It’s been a good while since I’ve set foot in a live casino. Atlantic City, the east coast’s answer to Vegas, hasn’t changed one bit. The games are just as wild and there’s money to be made. I don’t know why I decided to go to Atlantic City but I originally had plans but they fell through, there weren’t any poker league games and I just didn’t feel like playing online. I wanted that rush of staring down another player and making him/her squirm. So off I go to Atlantic City to cure my addiction.
The funny thing is that two other players from my poker league also thought the same thing. The bus ride was relatively uneventful, unless you consider old ladies argueing over seating as eventful, then you need help. I nap all the way to Atlantic City. I call Jack, and he’s over at Caesars. Frankly, I don’t play at Caesars. I played there once a few years back and there was something I didn’t like about it. Maybe it was the lighting or maybe it was the drab decor but Jack said they had renovated the poker room so I agreed to meet him there. The room did look nice albeit kind of smallish.
I buy-in at the table where Jack is sitting. $250 at a 1-2 NL table seems about right. I’m playing fairly tight early on just to gauge the other players and their tendencies. At this point in my poker learning curve, I strongly feel that I’m a pretty decent player post flop. I feel that I can outplay other players post flop because I have developed that “feel” for the game and I can make decent raises or value bet with middle pairs hands like that when I know I’m ahead or make a strong bet to represent something better than what I actually have. I especially know when to make tough laydowns. That’s the key to making money in my opinion because with all the crazy players out there, you have fold if you think your top pair top kicker is beat. I saw this one donkey call almost any bet on any streeet and hit two pairs or trips and he kept getting paid off. He ran his roll to over $900 by my estimation.
He takes down a $80 pot when he hits his trips against my top pair. Then I noticed a tendency in his play. He would call any amount but when he hit he would bet out and always something small enough that you had to call. I knew that if I could get him to play in a hand against me, I would relentlessly value bet him and hopefully take down a big pot against him to slow his confidence. I never got the chance, he lost a $300 pot and then left with about $600+. Meanwhile, I’m stuck about $120 at this point and I had to get something going.
I had been passive but tight at this point. Mostly making modest raises and folding to any bet if I didn’t hit. I just wanted to feel comfortable at the table before I started to ramp up my game. It took me about an hour before I started to really play poker. I was always mindful of position because an early position raise of $15 was sure to get called by 3 players. I just hate being out of position against weaker players. So mostly I limped in EP early with hands like AJ suited or AQ, pocket pairs like JJ,1010 etc. I know this is weak but again I wanted to ease into the game because I felt a little rusty.
After a few rounds of laying low, I decide to mix it up a little. Guy in 2nd position raises to $8 and two others call. I sense a little weakness, additionally I noticed that often a decent sized raise can take it down preflop so I decided to re-pop this baby and hopefully pocket the $27 in the pot right then and there. The SB and BB fold and I get two callers. Oh well, not the result I wanted so let’s see a flop and hope for the best. I hit the flop hard (J,2,2) and I’m in business. The original raiser checks and MP bets out $25, MP folds and I flat call again. The turn card is an Ace. This is a great card for me because now if the original raiser has AJ i’m gonna cash in. Then again, this Ace might be a kiler because they’ll certainly put me on an Ace because of the PF raise. This is the beauty of position because I can control the pot now and I can wait to see the action before me. The EP bets out again, this time it’s $50. Bingo, he’s got a decent hand. I don’t think he has JJ or AA (or at least I hope not) he’s got only about $60 left behind so I put him all in. He calls with AQ and I make a tidy profit of $195.
I’m up $70 and I”m feeling good.
It’s about 5 pm and I’ve been at the table for about 3 hours. I’m playing my game but I haven’t caught a decent since the 2/3 of spades. At this point I’m up about $37 when I get JJ in the cut off. A guy in middle position raises to $17, player next to me calls and I raise to $50 again. Original raiser is a bit of a wild card as he’s been the most aggressive player at the table and he re-pops me $125. I think hard for a bit, he’s done this before with junk. I really hate those super aggressive guys sometimes. I fold.
I leave to the Taj Mahal at around 8ish, to meet my bud Jimmy. I get there and he’s sitting with over $900 in chips. Wow. Even more importantly he’s in a hand with a Korean lady who’s yelling at him “I got you!”, “I got you!”. The pot is a decent one but Jimmy eventually folds. The lady then promptly leaves. I ask for her seat and I buy-in for $300. Jimmy has done some damage against her and she was out for revenge I’m told. This table was a juicy one. There were at least two players who were over aggressive and two that would call with any piece of the flop. The others were folding machines and they never entered the pot unless they had something. There was this one elderly guy who kept getting paid off by the bluffers. They thought they could bluff him but all he’d do is call and would win some pretty nice pots. I just hoped that I could capitalize on all this crazy action. I quickly get paid off when I have A10 vs. A9. We both hit two pair and I stacked him off (about $150). Over the course of 4 hours I build my stack to about $650-$700. Then I run into a bit of bad luck on two hands where the villain hits trips against my top pair. I go on a mini run and I run my stack back up. I lose with QQ vs. A9 (he hit a 9 on the flop, then called me down until an Ace hit the river).
I’ve been playing for 8 hours now and I’m up barely. I have about $400 in chips. Then I get real lucky when I hit a set of 7s to crack KK. That brought me back up to around $750. I then decide to protect my profits and play a little tighter. That proved useless because when you’re playing against super loose players, they will call any raise just about. I miss several times when I get dealt AK, AQ and AJ suited. I miss an OE flush draw and give up on the river. I hit two pair with 86 suited vs. JJ (hey he only raised to $10 and I was in the BB). Up and down when by the 10th hour I’m exhausted and hungry.
I decide to play one more orbit and then take a break when the BB hits me. I’m under the gun and I’m hoping that I don’t catch a decent hand so I can just fold and leave. Of course the poker gods are experts in Irony and they deal me QQ UTG. I raise to $15. I get 3 callers. The flop is 7, 9, 10. I have an overpair to the board. I bet out $35 and the two others call. I get the sneaky suspicision that someone has hit a set. The turn is a Jack. Great now I have an open ended straight draw to go with my top pair but I’m still not convinced that I have the best hand. What’s really killing me is that I’m first to act. What to do? I have an overpair to the board and a open ended straight draw to boot. I decide to check and defer the action to the two guys acting after me. Weak play? Maybe but I really wanted to see what they would do next. This was more of a pot control issue because if I check and somebody raises then I’m the last player to call a raise (in essence ending the action there). I loathe giving free cards but I felt this was the best move. One of the guys bets out $60, one guy finally folds and I flat call hoping to complete my straight. The river is a duece. Not the card I was looking for. I still have an overpair, and this time I decide to bet out to see where I stand. I figure if I’m ahead (the villain may have A10 for exmaple) and the other guy was semi-bluffing then I’ll take down the pot there but if he re-raises me I can fold if I have to. I bet out $60 and and the villain re-pops me $150. I go into the tank. I’ve hand the feeling all along that the villain had a set and was slowplaying. This particular player was pretty tight and I rarely see him raising unless he had a real good hand. I reluctantly fold because I figure that leaving the casino up $275 is better than leaving with $125. While the villain was mucking the dealer accidentally flipped over one of his cards it was a 7. Now I was sure he hit his set.
I take my $575 in chips to the cashier and treat myself to a Kobe Burger with the works and a chocolate milkshake. As I’m eating, I am struggling with the idea of playing more poker or quitting and going home with a tidy profit. Ultimately, I blow about $50 playing craps and decide to leave up $225 on the night.
