Atlantic City Trip Report

For those unfamiliar with Atlanticy City, picture extravagant hotels and casinos mixed with a third world country. The surrounding areas intertwined with the city are pure ghetto. Walking outside, at night, alone is a guaranteed death sentence. Regardless, it was a great trip.

I played at the Trump Taj Mahal for the two days I was there. I wanted to check out the Borgata, but didn't have enough time. The Taj is notoriously known for having disgusting, dirty chips, but other than that the poker room was pretty good.

Day One:

I started off playing in a $3/$6 2-way Omaha hi-lo/Stud hi-lo game with a full kill to $6/$12 which was pretty juicy. I only played for 2.5 hours and won about $50 on the Omaha side. I got dealt nothing but garbage in the Stud side and gave most of my money back. A huge hand that could have helped my stack out big time was when I held A237 on a K867 board. I had an uncounterfeitable low to go with a pair of 7s. The river brought a 10 and I wound up getting 3/4'd to an A2510. Final result was +$0 in 2.5 hours.

I was highly disappointed with the $80+$20 fee Omaha hi-lo limit tournament I entered. The blinds increased way too fast and only 26 players entered. First place was $1000 and fifth place made their money back. With 15 players remaining I was chip leader after an incredible hand. I was in the small blind with AAxx and about five players in the hand. The flop came KJJ. It was checked around to the button and he bet. I called because he could have made the bet with just a pair of kings. Four players saw the turn which brought the beautiful Ace. I had a lock on the hand so I checked. When it came back to me there was already a bet and the button raised all-in. I didn't need anymore help on the river, but another Ace came giving me quads. I managed to get a call from a fat, obnoxious lady with QT for the straight. The button showed KJ and he was pretty pissed to get knocked out after such a perfect flop. The blinds were quickly $1K/$2K and I exited in 10th place after I committed my stack pre-flop with a suited AAxx and lost to two pair.

Later on that night I took a seat at one of the three (!) $5-$10 Omaha tables they had running. The game played with a full kill, any scooped pot over just $75. It wound up that nearly half the time we were playing $10-$20, which is higher than I would have liked to play, simply because a bad variance downswing would hurt my bankroll. For the most part, the play was more aggressive than at Foxwoods, but that didn't necessarily mean it was any better. I played for about six hours and finished down $60. When I was sat, we had just started a must-move game. Basically whoever was on the top of the list had to move over to the main table whenever someone else left. I only was allowed to stay at the table for no more than an hour.

I hit my first live Royal Flush. My hand had four high cards, so I was looking for a high card flop and hit a straight. I then hit runner-runner for the Royal! In Foxwoods they give you a nice leather jacket, and I was hoping I'd get something cool at the Taj. They wound up giving me two free buffet coupons which was disappointing. Nevertheless, it was cool to hit a live Royal.

When I moved into the main game I was up against a bunch of players who had some clue to what they were doing and couldn't build up any sort of stack. I left the casino around 3am after putting in a nice 14 hour day, down roughly $200.

Day Two:

After eating at the nasty Buffet, I jumped back into the Omaha game. A few guys from the night before were there and I was absolutely card dead for the first two hours. I went through one horrible stretch where I could not be dealt an ace. For an hour I saw nothing but K886-type hands. I sat down with roughly $240 and was all-in at one point. Two of the better players left the table and it was starting to look more profitable. I was picking up some nice hands and started recouping my loses. I wound up leaving the table with $500 for a nice $260 profit in five hours. It could have been much higher, but some of my premium scooping hands didn't develop past the flop.

One unfortunate hand came when I was in the big blind and had KQ108. You only win these types of hands when the flop hits you perfectly. It did. J92. I had a million outs. Any K, Q, 10, 8, or 7 gave me the nut straight. The 8 hit on the turn but brought a low draw and a flush draw. I was thinking that if the Q of diamond hit on the river, I would be money. Four callers saw the river and the perfect card hit. I had the nuts and no lows were possible. I bet, got raised, re-raised, and when I capped it I could only hope that they both didn't hold the KT. Sure enough we split the pot three ways and I couldn't believe the crap they were holding to draw out to the river with. They both didn't have low or flush draws, nor did they have straights on the turn. What should have been a $200 scooper, turned into a zero profit hand.

Over the two days, I played a little bit of $5-$10 stud for no more than an hour while waiting for my main games. I didn't stay long enough to win any pots and bled off $60 there.

Final totals come to 14 hours at the cash games for +$140. The tournament cost me $100 and three hours.

I'm not sure if I'll ever visit Atlantic City again because of how much of a shithole it is. I'll probably head back to Foxwoods next Friday to play some Stud and Omaha.