Satellites in Flight (AC Trip Report Pt. 2)
Monday, December 11, 2006
I sat down to the left of Bones and Ruff, and settled in for a turbo single table satellite. Randy was about three seats to my left.
The structures in single table tournaments in casinos play more like turbos online, if not ultra turbos. The blind period was 15 minutes, but if we got through a full orbit in 15 minutes we were moving at a helluva pace. One player was getting exceedingly lucky, while another was playing very loose aggressive. I felt confident that I could play my table well, but I knew that I'd have to get great cards or win a coin toss or two to get the necessary chips to play some real poker.
I stole the blinds from about 6 players (limpers) when I raised to 250 from the BB with 93o. I considered seeing a flop, but it was still early and all of the limpers didn't look like they could stand up to a raise. I had TT, and the very lucky player who had become a huge chip leader raised from the CO to 200 from 50. I decided to push all in, since I was confident that I was ahead, if only to a weighted coin toss, and to my dismay, the big stack called. He showed AQh, and the Ace on the flop sealed my fate. I was fine with the loss, though, since I decided to go out early (in 9th or 8th) rather than get blinded out around 3rd or 4th.
I got up from the table and went to the poker room desk. They directed me to the main casino cage to sign up for the $300+40 WSOP Circuit event. When I got to the window, there was only one person ahead of me. I paid the $340 and headed back to the poker room.
There, Ruff was already on the rail and Randy Hole wasn't far behind. It was down to three and Bones was still in it, the short stack compared to the lucky chipleader and some nondescript guy.
Ruff and I commiserated on the action. He thought that Bones was not aggressive enough. I was more interested in watching the chipleader to find out whether he was good or just lucky. I was also practicing my reads. I called his hands a couple of times, sometimes just a few cards away (KQ instead of KJ when he paired his K, or TT instead of JJ as overpairs to the board). The nondescript player busted, and it was just Bones and the chipleader. The truth was that the chipleader sucked. He was an actor, which I knew from an early hand. There was a flop of 777 and when a player in early position pushed (a manic loose player), chipleader hemmed and hawed and called stating, "If you have the 7, I've just got to see it." No one else called, and at showdown, the chipleader showed K7. He made his statement to try to get other callers. All he did, though, was tell me that he was going to be acting a whole lot. Hence, when it got to be heads up, any confidence on his part were weak cards. Any timidness was strength.
I guess Bones saw it too, or perhaps the chipleader's cards had gone cold, because when it was all said and done, Bones was able to take down the tournament. While the game was finishing, I went back to the poker desk to get info on the $300+40 rules and structure. As I waited, a guy walked up behind me. He asked if I was signing up for the next satellite. I turned and said, "No" but when I saw the guy, I realized it was the recently defeated chipleader. "Tough game there, man." I tried to sound sympathetic. "I'm surprised you didn't chop at some point." "How could we chop," he asked. "One of you just offer the other guy cash..." I realized that he was damning himself as I said this. I saw no need to post-game tilt the guy, so I softened my statement, "Yeah, but I guess neither of you had an opportunity to bring it up." I lied. Ruff and I spent a good 5 minutes during their heads-up battle trying to figure out why no deal was made. I'm glad we kept out of it.
After the game, the four of us were hungry. At the table, I rarely feel hunger, but if it comes, its usually a sign that I haven't eaten in an inappropriately long time. In this case, as I waited for Ruff on the long line that had formed at the WSOP Circuit cashier (and also for Bones, who had won the tournament and a seat in the event, but still had to wait for Harrah's incompetent staff and system, which took 20+ minutes to sign him up for the event), I realized that I hadn't eaten for 8+ hours. It was 10:30 and it felt like 8:15 to me. Time has no meaning to me in AC.
We went to the diner-like establishment in Harrah's. Every hotel in AC has one, and it was just what we needed. I ordered the official casino meal of High On Poker, a grilled cheese, but the bacon tasted a bit odd. It was seasoned in some weird way. Whatever the case, it did the job, and I got a laugh as Ruff knew that my meal was an official HoP staple.
Ruff and Bones were heading back to the Trop, and Randy and I headed back to Harrah's. We hung out in the room, waiting for Roose's arrival. We played some Rummy 500, and I lost $5 to Randy's absurd Rummy 500 skills. When Roose arrived, he convinced me to play some table games. We headed downstairs for some Pai Gow. Roose was card dead and started to steam. I won $3.50 and decided to walk while still up. We headed upstairs, cognizant of the fact that the real fun started the next day with the WSOP Circuit event. Fortunately, Roose had stopped at Harrah's before he came to the hotel and had signed up. It was a good thing, too, because Saturday morning was going to be a madhouse at Harrah's.
Coming up...our arrival at Harrah's, our exit from Harrah's, and killing time in AC.
posted by Jordan @ 1:18 PM,
1 Comments:
-
At 3:05 PM,
Eric a.k.a. Bone Daddy said...
-
sorry bro that I couldn't make it, my big weekend of poker went to shit.
Play the borgata in January, that is one I can't miss.
