The Good, the Bad & the Ugly in Atlantic City

So a poker buddy of mine has some kind of time share thing and he’s got a hotel room booked for a week.  I decide to play for a few days before Grad School started up.  I arrived Sunday afternoon.  Plenty of time to catch the 2nd quarter of the Patriots/Chargers game and of course watched the Giants rock.  GO BIG BLUE!  After the game. We went out for some poker fun. 

11pm. The Borgata.  It was packed. There was a WPT event held there so the place was buzzing.  The borgata room is easily the nicest place to play in Atlantic City.  The room is clean, the seats are comfortable and it’s very elegant.  The games were another story….

I played the cash  games.  I didn’t play the WPT satillites because I wouldn’t be around to play even if I qualified so cash games were the way to go.  The first night we played the Borgata, the time share resort was actually near the Showboat and the Taj Mahal so that was where we played later in the week.  But the first night was the action night.

The Ugly:

Playing $1-$2 NL.  I’m playing tight the first day because I don’t want to reload too early or blow my BR in one day.  The action was crazy.  The $1-$2 played more like a $2-$5 game.  You’d get 3-5 callers on a preflop raise of $15.  So I play tight. The players are a mix. You got the old timers. You got the young guns. You got the tourists. Then you got me.  A guy trying to make some hay playing poker and tracking my success or lack of. .  I buy in for $300. I’m playing tight early on.  On my very first hand I get A/K diamonds.  Wow. Great start I think to myself.  I’m also on the button. Life is good.  A few people limp in.  Somebody raises $15. It gets to me, I re-pop for $15 more.  Only the original raiser calls me.  I flop an Ace, he checks, I check. The turn is blank. He bets out $25, I re-pop $25, he folds. Awesome.  A little later. I get AA.  Crazy aggressive guy bets out $15, I re-raise $30. Everyone folds and he calls. 

Flop is K, blank, blank. 

Crazy guy bets out $50. I re-raise him $50 just to test his mettle.  He goes all in. Geez. Great.  I’ve watched him.  He’s done this a couple of times.  Sometimes he shows a bluff other times he shows a decent hand but mostly he’s trying to bully people and from the likes of his stack he’s done a good job of both. He has over $1,000 in red $5 chips.  But he doesn’t know what cards I have. So I’ve invested $130 in this pot so far. I have about $200 behind the line. I fold if I believe him or call if I don’t. Poker is really simple sometimes.  So I call.  He shows KQ, I show my AA.  Thanks to a Q on the river my AA doesn’t hold.  Time to reload.  

After reloading, I’m playing tight because the table is still very loose.  I win a few pots here and there but nothing huge.  I’m grinding and I’m slowly winning back my losses. The crazy aggressive guy just kept winning pots either sucking out or buying pots. He was playing well, even though he’d raise big sometimes, he was smart enough to fold when he thought he was behind but he would bust people when he raised with rags and hit two pair or he would actually have a monster hand and people were handing him money thinking he was bluffing. I wasn’t one of those guys. I decided if I tangled with this guy only if I had a good hand. It didn’t necessarily have to be a big monster pair, it could be suited connectors it was all post flop play with this guy.  I had confidence that I could hang with him post flop.  He paid me off once when he had top two pair and I had a set.  I didn’t try to go all in on him. I just kept value betting the flop, the turn and the river and he gave back about $150 to me on that hand. 

It’s kind of getting late at this point…somewhere around 2-3am. At this time I’ve run up my stack to over $500 playing solid poker.  Almost back to even.  Keep grinding. I’ve been getting some luck with my suited connectors and baby PPs. More than likely it’s that I’ve targeted the weaker players to bring in the profit and mostly stayed away from the crazy aggressive guys who have the big stacks and pushing the action. 

 The crazy aggressive guy has slowed down a bit.  He’s run into some bad luck.  It had to happen, he plays too many pots and you’re bound to get unlucky once in awhile even if he’s playing good (and trust me he wasn’t some maniac he definitely had a plan and knew how to play his style effectively).  He still has over $1k in chips, though so I don’t feel sorry for him.  He’s been playing poker all day just about so he’s probably getting tired also. I hope that he slips up just one more time for me to take down a huge pot against him. Once again we tangle.

I get A10 diamonds. I raise $12. Two callers and the crazy aggressive guy calls. ok. I’m OOP and i get 3 callers. Let’s hope the flop helps.

Flop:

JQK. two diamonds.

Sweet. Not only did I flop a straight I also flopped the nut flush draw and the gut shot Royal Flush draw.  I hope I get some action.  I check. One of the callers bets out $25. Next guy folds, the crazy aggressive player reraises $75. nice. I hope he has a set or a flush draw himself, so I just call because there’s another player between us to act.  I’m not sure what this guy has but I’m thinking he has a draw or top pair at least. He’s the guy I want to calling so the pot builds real big.  Normally, I might re-raise the crazy aggressive guy if we were heads up to pretend like I’m protecting against the draws with my A/x against him but I’m thinking if the guy between us has a decent hand like 2 pair he’s calling the flop bet from the crazy aggressive guy and hopefully bite on one more bet on the turn.  Good move? I’m not sure but that’s the way I played it.

So I call and the middle guy calls also. Sweet. Now I know he’s on a draw at least.  The turn is a blank. I check again. The middle guy checks and the crazy aggressive guy goes all in. Wow. I can hardly wait to call.  I hope he’s on a bluff but I doubt it he’s not that crazy.  I put him on a set or a straight. Those are the only two hands that he can possibly have in order to make such a huge bet.  I sit back and wait a bit before calling.  I don’t want to insta-call and scare the middle guy out of the pot. He’s the key to this whole thing.  If he calls then the pot is going to be real huge close to $1,300+.  So after taking a few breathes, I announce “call”.  The middle guy now has to make a decision. I’m hoping he calls. I have the nut straight and can improve to a flush or if hit the Q a royal flush. Please call, I’m thinking to myself. I’m also watching the crazy aggressive guy.  He’s looks confident, he’s not sweating the hand. I realize that he probably has the straight also.   After some time the middle guy folds. Which was weird because he didn’t have a whole lot left in his stack (maybe $150 or so) Damn.  I really, really wanted him to call.  I think the crazy aggressive guy killed the action here in my opinion with his over the top bet on the turn but he was definitely protecting a big hand.  River is a blank and we chop the pot. We both had A/10. Too bad. I really wanted a diamond to fall on the river and I would scoop a huge pot, instead we chop.  I included this in the ugly hand category because there’s been so many times I’ve been drawn out on flushes and here I was freerolling to a flush in a huge pot and I didn’t hit. We wound up winning $50 or so each instead of ME winning over $1k if only one more diamond had hit.  Damn it!

The Bad:

Ok here is the bad. In the course of playing poker everybody is bound to make some bad decisions. We’re only human. The thing is in poker sometimes you just can’t help yourself even though you know you should fold. 

I have a pair of deuces. I hit a set on the flop.  Guy checks to me. I raise to $25 because there’s a two suits out there.  The other guy goes all in. It dawns on me that he’s got a set over mine.  He has to. But he only raised another $80-90 bucks b/c that’s all he has. So I call like a dummy. Even though I get the feeling he had the set over mine.  He checked raised me. It’s obvious. He’s not making a move on me b/c he’s short stacked. He’s one of the tighter players here. He only bought in for $150 and he doesn’t gamble. You gotta play the player, not the cards. I should fold here and save my money.  Against my instincts, I call. And he had a set of 4s.  I’m so dumb sometimes.  I should really trust my instincts more. These are one one of those hands where saving money is just as good as winning a pot.  It cost me and the thing that pissed me off is that it shouldn’t have. I knew what he had and I paid him off anyway. This by the way is one of my major leaks that I need to fix.

I also paid off another sucker when I had trips and I knew he had a flush. He checked raise me again but I thought I could bluff him out of the pot with a paired board. The turn produced his flush. He checked, I bet out $25 he re-popped me $50 I called.  I instantly put him on a flush and I don’t know why I called him. I had a hit trips though on the turn so I thought maybe I could push him out of the pot if he believed I had a boat.  The river was a blank. He bets out $15. So I know he has the nut flush or close to it.  He’s trying to milk me with such a small bet. So I get smart and start to think I’m at the WSOP and try to make a world class move on this guy. I re-raise him $50. He re-raises me $50. I then go all in representing a full house. He called and I paid him off.  Lost like $250 bucks on that hand. Oh well. I gave it a shot. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have tried that move on this guy. He was tight and really easy to read I thought. Up until this point I was actually up money even with the reload, so after this hand I was down $150. It was close to 4-5am at this point and I thought maybe I should just get shut it down for the night.  After I left, I started to think that maybe I should’ve just folded and kept my winnings instead of blowing in on a bluff.  Live and learn I guess. In retrospect I should’ve left with my $150 profit knowing that I won back my initial buy-in and then some but instead I tried to make a great bluff. Was it dumb to do that? I don’t know. Sometimes I think that I need to make those moves once in awhile but probably only against certain players perhaps. I don’t know.

The Good:

 Here’s the good. Sometimes the poker gods can be very nice to a person.

It’s the next day. I got like 4 hours of sleep before my buds wake my up at 10am to play the 11am tourney at the Showboat. A cheap buy-in, my friends and I got involved in. It was $65 to buy in and you get 10k in chips. Not bad. The structure is ok but gets aggressive by the second hour of the tourney. Blinds start out 25-50 but escalates super fast after level 4.  They skip the 500-1k level right into the 600-1.2k blind level.  So you get to play a little in the beginning but then it quickly goes into a push fest. I’m not playing optimally so I bust out at the 800-1,600 level with a bad push, I was short stacked so pushing with a marginal hand wasn’t a bad play.  Besides the cash games are where the money is made anyway.

So I ease into another $1-$2 NL game. I buy in for $250. This game is not as crazy as the borgata but I find myself at a table with some crazy dudes. This one guy Mike was calling every hand and hitting.  He was the opposite of the guy I played the night before at the Borgata. He was a calling machine but getting lucky. Everybody was after his action. I won’t say he was a bad player because he would bet his hand when had something, but he was getting lucky and nailing other players with wicked turn and river cards that made his hands. It was one of those days for him.  Everybody was gunning for him.  So was I.  I tried to get him before his luck changed and he started to give back chips. He had well over $900 in his stack and he was giving action.  This table was weird for me. I was getting a lot of good starting cards but not hitting anything at all. I got several A/K, A/Q, A/x suited but couldn’t hit a flop. I would get middle pair and lose out to some guy with K/4 suited almost always on the turn or river. It was one of those days. But I also knew if I kept playing smart and playing good cards I would come out ahead if time allowed me that is.

So lo and behold. I get JJ near the button. One guy bets out $11. I raise it up to $20, the BB calls, original bettor calls. The BB is this guy Mike.

Flop:

J,10,x two spades. I have a set. But this is a real dangerous board. One that could break me if it goes wrong.  The early bettor bets out $50 dollars. I call. I want this to be a big pot for me if no scare cards hit the turn.  If a spade hits then I’m probably folding. I’ve learned my lesson about not folding a set to a flush or a straight. Right now I know I’m ahead but I want to win a big pot here.  The way I see it, calling isn’t the best option but I know if these guys are on draws, I can win more money on the turn if it’s a blank. This is another type of gamble.  Most people gamble hoping to hit a card, I’m gambling that they’re not going to hit.  It’s still gambling, just a different twist. One thing is for sure if the turn is a blank I’m not waiting any longer. I’m pushing. So back to the action. After I call Mike calls also. The turn is a blank. Sweet for me. The original bettor raises it again to $50.  Maybe he’s got a set of 10s or he’s drawing to a big hand and building the pot up. Whatever it is I’m not gonna be passive this time. I go all in for the rest of my stack. figure around $200, a little less perhaps. Would’ve been nice if Mike was acting before me so I could get his extra $5o in there but I’m not complaining.  Mike the gambling guy, thinks for a second. He’s been running hot.  He’s seriously thinking about calling I think. He finally calls. The original bettor, is now on the spot. He’s the one that’s been pressing the action, he started this whole thing to begin with. What does he have? I don’t care because right now I have the best hand by far. I’m way ahead of anybody else in the pot. I only hope that I can dodge whatever they’re holding on the river. After sometime, the original bettor folds, but not before he shows J/10. Top two pair and he folds??? Damn. I guess he doesn’t want to gamble. He even said it. He says it out loud ”I think I’m ahead but because Mike has been running so hot, he probably has a set so I’m gonna fold”.  To use a Brooklyn term…what am I chopped liver? He didn’t even mention me at all. Totally dismissed me in this hand like I was the one chasing…lol.  But it makes sense. Mike has been passively calling when he has a huge hand or when he’s chasing. But the difference is that he’s been doing it in smaller pots against weaker players who don’t know how to protect their hands, fold marginal hands against him or even have any post flop play sense. This time I know Mike is chasing. If he had any kind of hand with this kind of pot, he would bet to protect his hand for sure. He isn’t that dumb. The river is a blank and I win. Nice. Mike shows a 10/8 flush draw, gut shot straight draw and a pair of 10s. Not a bad hand to go in with. I sure wish the two pair guy called or this would’ve really been a big payoff for me. Mike hangs around about an half hour more then leaves and I don’t blame him.  He walks away with $700. A good pay day and he’s not pressing his luck anymore. The funny thing is that Mike really, really thought he was going to win this hand also. He said he felt it. I guess that’s how you think when you’re running insanely hot. But this hand did something to him. He was kind of deflated after running so hot. Maybe it was because he was playing with smaller pots against players who feared losing money to him. I’m not that kind of player. I’m not the greatest in the world that’s for sure, but I’m not afraid to put my money on the line, if you’re going to chase then it’s going to cost you. If you hit against me, hey congrats and let’s play the next hand. That’s poker. The rest of the table let him chase because they were afraid of being outdrawn and that’s why he won so much. They didn’t protect their money and when they did he drew out and that made poeople gun shy at the table. They were afraid to tangle with him. At least that’s what I observed. Scared money is money lost.

The second Good hand I played was a real fun one for me.  I had switched tables after Mike left because my buddy got knocked out of the tourney and wanted to play some NL, that and the action dried up once “Action Mike” left the table. So I asked the poker manager if he could find two seats at table so we could play. He quickly put us at table together. That was quick and I immediately knew why.  This was the toughest table I’ve ever played at. The table I found had at least 4 Borgata poker dealers playing here.  Some poker dealers in my opinion are really good players. At least they know how to play and they’ve seen a lot of hands also. So for the most part they’re tough to play against.  The other 3 players looked like guys on winter break from school.  Baseball caps on backwards, sun glasses on, hoodie wearing, with big ear phones listening to music that clearly the next player could hear, you know the young guns of poker. Internet players. Either that or they’ve watched too much WSOP on TV.

These players were tougher than the other tables I’ve experience so far. There weren’t any maniacs but they were willing to gamble and they were capable of making plays for the pots. No passive tourists here.

So I’m playing solid poker. Winning some pots here and there. Making some timely bluffs. No huge pots really as these guys are really trying to grind out profits one hand at a time. There weren’t a whole lot of all ins unless they were small stacked.  I didn’t really witness many $200 pots early on. This was a table where a preflop raise of $8 was respected for the most part. A table full of solid poker players trying to make some side cash. The poker dealers who were playing weren’t giving anything away. The internet guys were more aggressive but not in a maniac way. So I’m grinding along with the rest of them and this hand comes up.

I’m two off the button and there’s 4 limpers. I look down at A/Q spades. Not bad. I think I can raise here since noone has raised before me and I’m in decent position, I need to isolate a few players. So I raise to $10. This one guy with his baseball cap on backwards, with a Maryland hoodie, sunglasses and big headphones calls me in the small blind. Everyone else folds. Now this guy has sort of a big mouth. He’s calling people by what they’re wearing and stuff. Calling guys old timer, calling some the dealers Borgata and he’s been calling me Eli because I’m wearing my lucky Red Giants Cap.  I’ve been at this table for a solid two hours now and he’s been calling me “Eli” everytime I’m in a pot with him. He’s able to push me off a few times with some large and strange bets and I’ve been letting him have the best of me b/c I’m trying to play solid poker. I know sometimes I’m ahead but I felt like I can take him down in the right situation. Besides I’ll be honest he’s been using his position against me as well. He’s acting after me most times so he’s been able to make some moves against me when my hands don’t hit or when they don’t hit strongly enough to call some of his aggressive post flop betting. So right now he’s gotta be feeling good against me.

My A/Q spades is a decent hand to play with. He’s called my bet so let’s see a flop. He puts on his sunglasses. Game on.

Flop is K, 5, 9 two spades.

I have the nut flush draw. So I bet out. $20. I’m representing a K. I want see what he’ll do. He raises me $30 and I call.

Against a player like the “Maryland” Kid, I really wanted a Q to hit the board because even though he’s been a pain and cocky, he really hasn’t played that many bad hands. He could easily have a K in this spot. He doesn’t have a lot of chips behind him about $175 against my $350+ or so. So I have him covered in case he tries to make a move on me on the turn and I feel like gambling on the river if I miss my flush on the turn. We’ve played some pots together. He knows I’ve been playing good hands for the most part. I’ve shown down strong hands against him and the other players, he knows I’m willing to protect my good hands against draws etc…so if he’s paying attention, he knows I don’t mess around usually.

Turn is a blank. Doesn’t help me at all. Since I’m acting first, I want to represent that I have a strong K again. I bet out $50 in a $80-$90 pot is a good solid bet I think. He just calls. Strange. Just calling.

So I start to think of what he has and If I can get him off the pot if I don’t hit my flush or an ace on the river. 

Then it hits me. He’s got the King and probably has flush draw also. He played this type of hand in a similar fashion earlier in the game. That time he had a weak Ace with a flush draw and was willing to raise on the flop and played it really aggressive on the turn. He lost that pot because he missed his flush draw and was outkicked. He lost close to $300 that hand. So I’m guessing he’s on the same type of hand but this time he’s not willing to push in case I have out kicked. And I don’t blame him, I was playing like I had at least K/Q or K/J and if he pushes and loses this pot he’s got to reload.  And who likes to reload?  I put him on K/7 or K/8 spades something like that.

Through out this hand he’s still talking.  “I’ll give you some action Eli” or ”Eli what you got? A set?” saying stuff like that.

It’s not like he’s saying like good naturedly or anything.  He’s almost borderline punk like when he says it. I don’t have any problem with it, he’s not going to get to me anway. Hey it wasn’t that long ago when I was the same kid, a little bit of a wise ass and full of cockiness. I found it fun actually. Besides I started to call him the “The Maryland Kid” so I giving some back to him also. He wasn’t a complete jerk but he was annoying in that cocky, I’m better than you type of way which gets tired very fast sometimes.

Then the money card comes. A spade. I’m giggling inside. I got you now Mr. Maryland.

My instinct on this hand was superb. As I pointed out earlier I put him on a weak King with a King high flush draw here on the turn. I was pretty sure of it.

So I go into my own act. I’m acting like the spade put a hurt on my beautiful set. I’m agonizing over the spade on the river. So finally after some time, I put in a weak bet like I’m ready to give up if he’s going over the top on me. I bet $35 bucks. It’s a weak bet, a bet that says to him I’m not going to check and act like a mouse, but it’s not a strong bet like I’m so sure about my hand at this point. It’s more like a bet that says I’m trying to play aggressive against you but I’m willing to lose my $35 bucks in case you go over the top. Weird on the Internet I might see this as a sign of strength betting out such a small amount but playing live it makes absolute sense to me.

The Maryland Kid goes over the top of me for $50 dollars more. He’s only got about $100 or so left behind him at this point. Not much. So this bet makes sense to him because if he goes over the top all in, I’ll likely fold especially after I represented a strong K right from the start. A $50 raise might be enough for me to call him down especially with two pair or top pair with a strong kicker. At least that’s what I’m thinking he’s thinking.

But he doesn’t know what I really have.  I go into the whole act again. I’m not pouring it on. I’m just acting like this is a difficult decision for me. I’m not trying to make it obvious. So I start talking to myself loud enough for him to hear me. I’m saying stuff like “I have a strong hand there Maryland Kid”, “Are you making a move on me?” and ”There’s only a few hands that can beat me”  I’m going over the hand bet by bet that sort of thing. It takes about 30 seconds of talking to myself before I declare “I don’t believe you Kid, I don’t think you have it I raise”.  I toss in 10 red $5 chips he immediately shoves all in and I call.  He shows K/8 spades and I show A/Q spades.

Sweet. I busted him. More importantly I think I outplayed him and/or I convinced him that I had the weaker hand. Normally, I don’t talk like this at all when I’m playing poker but this kid was calling me “Eli” and stuff, plus he was a little too cocky for my taste but it felt good to take him down. Maybe what I did was unethical but I felt it was the thing I had to do to make him pay me off. 

I guess I’m beginning to be a real poker player.

I wish I could say that I continued my strong play after this hand but I did manage to lose some of it back and blew most of my poker winnings on blackjack and craps but I had a fun time none the less.  If I just played poker I came out ahead but I wish it was an easy ride. I reloaded ($300) twice in two sessions. The last day was brutal I didn’t manage to win many pots at all but I wasn’t down too much (about $75) but I was planning to leave later that night so I played it tight for the most part.  My AA did get cracked by another player who flopped a  straight so that was the only hand I kind of misplayed. All in all I netted about $125-$150 in poker winnnings .

I’m happy with the way I played poker. There’s some leaks of course that need fixing which could’ve made a decent 3 days into a monster 3 days of poker but I’m not complaining. I’m learning still and I’m definitely getting better at reading hands and stuff. If I could only stay away from losing some big pots (money saved is money earned) when I go against my instincts I just may become a real good poker player like I think I should be.

Sorry for the long post. It was 3 long days of poker and I just wanted to post a few of the important hands I played in. I didn’t even mention the 3 tourneys I played in those days also.  I finished 6th in one tourney (6 pay outs) which netted me only $100 bucks and the second one I finished 12th when 9 places paid out. So all in all for the 3 days I was there I managed to play about 10-13 hours of poker everyday. That’s a lot of poker….lol.  I blew most of my winnings on blackjack, craps and the table hold em game (what a rip off), plus expenses I actually came out behind. It was a blast anyway. Besides who wants to just play poker all the time when you’re in Atlantic City?