Thursday I went to the Borgata in Atlantic City to check out the poker scene. Not having been to AC in 3 years and Vegas in 2 I wanted to see what was new. If you don't know, the Borgata is basically an upscale Vegas strip quality hotel/casino in AC. It's far and above the nicest joint there, close to the Bellagio in overall class. The only shitty thing about AC is that since the town has nowhere near the draw of Vegas the accommodations aren't as subsidized. A regular room at the Borgata typically goes for $279/night in the summer! They do however offer decent rates for poker players- I stayed there for $149. Anyway here's the recap:
1. The poker room at the Borgata when I last visited was just slightly larger than the one at the Mirage. Now it's literally 3 times bigger. My guess is about 50-60 active tables on a Thursday night.
2. It is downright scary how many young people play poker nowadays. And I don't just mean low limit. I saw many guys (and a few ladies) my age or younger with several hundred in chips. Though many of them were playing 1-2NL, some were playing 2-5NL and beyond.
3. It definitely seems like a large contributing factor to the success of poker in AC is its close proximity to so many colleges and universities. I sat down at a 1-2NL table and 3 of the kids at the table had driven out from Philly just for a 6 hour session. It was just like Rounders except they weren't as good. Around 2am one of them mentioned that he had to be back for a 10am class.
4. I decided to play with $300 but most people sitting at the 1-2NL tables had about 350+. However there were many stragglers that came and left one by one who would sit down with $60-$100, bust out and leave. I kind of felt bad for these people. Nowadays it seems like there are so many tough players patrolling the low limit tables that the casual poker player has virtually no hope of success. One girl sat down with $60, busted out in like 20 minutes, hit the ATM for $120 more and lost that too. Another young asian kid sat down with $75 and eventually lost it all to me because he just played terribly.
5. Now for some memorable hands:
act 1, patiently waiting for playable hands
basically blinded off my first $35, saw no post flop worthy hands.
act 2, building up my stack
won a decent pot with JJ in middle position. flopped top set in three way action and beat a flush down the stretch when the board paired on the turn. flopped the nut flush with ATs in late position. this is where i took all that asian kids money. the board ended up with 4 diamonds and he thought he had me beat i guess. won a three-way pot with AJo from middle position with top two pair. don't remember the hand though. at this point i was up to about 480
act 3, bad luck, poor play
AKo in late position. flopped A62. got smoked by a big blind with 66. got AA in early/middle position. still steamed about the previous loss and tried to trap? i don't know what i was thinking. didn't raise preflop and ended up in 6 way action for the flop. flop was garbage and someone in front of me led off with a $10 bet so i mucked. a little while later was dealt QQ in early position. a tight asian kid in late position made it 12 and i reraised to 30, he called for a two way pot. flop was T63 or something like that. he checked to me and I didn't really think about what he was playing. i was definitely a little on tilt because i was loving my queens and just assumed that i was ahead. so i led off with 30, he called. basically the same thing happened on the turn. a jack hit on the river and he led off with a 100 bet. the pot was about 180. i agonized over this and ended up folding. his friends thought he had JJ but he never confirmed or denied. i think he might have made a good read on me though and bluffed me off the pot.
act 4, cooling down
i was back down to just over 300 so i wasn't in horrible shape but pretty upset about my play. blinded off a bunch and cooled down
act 5, redemption in the form of a suited connector
there was one asian kid at the table i had never played a pot with but knew was pretty solid. i had a 56 diamonds in middle position and called the bb. he was in the cutoff and raised it up to 12. i was interested and wanted to lay the smack down on him because i felt like he was playing a big hand so i called and someone after me called as well. flop comes down A73 with 2 diamonds! checks to him and he bets 20. at this point i started to get excited because i have a ton of outs and great pot odds. i call and so does the other player. turn is a 4. woot, hit my straight. check, check, he bets 100. i don't know what he was doing here, i think he realized he gave us the turn for too cheap. i had 280 in my stack and he had me covered. i sold it as best as i could without going overboard and pushed it all forward, hoping he'd figure me for a low set or a draw. the other dude folded and the asian kid was in agony. but i guess he thought i was putting a move on him because he called. i flipped over the straight and he flipped over AA. and to further embarass him the river brought me a flush.
just now as i was writing this i realized this is basically the same thing that happened to me with the QQ hand, in reverse. further support to the thought that i was bluffed off my queens is that the kid in that hand was a buddy of the kid i doubled through. so he was probably sure that i was putting a move on because he's seen it so many times in his home games. regardless, he was pwnt and this muthafucka got paid.
so yeah i hung around for a bit after that but i felt done. cashed out 667.
gg.
