Trip Report by Terrence Chan Standard trip report disclaimer: All events are reconstructed to the best of my memory; however, my memory seemed far worse this trip than others. I am a very poor person with both names and faces. As a point of fact, I may be the worst poker player there is when it comes to remembering names and faces. If I screw up your name, confuse you for someone else, make an inaccurate physical description of you, or completely forget about you, rest assured that it's my fault and I enjoyed your company. Russ Rosenblum -- whom I introduced myself to twice in three hours -- can attest to the complete ineptitude of my facial recognition skills. My severe sleep deprivation made my normally poor memory even worse both with regards to faces and incidents. For those of you who like lots of detailed poker action, I can't remember the hands well enough for you to get a lot out of this report. For those of you who like wacky antics outside of the poker room, there are none. For those of you who like meandering, vague recollections of crap...man, you're in luck! Monday, March 17 It was with my great anticipation that I embarked on a number of firsts. Not only was this to be my first ARG event, this was to be my first trip to the East Coast, my first time leaving Costa Rica (albeit since arriving last September), my first trip to New York, my first trip to the arena of the New Jersey Devils, a team I've had an affinity for since 1988. It was thus with no slight disappointment that my trip was delayed leaving Costa Rica, both boarding and departing. However, this was a very minor commuting bad beat, as the pilot evidently gunned it, or the winds were in our favour, or something, arriving just a few minutes late. Once in Newark, New Jersey, I was greeting by my excellent Newark-area hostess Christine Gonzalez and her red Jeep. We commuted quickly back to her place and to Continental Airlines Arena for a much anticipated game between the Devils and the rival Philadelphia Flyers. First place in the NHL's Atlantic Division was up for grabs, but the Devils didn't play like it, putting up a dispirited effort in a disappointing 4-2 loss. The game was not sold out, but the crowd was sufficiently rowdy to make up for the vacant seats. That it was St. Patrick's Day likely didn't hurt. Of note, President Bush's speech was broadcast in the stadium. Despite what seems to be a fair bit of anti-war sentiment in the area, the speech received four loud ovations. Tuesday, March 18 Today was my one day to do what I think everyone else in the world but me has done already -- tour New York City. What a vibrant city, so full of life, so...purposeful. I felt almost ashamed to be a tourist, since those around me all seemed to have somewhere to go; I felt as though I were a parasite, sucking time and leisure out of a city which had precious little of either to spare. New Yorkers, contrary to their reputation (or what I thought was their reputation), are a friendly species, but in a different sort of friendliness. After taking a two-hour cruise around Manhattan Island, I visited (in order) Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, the New York Stock Exchange, the WTC site. Although I'd been told that there isn't much to see at the WTC site -- and in fact, this is true enough -- I felt very much compelled to see it, and am very much glad I did. I didn't do so to pay my respects to the victims and heroes of 9/11 (btw, I dislike how these are considered equivalent sets), although I did. I mused how odd it was that an event so horrific, tragic and damaging to the world could paradoxically bring forth so much positivity and strength, as we somehow find a profound connection with complete strangers. It is strange. I returned via subway to the port authority terminal, where I embarked back to Tina's. We went out for dinner, then to a bus station named Cheesequake (there has to be some interesting etymology surrounding that name) for the 2-hour bus to Atlantic City. One thing I don't ever think I've done before is travel a very long time and distance to a major cardroom and not play that first night, regardless of how tired I'd been. Unfortunately (perhaps), I did have to do this on Tuesday night. The Taj has a weird policy regarding opening new games and changing and breaking existing games. There were some 14 or 15 names on the 10/20 list, but no game opened for over two hours. When I realized I was falling asleep at the table waiting for games, I decided that sleep to start again in the morning would be the better play. Wednesday, March 19 / early Thursday, March 20 The waiting list strangeness continued Monday. I started playing a must-move 10/20 game at around 8am (and it was a surprisingly good 8am game), and also had my name on 15/30. There were two 10/20s and a number of players there were also on the 15 list, like me. At some point, a floorwoman goes to the main 10/20 and says that she knows a number of players from that game are also on the 15/30 list, so instead of breaking the game and starting a 15/30, she asks if anyone objects to making this game a 15/30. Sounds reasonable enough. Two players object, so the game does not change. Again, reasonable enough. However, the policy is that despite the fact there are well over 10 players actually playing 10/20 who are on the 15/30 list, they do not open a 15/30 game! Evidently, the rationale is that opening a 15/30 would break up the 10/20 -- the same 10/20 in which eight of ten players would rather play at 15/30, despite a huge 15/30 list. This all seemed par for the course to the locals, but seemed simply quite nuts to me. I also had my introduction to time pots Wednesday. For those who do not know, a time pot is where instead of all active players paying the time charge on the half hour, one player fronts the entire amount for the table. For example, time in a 10/20 game is $5 on the half hour, so at a full table, the table's time is $50. The time is then returned to the player posting the time by the first two players to win a pot over a trigger amount. Thus, in a 10/20 game, the winner of the first two pots containing over $120 pays the person who posted the time $25 each. This, obviously, results in some dramatic strategy changes as until the time is paid, there is a staggering $25 rake on pots over $120. An almost absurd level of tightness becomes correct; hands like AQ and maybe even JJ/AK seem (to me) unplayable from early position. Yet, players waded in with small suited connectors, pairs and offsuit garbage hands -- hands largely unplayable even in non-time pot hands -- in the time pot. The inventor of the time pot is clearly a genius. It so deviously exploits poor, loose players, who for the most part, manage to be completely unaware it harms them the most. Anyone who has any idea recognizes that a time pot heavily favours tight players, yet bad, loose players actually like time pots as well! The bad players argue that you only pay time if you win a big pot, and if you do that, you profit some substantial amount anyway, so a time pot is win-win -- either you pay time and make profit by winning the time pots, or you do not win any hands and "play for free". Gee, that's not results-oriented at all. This is what is so brilliantly devious about it -- bad players are convinced something that totally screws them is in fact great for them! Players are allowed to not participate in the time pot; to do so, a player must merely pay his time charge to the person posting the time. The rake from the time pots are reduced (for example, if one player opted out of the time pot in a 10/20 game with the $5 charge, instead of $50 owed in the two time pots, there would be $45, or two pots where $23 and $22 are paid) for the players participating and the player not participating in the time pot pays nothing if he wins a large pot. This brings up an interesting theoretical situation. Consider the situation in which there are 10 equally tight and equally skilled players. If they're all doing the same thing, clearly none of these players' expectations are affected by whether collection is taken the normal way, or via time pot. However, if one player sits out, this player has a distinct advantage. His opponents are trying to play correctly taking the time pot into consideration -- i.e. very tightly -- and this will allow the non-time pot player to steal blinds and small pots with an excellent rate of success. So in this case, the equilibrium would be for no one to be involved in the time pot. There are then two points for the game where no one holds an advantage over anyone else (I think these are Pareto efficient points); no one pays time, and everyone pays time. In reality, however, no poker game is like this; there are tight players and loose players. In a semi-loose game, I'm pretty sure that it is correct for all tight players to be involved in the time pot; I don't think a tight player can improve his position by opting to pay time and exploiting the other tight players given the presence of even a handful of looser players. However, in an even somewhat tightish game, some interesting situations are created by the time pots in blind attack and defence situations. If it is folded to you on the button in a time pot, should you steal the blinds more aggressively or passively? The time pot dictates more passively, since there is a prohibitive rake for breaching the trigger point. However, the blinds also realize this and will defend far less (at least in theory). The time pot also creates some weird postflop strategy adjustments to avoid paying time as well. I open-raised in a 15/30 game (where the trigger was $180 and time raked was $25/hand) with AK on the button. The big blind called. $70 in the middle. The flop came K-x-x. He checks, I bet, he calls. $100 in the middle. The turn is another rag, and he checks. Note that if we both put in two big bets from this point, the pot becomes $220 and thus is a time pot. If we both put in one big bet from this point, the pot is only $160 and does not trigger the time pot. Suppose the pot is $160. Now, even assuming no risk of being raised by a better hand, you are actually laying 6:1 to make a value bet! (If you make a value bet and get paid off, you win $30, but because you triggered the time pot, you lose $25 of that for a net of $5.) So I check back the turn. The river is another rag, he checks again, I bet, he calls, I show and win a $160 pot and avoid the time. (In retrospect, betting the turn and checking the river might be better, to avoid losing to a free card. But the main point is the absurdness of it all.) Enough about that. So any time I'm on a poker trip, I always try to play the late evening and graveyard shifts, since that's usually when the action is. Most casual players play the late evening, and by graveyard everyone's stuck and tired. So I typically plan my days to wake up around 5:00 PM and go to bed around 9:00 AM when I play poker. So after a brief 4.5 hour session where I made $268, I went to nap. I went to play again at 6:30 PM, an 11.5-hour session lasting until 6:00 AM where I make poker minimum wage of $219. Not the most impressive start, but at the same time, I'm not stuck either. Thursday, March 20 - early Friday, March 21 Today, some of the ATLARGErs started to trickle in, but still, I was playing with mostly locals and non-ARG tourists. The first one I recognized was Tiger123, who sat in my late evening 15/30 hold'em game. (I thought he didn't play hold'em?) The 15/30 was a good but not great game where I made $632 in six hours; the 20/40 had two fish but a number of solid players as well; I lost $499. Another sub-EV day, but again, beats being stuck. The reaction to my PokerStars t-shirt was interesting among the crowd. When I took my last poker trip to Vegas and L.A. last April/May, the number of people who had even *heard* of PokerStars was a minority. This time, they all asked me how much I played at PokerStars and what my screen name was. When they found out I *worked* for PokerStars, they had an endless number of the usual questions. It was also great to see the other ATLARGErs proudly bearing their support for PokerStars and their sponsorship of ATLARGE. I went to bed at 6:00 AM, waking up at 10:00 for the H.O.E. in the morning. I do not consider myself someone who does well on little sleep (add foreshadowing music). Friday, March 21 - all of Saturday, March 22 (I didn't sleep any of it) This was the first official ATLARGE event, the H.O.E. I play hold'em well and O/8 passably; my leak is clearly the "E", or Stud/8. I read the Stud/8 section of HLSFAP and the Russ post and played some online to get myself accustomed to the fundamentals, but I still have played less than 15 hours of Stud/8 in my life. PokerStars added $600 to this first event (as they did for all three tournaments), and I felt it would seem very improper if a PokerStars employee finished in the money, so I selflessly busted out in 50th of the 54 players. There were only two hands to note. During the hold'em round, I picked up AK and open-raised from middle position. Jerrod Ankenman 3-bet me with AJ. The board came down A-J-x-y-z and I was forced to call him down and thus got in trouble very early. Bent but not broken, in the Stud/8 round, a queen up (the owner of which I cannot recall at this time) completed Jeff "ADB Jester" Woods' bring-in. I re-raised with (A3)A. Jester called both raises with his deuce (!) and the queen called. On fourth, I have (A3)A3; Jester caught another low card (6?), and I dont' remember what the queen caught, only that it didn't look at all threatening. I lead and I get called on both spots. I have (A3)A38 on fifth and bet again. Jester catches a straightening low card and calls; the queen folds. I brick with a jack on sixth and check to Jester's fourth low card on board; Jester checks back. I check again on the river, Jester bets, I call and he shows me a straight 7 to scoop, having started with some razz-type hand and backed into a freakish straight. :p That pretty much does it for me and I bust out 50th of 54 players shortly after that hand. I know; I owe a buck to the pot at the next ARG event. I also learned for the first time that H.O.E. is actually pronounced "hoe". I had assumed it was called "H-O-E", but "hoe" provides for much better double entendres ("hoe event", "busting in the hoe", "where did you finish in the hoe"). If someone asks what a "H.O.E. event" is, I think the explanation would be invariably disappointing. The bust-out allowed me to go nap after getting very little sleep the night before. I woke up fresh around 5:00 and headed down to the hospitality suite, where Matt (jacksup) is watching the college hoops tournament. I learn that Matt is not like most casual fans, as he is evidently a star player at his college, which I understand is renowned for its men's basketball program. Matt takes a phone call from Joan Hadley (AlwaysAware) and evidently they are both heading down to the $120 buy-in, $100 rebuy Tropicana NLHE tournament. I figure that sounds like a good practice event for the ($60, no rebuy) ATLARGE NLHE event the next morning, so I head down with Matt. This marks the first time that I leave the Taj property since arriving in AC. The Trop's poker room is an attractive room, although a glance at the board indicates that their mid-limit hold'em game selection is a bit lacking. The structure of the tournament is fairly good as well. I take a rebuy fairly early on, after trying to run an all-in bluff against aces full (the fish called, if you can believe it). The rebuy was funny because I didn't realize I had to pay for the rebuy; after playing rebuy tournaments in Costa Rica where all rebuys are done on credit, I completely had forgotten I had to pay in actual cash! At the break, I have exactly the 500 in chips that I started the tournament with, except being down a rebuy. I rebuy again to "double through", so I'm in for $320. The rebuy takes me to an averagish stack. After the break, I double through with the powerful hand of Qd4d. With three people limping in, I limp on the button with my monster. The flop comes down rather unimpressively for my hand, A-Q-8 with one diamond, but it's checked around to me and I take a free card, an offsuit 4. The small blind, who is *terrible* but has a huge stack, bets out about half the pot. It is folded around to me. I raise all-in (maybe 1.5x the pot). He agonizes and calls. He has A5 and I dodge his redraw two pair outs to double through. Shortly after that, I try to steal with some crap hand and knock someone out when he defends his blind and I suck out. After that, I am raising nearly everything under the sun, putting a lot of pressure on everyone. I get them to fold when I have nothing and get them to call when I have big pairs. At the second break, with blinds of (I think) 300-600 and 50 ante, I have a staggering 20,000; I nearly have the table covered -- that is, covered *combined* -- with two tables to go. After the second break, I am raising about 60% of all unopened pots. I am taking down almost all of them uncontested. At 14 players, I finally get caught when I raise early with QT and ATLARGEr Rick (whose name tag says "Rick") calls all-in out of the SB with JJ. His hand holds up. Rick had only about 3000 chips and someone (Matt?) notes it "barely makes a dent" in my stack, and he's right; it's a sixth of my stack at best. However, a couple laps later on my big blind, it is folded around to Rick who now has around 7000-8000. He triples my blind from the button. I call with Ad3d. The flop comes Ac-8c-3x and I figure if I check, an approximate pot-sized raise of his pot-sized bet would put him all-in. So I check-raise him all-in. He calls, turns over Jc9c and hits a flush on the turn. Aces and threes again are my undoing. Minutes after having the entire table covered, I'm short-stacked at about 6000 chips. I win a few pots to take me back to 20000 (except now this is below par instead of way out in first) hang on to make the final table and the money. I haven't played a hand at the final table and I'm about 7th in chips. Rick, my nemesis, open-limps for 1000 in mid-late position. He has a big stack. Normally when someone does this, guys in the next state put the limper on aces. But I have seen Rick do this a couple of times with small pairs, face-face, suited connectors and A-small hands. So looking down on the button I find Ks7s, although I fugre my hand is not so important. I figure that since I am raising a limper, the blinds will respect that and fold dutifully without a real hand, and that Rick will fold because my read on him is that he is not strong. I make it 5000. The blinds cooperate, but Rick does not. He calls, which am I unhappy about. I do not put him on a big pair though. The flop comes down 9-6-2 with two spades. So even though I started with crap, I got what seems to be a good flop; dodging all the high cards he might have and giving me a flush draw. Rick bets 7000, I move in for about 16000 and Rick is compelled to call with his A9. Ugh. Even worse, his ace is a spade, so I am drawing to only 8 outs, and if I hit one on the turn he has a redraw. Turn and river blank off, and I feel rather disgusted with 9th place money of $432. My rides, Joan and Matt, have ditched me, so now I am forced to endure the agony of requiring a ride home with Rick, the man who tortured me and robbed me of my ability to coast to a big win. Actually, he is an extremely nice guy, so if I had to blow off all my chips to someone in that thing, I'm quite glad it was him. Rick finished in 3rd. In the interim, I played the famed $7.50/$15.00 game at the Trop. As advertised, the game was full of people with just absolutely no clue. However, Jerrod soon occupies the 9 seat (I'm in the 6), to significantly change my game EV. I decide that since this is probably the smallest game I'll play on the trip that I will forego the EV for some conversation that is not completely mind-numbing (as it was with the 5 seat, an annoying loudmouth hotshot kid) and move to the 8 seat. Jerrod has obviously put a lot of thought into game theory and poker, and he is kind enough to explain everything to me twice and use simple words. I make a mental note to myself that it would be very edifying to re-read Jerrod and Bill's [0,1] posts and put some effort into understanding them. When Rick goes out, it's back to the Taj. Keep in mind that my morning is now 5:00pm, so wide awake for some 2:00am (read: mid-afternoon) poker. Of course, the big crown jewel of the ATLARGE event is 11:00am, so I know I can't play too late. The plan is go to to bed around 3-4am and wake up at 9:30 for the pre-NLHE breakfast. That plan quickly goes to all hell as the 15/30 hold'em game is totally off the hook from 1-6am. (Editor's Note: My usage of modern urban slang to describe the expected win rate of a poker game is the fault of PokerStars player "Regency", a young pro lady player who used that term during my conversation with her at the Taj to describe the 30/60 hold'em game at PokerStars.) We have a solid hour-long period with an average pot of $600. In one particularly memorable pot (which I was not involved in) the pot was capped 7 ways preflop, and the player on my immediate right -- a good player -- had QJs. The flop came down T-9-3. It is capped again 6 ways, with the player on right putting in the last raise. The turn blanks; this time it is checked to the nut straight and three players call. The river is a 3. The player on my right bets, and tells me in a low voice he has the nuts. An absolutely clueless guy raises. The player to the right of nut straight guy mentions out loud that the board paired on the river. Nut straight guy hears this, re-checks the board, gets scared and calls. The clueless guy turns over A3, having invested four bets on the flop with bottom pair, then had the audacity to raise the guy who capped it on the flop when hitting his trip card. Yes, it was a good game. A few fish leave and the game starts to wind down. But by the time I realize the game is no longer that good, it is about 7:00am. The problem at this point is that I would like to attend the ATLARGE breakfast and have the NLHE tournament, and going to bed to sleep for 2 hours seems like it would do more harm than good. So I grind out the last two hours, then head up to the breakfast, up $468. That's over 1.5 BB/hour, but I estimate that to be sub-EV considering the lineup. I think in certain games which are totally fishy, one can make well over 2 BB and even upwards of 3 BB/hour. The 1 BB/hour figure that a good player is "supposed" to make is really just an average of all the good and bad games you play in a year, I think. If you have the luxury of being game-selective, I think a 2 BB/hour long run is doable. I'm fully expecting to be knocked out of the NLHE very early after making some stupid decision or misreading my hand, since I had already been playing poker for 16 straight hours (albeit with just one mistake, limping in with 9s8d thinking it was 9d8d) before the first card of the tournament is dealt. Despite the memorability of this event, I really can remember very little about it. I can't remember many interesting hands; in my sleep deprivation, I was playing on autopilot. I remember the table next to us busting what seemed to be about 8 of the first 10 victims, with Sabyl taking out almost all of them. I don't remember holding a lot of cards. I definitely was able to pick up a lot of blinds at my first table, as I was able to steal blinds frequently on my button and SB, and got a few walks and free looks in my big blind. This allowed me to stay on pace for the level increases. I remember knocking out the defending champion, Dave Fruchter and winning the $100 black chip bounty. I also win two bottles of upstate New York wine. I wish I could remember the individual who had very generously donated these bottles, but I cannot. :( Please post to this thread if that is you. I get asked a couple of times if I am re-bountying the $100. This seems extraordinarily -ev to me, so I decline. In retrospect I don't know if that was a breach of ARG ettiquette or anything. I hope not. At four tables, I was moved to Seat 1, with Sabyl in Seat 2, Patrick Milligan in Seat 3 with a huge stack, and then they later would move Bill Chen to #7 and Jerrod Ankenman to #8 with medium stacks, and thus my easy ride picking up blinds and having my BB unchallenged was history. At two tables I bust someone (again, the memory thing) and receive a cool 1994 BARGE chip (again, please let me know who you were). On one hand I do vaguely remember, I open-raise on the button with Q4s. Both blinds are very short stacked. IIRC, we are playing 200/400 and I make it around 1200. The SB, Crunch, moves all-in for about 1800. I have to call with two cards. He has AK, so I'm acceptably live. The flop's door card and last card are both queens, and Crunch is unhappily out. I get a t-shirt to commemorate busting Crunch out of ATLARGE 2003. It is at this point that I realize I did not bring a bust-out gift for anyone, and so I will have to win the tournament to save face. During this tournament, there is an inordinate amount of Presto. While it's true that you have to show Presto every time you win with it -- thus creating the impression it is showing up a lot -- there seemed to be far more Prestos dealt than expectation. The most notable thing is that we all seemed to have excellent Presto Detection, since although I remember 7-8 blind steals with Presto, I can only remember one soul being foolish enough to challenge Presto all-in. I would also think that there is a weird subconscious effect on everyone's preflop strategy going on where people were throwing away 44, 66 and 77 in identical situations in which they raised with Presto. I arrive at the final table in seat #9 as a slightly above average stack. It is my great misfortune to have Jerrod with a whole crapload of chips on my immediate left in seat #1. Identically repeating his H.O.E. performance from the day before, "Action" Bob Hwang from the #8 seat is first out of the final table, making us 8-handed for a very long time. We play about an hour of the most tedious no-limit hold'em the rail ever had the displeasure of viewing. It is raise and take it nearly every hand, with some occasional raise, re-raise and take it. We see two flops in three half-hour rounds, and zero showdowns. Jerrod, Brad and 8-2 Dave are the ones seeming to pick up more than their fair share of blinds. We play some more raise and take it poker. There is a hand that dramatically changes the complexion of the final table. 8-2 Greg raises UTG with an above-average stack. Jerrod from middle position moves all-in (his stack size is irrelevant, since he is chip leader by a hefty margin) with AK. Greg calls with AJ. Neither player is suited, but Greg miracles a flush with his ace. Jerrod is now well below par, and as ugly as the suckout was, I am very happy to see the chips move from him to Greg. Finally, we get another elimination as Patrick Milligan raises from the #4 (?) seat into me in the #9 seat with the SB holding 77. I make a raise slightly over the pot size, putting him all-in. He thinks for a while and calls. I am ecstatic to see his 66 instead of AK/AQ. It's all air and Patrick is done in 8th. I make another kill on the very next hand, when it is folded to me in the SB with KQ. I make a standard raise and Jerrod moves all-in from the BB. I am getting over 2:1 and have to call. He shows KT, so again I am very lucky to have a dominating hand with someone notched just under me. At this point, I take the chip lead as pictured in http://ygc.collectionsoftware.com/atlarge2003/Img0591.JPG. I am not able to be an overly aggressive big stack unlike last night at the Trop, as people keep moving in in front of me, or when it is unopened in early position, I have total and utter crap that I can't even steal with. Andrew Richman and Jeff Calkins are gone in 6th and 5th respectively (no hands --remember that I am at this point at HOUR 25 of continuous poker without sleep). At four-handed, I have about 40% of the chips, the two 82-ers, Greg and Dave have about 25% each, and Brad Edmonds has 10%. However, I have played a lot at other tables with Brad and have a very high opinion of his play, so I grow concerned because he keeps hanging around. Dave eventually takes him out to pull about even with me in chips. I am stuck between the two members of the 8-2 poker club, who seem more than willing to go to war against one another. After 30-45 minutes of 3-handed jousting that accomplishes very little, Dave takes out Greg. With that hand, he takes a 95,000-40,000 chip lead on me with blinds of 1000-2000 (no ante) as we start heads-up. It is over on the first hand. The clock has just hit Hour 26 on my poker marathon, and I make the first decision I regret in the tournament (and second of the night). Dave makes it 8000 on the button. I look down to find QJ. My first thought is that this is a well above-average hand and could easily be better than what Dave has. That much was true. In the heat of the moment, I thought that my best play was to re-raise all-in, since that would only be a slight overbet of the pot. I seriously underestimated the play remaining; I could have just called to see the flop. I also knew that Dave was not someone who would keep firing chips if the flop missed him, meaning that I had a good advantage over him knowing where he was. Perhaps I am being results-oriented, but I feel I should have tried to play a multiple street game instead of moving all-in, which is what I did. Dave thought it over but called fairly quickly with KJ, and won. Congrats to him on a really great tournament; I truly think he played well and is a worthy champion. That does not mean I am not incredibly pissed off at myself. I wandered around the room for a while, talking to myself saying that I didn't have to move in on him. I'm a good enough heads-up player and with money left to play, calling to see the flop was clearly the play. It takes only one mistake to ruin a well-played NLHE tournament. In reality, my mistake (if in fact a mistake) was not all that large in terms of just raw EV against the distribution of possible hands for him, because at these blind sizes, moving in with any decent hand is very rarely a bad play, but I was in a situation where I was probably the better multiple-street player (although not necessarily) and instead chose to gamble. That is where the mistake was made. I was very upset at myself and if you were one of the many people who came to me with your heartfelt congratulations and I accepted them with a very cool reception, I apologize for that. Jester gave me the second place added money from PokerStars, but collecting the actual second-place money from the Taj was a bureaucratic mess of forms. I can see now why that poker players greatly prefer tournaments that don't issue tax forms. I took a $400 bad beat with the 30% tax taken out of my winnings, effectively winning 3rd place money for finishing 2nd. Reeling from my defeat, I stumbled into the ATLARGE banquet. It was a table with some tough players. Matt, ADB Fich, Jerrod, Sabyl, Bill Chen and Jester are at the table, although I can't remember the specific seat assignments. Despite this tough draw, I am easily able to spot the fish, as I think everyone ordered the sea bass. I am actually misdealt sea bass despite ordering steak, but it's a very minor beat. The slightly bigger beat is that for lasting to get heads-up in the NLHE event, the open bar that was made available is now closed. After dinner, we all walked down to the poker room. I think Jerrod, Sabyl and Bill wanted to start the 5-5 PL, so I knew it'd be a soft game (cough). However, I was now in Hour 27. I was actually tempted to sit and play limit hold'em, as I literally can do that in my sleep. But my brain finally figured out that it was time to make the conscious decision to shut down. So I went and took a two-hour nap. I came back down at 1:00am in a good 15/30 hold'em game where the only downsides were playing with "Buckshot" Stephen B. and ActionBob (yes, that nickname is a reverse tell, btw). These guys play g00t, but the other fish were more than plenty bad to make up for their presence. I'm up $1191 when I notice Buckshot and ActionBob are dropping down to the 10/20. They graciously tell me it's a great game (or maybe that it will be a great game if I show up). It ends up being a pretty good game, but I lose $299. At some point, ActionBob moved back to the 15/30 (hmmm...was it just a ploy to get me out of the game...?). He late came over to my table and asked me if I ever slept. I responded, "I *was* sleeping". I'd fallen asleep on the flop and ActionBob had startled me back into the conscious world just as a bet was being made on the river. I decided then to take my $900 and get some real sleep, the kind you get in a bed. Sunday, March 23 I didn't pre-register for the Stud event, but nevertheless I woke up at 10:30 to rush down to see if late registration was still available. It looked like I was out of luck, until it was realized that Jerry Gerner was not able to make it, so I took his seat. (Jerry, if you are reading this post, I owe you $75. Please e-mail me; I have e-mailed you with no response.) I have played less than 5 hours of Stud in my life. Ignorance being bliss, I thought I actually played rather well. However, my only mistake my have cost me any chance of winning. The bring-in is folded around to me, and I have split aces. I raise and Patrick calls with a 4 up, all others fold. I catch air and Patrick catches ostensible air as well, a 10. I bet and he calls. On fifth, he pairs his 10 and bets out. I estimate from there that if I call him down, I will be nearly busted if I lose (I thought the limits rose *very* quickly in this tournament). Patrick is one of these guys who handles his upcards very neatly, and for a moment --**and through absolutely no fault of his** -- I thought the first 10 was his doorcard. That induced me to fold, but immediately after folding, I looked again and saw his board was 4-T-T, not T-4-T. Now, he probably had two pair, but my aces have plenty of odds to chase two pair. I am a dog anyway, but by folding there incorrectly, I was nearly crippled. I busted out just as two-table play started, when I had the bring-in almost all-in with (84)3 and was busted by someone (names again) making a full house in five cards for complete and utter overkill. I go and play some 10/20, which for the absolute first time is not a completely easy lineup. I have Arty Santella and Chris O'Connor and some other people who know what they're doing. I transfer to the 20/40, and it is one of the absolute best 20/40s I've ever played. The bad players were bitching about the worse players, which I found hilarious. There was only one other guy in this game with a clue. A huge pot was dragged at one point by 93s limping UTG on a hand that was subsequently 3-bet behind him. On one hand, I get a free ride with K3 in the big blind. The flop comes down K-8-6. I bet and get called only by the small blind. The turn is a 3, making me kings up. The SB checks, I bet, and he raises. I re-raise and he 4-bets! Now I am scared he slowplayed a set of 8s or 6s and of course just call. The river is another king! He checks and calls, turning over AK. Basically, he managed to play each street wrong. As I'm playing this game, the stud tournament is playing out the final table, with the requisite cheering every time someone busts out. The locals in the 20/40 game have no idea what to think. They all seem to think perhaps that we're razzing the bust-out. I hear them talking about the pink game that went the other night and how it must suck to play so few hands per hour. They think we're insane. Here's what I think: I think we're the only fucking people in the place that know how to have fun playing poker. The rest of them are miserable SOBs who play this game because they have no other hobbies, social lives, or redeeming abilities. They bitch at suckouts, they bitch at dealers, they bitch about everything. It should come as no surprise that a group like this should find the ATLARGErs so distasteful; the ATLARGErs are actually in a poker room having a good time! The nerve! Anyway, I beat the miserable fishy SOBs for $708 when Joan informs me there is an impromptu dinner. I love taking money from these terrible players, but I love the company of RGPers too. We go to a restaurant that seems way too classy for me. We all have a good time laughing about the menu, which is just beautifully pretensious. The menu informs that there is a $12 (!)charge for sharing plates. It also says, "to preserve the integrity of the chef's creations, please, no substitutions". (I wonder momentarily whether this is just some protective measure against someone like, ordering ham and asking it to be substituted with lobster, but then I realize I'm actually in a classy restaurant where people probably don't do stuff like that.) The food is good (presumably due to the integrity of the chef's creation being preserved) albeit damn expensive for a cheap bastard like me. However, what I lose in differential between the cost of this nice expensive meal and a ham/turkey sandwich from the snack bar at the Taj, I gain in quality conversation. My proudest moment in the weekend was not 2nd place in NLHE but answering a stud question that had been puzzling Bill Chen (note that I was up to 8 hours of stud experience by that point). I visited the grand house of our illustrious ATLARGE organizer, Stevan Goldman, which actually served as the poker compound for Bill, Sabyl, Matt, Patrick, and Arty. After lost dinner EV, I went back to the Taj 20/40 hold'em, which was then officially the best 20/40 I had ever played in. Very few 3/6 games are so loose-passive. Three players seemed very inexperienced; one was cited for a string raise and was very close to being cited on a number of occasions; others showed their inexperience by handling cards and chips poorly, never seeming to know when its their turn, calling with A-rag, and the typical newbie stuff). Four players were experienced but very bad. One player, a lady on my immediate left, played well, but she was constantly walking. One guy was not terrible. And me; clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right. How good was the game? I won an $880 pot with an unimproved KK with an ace on the flop. It was limped by five players to me on the button with KK. I raise, both blinds call, and 2 off the button says, "build the pot" and re-raises. I cap, only the BB drops. Seven of us for a cap, 30 bets in the pot. The flop comes A-8-3. I start to feel my stomach turn. It is checked around to me, I throw in my "I know I'm way behind, but I'm willing to take the 30:1 odds that I can win this" bet. One folds so there are only 6 players left to see the turn. The turn is a J. It is checked around to an absolutely terrible player on my immediate right who bets. There is $760 in this pot. If I can raise and check down the river, my effective odds are 800:80. I am probably beat, but for the small chance he is betting less than an ace into me, I must raise. This flashes through my mind very quickly, and I raise very quickly to represent trip aces. All fold but the bettor who calls. The river is another 8, so as I'm thinking I'm now also screwed if he was semibluffing an 8, he checks. I am happy to check back. "Two pair," he says. "Which two?" He looks downcast. A glimmer of hope arises in me. I table the kings. He bitches about getting counterfeited by the 8 (you know what that necessarily makes his hand, right?) and mucks. Someone over in middle position slams his fist into the table, saying my raise on the turn made him fold 87. I feel good and proud, strong enough to take on the world. Some may call this results-oriented; I call it, "another example of do whatever the hell you can to win when the pot is gi-freaking-gantic". Let's view this hand from another perspective: the pot was capped 7-ways preflop and no one had an ace (the BB who folded to my cap -- one of the three non-horrible players in the game -- claimed to have had one). After what had been a terrible start to the session, I pull from $300 in the hole to +$400. I win a few more, then take a few inevitable loose-game beats, to book a $406 win in 4.5 hours. Now that's well over 2 BB/hour, but again, I'm arrogant enough to think that variance actually was unkind to me; that my EV was in fact higher. I will be struck dead by the poker gods, I'm sure. I am getting a ride with Goldie and Patrick to the airport early tomorrow (this) morning, so I head back to my room after the fish start getting replaced by decent players, pack and grab a quick nap. General observations on the Taj: I found the games were generally very passive, far different than equivalent hold'em played in either LA or Vegas. Flush draws frequently check-called instead of betting or jamming for value. Very little semibluff raise on the turn -- epidemic among Vegas regulars. Overall I felt dealers were good and efficient, with few weak spots. There were a couple of dealers who had lousy attitudes, even they tended to be efficient, at least. For this, I toked them despite my better judgment. The ATLARGE tournaments were well-run and I thought the tournament staff were quite friendly and efficient. Drink service is the worst I have ever seen in any poker room. A local player told me that the waitresses evidently feel the poker players don't take care of them well enough. I'm sure that poker room waitresses make less than say, those serving high-limit baccarat, but I imagine they do better than those at the slots. But regardless, their income is linearly correlated with the number of drinks they serve, and so it's completely ridiculous for them to be out once an hour to serve drinks and take orders. 5-day poker totals: Ring: +$3040, 50 hours, $60.80/hour
Tournament: $545 in buy-ins/tokes, $2046 in winnings, +$1501, 18 hours, $83.39/hour
Total: +$4541, 68 hours, $66.78/hour
Sleep: $0, 24 hours, $0.00/hour. Sleep is overrated! It's always nice to book a winning trip, of course, but I'm sure I'd have had fun no matter what the results. It was absolutely great to be able to meet the men and women behind the screen names. My sincerest gratitude in particular to goldie, for doing a great job as organizer and for the lift to the airport; and to Tina, Joan, Matt and Rick who generously provided various ground transportation on the rare occasions I wasn't in the Taj poker room. With all impartiality, thanks of course to PokerStars, as well as the Taj. Hope to see you all at my first BARGE. -- Terrence Chan http://www.sfu.ca/~tchand/