ATLARGE 2008 - Trip Report - Jhiym

You missed a great weekend! Probably one of the best one's outside of the one when Tom Jones was playing at the Taj.

Saturday:

I got up extra early on Saturday so I was able to drive from Annapolis to the Taj in time to play the holdem event. We got really cool Atlarge card protecters (A gold coin with the Atlarge logo) and a baseball hat. I had a few good hands early then got moved to another table where I got to play with Goldie for a while. This was the first time I sat with him. He was funny and a good player. I busted out about 70th, about half the field. I'm drawing a blank about what I had or how I got knocked out. Seems like ages ago. :)

After I busted I went to Bally's and played in Billy's Poker room. I played the 8pm tournament. The poker room was small but nice. It was on the floor above the casino and was nice and quiet. There were about 60 people playing and I made it to 18th before going all-in with AK and losing to a guy with snowmen. I never got any help on the board.

Yes, I played lots of slots this trip and video poker too. I actually came out ahead in slots and video poker, but a little below what I started with when I subtracted the poker buy-ins. One hand of Jacks or better video poker I had T-J-Q-K of spades and a rag. I held all but the rag, then a 9 of spades came out. And all these coins started adding up. At first I thought I hit the royal and won 4K, but then I realized it was a straight flush. Still won $250 on that hand though. :)

Sunday:

Sunday I played the Atlarge stud event. There was some other big group kicking off their annual tournament the same time as us so our 11am start ended up being closer to noon after lots of confusion. I had Bob Lauria, Jerrod, Sable, and two other good stud guys at my table. After about an hour of dealing with them, I got moved to another table with Sandra, Gatormet, and Uncle Al. After a few hands Bill Chen sat down with us. I almost doubled up through Uncle AL when I made a flush and beat is queens-up. After while the blinds were so high that everyone was pretty much committed to being all-in if they entered a hand. When I made my move, I ended up with Aces-up but the guy who stayed in with me caught a third Jack on 7th street. I went out in 16th place in Stud.

Sunday night I went and played in a tournament at the Tropicana. The Trop has been remodeled a bit since the last time I was there. Pretty fancy now. We had an alpha male at our table and he was messing about with everyone's chips and guessing people hands before he would make a move. I think in Hellmuth's book where he categorizes players has different animals by their playing style (Elephant, mouse, jackal, etc.) He needs to add a new animal for this guy, the peacock. We start with 10k in chips in this tournament and some guy gets beat pretty bad and half his stack gets taken. The next hand he is steaming and goes all-in for 4k. I look down and I have Kings so I call, then 3 people behind me call too. So I'm thinking WTF? The flop brings rag-rag-jack. I go all-in and the 3 people behind me get pissed and all fold. So I am heads-up with the steamed guy and we flip our cards. He has AJ so he now has a pair of Jacks, and I have Kings. The turn is a Jack and everyone start yelling, then a King comes on the River and everyone get even louder and I take a hug pot. About an hour later I get QQ and raise big and get one caller, I keep betting down to the river and he won't go away. The highest card on the board is a Jack so I'm thinking he has a pair of jacks and that he thinks top pair is good enough. The river is a Six and when we flip our cards, he has two pair Jack's and six's to beat my queens. And everyone just stares in amazement that he stayed in with such a bad hand with all the big bets. So I lose about 3/4 of my stack and am back to my normal position of playing short stacked and end up going out a few hands later.

Monday:

I sleep in and have breakfast and checkout of the Trump Marina. Then I goto Harrah's and play in their 1:15 tournament. There are five full tables and it seemed like they kept letting new people sit down as people busted out for 2 hours. So eventually the tables start to thin out and we end up with 60 entries. I have three big hands in a row in the first round. I get 3 sets and take some large pots and am sitting real nice. Then nothing for a long time till my stack is back to average. Then I get another rush and go back up. It gets down to 6 of us left and I make a move and get in hand with A9 from the big blind. AK-rag comes out on the flop I bet and all fold but on guy, rag on the turn I bet he calls, Jack on the river, I bet he calls and turns over broadway. And I go from 70K chips to about 10K and the blinds at 8k-4k at this point. So I am thinking I will be finishing 6th. The next hand 3 people go all-in and two get busted. A few hands later I get blinded out and finish in 4th place around 530pm and I head home.

So all in all I had a great trip, with some memorable times at slots and poker. Got to see the Atlarge gang again as well as Greg, Sandra, Bruce, and Scott. And I had my third cash now since last March from three different casinos, The Taj, and Harrah's in AC and at Binions in Vegas last May.

Now I am going to go unwind and chill with my Kitty for a while. :)

Jhiym