Tough Borgata Trip

Monday was Day 1B of the Borgata $1k Double Play and was to be my starting date. It was a deep stack structure with 50 min blinds and 30k starting stack. This was right in my wheel house.

Had a fun weekend with the wife and kids at the beach (except watching the Ravens give up the lead in 4thQ to Brady) and got home late Sunday night. Wife went to bed pretty early so knowing I was going up to the B and had no work the next day I decided to play some tournaments. I haven't played any tournaments on-line in October and low and behold I made 2 final tables and had a $1k profit night...well this is a good start. Then I went to bed and apparently any good fortune went to bed with me.

Monday morning I dropped the kids off at school and went to the bank to get some cash. I only had about $600 in my pocket so I needed money for the tournaments and the cash games. Can't find my money card. SHit..must have left it at home. Reverse course home and can't find it anywhere. So now I need to go the branch to get the dough. They don't open until 9 a.m. and the tournament starts at 11. Takes 2 1/2 hours to get from Baltimore to AC. You can do the math. But can buy-in til about 1 p.m. so whatever. Get there about 11:30, buy-in and find my seat. I won't be here long unfortunately.

I decided to play a bit differently this time. I have had great success playing very tight solid in these deep stack events but the play is so hideously bad early that I really feel like there are free chips on the table that just need to be vacuumed up. Give that, I decided to play a bit more aggressively right from the get-go. Calling and 3 betting in position, floating flops where I think I can steal on later streets and making thinner value bets on rivers to try and get max value out of hands. All was going well and I had chipped up to about 35k against a super soft table in 1 level. I had even texted a buddy of mine and said that I had found the softest table ever. Then it all went hideously wrong. An older English dude opened to 300 at 50/100 and I flat call the button with KQhh. 2 other callers I think so there is 1200ish in the pot. Flop comes QTx with 2 hearts which is pretty good. He bets 800 and only I call...pot is 2800. Turn is pretty good-K. So I have top 2 and K high flush draw. He bets 2100 and I raise to 6100. He calls. Pot about 15k. River is a brutal T. He checks. Now I am supposed to check here I think as I just got counterfeited and AA now beats me. But his range includes AK, AQ, KQ (probably not as likely given he called my raise on the turn) and I guess AJ for a turn str8 (again not as likely given his bet/call on turn). Will he ever fold AA here...maybe. Will he call with worse than top 2...probably not. Will he fold KQ here...maybe. All in all I decide to try and bet here as mostly a bluff. He is older and older men hate "big" bets. I decide that there is too much in there to just check it back and be a wimp. I finally decide on a bet of 11.5k which puts him in the tank. At this point I am guessing he has AK or AA. Obv the former I want a call the latter I want a fold. He finally calls and shows AA. Ugghhhhh...not sure how much I like that river bet by me.

20 mins later the nail is put in me. Guy moved 2 to my right and was betting and raising a ton. Seemed pretty spewy. He has 28k and I have ~16k. Blinds still 50/100. EP player raises to 300 and two call in from of me. I call 89ss. Guy on my left calls and spewtard 3 bets to 1300. Gets 3 callers and comes back to me. I am pretty sure button is light here. I consider shoving and picking up 5kish like 95% of the time. Instead I decide to flat call and try and flop a big one....pot ~6600. Flop does not disappoint 673 with 2 spades. Checks to me and I consider shoving but with a flush draw, opened ended str8 draw and 2 overs my hand is huge and I am fine getting this in against basically any hand. I check and like clockwork button bets 3800. Folds to me and I jam like 14.5 total. Guy to my left then tanks..finally saying "I'll just take my draw and leave" or something like that...I am pissed. If he puts me on a draw he is now more likely to think my draw won't hit since this guy said that. Fucking idiot. Finally he tanks and calls with...22...are you serious sir? When I turn over my cards he says "I knew you were on a draw"...live players are a riot. Yes I am on a draw as a 3-1 favorite sir. Good soul read. Turn and river run out KQ non-spades and I am out in about 90 mins...wow. But I want to get it all in as a 3-1 favorite like every single time. His call is just mind boggling but whatever...it's poker.

Cash games weren't much better. I played an hour or so of 5/10 NLHE with no real action so I got up almost dead even. Then yesterday I put in a marathon 16 hour session at 2/5. What a mess this was. I was stuck over $1600 in about 3.5 hours. When this happens I tend to go into a mode where I don't get up until I get back to even. I mean this is 2/5 and other than 2 or 3 spots at the table the players are giving away their money. First trouble hand I played was when we got $800 in each with me holding AQss on a Qxx with 2 spade board. He had KK and held to scoop a $1600+ pot. That was basically a coin-flip when the money went in. Then I lost a dirty one. UTG blind raised to 25 as a straddle. There were 3 callers to me on the button and I squeeze AKdd. I make it 225 basically just trying to grab the 100+ already in the pot. Well my chips aren't even out of my hand and SB stuffs his 400ish stack in the middle....Sigh...this is pretty much KK or AA every single time. Oh well. I call and he has AA. Anyway I was stuck $1600 to a bunch of pretty poor poker players and this blows. Finally I went on a massive rush around dinner time last night and suddenly had over $2k on the table in front of me. Drifted down a bit until I finally packed it up about 1:30 a.m. with about a $250 losing session. Haven't had a losing cash session in a while so I suppose it was inevitable.

Get in the car and am barelling down NJ Turnpike at 3:00 a.m. when I get pulled over. Some fucking day huh? Cop is not really very pleasant and is clearly looking in the car to make sure I am not drinking or whatever. Wants to know where I am going and tell him I am going home from Borgata. "Oh were you up there partying?" he asks. "Nah I was playing poker". Suddenly his demeanor changes and he spends the next 10 mins peppering me with questions about it. "Are you a pro? Have you won a bracelet? Have you ever been on TV? What games do you play? What advice to you have for someone like me trying to move beyond small games with my buddies?", etc. I, of course, worked it hard and played it up a little bit since it seems like I may have my angle here. Finally he says "Let me go run your license but this shouldn't be a problem". Comes back and says since I haven't had a ticket in 10 years he will give me a warning. I thank him profusely and he says he wants to see me next year on the WSOP coverage. I say "From your lips to God's ears" and I am off again.

So poker comes to the rescue in the end after all.