Friday in Atlantic City

We did decide NOT to play in the USPC event today. We tried a couple of other casinos which turned out to be DEAD! We went to Caesar's and the poker room had only two tables going. We started to go to Bally's but after a quite long walk through a pretty confusing maze of retail/hotel/casino floor space.... we bagged it and headed for the Borgata.

There were probably three big hands for me that day and one really bad call.... I'll tell you all of them in order..... I'm glad the bad call happened first.... At any rate, I've got pocket 7's and limp. The flop is 6, 7, 8 rainbow. There's a bet in front of me and I pump it up to about $75 to see if he really does have the straight. The small blind who had checked it to the better... raised it to $150. Don't you hate it when you put a bet out to find out if someone has something, you find out that they do, but you still can't lay it down. I know.... but I've been running really well all week in the cash games and extremely well at the Borgata. But.... it is still probably an 8 outer at this point, because this guy is trying to convince me that he already has the straight. Then it happened.... it came to me, what would Dave do? So I pushed all-in and he immediately called and turned over his 5, 9 straight! LOL.

Re-buy! The next big hand happened within just a 45 minutes or so... I had re-built my stack from the $500 re-buy to about $750 and look down at Ah, 3h on the button. The UTG raises the $5 blind to $40 and there are 3 callers. I limp in and both the small and big blind call as well. So there are 5 of us going to the flop and it was a sweet..... 3, 3, 9. Check, check, bet $75, call, and I call. The sm and bb both call as well. The turn was the prettiest thing that I think I have ever seen.... Ace. Check, check and the original better bets $150..... I am 100% certain of his hand (A, K).... fold and I re-raise all-in. The sm, bb both fold and the better calls and turns over slick. The river.... (pay attention Jarod), a brick.... and I take all the guys chips! Wee!

Then, this guy sits down, he looks retired military with what appears to be the old flat top hair cut, high and tight and a painted on moustache. At any rate, I've got the Ad, 9d and he raises it to $45 and there are a couple of callers and I call. The flop was the Kd, 8d, 4d..... the colonel bets $125 with one caller and I call. The turn (Jarod, you listening?) a brick. The colonel bets $250, the other guy folds and I re-raise all-in and I look up and it's like the colonel was raptured.... he was gone! The others said that he was awaiting a seat at the high limit table and was going over to it. LOL. Dang.....

The last big hand in AC for me came at about 9:15 or so Friday night..... I've got about $1100 or $1200 in front of me and get ye olde pocket Jacks! There's a raise and a re-raise in front of me so I think I've got to find out if these guys really have something or if they are just trying to steal. I pump it up to $200. The sb folds and a relatively new guy that has been very aggressive moves all-in. I go into the tank for about 4-5 minutes.... I eventually called the clock on myself. At any rate, I had put the guy on a big Ace and why although I think even the cocktail waitress walking by knew that he had Kings or Aces..... for some reason, I did it again! What would Dave do? So I said, damn, I can't re-raise him, he's all-in for another $435 or so..... you know, it's late, it's time for us to leave, if he's got an overpair, god bless him.... I call and flip the Jacks... he sort of slow-rolled me and before he could get his cards over the dealer had started the flop and there on the front door.... a Jack! Pass the sugar! Are you paying attention Jarod? At any rate, the guy headed off for about 5-7 minutes to the ATM and when he returned, I was still stacking chips! LOL.

We play a few more hands but decide to head out and grab the buffet before 10 and before we hit the road for the long drive home.... so I grabbed up 3 racks from the under then table and it was off to the cashier.

The Borgata's comp schedule for poker players appears to be the best that I've seen anyway. You basically earn $2 per hour while sitting at the poker table. It almost paid for our buffets that night. It would have accept that Rick didn't sign up for his card. So we ate and hit the road and drove all night with some napping at a rest area along the way.... and a little napping while driving! I don't think that I want to drive up any more.... too much!

But it was a great trip for me.... brought back "a little" more money than I left with... played in 4 tourneys.... about 28th out of 170 or so in the Omaha 8, 50th or so in a $500 buy-in with Scott Fishman at my table, and of course the one cash, 12th place in the $300 buy-in event.

We need to do this at least every other month or so....