Crubs don't come, beautiful crubs.

Warning, exceptionally long, even for me.

So I head out at 9 yesterday morning to see if Bally’s got things fixed on my hours and I’m in that tourney and to try to get over to the Borgata to check out the Summer Open. A lot of negativity wound up accompanying both those propositions.

I get to Bally’s about 30 min. before the tourney and go to the desk to check. Nope, not on the list and the guy there checks my hours and tells me they have me for 48. WTF??? I ask him what the hell is going on as I calculate 62-63 and last week they told me 57 and now it’s 48? Where did 9 hours go in the space of a week? The floor was great though and he got the room manager and between them the got my name on the list and so I was in the tourney. I do have to say the room manager is a pretty nice guy. I’m really liking this room more and more people wise. Dealers and floor persons are, for the most part, friendly and helpful. I wish they would get a more varied crowd so that their range of games would open up. Right now it’s basically 2-4 limit and 1-3 NL with a table or 2 of 2-5 NL and 1-5 stud. Wouldn’t mind trying to drum up some interest in 3-6 or 4-8 limit game. If I keep my face in the place I’m at least going to try and see if I can get them to put a kill button on a 2-4 table. Problem is, too many of their limit players are just there to put in hours and to try and catch a part of the bad beat jackpot. They come in and play a little then go wandering for awhile, the play, then wander. When they do play they really aren’t interested in the play itself as many don’t even raise or reraise even when holding the nuts. The room is trying to pull more people. They were the first in AC to move their bad beat to quads over quads minimum to build the jackpot and it worked for awhile but a few other rooms followed suit and things leveled out. They are the only room to pay the room, at least the hold’em tables, instead of just the table in case of the bad beat but don’t know how good an idea this was as it has lead to the situation described above. Gonna start doing some missionary work while at the limit tables to see if I can find some like minded souls to see if I can drum up interest in some slightly higher limit games. Have also inquired about mixed games as they seem to be the coming thing in Vegas but was told they tried them and found no interest. Thing is, was there no interest because it wasn’t advertised or because AC players are just provincial and prefer plain vanilla. The room seems willing to experiment, witness the bad beat rules and the fact they are the only room running 1-3 rather than 1-2 NL. Well I got time on my hands for awhile as the job hunt is slow. Have to work on this place’s image and game selection because they’re nice folks. One thing I did notice when I sat down to play cash later was that they didn’t mark the seat on the little sticky the put on your card when they seat you. They used to mark table and seat and this was the cause of a lot of the hours problems I think. If you changed seats at the table and didn’t tell the floor and they sat someone else in your old seat they clocked you out. But who tells a floor when you change seats. Tables yes but seats for Christ’s sake. So I noticed no seat on the sticky, just the table and limit and when I mentioned it the floor said they weren’t tracking the seat anymore. They’re learning. I made 3 table changes and 2 seat changes and when I checked as I left the hours were right. Good job Ari.

On to the tourney. After the fight to get in the rest was anti climactic. Couldn’t avoid the land mines in this on. Cards mainly sucked and mostly folded the first couple of levels. A few preflop raises got me some blinds and an occasional limper but lost most of those on a hand when my pre flop raise and C-bet on the flop were called by a guy playing 7-9 off and caught bottom pair and couldn’t let it go to a ¾ pot bet on the flop. As I said, minefield. Watched guys call pot sized bets chasing down mid range flushes and call preflop raise and reraise with hands like K-J. Bar style poker at its best. At the first break I’m sitting up about 200 in chips. Not good for this style game. You need some early chip ups to be competitive or you at the mercy of lady luck and she wasn’t riding with me just yet. Wound up going out at the 500-1000 level. Sitting with about 12k and OTB with pp6s. Folds to the hijack and he goes 3000. Cutoff folds and I call. So does the SB. Flop comes Q-4-8 and SB and hijack both check. Damn, both missed? 6s good? What the hell, I shove and SB beats me in the pot. Hijack folds and I figure I got suckered, he had to have smacked a set. Turn the cards and he shows A-Q. We had been chatting through most of the tourney so I ask him what he’s doing slow playing top, top. He tells me that since the other guy raised he wanted to see what he was going to do. Huh? I’m biting my tongue but I’m dying to ask him why. Is he going to fold if the guy bets? What does checking tell you if he does bet? I called the raise and he beats me in the pot when I shoved so it looks like he’s going all the way with that hand regardless so I have no idea what he’s looking for there. Oh well, I’m out and it’s time for some cash. One other thing, they announced the next freeroll promotion while I was there. Instead of just being Bally’s it’s going to take place with all Harrah’s properties and it’s a double. Instead of 60 hours for the month it’s 120 hours for two, July and Aug. Get the hours and it’s an entry into a $120 or 150K freeroll, $20K for first. Guess who has got time on his hands?

I have my winnings from the week before, a buy in at the NL tables so I figure I’ll try my luck. No luck, no seats. So I sit down at a 2-4 table to kill time. No great shakes, win a few, lose a few about even. Sitting there I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to find the clean up guy. He points to the floor and there is $40 tangled up in a bit of trash paper. Problem with having limited use of my left arm is that I can only use my right pockets and so mostly everything goes in there and it can be a bitch getting one thing out without 50 others following it so I dropped the money without even noticing it. Being tangled with the paper the fellow could have swept it up and kept it with no one the wiser but he told me about it. Thanked him and gave him a $5 chip for being honest. To tell you the truth I felt for the guy as he too had a bad arm but his wasn’t going to recover. I could relate on a level. He thanked me profusely and figured it might have been the first tip the guy got in a room full of people all getting tips. As the saying goes, cast your bread upon the waters. It came back, believe me. The guy next to me thought it was a nice gesture and told me so and we started chatting. I asked him if he knew about the triple comps promotion. Harrah’s is running triple comps on weekdays but a guy last week said you had to swipe your card at the Rewards center to get them. He took a bunch of cards down there and swiped them for us as you don’t need to use your pin. I had stopped to look on my way up to the poker room but couldn’t see anything special anywhere so did nothing. So I ask the guy I’m talking to about it and he tells me that the bank of machines on the right are for that purpose so I decide to go swipe my card and take a whiz before I settle in. I grab my cane, still using one when walking any distance, kind of a security blanket rather than real need, and off I go. Gone about 15 min or so, get back to the poker room, stick my cane in the cubby hole I found to keep it out of the way, turn around and can’t find my table. Ever get that feeling of disorientation when something you know should be there isn’t? That was me. Did a slow 360 but nothing feels right but my original direction but the only thing that way is an empty table with a dealer at it. Huh? Look closer and I notice my chip stack and marker at the rail. Seems the table broke up while I was gone. As it was a full table it kind of shocked me but it was a most fortuitous circumstance. I grab my stuff and head to the desk to find a new table and notice open seating at the NL games and ask for a seat there and am directed to a table in back.

So here I am, ready to get my feet wet at the NL games again. Outside my little foray with a short buy a couple of weeks ago the only NL I’ve played in the past year have been .25/.50 home games and .05/.10 online. It’s been over a year since I’ve sat at a casino NL table. Hell, until last month it had been 8 months since I had been in a casino period outside a trip in Dec to a PA slots parlor to pick up a Christmas gift for Dad. It don’t help matters that I find myself in the 9 seat, not one of my favorites to start with, with the big stack at the table in the 10 and the second stack in the 8. Great, pass the Pepto. My $300 looks down right puny in the middle of this. On with the show. Table isn’t too bad. Standard preflop raises seem to be anywhere between 5 to 7 times the blind. None of the players really stand out except for the guy in the 4. CK’s term crasian is a pretty good description here. The table is schizoid. Sometimes a raise to 15 brings a fold around. A few hands later a 22 bet might get 5 callers. Me, I’m playing fairly cautious since it’s been awhile and with that stack to my left. I raise to 15 on a pair of 8s but the crasian goes all in for about 60 and I think about it for a bit but fold feeling I’m not quite ready to risk that much just yet. Yes, I know, overly cautious but then I’m the guy who folds A-J during the rebuy periods of tourneys, ask Falstaff. I pull Ks a bit later and my raise to 18 brings about a round of folds. That’s what overly cautious gets you, at least I hope it’s table image and not just a suck ass round of cards. Another orbit or two where I limp or play a couple of hands to small raises and miss the flop and fold when I catch A-A. My raise to 20 gets two callers, the guy in the 2 and the crasian. A couple of others have been into his pockets but I haven’t had the chance and I’m hoping that this might be it. I smack the flop with an A but there are two clubs out there. Ut-oh. Checks to me and I bet 20. Yes, small bet but I’m gambling here, looking for action and hoping the turn doesn’t bring the club or better yet that maybe someone check raises me. After all the crasian is still in. No such luck, all I get are two callers and the turn brings the third club, stupid club, and the 2 bets 25. The crasian folds and I call thinking the 2 has hit his flush but the 25 isn’t enough to keep me out as I figure I have 10 outs River brings one of those outs, pairing the board and giving me the nuts and the 2 smells something as he just checks. I throw out 50 hoping that the pot is big enough that the 2 won’t be able to resist if he has a decent flush but he decides to fold it and I get a decent pot. A few hands later the big stack picks up and leaves and the guy in the 6 gets felted and goes. I move to the 6 even though this puts the big stack in 8 to my left again but I just hate the 9. The game goes on, me playing a few hands and going nowhere mostly, winning a small pot or two. Couple of nice pots get played with the crasian getting felted twice and buying back in and showing a temper, finally being warned by both the dealer and the floor. I’m up between 100-150 in mid position and get 6-6 with a couple of limpers in. I decide to limp and cutoff does also and button raises to 15. Folds around to me and the cutoff is the big stack with about 700 or better in front of him and the button who is a recent arrival in my 9 seat with his full buy in still there so I figure it’s time to do a bit of set mining. 15 isn’t so much that I can’t get away if the flop isn’t there or if the cutoff reraises. He doesn’t and we get the flop. Hot damn, there’s a 6 there along with an A and a 3. Only problem is that there are two clubs there, damn clubs. I’m first to act and while I hate slow playing a set with a flush draw out there I figure the button is going to bet that ace giving me the chance to check raise and chase the middleman if he has the draw. Since the ace is a club I figure the button isn’t drawing. Of course I’m SOL if the button raised with a mid pair or K-Q suited. The 15 feels like A-paint however or that mid pair. A bigger pair is usually bringing a raise to 20 or better. The cutoff also checks and the button comes in, right on schedule with a close to pot sized bet of 50. That puts about 100 in the pot, give a few bucks but a pot sized reraise is only a minraise to 100 so I over bet a bit going to 125. I figure this will chase the middle man leaving the button with a decision as to whether his good A is any good to the check raise. Either way he goes is fine with me. I’ll take the action figuring I’m way ahead or I’ll take the pot. The middle man then proceeds to screw up all my carefully thought out plans by shoving. Huh???? WTF is he shoving with? Only hand that has me beat at the moment is A-A and considering the way the hand was played and that the button most likely has an ace I can’t believe that he’s holding rockets. I can believe he might have limped with A-A but I can’t believe he wouldn’t have reraised with them once the button raised. Besides he was pretty aggressive so even limping with them is a long shot. In the meantime the button decides his A is no good against this action and decides to fold leaving me with the decision. I go over the possibilities once more, figure there is no way I’m not ahead and he’s thinking that either I’m trying to buy the hand or trying to take advantage of my image and figuring I won’t risk the rest of my stack. Takes me just a couple of seconds to run through this before I say call. Yeah, I know, insta call but that’s not me, I gotta run through everything one last time, especially when it comes to putting 400+ on the turn of a card. I turn over the set and he turns over the club draw. Oh damn. Please no, no club or at least make it the 6 if it has to come. Damn 6s cost me the tourney, were they gonna cost me my stack here too? Turn a heart and river a spade and I let out my breath while the dealer starts stacking chips. Schweeeet!!!! After it settles down the game continues, the 8 decides to take a walk and the guy in the 9, the button that hand says he had A-Q and was debating a call until the 8 seat shoved. I stayed hot winning a few more bucks mostly small pots, a few semi bluffs that weren’t called, couple of top pairs that held up. This run at the table is the main reason I never made it to the Borgata to check on the Open. Who wants to leave a hot table?

Only one more hand of note before I called it a night though the crasian got felted again when his flopped 2 pair got rivered by an OESD. Was tempted to lend him my copy of the Poker Mindset. I was OTB with 4-7 suited. Was thinking about playing it to see a flop when UTG min raises and EP then goes 15. That was going to be that until 4 more players jump in. Hell, just too much money in that pot to not at least see a flop. BB and UTG join in and the flop brings x-5-6 rainbow giving me an OESD. Checks to me and I throw in a quarter and get 3 callers. Turn is a blank and it checks to me again and this time I go along. River brings me my 3 and it again checks to me. I toss in 50 and everyone folds. Talk about falling in the cesspool and coming up roses. I play a few more hands and then head for a 2-4 table. It was about 7:30 and I hadn’t eaten since 8 that morning so I decided to order some food but I wasn’t going to eat at the NL table, too distracting. So I decided to play some limit while eating then was going to pack it in after dinner and head home. Nothing much happened at the table card wise but did have a strange conversation with one of the women at the table. We were discussing the tourneys and she mentioned she loved playing the speed tourneys there, basically 12 min levels with blinds doubling each level. I stated I couldn’t stand them, that even the regular tourneys were too fast for me. Said I wish I had the money to play the deep stack, long level tourneys where the blind levels last an hour. She told me that no place has tourneys where the levels last an hour, wasn’t possible. I said huh? What do you think is going on in Vegas right now? What do you think happens during the Borgata Opens? No wonder you’re playing that 7-4 off UTG and calling 3 bets with it. Well I managed to donk off 30 during dinner and packed up a headed home with a bit of a bankroll to keep me coming back. Next trip an overnighter on Mon.. Let’s hope the good karma holds both then and on Sat at Rigg’s tourney for the posters to the RPT website. The top posters during the month of April qualified and anyone who has made it this far should realize that I have no problem being among the top even if Riggs told the official tally person to only count 1 in 10 of my posts. I am wordy if nothing else.

For those who have made it this far I Thank You for your attention and hope to see you (figuratively) again. Good luck to those playing in the WSOP events. Hope to see some of you on TV.