talk to a few clients sorta forced to live there. The only garment I had suitable for the 40F weather I now found myself in was... my ATLARGE sweatshirt from last year. So.... I now have a "prison worn" ATLARGE sweatshirt. Does that make it a collectable?

Other than that everything went just fine. Played some poker on Wednesday and Thursday. Sat there listening to my Ipod, just relishing in the brainlessness of the whole ordeal. Decompress.

Then Friday was upon us. I wake up and eat a handful of dried mango. I've developed a small problem with dried mango and may need to seek help. I go down to the room, register for the tournament and get my atlarge stuff and hang out and then... ugh. I have to go back to the room. NOW. Rutgers' Revenge or something.

On reflection, trying to, with dignity and tact, explain to the maid who doesn't speak English all that well that you would be most gratified if she would just go ahead and skip cleaning the bathroom because it would be a futile exercise, one taking up time you would really, really, rather use in a different way, was a task I think I handled quite well. I even managed to get her to leave a few extra towels. Of course maybe I didn't need to include any of this.... nevermind.

So I go back to play in the HOE. I remember some of it. At some point in Omaha I think I manage to win the whole high and 1/3 of the low with the nut low and a pair of fours or something silly. I do remember getting rolled up kings in a hand against Jodi that filled up on the river. I think my Omaha tournament strategy (find a decent starting hand and just keep betting... if you get raised just re-raise. The sooner you get your money in the more chances to suck out) worked well for me as it has in the FARGO pairs tourneys. My stud8 and holdem strategy (fold) worked even better. We got to eight handed and stayed there forever. Every player at the table besides Gabe was all in at some point. Epic struggle. Then we lost four players in some sort of cataclysm that stopped as suddenly as it started, and we played four handed for several days.

There is much controversy over what happened next. We were in a holdem round. Jodi was raising every hand. Well... 60% or so anyway. Now and then Bill, Gabe, or I would poke our heads up and toss up a raise. On the fateful hand, Jodi opened under the gun for a raise. I find a pair of nines and re-raise. Bill shrugs and dumps all his chips into the pot, and we both call. I have about a big bet left. Flop comes QTX. Crap. I call the flop and turn, both blanks. We turn over our cards. I have 99, Bill has AK, and Jodi has something with a ten in it. The river blanks, so Bill and I are eliminated in the same hand, but I'm third because I'm better at math.

Okay okay... because I had more chips. Geesh.

Later that night, I'm waiting for my friend to get in, I told him to find me in the poker room. I'm just sitting there, Minding my own business in a 3-6 game, some guy starts talking about something and asks me what I do and like a fool I tell him and now he wants to discuss the criminal mind with me. General BS, nurture v. nature, can some people be fixed or are some hopeless. We are blathering away, me in the 7 seat, other guy in the 9 seat, when the young Asian kid in the 10 seat interrupts.

"Can I just say something sir?"

"Sure" I shrug, mildly alarmed at the aggressive politeness.

"They are possessed by demons and only Jesus can save them."

I nod. I then continue the last answer to the other guy, who really wants me to tell him it is alright to bang the chick that he caught stealing from her because she can learn to be honest and he can tell she really loves him... which is in and of itself an alarming conversation too complicated to relate. But the poor kid has this tortured look about him.

"Can I say something else sir?"

"Well... sure."

"I think that anyone can be saved, but the only way to do it is by accepting Jesus and turning yourself over to His will."

"Does that help with mango addiction?"

"Huh?"

This goes in circles for a few minutes. The one guy is talking about types of criminal personalities and the kid's face keeps getting more and more intense as he throws in more comments about Jesus. He's no longer paying attention to the game at all. The dealer has to remind him every time it is his turn and he just throws chips in. His delays and the fact that he wins four huge pots with complete trash hands has the other end of the table at near mutiny. He fixes me with a earnest glare and asks me "Do you think I'm insane?"

"I kinda do now."

"Why?"

"Well.... because you asked."

He got even more anxious. Still tossing in chips whenever the dealer prompted him, not so lucky now.

He starts asking me about law school. He attends one in the Ivy League. I smile and say something like "Well, don't feel bad. Not everyone can get into WVU."

No response. He wonders if I ever felt really anxious and worried during law school. I tell him no. He's dumfounded.

I explain that the way I saw it, the drive to the school was the most dangerous part of the day. The worst thing that could happen to me at school was not becoming a lawyer. Damn far sight from being eaten by bears....

This is when he explains to pretty much everyone that he had sex with a fifteen year old girl and he's worried about getting in trouble. Apparently he told his entire law school class about it and "now they think I'm weird."

I mean does this happen in 20-40 games?

At some point he asked me if I would say anything about his little problem because he was going into politics. Before I can answer someone else asks if he has any other secrets. Apparently nothing but his serious drug use and some hookers.

Then my friend shows up. Good thing.

The next day at the no limit I'm doing alright until the table change. I walk into the force of nature that is Chic with a monster stack. He would have had an insane stack but... he kept taking brutal, brutal beats from the same two guys, one of whom would celebrate each time. We develop a small "criminal attorneys v. collection attorneys" rivalry that lasts until I make a stupid play to cripple myself (just say no to AQ), and then I get busted by Chic.

The rest of Saturday is spent tormenting a guy in a 5-10 game. I get on the list for the pink game, but no open seat yet so I go play 5-10. Some guy is critical of my play. He thinks raising is evil. However, he seems to call most of my raises then fold to any post-flop action. So now I start raising with pretty much everything, and re-raise him every time he raises because he will lay it down if he doesn't hit. Early on I make consecutive runner-runner club flush draws (the first I had overcards, the second I had monster ITOs (implied tilt odds.)

Soon we have a rocking 5-10 game as nobody will fold to my raises, and the anti-raiser is headed off cursing my name. I love games where big pots are built pre-flop and everyone thinks chasing is evil and wrong. Soon I become disgusted with the dirty red chips, and see an empty seat in the pink game. It breaks before I can get back from the cage with chips. I consider that a proper show of respect for my card catching skills.

Pretty much it for Saturday. I wonder through the suite and see The Worst Laydown Ever in what I think is a 1-2 or 2-4 game. I'll say no more.

The Stud tournament was enjoyable. Sort of a weird lazy Sunday post-Apocalypse feel to it. I keep a decent stack most of the way through thanks to my catching running threes on two consecutive hands where I managed to build huge pots while drawing close to dead. I manage to lose a bunch of chips right before the final table and then at the final table fold a bunch of times, finally get all in with the first hand that had a three in it and lose to Sabyl's somewhat gratuitous full house.

Thus another ARG trip came to a close.

So what happened?

The good:

1) Fun time with people whose company I enjoy.

2) Cashed at least once in four consecutive ARG trips

3) At least seven runner-runner suckouts.

4) Made someone who wears sunglasses in a 5-10 game cry. (See (3) above)

5) Friend from home won like $400 playing 2-4 on Friday and Saturday

The Bad:

Still have gone nowhere in ARG NLHE events.

The Ugly:

I think Jerrod Ankenman may have ruined my life. Okay... not nearly that dramatic, but I'm sitting there during a break, and there is a conversation about PokerStars and player numbers and that some of the games there are rakeless. Jerrod says something like "I wonder what a decent winrate is for a no rake nickle / dime game?"

I didn't think much of it at the time. But it just stuck in the back of my head and now I'm like Kevin Mchale in that "Cheers" episode where he wonders how many bolts there are in the court at the Garden....

Hopefully I'll get over it but if I don't I'll have decent idea of it by next year...

Ugh. Maybe I should start a pool....

Trip Report: Tilt City

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Thursday:

Get in, can't find anyone, go to poker room, talk to Tom Hummel, meet Chuck, get to the Smoker. Sit down near Tom and Actionbob, get a bunch of appetizers (shrimp cocktail, fried calmari, oysters, clams)

People smoking cigars, drinking wine. Got a filet mignon stuffed with crab meat. Awesome.

Play "guess the check" game with everyone at the table. Shelly Louie has a pretty close guess -- I think he ended up winning but I'm not 100% sure. We put in $5 each.

Get back to Taj, play some 20-40. Lose.

Friday: HOE tournament

Sometime after the start, Ivy gets some Krispy Kreme for the entire table. I got a glazed donut -- my favorite kind at Krispy Kreme. Thanks, Ivy!

I don't remember much about the initial table... except I'm picking up some chips in stud/8 even though I've only played the game about three times in my life. All of my starting cards look so tasty!

Later someone said: "You're zeejustin, you have ace-ten on the button and 76 suited in the small blind. What do you do?"

(So I was thinking: with regards to alliances in multiway pots, it would be interesting if zeejustin, in addition to his multi-accounting, also had multiple personalities who were at war with each other. So the guy on the small blind would ally with the big blind and try to cut down the button's equity.)

Friday night: Banquet, Tom McEvoy said he won 70% of his cash game sessions. As soon as I hear this, I look over at Matt Matros right as he's looking over at actionbob. I guess if you have "stop-win ceilings" you can win more sessions. A second talk was given by Bill and Jerrod about maths stuffs.

Played pink chip game with Kevin Conlon, Matt M., Joan. Joan scooped a huge pot and chopped it in half with the side of her hand, and gave that to the dealer. He went to drop it in his toke box, but we reminded him to keep the pink chips in the game, so he counted it out first, and put it in his tray, and dropped a hundred in his toke box. Joan had managed to hit $100 dollars exactly -- well done!

There was one hand where I had A8h which turned the nuts, only I didn't know it because I was playing my hand blind. Another hand I was playing blind: 88 with T52 flop, spiked an 8 on the turn to outrun presto.

Saturday -- early bustout

Sweated some of the tables, played some 10-20, signed up for pink game...Grabbed a philly cheese steak with Jerrod; Bill joined us.

Went to Trop with Ivy and Matt. Walked around for a bit, Matt pointed out this was all new. (The only other time I was in AC was 2001, when it was more horrible there)

Met up with Kevin, Action Bob, and Buckshot at P.F. Chang's. More wine. I got a duck spinach salad because I wasn't too hungry but it was good. Kevin's a golfer so he and Action Bob are talking about who's really cool behind the scenes. And sometimes an athlete who the public assumes is a "nice guy" is really kind of a jerk. Action Bob was making fun of Rory Sabbatini through some anecdote about an incident that took place on a tour event, heh.

Later, went to Red Square for lots of appletinis. Joined there by Dave F, Leslie, and Jodi.

Talked baseball with Dave F (Yankees fan) and Matt (Mets fan). "A Red Sox fan, a Yankees fan, and a Mets fan are sitting together talking baseball. What happens?!"

Matt thought Bobby Valentine was the best manager the Mets had over the past 20 years because of what he was able to get out of mediocre teams. I like Bobby V. too and I was kind of hoping, a few years back, that the Sox would hire him.

One time I kept sending Bobby V. -related links to my friend who's a Mets fan, including a link that said "Bobby V claimed to have invented the wrap sandwich." Apparently, that was the final straw, and my friend asked, "What are you trying to do, kill me?!"

Dave had a theory about multiple universes, and that in his universe, 2004 didn't really happen. I still can't really believe the 2004 season happened either.