Mini vacation

The combination of my daughter finally coming for a summer visit and the fact my brother got us a room for a few days at the Shore got my interest level a bit elevated and me back at the poker tables. My father had been telling me that the Taj had been offering him a couple of nights and reminding him he had $78 in comps and since he hadn’t been going to AC told me he would let me use them as we both have the same name but even that hadn’t been able to get my ass in gear to do anything. Getting things with my daughter’s visit straightened out and a few days at the Shore with the family got me moving however. Plans were to head down Sunday night after my brother got off work but I decided to head down in my own car earlier figuring to play a little poker before we met at the hotel. My plans were beach during the day, poker at night though things didn’t quite work out that way. Spent the drive down talking to my daughter. Driving is a great time to talk to her. Gives her a couple hours to yak without interruption. Bluetooth headphones are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

So I get to Ballys and on a $1-3 NL table and get a call, it’s the family, they are on the road 3 hours earlier than scheduled. There goes my afternoon of poker; I now have about 90 min to 2 hours. It was an insignificant table, no really big stacks, no really notable style of play. Given some time I think I could probably have bled a few bucks out of it as it suited my style, mostly post flop play with a lot of loose calls to average sized bets post but folding to any real aggression. It was grinder’s heaven. Unfortunately time is what I didn’t have and when I left about 2 hours later I was about even, maybe down a few dollars. Not a notable afternoon. Only hand that sticks out is one I didn’t play because of a mistake. Last hand I played I was sitting OTB with a medium ace, suited, and decided that if it limped to me I was going to play it for about a 3-4xs raise. Unfortunately as it turned out a guy in mid position threw in 3 reds instead of 3 whites as if by accident and the dealer called it his bet and it had to stand. I was tempted to play because I didn’t think he was doing an acting job but decided not to because that weak ace could get me into trouble if he actually was so I folded and waited to color up as I planned to return later that weekend so easier to get chips rather than cash. As it turned out I would have hit nut flush on the flop and the accidental raiser hit top 2. Probably would have made a few bucks on that hand. As I later told him his accident probably saved him a few bucks he said it was an accident and as he played a J-9 off and given how he was playing I was inclined to believe him. Ah well, such is poker, a vast wasteland of missed opportunities. So I colored up and went to meet the family at the hotel.

Get to the hotel and the family was getting cleaned up and planning their evening. Plan was to go to the Taj and eat there using Dad’s comps up and then spend a few hours at the casino. Everyone expects me to take my own car as I’m usually out to the wee hours at the poker tables but I surprise them as I want to do some drinking plus they are talking about an early beach trip the next day and I figure some sun couldn’t hurt. So we head over to Taj and everyone stops to check their comps but me. Last time I was in Taj poker comps didn’t show up on the kiosks, you had to check in the poker room. Who knows what I have anyway as I hardly ever used them except for an occasional meal in the snack bar. Note, if anyone ever goes to the Taj the poker room snack bar has the best food in the place. It ain’t fancy but what they serve is cooked fresh and served hot, can’t beat it. So while they are checking the comps I hear Dad arguing with Mom and while me, the brother and nephew start looking for a place to eat we see the folks headed down on the escalator. WTF, don’t tell me they can’t refrain from hitting the casino before food. When they come back we find out that Dad had no comps on his card and the card center said, nope, got no record of any and Dad’s getting hot. While we decide on the place to eat, we decide on the place right next to us called Plate, my nephew chimes in that maybe the comps were mine. I never thought about it because, as a poker player, I never get mailings from the casinos. That’s for slots players, or was obviously, because I head down to the poker room and ask if there are any comps on my card. Yes I’m told, $78. Bingo! All month my father has been offering me what was rightfully mine to begin with. May have to get those names changed for the mailing list if poker players are going to get come ons. Cripes, I actually had a room offer and didn’t use it. 2 nites at that. So I head back upstairs and meet everyone at the restaurant and tell them “yup, my comps” so it looks like dinner is on me. As I said we were at a place called Plate and I had a bad feeling looking at the table settings and menus. I got the impression that trying to create an impression through fancy items and presentation was more important than the food itself. As far as I was concerned the impression was right. I ordered something called Not Quite Surf and Turf, supposedly a crab cake and a chopped steak made from Kobe beef. Not really what I was looking for that night but none of their other selections really moved me. Could have really gone for a good salad on the order of a Chef’s or something with chicken in it but the salads listed were all some variation of Caesar, had seafood in them and all were made with the fancy ass greens that remind me of weeds in my front lawn so that idea went down the drain. Ordered my chopped steak medium rare and started in on the bread they brought. That gave me some hope as it was sourdough and tasty. The drink wasn’t bad either. It only raised my hopes just to dash them totally. The meal came and it wound up worse than I feared. The crab cake was reasonably sized but covered in, and surrounded by, corn. No tartar sauce apparent. The “chopped Kobe steak” was no bigger than the crab cake, about the size and shape of one of my mother’s homemade homburgs. Overall mom’s burgers were better First; it was overcooked, well done instead of medium rare. Second I always thought Kobe beef was exceptionally fatty to make it tender. This thing was dry as dust, no juice whatsoever. Chopped Kobe steak didn’t have the flavor of a BK burger. Yes I could probably have complained about the well done but I waited long enough for that meal that I wasn’t going to wait longer while they tried to fix it. My poker night was going to be short enough since I wasn’t driving. I also tried some of the corn surrounding the crab cake and it was cold. Not cold as in it lost temp but cold as in just out of the fridge so obviously not a veggie but some sort of presentation dressing for the crab cake. It sucked and the crab cake not much better. While almost no filler it had a very fishy taste to it. I had some crab imperial the next night and it didn’t have half the strong taste that this thing did. All in all Plate is not a place I’m recommending to anyone even though I was later told, at the poker table, that they serve a pretty good breakfast. I don’t mind buying dinner but I do wish I could enjoy it when I do.

So dinners over and I head to the poker table and they have a seat at a 3-6 open so I head there. Bally’s rarely has 3-6, just 2-4 or 1-3 NL. 3-6 and 4-8 are my comfort zones. I’m a better limit than NL player and the play at those games is a bit better than that at 2-4 tables. Right away I realize what I’ve been missing. The players here are here to play poker, not kill time and hope to hit the bad beat. The words raise and reraise are not strangers to them. Betting rounds are getting capped, something I have seen rarely in limit at Ballys. Don’t get me wrong, there re your share of donkeys at the table but you don’t have 8 to the flop, increasing the chances of suckouts on the good players plus the donkeys are calling the 3 and 4 bets which means that your monsters are getting paid off. You can make up in a good hand all those flops you might miss with A-K or all those turn flushes that crack your straight or pp aces. When people do know more than call your raise when they have a strong hand the pots never get strong enough when you do get that nut flush or full boat to make up for all the bad beats. But when people are willing to reraise you figuring their flush is good even with the paired board then your night can be worthwhile. Sorry to say mine really wasn’t as there was one guy who had my number, and everyone else’s. That deck just up and smacked him in the chops. He’s an ATM when he’s off, he sees 90% of flops and chases down 8 hi flushes but when it’s favorable to him, as that night, there is no stopping him. Once I thought I was going to get paid off when I flopped trip Ks and turned quads and he was calling me down and the river put the potential flush out there but he was straight chasing instead and folded on the river. Ah well. As it was I wound up playing 3-4 hours and won $6. I was down about $100 early thanks to him but after he left I was able to come back and might have actually turned a bit of profit if the ride home wasn’t ready to pull out. But it was and I had to leave just as things were getting good. On a bad note when I got back to the hotel I found all the walking around had torn the skin off my toe on my left foot. It’s happened before and I actually have a kit I’ve prepared to take care of it but of course it’s been awhile since I did it so I didn’t pack the kit this trip. Wound up making my day at the beach screwed up but that’s for later.

Thank you for your time and attention. More later, I hope