And On With the Show (AC Trip Report Pt. 3)
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
After playing 2/4 limit poker for an hour and a half with Roose and Hole at the Resorts new poker room, the three of us were pretty hungry. We decided to step away from the table and take a walk down the boardwalk to check out other hotels. At that point, I had lost $18 playing limit. Roose was near-even, if not a bonafied winner. Hole had doubled up his $80 entry. Go figure. The one guy who didn't want to play limit had hit it big. God Bless!
We hit the boardwalk with grumbling stomaches and settled on a Johnny Rockets with dirt cheap, but good food. I've only had Rockets once before in NYC and it was horrible. So this was a nice surprise. Our goal was to get a decent meal for cheap, as our money was meant for the poker tables and not the dinner tables.
We checked out the Bally's poker room, which was fairly packed. We would've sat down, but there was a line and we still wanted to check out the rest that AC had to offer. Also, I was consciously trying to avoid playing, as I wanted to avoid spending 100% of my time gambling.
We next headed over to the Sands for my sake; Roose and Hole both knew the room from a previous visit. Upon entering the out-of-the-way room (it seemed like it was on a floor by itself), we were immediately called over by the woman running the list, "Anywhere you want boys!" I guess it was kind of dead, since every table had two empty seats or so. There were only about 4-6 tables going, but I can see that they had maybe 20 or so total. Keep in mind that this is all my recollection, which is notoriously bad. A dealer even called us over to play at his table. It was definitely quiet, volume-wise, and the scene was kind of depressing overall. We made our exit and headed back to the Resorts' poker room. There were still the same two 2/4 tables, but we spoke to pit boss Dan and asked about the possibility of a NLHE table. He said that he would love to. In fact, he already had nearly a full table of people who wanted to play. The only problem...he didn't have a dealer! WHAT!? Resorts will get a letter from me! We walked around a bit, during which I lost $100 at a 4-card poker table game, and rob won $200-300 at a 3-card poker game. He was hitting flushes more than Roose after a spicy meal (sorry Dave).
Let me also add that Dave at this point bought my last $20 in chips and then placed them on the Roulette wheel. When he came back with $40 in chips, he handed me half. What?! Giving away free money? Thank you Dave. I was down about my losses, and you were cool enough to give away $20. Dave's saying for the trip was, "You guys come here for the money. I come here to hang out with my friends." I wouldn't want to gamble with anyone else. That's a class act.
Finally, we returned to the Resorts poker room, and gave up waiting for a NL table. We sat for the $2/4 limit, during which I lost $20. But then the NLHE table openned up. The table was great. Angel, a tough-looking older Italian guy in a mesh shirt with a gold medallion chain, sat in the 1st seat. Asian guy was to his left, followed by Robbie Hole. Next to me was Pops, an old, accented guy, who first sat and asked what game we were playing. He claimed to have no clue, and at times, it seemed like he had no clue. However, he won a lot, often by luck. I still wonder if he was playing us all. I was next, followed by Roose, and two guys who thought they were hot-shot pros. These asses were sitting their with their smug looks, stupid glasses, and shitty demeanor.
There were others who came and went, but these were the main players. The table was wild, man. I mean wild. Raises of $50 was common, after a while. Only two hands stick with me right now. They are both losers. Let me also admit that I lost my $100 buy-in and didn't re-buy, thanks to Roose, who kept me from buying back on tilt.
In the first hand of interest, I started with KJ. I raised it to 12$, and only Pops, to my right, called. The flop were all low cards. Pops checked. I raised $20. He called. The turn was K. Sweet! I raised $25. He called. I knew that Pops would call me down with any pair, so I wasn't too concerned yet. The river was an Ace. Pops checked, and I checked too. He had A3. There were no 3s on the board. The dude was calling me down with Ace high. Damn! I'm glad I didn't raise on the end though. That would have been a rookie mistake that I couldn't live down.
Later in the night, I had about $45 left, and was in the big blind with QT suited. Roose called UTG. Jackass #1 raised it to $15. Jackass had been betting big the entire time, trying to play the bully. I saw him show down crappy hands earlier after pre-flop raises; I also hadn't seen him show any premium hands after preflop raises. I called, as did Roose. The flop couldn't have been better. It was Qxx. I raised all-in. Roose folded, and Jackass stared me down. When I want someone to call (and I wanted him to call) I'll send all sorts of signals. I stared back at him, like I was trying to force him to fold. Most knowledgable players know that when someone stares you down, they are actually trying to look strong because their cards are weak. He took a long time. And then he called, with QK. DAMN! I don't know what happened. Obviously, I overplayed my top pair. I guess I have to chalk it up to bad timing. I must improve my game and get over this.
In the end, I think Hole was up...again, and Roose was okay as well. I was down another $100, bringing my total poker losses to $138. Shite!
We had a drink. Smoked a bit. Ate some awesome room service and passed out.
Coming up next: The Taj Tourney.
posted by Jordan @ 11:48 AM,
