This is probably going to be a long post as I am just going to type out my entire trip as I remember it.
After working pretty much a full day on Wed my wife picked me up, we got some lunch at Wendy's, then she dropped me off at the airport. I had a non-stop flight from Nashville to Islip airport which took about 2 hours. It was 85 degrees in Nashville when we left and 65 in Islip when we got there, geeeeesh.
My brother and his wife picked me up in their brand new Lexus SUV which was just sick. It was all pimped out with the GPS Navigational system, Sirius Satellite radio, built in phone system to the stereo, camera built into the console that turned on when you were backing up to see what was behind you, etc etc. We left the airport and went to Applebees. I asked for a Steak with some mashed potatoes and gravy. The guy looked at me like I had flipped me lid and said they didnt serve gravy. WTF!? No gravy? Fuckin northerners.
Wed night we pretty much just hung out at my brothers house. He has a nice pool table so we played like 10 games then hung out in the hot tub for like 30 minutes which felt awesome cause it was so cool outside.
Thursday morning we got up, had breakfast, and started the drive to Atlantic City about 9:30 AM. Traffic was just insane, everyone in a hurry. I couldnt believe how many toll roads there were. I bet we hit 6 tolls on our way to AC, the main one leaving NY into Jersey was like $9.
We got into AC about 1:00 PM and checked into the Borgata which was VERY nice. I spent about 30 seconds to put my bags down in my room and headed straight for the poker room. Their poker room was VERY pimp. I was like 1:15 and the place was already packed on a Thursday. I didnt know what game to pick so I set at an open $3/$6 limit game. WOW, what a mistake. I have never seen more calling stations in my life. Every hand had at least 5 or 6 people the flop and you could be pretty damn sure that at least 2 people were calling to the river so if you didnt have the best hand you best not be in there.
I played 3/6 for about 4 hours and made $25 then we went to grab the buffet dinner before the Steve Miller Band concert. After paying $30 for a buffet we had about an hour before the SMB concert. My brother gets the bright idea he wants a beer, but doesnt want to pay for one so we go sit at a blackjack table to get a 'free' drink. Well 10 minutes later we each had our Heineken, I was up $5 and my brother was down $170 lol. That became the running joke for the rest of the trip. "So how is that $170 beer you cheap bastard that wouldnt pay $7 for one lol"
The Steve Miller Band was absolutely amazing. Old and still rocking. We were pretty much center stage, 5th row. They played all their hits and I was very pleased.
After the SMB concert I wasted about 20 seconds before I headed straight back down the the poker room. It was about 9:00 so there was a little waiting list. After waiting about 20 minutes my $6/$12 table was ready. I played $6/$12 for about 5 hours and profitted about $90. I had this character playing right beside me that thought he was a pro. He reminded me of Bill Fillmaff. He kept talking about the $80/$160 games he usually played and how he got all busted at the raid at the New York players club and lost $3000 he had in cash there, etc etc.
I got to bed about 2:00 AM and we got up at 9:00 AM and hit the breakfast buffet for another $20. After breakfast we got ready and took a cab over to the Tropicana. I called my Fullcontactpoker (FCP) friend elkang who I planned on meeting there and he was just leaving the Borgata as well. I set down around 12:00 and within 30 minutes we were sitting at the same $6/$12 table. I couldnt catch a hand during that 5 hour session and it seemed like every pot that elkang entered he won. I bet he played for maybe 2 or 3 hours and easily made $400 profit ($6/$12 game). I ended the session down $200, mainly due to one key hand that I am still going to bitch about until the day I die.
I had two black Kings on the button. UTG raises to $12 and late position makes it $18 to go, I capped the betting at $24. The blinds folded so we have $81 in the middle before the flop. The flop was an amazing K hearts K diamonds A hearts. HOLY SHIZIT! My heart was pounding so hard and I know I had 300 tells going off, but I didnt care, I flopped the quad kings and wasnt even thinking about how to extract the most money, I was just like I'm betting and raising everytime it gets to me. UTG bets $6, late raises it to $12, and I'm thinking you've got to be kidding me, wooohooo! I raise it to $18, UTG calls, late caps it, we both call.
Now we got $153 in the middle and the turn comes the 3 of hearts which is a GREAT card for me because it put 3 hearts on the board so if someone was playing the flush they just hit and would fall to my quad kings. Once again UTG bets $12, late raises to $24, I make it $36 to go and UTG caps at $48.
There is now $297 in the pot and I cant believe I am about to win the biggest live pot of my life. The river brought the Ace of clubs and my stomach dropped clear out of my body. I was 90% sure one of these 2 guys had AA and flopped aces full of kings else they wouldnt have been betting that way. UTG checked, late bet $12, I called, UTG called. Sure frickin enough late has AA and wins with quad aces over my quad kings and took down the $333 pot. UTG mucked, but I am pretty sure he must have made the nut flush and draw to the royal. It was one of the worst feelings ever. The entire table went absolutely nuts.
I took about a 10 minute break after that hand, came back and played a little bit longer then headed to meet my brother and his wife for 6:00 dinner reservations at a restaurant called Carmines. Carmines is a family style restaurant that brings these unbelievably sized portions and everyone eats from one platter. We had shrimp scampi with alfredo noodles and it was awesome.
After dinner I headed straight to the Borgata and by 8:00 I was sitting at the $6/$12 table again. I ended up playing til about 2:00 AM and lost another $300. Two main reasons I KNOW I lost. First was I started drinking. I probably had 6 Heinekens during that 6 hour period. The other reason I lost was because I got bored. It was my last night there and I wanted to play. I am so used to playing 4 or 5 tables online where I can see 300 hands an hour and am constantly in the action, but live I was only seeing like 35 hands an hour and I hated waiting like an hour to play a hand.
I found myself playing Daniel Negreanu style hands like 7T suited. There were 3 hands that really stick out in that last session. Two I think are bad beats and one was a bad beat I put on another guy.
First hand I had AK spades and flop came down TQ7 all spades. I flopped the nut flush and was one draw from the Royal. I was first to act and bet out $6 and it folded around to the BB who raised me $6, I felt he was trying to see if I was bluffing or not so instead of reraising right there I just called and decided I would make a move on the turn where the betting round was doubled. The turn brought a 9 of clubs. I checked to the raiser planning on reraising his bet, but he just checked behind me. Damn! I got outplayed hard. The river brought the 7 of clubs. I bet $12, he raised to $24, I reraised to $36, he capped at $48. He turns over 79 of hearts. You got to be shitting me, he runner runnered a full house. He played the hand pretty well and I know I got outplayed, but man that hand hurt.
The 2nd hand that really sucked, I was in the BB with 77. There was an early position raise and 2 callers so I also called the extra $6 to see a flop as I was getting nearly 1:9. The flop came down a beautiful 27K rainbow. To make a long story short my set lost to a runner runner spade flush.
This was my favorite hand of the entire night. It was about 1 AM and I was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. I was UTG and I picked up K3 offsuit. To most people this hand is absolutely junk, but to anyone that reads the FCP forum on a regular basis we call this hand the Krablar. It is really more of a fun hand that if you happen to get lucky with the cards and win you can easily tilt the other players and it definitely makes them more cautious of you cause you could literally be playing any two cards.
Well the Krablar is useless unless you raise with it. Now typically K3 offsuit UTG is not a raising hand lol, but I couldnt resist. I raised to $12 and got most people respected my UTG raise, but the two blinds decided to defend and called the $9 and $6 respectively.
The flop completely missed me as it came down 68T leaving a straight and flush possibility out there. The two blinds checked to me and I made my feeler $6 bet. The SB folded but the BB raised me. My first reaction was like shit, but then I was like what am I thinking? I have the fricking Krablar, so I reraise (representing an overpair), BB calls. The turn brings my beautiful King. BB checked, I bet, he called. The river brought my 3. LOL It was really unbelievable, I was laughing inside so hard. He checked again and I bet, he called and looked at me to show my hand. I turn over the K3 for two pair and the dude went ballistic man. I swear he blew up. He threw his TA (had flopped TPTK) on top the chips, his face turned red, and he looked at me with pure raw anger. I simply looked back at him, raised both my hands in the air and said "Pinch Pinch" as I closed my fingers together in a pinching motion right to his face. The guy literally kicked his chair back against the wall, left his chips on the table, and stormed off somewhere. I only played for about 30 more minutes after that and that guy still wasn't back by the time I left lol. OH the power of the Krablar, it was absolutely beautiful.
Around 1:30 AM I am content with the fact I lost $400 playing like 20 hours of poker cause I had a great time. Then I made the worst mistake of my trip. I stopped by the blackjack tables on my way back to the room. I set down in a semi-drunken stooper at the $25 minimum table. By 3:30 AM I managed to lose $100 and decided to finally go to sleep.
I left the Borgata with $4 of my $700 left. $500 to gambling and $200 to stuff like food, drinks, and souvenirs for the family. I have to say it was one of the best times I've had in a long time and I really didnt care about the money so much as I had already put in my mind the fact I was OK with losing it. I am not going to lie, would have been much better coming home a winner, but regardless it was a great experience.
So left the Borgata Saturday morning and got back to my brothers house in Long Island about 3:00. We stopped by the butcher shop and picked up some Filet Mignon, fresh corn on the cob, and potatoes. We grilled out and had a great feast.
Sunday morning we went out on my brothers best friends boat. We went out on the bay and boated to the Hamptons. We spent like an hour looking at these $5 - $20 million dollar summer homes. They were truely unbelievable. We got pulled over by a Police Boat for a 'safety inspection'. The guy had everything, but the required 3 emergency distress flares so he got a $25 summons, crappy! We got back to the dock about 1:30 and I was off the the airport for my 5:00 flight back to Nashville. I got in around 7:00 and my wife and I did a fathers day dinner. I crashed by 10:00 and was up and at work this morning by 7:00 AM. What a trip!
I got my gamesgrid newsletter and made $16.96 for my little bit of play I did last Monday before I left. Heres how my hours broke down:
2.77 hours at $1/$2 2-7 Triple-Draw Lowball
2.66 hours at $1/$2 Dealer Choice
5.88 hours at $1/$2 Hold 'em
My bankroll is going to need to be revived, back to $2/$4 max for awhile I guess.
Current BR - $1398
