Trip-Report

Trip Report by David R. Trinidad First and foremost, I would like to recognize Jazbo for the success of ATLARGE II. ATLARGE II gathered all sorts of backgrounds and experiences together for a brief moment of poker and fellowship. Organizing events this large is time consuming and stressful. Thanks again Jazbo!! In describing my experience at ATLARGE II I can only relate to last years event. I did much better at the Hold'em tournament by not showing up!! However, I missed the fellowship. So this trip report describes my experience from a frame of mind that I survived my poker play but got to meet some really neat people. "The Smoker" Though I do not drink anymore and try and cut down on the cigars, I still find the smoker to be one great event. Great food, great people, and great stories -- all the right combinations for an evening of fellowship. Tiger did a great job of organizing this event. The ADB'ers were in full force. The Darkside (Nolan Dalla), Fold'em, (Peter Secor), Big Boy (Bruce Krammer), Elrasio (Eric ???), Satan (Jeremy) and the honorary (Though he did not know it yet) member Bill Alan. The smoker consumed three full tables and I believe over 20 fine people attended. A highlight of the evening was executives of the Taj Poker room providing nice T-shirts, hats, a deck of cards and the book "Caro's Fundamental Secrets of Poker". As you soon will read, I should have more closely read the book In any social event involving 20 or more card players there will be the bad beat stories. I am the worst at getting the facts right and making the story interesting. However, there is one redeeming quality of a bad beat story \u2013 it reflects a part of life. When I arrived in Newark, my wallet fell out on the airplane. I had a strong hunch the most precious parts of me were laying on the seat 1B. Like without a picture ID. How do I get back on the airplane? So anyway, I approach the gate agents who referred me to security. They referred me to lost and found. Hey! This plane leaves in 15 minutes and my wallet is sitting in seat 1B!! Well I cancelled my cards when somebody finally went abroad, and found my wallet on seat 1B. Now how is this different from the story "There I was with A-A and I flopped a full house A-2-2\u2026." ? You see bad beat stories emulate life. A smoker is a place to experience some interesting realities life presents us all. "Taj Poker" I concluded Thursday's evening with an hour of 15-30 Hold'em. I recognized "Daveles" and someone I met at Fort McDowell in AZ. The table was not too friendly with three people on tilt. So I got serious and engaged in only two hands. Both scored and I left the table with my dinner paid. "Craps Tournament" The craps tournament was a free for all. Satan, (Jeremy) played the "darkside" and layed the back.I played right side most of the way and busted out. Jeremy won the tournament. There is a lesson to be learned here but I have not figured it out yet. As Fold'em and I said, it was fun to work T5000 on a craps table. I do not think that I will be flinging that much black chips in this lifetime. Unless of course barring some untoward event against the casino. "Pot Limit Hold'em" I entered the Pot Limit Tournament on Friday with the notion that this would be a $85 poker lesson. I had the right idea. Having never played Pot-Limit, I experienced a very cheap lesson compared to flinging real green and black chips. Actually, I was doing pretty good. Bluffed a couple of nice pots and engaged in one pot with "Big Boy" (Bruce Krammer). Three sixes flop giving me an excellent full house. I bet the flop and the turn. Bruce disengages to fight yet another day. The hand that did me in was quite interesting to me. A guy who bullies three pots in a row engages in his fourth. I have A-K suited and the flop shows A-X-X of diamonds. Everybody checks. On the turn, a rag drops so I bet. The bully raises. I go all in. He had K-7 of diamonds. Therefore, I should have taken a lesson from Bruce from the earlier hand. When we do not have the nuts -- it might not be the time to fully commit ones bankroll. The lesson was relearned again. You know the adage of all teachers \u2013" do it over and over again until you do it right." Bruce has some inspiring words for me at dinner. "The word is that you're the Stay-Puff softie man..". I can see that my aggressive play will have no threatening context with this crowd. Second, it will take a big win to reestablish any honor amongst my peers. "Passing the Time Away" I had to work on Friday so I could only play until 12:30 AM on Thursday. I played short handed 10-20 Hold'em which is my worse game. I just do not make the right choices between aggression and passivity with less than 5 players. I feel good surviving with all my chips. I flop a full house against "Bwana", "Elrasio", "Sippy" and Ming. One other person pays me off until the end. It was a nice way to pass the time away. I was listening to Bwana and Sippy, tell poker stories. The one lesson from this session is that I have a lot to learn. There are four stages of learning. We all start as "Blissfully Ignorant". We do not know what we do not know. Then we wake up and achieve a state known as Knowingly Ignorant. We now know what we do not know. The next stage makes us an expert in a particular field. We become Confidently Ignorant. We are confident in what we do not know. The last stage is becoming Arrogantly Ignorant. We are arrogant about we do not know. That is where learning stops. I realize do have a long way to go. Hold'em Tournament. I placed 22 last year by not showing up. This year, I was the fourth to bust out. Not understanding the lessons of the previous day-- I engaged David Croson (2nd place at BARGE). Things went very badly. I watch David bluff a flush to lay down with 2 pair which set up the ending hand for me. Here goes .. I am sitting as the big bling with K-Q Hearts. Four people call, I raise T50. Everybody calls. The flop comes 9-9-Q. I have two pair with an excellent kicker. No raises before the flop besides me so I doubt I am looking at A-Q. The only possibility is 9-9 and or 10-9/J-9. One I have a Q, two a Q is on the board, and last Q-9 suited is a weak hand for a tournament. I bet T300. It folds to David who raises T400. He either has K-Q offsuit (He would have raised with K-Q Suited or a nine. I have T145. I go all in. He has J-9 suited. Only 2 outs for me. The run actually gives Dave the flush and I am defeated. It does not help the reputation at all. I can see my badge for next year, a 6" stay puff marshmallow logo \u2026 "Back to the Taj" The live game did me well. Finally leaving the 5-10 Hold'em $145 up. Even with a string of bad beats I was able to get really lucky once. With the button, I am dealt 7-8 suited. A RGP'er raises with A-9, two drop-in's call. A manic re-raises with Q-10 suited. I cold call for the flop. The flop comes 4-5 club's suited and a 2. The A-9 and Q-10 cap the raises in a bidding war. I call. The 6 shows on the turn. The A-9 and Q-10 war again. On the river I get one raise in before it is capped. The A-9 paused a bit thinking something was wrong, but he did not quite understand what. I show the straight flush. I get one more straight flush this session. Probably the average reader is thinking how do you get to straight flushes and not take home the money? I also lost 6 three-of-a-kinds, and two full houses on the river. Mike Caro so well states, not losing $500 is wining $500. Another lesson learned. "Banquet" The banquet was great. Bill Allen was awarded the "Honorary ADB'er hat and Jazbo received a freeroll at TARGET. Well deserved awards. I met Fold'ems wife and talked her ear off about Phoenix and cruising the Caribbean. Peter came just in time to rescue his wife from the clutches of boredom! Then Peter and I discussed how the Payouts are adjusted on slot machines. I good lesson for the both of us. We both walked over to the Taj following each other. Finally, we ended up at the Resorts poker room. "A Friendly 5-10 Hold'em Game" I engaged a table with a beginner, Elrasio, Daveles, PRM, Quie (Tom McHugh), and Ming to my left. One RGP'er to my right and a drop-in. This is the definition of a "friendly game." A dealer from the Trop sits down. We converse \u2013 exchanging small talk. I bet with Elrasio Quie, and Ming raising. "Gee I was looking for a softer game" the dealer says and cold calls. I cap the raise. The beauty of this hand is that Quie takes it with a pair of duce's -- One deuce in his hand and one on the board. The dealer gets up on leaves quickly. "ADB' Dice Engagement" Again the ADB'ers let me tag along for the dice engagement. This is where we convince "Darkside" to roll them bones with one don't bet for Noaln. We bet the right side. It ended up with Nolan losing and us losing. However, it is a lot of fun watching the more emotional patrons get upset at Jeremy and Jeff exclaiming their exuberance over a 7-out. One thing that was puzzling, the Resorts had 12 well-intoxicated individuals ready to spend money but no dealers to open a craps table. As a casino operator who could ask for anything more? The locals and the tourist just would not accommodate the ADB'ers at the craps table. One floorman said, "Go to the end table." It turns out that another floorman was running the show down there. Give the problem away is always a good move. Just to balance this story out I thought it would be nice to mention the cocktail waitress "Shannon". Though Shannon possesses many redeeming and attractive features, it was her service attitude that struck me the most. I was focused on a hand, and Shannon paused until I bet. Then she alerted me to the drink I ordered. A small gesture, but this is the kinds of things that I notice and makes me appreciate a casino. Jim Stydio the winner of the Hold'em tournament offered me a couch to sleep on before the stud tournament. He was supposed to get me before retiring. Unfortunately, some bottom feeders had occupied a Hold'em game at the Taj and so I did not get that nap in until 0600. I am not sure how Bill Lamont and Jim did in the game. While waiting, I observed the 10-20-30 Hi-Low game. In one hand Bill Turner is R00ling against Bozo, Andy, Jazbo and ????. Bill has J-10-9 suited against Andy's A-A. 3rd street and fourth street cap. Bill makes the flush. Lesson learned, I am not up to par to play this table!! "The Stud Tournament" I was at a table with Sippy, Chuck Wienstock, and others I respect. I was remarkably unlucky in getting the low card. I did take the last chips from four players that had been hurt previously and built a fair stack. I also learned about the "Putnum" puzzle from David Croson who was elaborating about geometry with Sippy and others. Nothing like a poker game to fellowship with academia. I did have a secondary thought on my mind the whole time. Not only exploring the outer reaches of what is to be discovered, but also after drinking enormous amounts of coffee waiting for Jim Strydio, I had to use the bathroom. The urge was unbelievable and a break was not in sight. Then the engagement\u2026 With the loss of players new players moved to our table. Bill, who eventually came in second, raised three times and stole three antes with face cards showing. I had the button (again) and the low card. Bill raised with an Ace showing, and I called with a two-suited 10-10-3. The next card is a heart and Bill gets a rag. He bets again. I call. The next card is a rag and I get another heart. I bet a black chip but forgot to say "raise". There goes that bluff\u2026.The next card is a rag for the both of us. I get a 3 he gets a jack and gets the higher two pair. I am now hurt. Relief comes. Our table breaks up and I have time to use the bathroom. Modern warfare consists of five steps. Contacting, Tracking, Identifying, Targeting, and Destroying a hostile target. No honor, no glory \u2013 just impersonal blips on a radar screen. Somehow, the thought comes to me how two friends engage each other at Gettysburg. Lowell Armistead for the south and Winford Hancock for the north faced each other the last and fatal day. I approach the table after using the bathroom and greet my fellow poker buddies. "Hi Paul" (PRM). Paul responds with a similar friendly greeting. "I could not tell if that is a green chip or a black chip on the bottom, how much do you have?" I have definitely been contacted and identified for destruction. I get K-J-10 suited with Paul raising Jim Strydio with a Q showing. Rule one, don't get in-between a chip war. I call once to see if a get a suited card. A 7 diamonds show and I drop. Probably bad to engage with the Q's dead and only a king or a flush out. But I am running out of time. The second hand at this table gives PRM another Q showing and a raise. Everybody drops. I have split queens with a A kicker. The A-Q is suited, I re-raise. PRM looks at my stack and decides to put me all in. I have PRM out-kicked with the ace and three to a flush. He makes Q-Q-3-3 and I do not improve. Say goodbye Dave. At least this time it was a fight. Noaln Dalla wins the tournament. I watch systematic engagements between Bill and Nolan. One thing I noticed was that Nolan was steady in his mannerisms whether he was raising on a good hand or a bad hand. Rock Solid all the way. A guy I want on my right for sure\u2026 Conclusion The fellowship was well worth the trip from Phoenix. As usual I met new friends, Tiger, Quie, Bill Turner, Andy Heck, and Ming. I got an opportunity to share a moment of my life with some of those I met at BARGE. Nolan, Peter, Eric, Jeremy, Bruce and how many others! Jazbo did a great job of organizing and I will definitely be there at BARGE and next years ATLARGE.

Trip Report by Keith Miyake Here's some notes of my ATLARGE adventure: I minimum-bet my way into the money at the blackjack tournament, which was nice considering how poor my pocker was in the other tourneys. Once again, Merv got $10 off me by dangling a match play coupon. The deed was done at the craps table. Most of the poker was nondescript. I played a lot of 1-5 stud because I didn't want to be bumming 'cause I got stuck early. I was in an 8-way hand that got checked to the river. Dealer shuffled the cut cards back in (with the leftover card) and dealt a community river. My last session of the trip was by far the most memorable. Listen ye traveller to my poker tale of woe. (Actually it's not that bad, but it's a great sounding intro) I had been sweating Alan for a while in the pot limit game (1-2 blinds) when a seat opened up (both 5 and 6 were open across from the dealer, calling me). Of course, I bought in for $200. Jazbo (jbu...@monmouth.com), Me (kmiy...@cs.rutgers.edu), Kris (k...@munn.com) and Alan (a...@idacrd.ccr-p.ida.org) were there the whole time I played. Ray (ray3...@aol.com?) and Bill (V...@aol.com) were there, Ray earlier and Bill later. Plus cameo appearances by Foldem and Jester. Kris soon moves in on my left and we make R00ling table talk. I had been in a couple of pots with not much happening (ahead a little) until hand #1. We had been talking earlier about how some people had lost big slowplaying aces and I get dealt pocket kings. There were a couple of callers before me so I decided to try to take it and raised the pot. Folded around to Alan who reraises the pot. I'm visibly shaking by the time it's back to me where I put in another raise, and in short order I'm all-in preflop. We flip our cards and sure enough, I'm a big dog against pocket aces. Here Alan offers insurance. I know the concept, but have never done it before so it takes a while before we get things sorted out. We use (*begin shameless plug*) Jazbo's holdem card thingie (*end shameless plug*) to help us figure out just how big a dog I am. I eventually agree and only lose most of my money. -- Keith gets out with his pants after betting into aces. Sometime later, still a hurting puppy, I limp in with pocket tens. -- three players. flop: rainbow; 5 spades, pair 3s.      (you might imagine what's coming) Checked around. turn: 8 of spades. Checked around. river: 10 of spades. I've got top boat, and someone may have made a flush. I check. Check, raise $10. I raise the pot, leaving me about $20. Fold, call. I show my 10s and he's got those 3s you've been concentrating on. Mr. Nice People decided not to put me out of my misery. -- Keith is inexplicably spared by a stranger holding the nuts. Downhill from here, eaten by the blinds and folding failed draws. I'm playing it out to the bitter end (there were seats still available). Talking with Jazbo we agree that once I get below the $5 mark, I shouldn't be able to play (as I have less than a bet), so I decide to make my stand straddling under the gun. It was kinda boring sitting and waiting for my blinds to get eaten, so I made my move one round early. $8 left, under the gun, I toke the dealer $3 and use my last $5 to declare my straddle. Bill has written about my all-in "live" straddle, so I won't get into that, but since this is my poker tale of woe, you can hear how the hand turned out. Kris is to my right and calls, I think there's someone in 7 who calls. Ray had left earlier so a New Guy in 8 calls, then Alan calls. Past the dealer, Mr. Nice People raises the pot, so I said "Nice People give me protection". Bill folds, and Jazbo raises the pot. I shut up. Back to me and I consider my options... Kris calls, 7 folds, then New Guy raises the pot. Alan folds, Mr. Nice People calls all-in. Jazbo thinks and folds, as does Kris. Now there's two all-in preflop and I still haven't seen my cards. No insurance today as the dealer lays a board of 347TQ, no flush draw. Nice People has kings and New Guy has aces. Mr. Nice People has busted, Mr. Nice People rebuys. I flip my cards and out pops a pair of 3s. $35! Stylin'! Three or four hands later I limp in with A8 diamonds. Four players see the flop which comes down with two diamonds. $20 raise (pot sized raise would be $25), call, call, and I call all-in. Turn is a diamond and they check it to the end. I'm back at $100 with quite a turnaround of fortune. Put back $25 before cashing out at 11:30. 4-5 hours; -$125; Keith -- kmiy...@cs.rutgers.edu

Trip Report by Nolan Dalla Nolan Dalla ATLARGE Trip Report Atlantic City, NJ March 20-24, 1997 "THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD" **************** The long and winding road, that leads to your door, has left me standing here. **************** Introduction: This year, I was content NOT to post an ATLARGE trip report. This decision came about for three reasons: First, I couldn't possibly do justice to so many events and unique personalties. How to chose from among them when writing such a report Second, my memory for detail (re-constructing hands, chip counts, etc.) is admittedly imperfect. In fact, when laced with single-malt scotch which flowed gratuitously from a certain hotel room -- my capacity for testimony is downright appalling. Of course, to regular readers of my column -- this should come as no suprise. Third -- and perhaps most important -- I lament my inability to include EVERYONE in the report -- including some old friends, and others whom I met for the first time. To those who do not find themselves in the report, please don't view my omission with personal disappointment or disdain. Keeping in mind that last year's BARGE trip report contained 6 separate chapters, each in excess of 2,000 words, I'll try to keep some things here to a minimum (the key word in that last sentence is SOME. Major embarassments and personal indecretions will be exaggerated for their full entertainment value). As I was saying -- my erstwhile intent was to remain hidden behind a panelled glass of cyberkenetic solitude, escaping into an inner-sanctum of inconspicuous spitrtuality and metaphysical simulacrum. AND THEN IT HAPPENED, I began reading OTHER trip reports. My blood pressure increased. I started sweating. Beads of perspiration globulated beneath my brow. My hands began to tremble. Tears swelled in my eyes. Sitting beside me, Marietta (Mrs. Dalla) sensed something was wrong, especially since it wasn't even football season. "That's it! I've had enough!" I cried. "Shut off the 486! Do it now!" I unplugged the monitor. I turned out the lights. "No more poker! No more RGP!" I shut it off for three whole days. I tried to ccupy my time in other ways. I looked around the house for good books to read. But the bookshelves were only stocked with the seductive works of Sklansky, Malmuth, Caro, and Zee -- a quartet of omnipotent voices who cried out to me in the night. Resigned to my cerebral imprisonment I searched the pantry for a video. Some choice. Alas, it was a decision between World Series of Poker highlight films from 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, or 1995. "No more poker!" I screamed. I drank a few shots of brandy, hoping the ruffle of flopping imaginary sets and hitting flush draws on the river would subside. But the temptation became too strong. Finally, I just couldn't take it any more! I had to do it. It was like drugs, alcohol, and (dare I say) gambling -- an irresistible vice over which I am powerless and occasionally reduced to a dribbling and babbling foray of emotions! My friends, I confess, I am a trip report addict! Call the Oprah show! Book me on Geraldo! Please....no Jenny Jones (I heard the actuarial tables for participants on that show are not particularly encouraging). The admitance of self-addiction is the first step toward recovery. So, on this cool and cloudy Monday afternoon at 3:00 pm -- while the cherry blossoms are in full bloom around our nation's capital where I reside -- sans notes, I begin to write -- placing my quill to paper, or more precisely the bones of my naked flesh upon the keyboard. Here's my (and I hope "your") daily FIX on "The Long and Winding Road" of poker dependency: THURSDAY ---------- $15-30 Hold'Em / $10-20 Hold'Em (Taj Mahal) Call it "the Russell Rosenbloom Show" --- Since the $15-30 is a dead game, I transfer to the adjacent table. I see RGPer Russell Rosenbloom. Russell simply dominates the table. When faced with any decision, there are only two options for Russell: RAISE or FOLD. Fed-up with the ceaseless raising and re-raising, one of the locals quips, "It's also your option to just CALL a bet if you want to, Sir." Most interesting hand occurs when every round is capped and at the end Russell shows down a nut flush, the local to his left shows a full house, and the third player shows broadway (Russell lost the hand on the river when the board paired). How the clown with Broadway stayed is anyone's guess. Were it not for that painful loss (maybe a $400-500 pot), Russell would have filled yet another chip rack. RGP people will love this one! --- An interesting conversation takes place at the table when a local pro (whom I know from the regular pot limit game) starts talking. He's beaming with confidence and remarks, "Hey, all these computer guys are coming into town this weekend." He goes on to say that he expects to kick everybody's ass and make tons of money from "them" (Note: He did not know that yours truly was included amidst the "computer guys"). "Oh yeah?" I ask. "How do you know they're so soft?" The pro goes on with some ellaborate explanation of how he plans to run over the "nerd types (his own words)" with his aggression. I can barely contain myself from an odd junction of laughter and taking personal offense at his unfair characterization. But, I'm content to remain silent with the knowledge that UNDERESTIMATING YOUR OPPONENTS is the fatal flaw of many otherwise good poker players. We'll just see who ass get's kicked. ---------------- Gentlemen's Smoker (Taj Mahal) Hail Tiger! --- Again, I can only add to the many posted accolades and congratulatory remarks directed toward Tiger for his Herculean efforts on our behalf. Several people already know this, but I should point-out once again that Tiger went to a great deal of trouble in SAVING the smoker from last minute extinction -- even though, at the time, he was not sure if he himself would be able to make the engagement. This selfless act of heroism deserves high praise and everyone's gratitude (remove lips from Tiger's ass now). Also, the visit from Tom Gitto, Ron Garvey, and Tony Marino was a real treat. Everyone in the ATLARGE contingent greatly appreciated the Taj gifts -- which included two t-shirts, a hat, two decks of cards, and a poker book for each one of us (Bad joke here: For any of you who don't like your **black** t-shirt, just place it in the wash -- and you'll get back a **grey** one). One funny sidebar to the fancy dinner (which has nothing to do with poker) occurs when I hear one of our group complaining about his cut of beef to the waiter. Suddenly, I had this flashback of the time I once worked in a restaurant several years ago and used to hear complaints (you can imagine how many times they complained about my service). "Waiter! My steak is overcooked! The potato is raw! Blah, Blah, Blah." When faced with such trivial discourteousies, I used to parrot a line that would usually leave 'em rolling.....either that, or get me a complete 'stiff' on the check. "Allright Sir, I can certainly understand your displeasure. Would it make you any happier if we shoot the cook, fire the manager, and burn the restaurant down to the ground?" Fortunately, our service was void of ritualized Southern sarcasm, and everyone enjoyed an outstanding dinner (except for the guy who complained about his cut, I suppose). Special note to Dave Trinidad --- who deserves some extra notoriety here for coming all the way to Atlantic City from Phoenix to attend ATLARGE. Dave and Patti Beadles (from San Francisco) get the ATLARGE "greatest distance traveled awards." (To be continued)..........maybe

Trip Report by Paul McMullin I'm told that Tiger is going to post a trip summary from ATLARGE II, and I look forward to it, but I felt that I had to express my thanks to Jazbo for putting on a super weekend myself [THANKS JAZBO!]... and to report a few hands from the two poker tournaments that I really liked that I'm pretty sure won't be in Tiger's report: In the T500 no-limit holdem on Saturday, when the blinds were about T25 and T50, the guy under the gun had about T1500 and made it T300; I had about T2200 in late position and found pocket kings - I raised back T600, and he considered and pushed all-in... I felt pretty confident calling (and turning up my Kings) until he turned up his Aces... no help; back to being a below average stack! They consolidated to 3 tables shortly after that, and I decided it was time to double up or get up - the blinds went by and then I stole them back with trash, I survived an all-in to double up with a hand I don't remember (pocket Ts? against AQ?) and then the blinds were raised T400 or so by the second under the gun; I looked at AQo and pushed T1075 all-in... folded back to the raiser who considered for a few seconds (FOLD FOLD FOLD - it seemed like forever), counted that he'd have about T400 or so left if he called and missed, and folded; as we were waiting for pictures to be taken he said he had AKo; that it was the hardest lay-down he made the whole day. I was in 3rd place (T5300?) when they consolidated to the final table (all 10 places paid), but had the blinds by go twice without anything resembling matching cards and ditched after a steal attempt got re-raised to come back down to T4100... three had busted out, and ERB (Ed Baker?) was down to a single chip and waiting for the blinds to come by when I got pocket 8s in late position (about three more hands before ERB would be blinded in) when BUD (name?, position T5000?) raised the T200-T400 (I think) blinds to T1600 in fairly early position... if I folded I'd be sure of being 6th or better (with ERB out), but if I pushed in and survived I could probably coast to 2nd without calling another hand. The prizes were $160 for 7th and $190 for 6th; I decided to take my shot; all folded to BUD who called and turned up AT (suited?); I turned up my 88, someone called out "11-10 favorite" (what are the REAL odds here - don't I kill some of the straights for the T with my eights out of the deck and make boats on others?) - the board helped neither thru the turn, but the river was an Ace and I was standing... It probably wasn't my best move, and I'm wondering what the West Coast half with more frequent tournament experience have to say about my reasoning? Sunday morning, Ed Baker saw me before the tourney and mentioned that he was impressed with the level of aggression that I had shown in the holdem event (we had also played in a 5-10 holdem ring game on Friday evening, and I was raising about twice as often as any one else at the table - he was sitting at the other end of the table, frequently muttering about "what could prm have down there to be doing all of that raising???"). Thanks, Ed, your comment really helped my confidence going into the Stud event! I was entered into the Stud tourney (T300) strictly for grins - I've probably played 100 or so hands of 7-stud (mostly with Tiger, drinking scotch at the 1-3 table at the Trop in December)... I've read McEnvoy's and Bjutner's (?) books on tournaments, and have played in 20-30 tournaments (which is probably about 15 or so more than most of the rest of the ATLARGE contingent), but never anything other than Holdem, so I decided to finally follow their advice and mostly ignore my cards and play my stack and my position... I attempted to steal the blinds whenever two or three of the upcards were duplicated on my left (regardless of my cards) and whenever I had paint showing. I called about 2/3 of the re-steals hoping to get a scare card, and got checked into a scare card just often enough to about triple up before they started consolidating tables... When I had built to about T1300 I had split Queens with a suited Ace when (Arti?, T900) on my right raised the bring in with a Q up... I re-raised and called his re-re-raise... I got a T and he got a brick (5?), I checked, he bet, and I raised... he hesitated and called, and we were committed. He caught the case queen on 5th street but I bet to put him all-in anyway... I didn't improve, declared Queens with an Ace after the river, he turned up a four-flush pair of Queens with a King that didn't improve when he rolled his river card! Several people asked how I could be playing that hand that strongly, and I explained that I knew where the queens were and was nervous enough about my stud ability to know that if I didn't get a big stack QUICKLY I'd just as likely be out-played easily, so my strategy had been to double up or get out... after that I went on an absolute binge of stealing the blinds and attempting to put shorter stacks all-in... I was actually HOPING to get the bring-in card and brought it in for a raise whenever I had *any* paint underneath or any of the other upcards were duplicated. I don't think that I flat-called the bring-in or checked any street more than 5 times on the hands I was in from there to the final table... When we got to the final table, there was only one player there in the running for the over-all jacket - he had finished ahead of me on Saturday... Jazbo came by and worked out that I had to finish THREE places ahead of him to win the jacket... fortunately I was the largest stack and he was the third smallest. He finished in the money (6th), so I had to make it to third - but when he stood up I still had the largest stack... I wouldn't feel like an honorable Rec.gambler without claiming some sort of an angle - so here's mine: when we got down to three handed, someone offered to deal: the stacks were about JimS (?) on my left with T4800, Nolan (I should get out a card player and check the spelling) on my right with T5700, and I had T6700. The prizes left were $280, $700, and $1400. As the leader I didn't want to flat split it, so I offered to take $150 over and let the third place take $150 under a split - there was some hesitation, so I offered $650, 1/3, and the rest for me, and Jim agreed if Nolan would... He did, and my extra came to $136. I was trying for something "close" to the actual chip position; at this point I don't know if I got the math right or not, but Jazbo pointed out that the small stack's chips are each more valuable than the biggest stack's, so a pro-rated split isn't really fair... The "angle" comes in when you consider that I had about tripled my seven-stud experience in the tournament - that most of the day I had been playing "get someone's chips all-in, turn up your cards, and see if the dealer pushes you the pot at the river". If they had been paying attention to how unreal my play had been to that point, they probably would have wanted to play a few more hands before agreeing to any offer that gave me almost 40% of the money left. I think that I had someone all-in almost 20 times during the day, and only 5 of them survived... [Nolan had been one of them when we were at about 3 tables - my Ace high hand rivered a pair of sixes - his unpaired open-ended king-high four-striaght completed with a nine on the river to survive - he was probably favored at the river, but I was ahead when I put his three-paint King high all-in on third street with my Ace high...) My favorite hand (which turns out to be inconsequential, but still gets my vote) was when we were down to three and had negotiated the split - I got 2 9 down, and an 8 up; the other two both showed aces. The ante was T100, the bring in was T150, and the first raise was to T500. Without a flinch I shoved T500 in (I was risking T350 - the completion of the bring-in - to win T450 if they both folded; I knew that Jim would be sweating a raise from Nolan if his ace was unpaired - and that Nolan would be looking at a dead Ace and someone who had raised into TWO Aces). Sure enough Jim sweated 20 seconds and folded... and then Nolan sweated another 20 seconds and folded too! Peter ("foldem"'s brother) had been watching over my shoulder for about 20 hands, and that was the only time I heard him flinch after the hand had been settled... I finished third... I caught absolutely no paint, no pairs for a stretch of 10 or 15 hands, and my stack dwindled to slightly smaller than 1/3 while they chopped all of my forced bring-ins to both be slightly higher than me... my last hand was a split pair of 8s against Nolan's Ace up - again I had the bring-in and made it a full-bet to go; Jim folded a queen or jack, Nolan raised with his Ace and I re-raised... it only took another pair of raises and I was all-in; Nolan turned up a no-pair Ace with side paint... on fifth street I was two-paired (8s and 6s) and he had paired his Ace; I got no more help - his 6th street was a brick, but he caught a third Ace to send me home with the third place plaque. If the money and over-all jacket hadn't both been settled, I surely would have folded right out on that hand. Nolan wound up winning; I'm sure we'll read about it, but just the same, Congrats! I had a hooting-super-good weekend; when they were writing out my ticket to take to the booth after both of my bustouts they asked me for my birthday (it was Saturday) and were delighted that I had done so well for the weekend. Again, thanks to all; I'm looking forward to the next one. -prm

Trip Report by TIGER123 prelude - "dealer's choice" on wednesday night, peter and stephanie secor, their friend jim lane, michael mantel, scott byron, mitch firestone, and myself attended an off-broadway play by patrick marber entitled "dealer's choice." the action takes place in a small restaurant in london, where every sunday night after closing, the owner hosts a poker game in the basement. the play is about what happens one night when a professional poker player joins the game. some good lines from the dialogue: 1 "i can't play poker tonight. my doctor told me i have a heart condition!" 2 "you expect *justice* at the poker table?" 3 "ah....a game for men of vision: omaha!" 4 "you're on tilt, mugsey!" "no, i'm not! i raise!!" one waiter in the restaurant wants to move to las vegas to become a professional poker player. he has visions of being comped to a "five star suite in caesar's palace!" too bad this guy doesn't realize that poker players don't get comped to rooms (much less a suite), and that the poker room at caesar's closed in the early 90s!! ;) one player wears an obnoxious orange-printed shirt, with a bilious green tie. when he donned this "lucky" attire, peter leaned forward, and muttered loud enough for our group to hear, "if that guy puts on a white "qb1" hat, i'm leaving!" in any event, the author is certainly a poker player!! and i'd bet that the director is, too! together, they work marvelously, and the play and the performances were superb!! if you ever get a chance to see this, don't miss it! ------------------- thursday mitch and i meet in the port authority bus terminal for the 3:00 pm bus to resorts. peter secor is a no-show. we're about 45 minutes out of atlantic city when i hear an advertisement on my walkman radio for a bar in tom's river, new jersey ("the sportsman"), which actually features the "qb1" online interactive game!! as many of you know, i usually wear a white baseball cap with a red "qb1" on it. i won the hat playing trivia online from a group in california (ntn - national trivia network) that pipes live interactive trivia games into bars and hotels throughout the country. when there is a live football game (such as monday night football), ntn runs the qb1 interactive game instead of the trivia games! this is the first time i have ever heard a bar advertise the game! :) we arrive at resorts at about 5:30 pm, and check into our room. the thursday night smoker isn't until 8:00 pm, so what are we going to do until then? duh.....play some poker, perhaps? mitch and i are seated at two different 5/10 stud games at the taj mahal, and we both book a win at our first poker session of the weekend! yay! :) all right!! the safari steakhouse is located on the convention floor of the taj mahal (one floor above the casino). when we arrive at the bar in the lounge adjacent to the restaurant, jazbo burns is distributing our individually-customized weekend packages - name tags, schedules, entrance tickets, etc. we're all seated in a corner of the restaurant at three tables. 22 people actually show up for the dinner (out of 24 who swore they would attend). it doesn't take very long for the boys to fire up their claros, panatellas and magnificos! and it doesn't take very long for some other patrons of the restaurant to complain, either! the restaurant manager quietly asks us to tone things down a bit, and the boys nod their acceptance. but nothing is going to stop messrs. fruchter, kramer, et al., from enjoying their stogies at a smoker dinner.... };) so the request is otherwise ignored! peter secor favors some very special people with hats emblazoned with their nicknames below the acronym "a.d.b".....i kept on trying to figure out what "a.d.b." meant, but i was just too drunk..... virtually everyone (with one or two exceptions) really enjoys dinner! and just as we're finishing dinner, some surprise guests show up! tom gitto (taj mahal poker room manager), tony marino (poker casino host), and ron garvey (shift supervisor), enter the restaurant carring bags of promotional gifts for all of us!! the bags contain taj mahal hats, taj mahal t-shirts, a copy of mike caro's "fundamental secrets of poker", two souveneir decks of cards, and some promotional literature! wtg tommy, tony and ron! nolan dalla calculates the over/under for the dinner tab at $1225, but doesn't get anyone to play. the actual tab was #1300. hehehehehe...and although "atlarge" was actually held at resorts, i spotted an awful lot of atlarge name tags in the taj mahal poker room..... after dinner, mitch and i play some more poker, but we retire to our room to crack open the new bottle of macallan's single malt scotch which i've carefully tucked into my bag.... ------------- friday "through the looking glass", or "mitch and tiger's adventures in slotland" trump castle and harrah's (both located in the marina district) have been running a guaranteed no-lose slot promotion for the last several months. at harrah's, you are guaranteed reimbursement up to $100 if you play slots for 60 minutes. at the castle, you are guaranteed reimbursement up to $100 if you play slots for 30 minutes. friday morning, we take the jitney bus to the marina, and get out at the castle. first thing to do is get breakfast! :) during breakfast, we solemnly pledge to be lifelong equal partners in this slot promotion (which should last a few hours, anyway). after getting our trump castle cards, we each buy $80 of $1 slot tokens, and $20 of quarters (which we'll use to complete the 30 minutes if we run out of tokens). now, the hard part. what machines shall we play? we've been advised that, for the purpose of this promotion, we should avoid the progressive slots, and those machines that offer large back-end payoffs, in favor of those machines that offer more and larger payoffs for small wins on the front-end. i feel like one of those decrepit old ladies, as we wander up and down the rows of slot machines. which machine has the prettiest front? which machine has the nicest-sounding "dings"? we finally sit down at two adjacent "double diamond" machines, which each take a maximum of two tokens. i'd reproduce the payoff schedule for you, but how compulsive a note-taker do you think i am, anyhow? we dump our $80 in tokens into plastic buckets. we'll play from the buckets, and leave any winnings in the hoppers. mitch carefully writes down the time in five-minute increments - if we can't do anything at these machines within ten minutes, it's "goodbye, double diamond!" we're almost ready! we synchronize our watches (okokok...mitch synchronizes his watch - i don't wear one!) and at exactly 12:55 pm, we each drop two one-dollar tokens into the slot. the wheels spin, but nothing happens. we're determined to learn the best way to drop tokens into the slot. i try give each token a half-flip, and mitch is experimenting dropping the tokens from different heights, which range from .01 inch to all the way up to 3/4 inch. i've played about eight or ten pulls, when something happens! i've won $20! yay!! of course, i do my best to duplicate the exact half-flip i just used, and sure enough! two pulls later, i win another $10!! yay!! unfortunately, mitch is still on the schneid. and three minutes later (i've perfected the half-flip by now), i hit a winner! bells start to ring, and tokens start to drop into the hopper!! i've just won a $320 payoff!! as the tokens continue to drop, mitch tells me that i better get another bucket! we don't want the damned machine to jam as it is paying!! i walk away for a moment, and spot another bucket in a nearby row. and as i'm walking back, bells start to ring and i hear the lovely clink of tokens dropping into mitch's hopper!! yay!!! he's hit the very same $320 payoff!!! and if his wheel had taken an additional 1/32 of a turn, his payoff would have been $1600!! mitch needs another bucket, too!! but before we can get one, his machine jams!! lol!!!! eventually, i find a slot attendant, who opens his machine, clears the chute, and the rest of mitch's money comes pouring down into the hopper!! rofl!! we've played for exactly 8 minutes! and we cash out for a net total win of $611!! mr jitney is waiting for us at the front door, and we decide to bag the side trip to harrah's!! we check out the scene at the blackjack and craps tournament in a private room on the dining floor of resorts. there's lots of folks there, and we greet some old friends, and meet some new ones! :) but it's time for some poker. not much doing in the resorts room, so it's across the street to the taj mahal for a couple hours, and then we play some more poker at resorts! and then it's time for the reception! this isn't anything special, but i manage to drink a couple beers, so it couldn't have been all that bad.... we're asked to fill out some psychological survey for a grad student. i didn't see the point of the survey, which was all about current risk, future risk and lotteries. back to the poker room. i watch jim karlinski play a hand of 1-5 7-stud. he's made a diamond flush on 6th street and raises an obvious straight. but jim is re-raised by another guy who's also showing three diamonds (including the ace). jim calls. jim checks blind, the ace of diamonds bets, and jim calls blind. the ace shows a diamond flush to the ace. jim faces his hole cards, and says, "yeah, i got a diamond flush, too...." but jim doesn't notice that his rivercard has made a gutshot straightflush! i lean over the table and say "seven, eight, nine, ten, jack of diamonds! that's a straight- flush!" just as the dealer turns over jim's hand and mucks it. but the guy with the ace flush saw the hand, and conceded the pot to jim. well, jim was prolly thinking about his overdue term paper..... ;) mitch and i meet up with a friend of ours from home, who was in town for a trivia convention at another hotel. we head off to the tropicana, where i meet with poker room manager doug dillon. i tell him with regret that, although i really do love the management, staff and players at the tropicana, and although i really do think that the tropicana poker room is the nicest in town, my records show that i make an awful lot more money playing at the taj mahal.... :::sigh::: after dinner, mitch and i play at the taj mahal for a couple hours, and manage to consume *many* scotches before we decide to cash in for the night! well....mebbe we might have had one or two more nips from the single malt bottle before we turned off the lights.... ---------------- saturday saturday 10:00 was the scheduled time for the start of the no-limit hold 'em tournament. since (as we all know) "i don't play hold 'em!", i've agreed to track the bust-outs for the purpose of calculating the overall champion. i'll post a separate report about the tourney, and the important hands at the final table, later in the week. after the tournament, i walk across the street to play some 5/10 stud at the taj mahal. i'm seated almost immediately, and proceed to get hit with the deck unlike any other time in my life. within 45 minutes, i make kings full, aces full, 3 jacks, kings up, aces up, 3 sevens (which was my only losing hand), rolled 9s and kings up. i cash out for a $376 win. lol...later that night, a friend tells me that the woman who took my seat won more than $600 in less than three hours.... the saturday banquet was held in a private room upstairs at resorts. the food was okay, but this event (alone of all the atlarge events) wasn't worth it. nevertheless, spending time with the rest of the atlarge crowd was fun!! jazbo was given a free ticket to "target" later this year, in recognition of all the many hours of hard work he did in organizing the event. and this writer was honored with a bottle of dewar's scotch for organizing the smoker. (thanks so much, gang!!) bill alan was awarded an honorary "a.d.b" hat, by virtue of the fact that, when last spotted at 4 am on friday night at the craps table, bill announced that it was time to *really* start drinking! :) mitch and i play some poker at the taj mahal. after a while, i wander through the room, and tell every single rgp'er i see that i'm going to be pouring scotch in my room starting immediately, and that everyone is invited! and i wander over to resorts and make the same announcement!! but peter secor, richard sooy, and a bunch of the boys have got a "rocks and beers" game going at resorts, and there's no way i'm gonna pull any of those characters off the table! :) but nolan dalla, russell rosenblum and mark horowitz show up to join mitch and i for some scotch, some stories, some discussions of poker ethics, and some good conversation! mark wants to tell a "bad beat" story, and i tell him, "the scotch is free...but i charge one dollar to listen to a bad beat story!" lol...he actually stands up, and reaches into his pocket for a buck!! ok! here it is! he's playing hold 'em and plays a 10-9. the flop comes 7 8 j rainbow, giving him the nut straight! the jack pairs on the turn, and a third jack hits on the river. some fool wins the pot with a pair of kings in the pocket for jacks full of kings! ::::sigh:::: later, russell says that the ultimate act of poker deception is to tell your opponents exactly what cards you have! i laugh out loud, and promise to send russell a copy of my "i think i have three aces!" post from last december! mitch and i kick our guests out at 3 am, because tomorrow is the 7-stud tournament...and i intend to win it! :) ---------- sunday the tournament is to start at 10 am and mitch and i leave the room at 9. i need a breakfast before i start playing poker. we get to the resorts poker room at about 9:50, and i wander around, wishing everyone good luck! i'm seated at a pretty tough table! tom mchugh, jerry gerner, jazbo burns, palmer chappell, andy bloch and ray didonato are all staring at me when i walk over to the table. thank goodness the guy sitting in seat #6 isn't there - otherwise i'd have seven players gunning for me. in fact, #6 doesn't show up at all, and we happily take his ante and bring-in each time! :) as a member of "a.d.b.", i'm automatically entered in pool between a.d.b. and wednesday night poker. each group has six (i think) horses in the tournament, and whichever group has the last man standing wins. as an additional side bet, dave fruchter and i agree that first man out will buy the scotch next time we meet! :) i don't remember too many hands from the tournament. i win one or two hands and lose one or two hands. by the time we get to 15/30, i'm not in very good shape chipwise. and by the time we get to 25/50, i'm short-stacked. :( but then a key hand develops. ray (on my immediate right) is the bring-in. jerry raises. jazbo re-raises. i see pocket rockets, and make it three bets. jerry and jazbo call. i bet the hand on 4th street, and i'm all-in on fifth. i make a second pair on sixth street, and take down the money with two pair, to restore my stack to respectable size. my table is broken down, and i manage to hold on for another round or two. i make a bad play, and let david meeks take a pot from me - but two or three hands later, i outplay him and steal a pot with about five big bets in it. ray didonato makes a play at me, and i don't bet my small pair on fifth street. he makes a pair of kings on sixth to win the hand. ::::sigh:::: nevertheless, i'm in ok shape (about t900) at the break. and a.d.b. has nolan dalla, bruce kramer, bill alan and myself alive, but wednesday night poker ohly has palmer chappell! some time after the break, at 150/300, i only have about t500 left. i'm the bring-in with the four of hearts up. fold, fold, fold, but palmer chappell raises with a nine. i see an ace of hearts and a jack of hearts in my hole, and re-raise. palmer makes it three bets, and i re-raise all-in. yeah. he's got a pair of nines. i'm told that i'm a small dog in this situation. palmer makes nines and tens on fourth street, but i get a deuce. i get a five on fifth street, and an ace on sixth! a trey gives me a wheel, and any other pair is aces up! my rivercard is another four!! all right!!! but palmer gets another nine to make nines full and i'm outta there! bruce kramer and bill alan go down soon thereafter, and it's nolan against palmer on the side bet! when palmer busts out, adb rooooooooools! and the ten bucks i win in this side bet just might pay for the scotch i have to buy david fruchter! ;) after the tournament, i play some 5/10/15 stud at resorts with john walsh, and finish the weekend with another winning session! i had a great time!! mitch had a great time!! i think everybody had a great time!! once again, many thanks to jazbo for making it happen!! let's do it again next year!! :) and i'm looking forward to meeting the nevadans and west coasters at this year's barge!! tiger

Trip Report by Tom McHugh This was a great weekend and fantastic job was done by jazbo and tiger to put this event together, CONGRATES. The poker was great and I even managed to plus out for the weekend and finish in the money in the NL holdem tour. (10). One memorable hand in the N.L.H. a player I'll give him a fictitious name "Eric" ( he, he) has been stealing the blinds with $100 bets at less 7to10 times I look down AcKh I got him now, over the top $300 , Eric push his stacks in I call ( had enough to call and still be in the game) Eric lays down AA oh S--- in deep dodo flop xcc-cc club flush Eric's face goes white Iam amazed the poker God smiled on me .Eric set me up perfect I just escaped. A news flash they discover a new illness amoung the players attending ATLARGE 2 P.B.I. poker brainitis. I know at lest 10 who have it. Last but not less the "Resorts" poker room staff Jerry Bear and Ed Cooper and the dealers did a great job. I had a wonderful time and met a whole bunch of great people hope to see you all soon. Tom M (quie)

Trip Report by TIGER123 hiya, folks! here it is! the long-awaited report on the "atlarge2 no-limit texas hold 'em tourney", by your intrepid atlantic city reporter, tiger123! :) i would have posted this earlier...but i did post my own atlarge trip report, and (as i am sometimes loathe to admit) i really do have one or two other things to do in life besides write trip reports! but, it's here! it's got frills...it's got bells and whistles...and even alliterative allusions to allegory a la nolan dalla! just a typical report! enjoy! :) tiger ------------- my notes don't show the total number of participants in this tourney - i seem to recall that there were 63 entries. last year's winner, peter secor, managed to show up on time for the start this year! :::ding, ding! collusion alert!!::: earlier, peter and i had agreed to swap 5% of our tournament action! i had 5% of him in the no-limit hold 'em, and he had 5% of me in the stud tournament. lol! neither of us came close to cashing in! but i don't play hold 'em and he doesn't play stud! :) :::ding, ding! end of alert! false alarm!::: however, k-man lemke and matt treasur (who was my nominee for honorary a.d.b.) both tried to "pull a secor", and slept through the start of the tourney. but they were awoken by our host, jerry bear. they showed up about 15-20 minutes after we started. jerry doesn't have my touch in waking up tournament players; neither k-man nor matt made it to the final table! jazbo had prepared a very special prize for the first player to win a hand with a "presto"!! sure enough! on the very first hand, andy bloch calls a raise from david fruchter, who holds A-10 offsuit. the cards on the board are Q 2 3 - 6 - 9, and it's checked down. andy's superb play in calling a raise with lousy pair of fives is rewarded by noisy acclamations of "presto!!!", and jazbo's secret prize is revealed to be a copy of "casino poker" by that well-known and highly-respected poker expert (:::koff! koff!:::), john patrick! };) and on the same first hand, steve "bozo" blackstock is the first player knocked out of the tournament. he is rewarded by an autographed copy of lee jones' "winning low limit hold 'em", generously provided by chuck weinstock of conjelco. let's skip to the final table! here is the lineup and the chip count: 1jay sipelstein2200 2jim strydio4300 3tom mchugh500 4paul mcmullin5500 5peter segal5900 6andy bloch2100 7ray didonato900 8bruce kramer1900 9ed baker1000 10al frampton7900 the blinds are 300/500. on the very first hand at the final table, ray goes all-in with 10 9 offsuit. jim, holding K Q suited, calls. tom puts in all his chips with J 7 suited (different suit). the flop is A 2 3 rainbow; the turn is an offsuit 5; and a 9 on the river keeps ray alive. tom collects $65! wtg tom! on the very next hand, jim (having done so well with a K Q suited in the previous hand) puts it all in with a Q J suited! paul, who holds A 10 offsuit, calls. jim flops a pair and stays alive. pretty soon, the most infamous hand of the tournament was played. andy has been busily studying and absorbing john patrick's advice. andy's a harvard law student! he knows what to do with 5 5 ! he puts it all in!! and al calls him!!! naturally, the flop comes A A A. the turn is a 4. and of course, the river is the fourth A. al turns over a pair of 10s, and andy stands up with $97.50. wtg andy! mitch (bfb) firestone notes that "he who lives by the presto, dies by the presto!" later in that round, ed is all-in in the big blind for T200. he's got a 9 4 offsuit. jim and ray call. the flop is Qd Jh 3s. ray goes all-in, and jim mucks. ray turns over J 10. the turn of Kc gives ed a gut-shot, but the river 6h ends his chances. ed wins $130. wtg ed! on the very next hand, paul goes all-in for T1000. peter calls. bruce goes all-in for T1100, and peter tosses in another black chip. paul's got a pair of tens, and both peter and bruce turn over A Q. the flop is K 10 8, giving them a gut-shot, but the turn 4 and river 2 lets paul... :::ding, ding! alliteration alert!::: triple through with trips! :) :::end of alert!::: the blinds go up to 400/800. al raises T1600 with A 10 offsuit. paul raises all-in T2500 with a pair of eights, and al calls. the flop is a rainbow J 9 2; the turn is a 4; but the river brings an ace, and paul has to say goodbye to cash in a ticket worth $162.50. wtg paul! bruce is short-stacked, and puts in his last black chip with Q 3. ray calls with K 10. the flop helps ray with J J 10, but the rest of the cards are A - 6, and bruce wins sixth place and $195! wtg bruce! on the next hand, al raises T2000 and jim calls. the flop is a J 7 6 rainbow. jim checks, al bets another T2000, and jim mucks. pretty soon, peter is the small blind, and ray is the big blind. sippy calls all-in with a pair of deuces. peter calls. ray raises T2000, and peter mucks. ray shows A 6 offsuit. the flop is J 10 8; the turn is a bullet and the river is a king. sippy's tournament is over, and he wins fifth place and $227.50. wtg sippy! several hands later, peter raises T1600. al calls in the big blind. the flop is 10 10 3 with two clubs. it's check and check. the turn is an offsuit ace. al bets T1000 and peter calls. the river is the eight of clubs, and peter bets the rest of his chips (T800). al mucks. peter shows K 9 of clubs. later in that round, al raises T3000 with A K suited in spades. peter calls in the small blind with A J suited in hearts. the flop is Jc 8h 3h. peter bets T2000 and al calls. the turn is the club ace. peter checks, and al makes a big bet; peter calls all-in. al's only wins are the three remaining kings, and the deuce of hearts on the river completes peter's flush. pretty soon, ray raises T1900 on the button with J 9 offsuit. jim calls all-in with a pair of sevens. the flop is Q 8 7, giving jim trips and giving ray a gut-shot. the turn is a 9 and the river is a jack. ray has made two running pair, but that doesn't beat trips. jim is still alive! the blinds go up to 500/1000. on the very first hand of this round, jim goes all-in with a pair of jacks. ray calls all-in with A Q. the cards on the board are K 9 7 - 8 - 4. ray wins fourth place and $260! wtg ray! several hands later, peter raises T2000 on the button. al calls. the flop is Jc 7d 5d. al makes a big bet and peter mucks. next hand, peter makes a big raise on the button, but mucks when jim re-raises all-in. at this point, the stacks are about even. somebody says something about a split, and your humble reporter hastily computes that a three-way chop would yield each player $704. it takes about five seconds for the three remaining players to smile at each other and shake hands. whew! suddenly, all the pressure is off, and the game is fun, again! :) pretty soon, peter raises T2000, and both al and jim call. the flop is Kh 10d 6c. peter bets another T2000, and four cards hit the muck. peter grins and shows K 10. at this point, tournament director eddie cooper announces that the blinds would go up to 1000/2000. he laughingly tells the players that he would have been much softer on them (less of an increase) if they hadn't agreed to chop! :) jim, on the button, mucks. small blind peter calls T2000 and al checks. flop is Kc Qh 8c. check and check. turn is 2h; peter checks; al bets; peter mucks. the boys trade some blinds. al then goes all-in with A 3 offsuit. peter calls all-in with Q J offsuit. flop is 7 5 3. turn is a 6. the river is a king, and peter wins third place and (officially) $325. wtg peter! down to head-to-head. the hands are fast and furious, and i don't have anyone helping me record the cards. al raises and jim calls all-in. he's got K J offsuit. al shows 7 6. flop is 4 3 2; but the other two cards are queens. jim doubles through and takes the lead. al has about T5000 in the big blind and puts it in. jim calls. i didn't get the cards, but al doubles through. al raises all-in with Q 2 suited in spades. jim calls with A 5 offsuit. cards on the board are 10s 4s 3c - 4c - 3s, and al's flush doubles his stack again! next hand, jim goes all-in, and doubles through with a pair of eights on the turn. jim had 10 8, and al had an ace. on the final hand, jim has Q 10 offsuit. al has 7 5. the cards on the board are J 5 2 - 10 - 6. jim's pair of tens beats al's pair of fives! al takes second place and (officially) $552.50. wtg al!! and congrats to the winner of the no-limit hold 'em tournament and (officially) $1235, jim strydio!! wtg jim!! -------------- once again, i had an awful lot of fun tracking the bust-outs in this tournament, and even more fun sitting at the final table taking notes on the hands. and i had an awful lot of fun (and drank an awful lot of scotch) throughout the entire weekend!! oh yeah. i won some money, too! by the way, i stopped by resorts cardroom this last weekend. the cardroom management and staff all had very nice things to say about us. (hehehehe...well, supervisor mark marino was still mumbling about two wet tables from something called "rocks and beers", but......) ;) let's do it again, same time, next year!! :) tiger

Trip Report by Timmy McGarvey Timmy's Tournament Trip Report: Alliteration by the sea The plan: blow off work on Friday and head up to AC for ATLARGE. ETA 12:30 p.m. What actually happened: woke up at 2:45 p.m. because Steve was screaming "Get out of bed, you stupid IDIOT!!" at the top of his lungs. Okay, not really. But he should have been. At this point, I'm thinking that we might not make it to AC in time for the 1:00 buffet. We do eventually make it into town at about 6:00 p.m., and check into Resorts. We go up to the room to drop off our luggage, and then head back downstairs to check up on the ATLARGE folks still in the holdem tourney. Turns out we still had 5 or 6 at the last two tables, but every one of them was at the same table. Bad beat there. I sit down to a 5-10-15 stud game with a few rec.gamblers playing (frank fish, I mean irwin, was one, but there were others ... can't remember everyone's name though.) A few hands of note played against fellow ATLARGE attendees... First hand I play is a four flush and a small pair on fifth street, heads up against Irwin. He sucks out on me by making aces up on fourth street, or some such thing. Said later he was ahead all the way, until I mentioned that my adjusted odds made me a 3 to 2 favorite to win the pot, and I can't believe he was playing such trash hands. You know, I was playing the Dalai Lama in a heads-up karmic freezeout once .... Anyway a few hands later I make queens up against Frank's AKJ suited board, and check and call the hand down to beat his Jacks up. A few dollars ahead now. 10 minutes after this I get rolled-up sixes (SATAN!!?!) and put in a raise on third street. A woman who had just called with an ace up now reraises, apparently very happy about being able to put in two bets on third street with aces. My subsequent raise on fifth street may have briefly annoyed her. Up $180 now. It's about time for MATS to get underway, so I cash out, having played my last limit stud for the weekend. It's about this time that I go on permanent tilt from hell for the rest of the weekend. I'm not at all sure what put me on tilt, but something did. As MATS got underway, I decided to forget everything I ever knew about nolimit tournaments, and play like a complete fish. First hand I get involved in I cold call a sizable raise with AKs. I'm not sure what made me decided to cold call with that hand, when I really should have reraised. Anyway, the flop come QTx with one of my suit and I call a T100 bet from Jeremy. My stack was only T500 at this point, so calling here was pretty much a bad decision. The turn brings a rag, and I call another T100 bet from Jeremy. Where's my brain? River is crap, he checks it, and I consider pushing all in. But my read is that he's on AQ, and he would call that bet. So I check and subsequently fire my hand in the muck when he did in fact turn out to have AQ. One hand horribly misplayed. Don't remember what I busted out on, but I made sure to wait until someone else busted out first. Then I took a shot with a pocket pair I think, and had to ditch after the flop when two overcards and a big bet fell. All in on my big blind (turns out I had 92 off) and Timmy is busted, Timmy has quit. After the tourney is over, Jester is trying to get up a floating craps game, and some people seem interested. I take my chair back to my room and head down to the casino floor to find some ATLARGErs shooting dice. Nobody around but Jeff, and his table is pretty busy. I wander around looking for an empty table to hold the game, and eventually do find one. Settle in playing the dark side, and I'm eventually joined by Jeff. Some other folks are around shooting dice, but they never do come over. I win a few dollars, and seeing that the dice game isn't really going to come off, Jeff and I color up and hunt up Jeremy and Peter for some serious drinking. This is where things start to get a little hazy. I know we played red dog for a while, and some blackjack, and some pai gow. The pai gow sucked a lot. We've gained a few people and lost a couple of folks, and at this point Jeremy, Peter, Eric, and I head over to the coffee shop for a comped breakfast. At breakfast there was a Keno syndicate formed, and we all trade 5% of our action in the morning tournament. And then there was some rumpleminze, and they tell me something about a wall and a ramp, and a very few hours of sleep. In the morning I get to the tournament on time (just barely) and settle in to play. Poorly. I only made one good hand, and I foolishly jammed the nut flush when it hit on the turn. Great. Made about T75 on that one. Where's my brain? I don't catch many cards after that and finally bust out in about 30th place or so. Steve, who basically never gets his stack above T1000 hangs on for fourth place. I dub him zitboy (from our days playing partners pinochle, in which he often "rides along like a zit on your ass" cashing in on the strength of his partners hand.) While this is going on I play in a 5-10 holdem game with 8 rec.gamblers and two locals (not happy locals either) in which I break even. Highlights include Loboc sucking out a set of sevens on the turn to crack my queens which flopped an overpair. Also dtm capped the betting preflop with sixes against loboc's aces. The sixes flopped a set. Not a good session for big pairs. Soon the pot-limit game starts up. I'll just say that I didn't play particularly well, but I still would have wound up even if peter hadn't sucked out on me for a $300 pot. I drop $200 in the potlimit game before calling it quits. There's talk about a rocks-n-beer game over at the Taj, so I head over to check out the action. I find about 3 or 4 people each playing at separate 1-3 stud tables. Not a good showing for rocks-n-beer. Jaeger, Spiney, and I help start up a new pink holdem game, which breaks after about 45 minutes. I lose a little bit, but Spiney was on one heck of a heater. Ah well. Head back to Resorts to play some 5-10 holdem. I'm playing at a table with 5 or 6 of the local semipros (what are they all doing here?) who want to make the game 10-20 or better. No thanks. I win a few dollars (got aces twice in five hands, and grab a seat in the potlimit game when one opens up. I am not playing real well now, and lose my buyin pretty quickly. I think about rebuying, but just then another seat opens and Jesse (a local semipro) sits down. His wife Karen is also at the table. No thank you. I'll just say this about them: I have been involved in filing former complaints with both the Taj poker room and the casino control commission about these two. Nothing, to my knowledge, has ever been done about them. But the two times I've played with both of them they are so obviously wired it's pitiful. They're not even particularly good at it. Anyway, I'm certainly not going to play potlimit against a wire. Good night folks, see you at the tournament tomorrow. The stud tournament was, well, interesting. I'd never played in a stud tournament before, and didn't do particularly well. I've been trying to teach myself stud for the past 6 months though, and have found the 5-10 games in AC remarkably easy to beat (3.4 SB/hr over 94.5 hours, very short sample size I know) so I figured I wouldn't be a complete fish. But on 3 hours of sleep and no shower, I didn't figure to be playing well either. I never really won a good pot, and busted out in the 25-50 round playing something stupid. Ah well. Head over to the Taj to play some pink holdem before I have to head home. Finally get in the game, only to have Davles raise 53s from under the gun, call two bets cold with a gutshot draw on the flop, and then make a wheel on the turn. Warning, warning, Danger Will Robinson Danger! Timmy is tilted, Timmy is playing like a fish. $400 later, Timmy is busted. Not my finest hour. Anyway, I get up, find Steve, and begin the long drive home. Somehow it never seems that long when I'm not stuck over a grand. Anyway, ATLARGE was loads of fun, very well run, and a great experience. Kudos to all who were involved in organizing the event. I'll see everyone again at BARGE hopefully! Timmy now known as ADBTimmy -- Timothy J. McGarvey tmcg...@gl.umbc.edu

Trip Report by TIGER123 here's yet another trip report! enjoy! tiger --------------------- part 1 - the dumbest play i've ever seen friday night, i'm playing at a pleasant 5/10 stud table at the taj mahal. a new player sits down and pulls a three inch-thick wad of 50s and 100s out of his pocket. he peels off at least $3000 from his roll, and i notice the drink in his hand. a fill had just arrived at the table, and, in essence, the new player buys the entire fill. he stands up again, peels off another 50, and hands it to the dealer, sean, with the comment, "you're a good dealer!" sean (who's a cheerful, talkative guy and an excellent dealer) turns to floorperson tanya for advice. she asks the guy (a happy drunk - hd), if he really meant to tip the dealer and hd says, "sure!" sean grins, changes the 50 to reds, and drops them into the tip box. i pipe up, "dealers!", and start a round of applause for hd. :) this should be pretty good! :D hd orders another drink, tips the waitress a red chip, and sean starts to deal. whenever the action reaches hd, he asks the dealer, "what's it to me?" if it had been checked, hd bets. if it had been bet, hd raises. and hd just never bothered to look at his hole cards! it didn't take him very long to lose his first buy-in, and several people at the table have won pots of $200 - $300 with single pairs! but not me..... ::::sigh:::: hd orders another drink, tips the waitress another red chip, and buys some more chips. he's having a ball! at this point, **incredibly**, several people at the table start to object to the guy, and they are stopping floorpeople as they walk past the table. i jump up, and point out, "hey! this guy certainly is drunk! but he's not loud; he's not obnoxious; he's not abusing the dealer or any players, and fa' chrissake, he's just *giving* away his money! let him play!" but it was not to be....one player manages to convince the taj floor- people to ask this guy to leave. supervisor ron comes over. ron is a large, pink-faced, kindly gentleman who will never raise his voice or lose his temper. he is the most affable and unshakable of all the floor people, and he's the guy who calms down drunks, talks reason to fighters, and ends virtually all crises with simple common sense. every business who deals with the public should have a ron on their staff - if i could bottle what he's got, i'd be a millionaire. ron talks to hd, and manages to convince hd that he might be better off if he walked away from the table for a few hours, took a nap, and came back the next day...... ::::sigh:::: hd stands up, and his replacement is a rock, who promptly cracks my aces up with a flush. i stand up and cash in for the session. part 2 - the tournament saturday, resorts held a 7-card stud $40 + $10 buy-in tournament that was scheduled to begin at 12:30 pm. rgp is well-represented there! i see siona and we chat about jazbo's macanudo win for a while. the night before, i had seen mitch kramer (bruce's father - the guy who had knocked me out of the atlarge stud tourney), and told him about the tournament; mitchk is starting to like tournaments.... there's one or two other rgp'ers who signed up, and wouldn't you know it? sitting at my table, nattily attired in his custom-embroidered desert inn poker baseball cap, and sporting his newly-acquired black satin macanudo poker championship jacket, is the inimitable jazbo burns! :) jazbo and i don't have to meet at the final table - we're already sitting at table 14, where the tournament will end! jazbo is in #6, and i'm in #4. ***note: as i've said here before, i *hate* sitting in #4 and #5 - i can't see anything from the middle of the table! and since i'm already at table 14, if i last to the final table, i won't ever get a seat change! however, i was in seat #4 at table 14 for atlarge....*** the structure is the same as the atlarge tournament, but we only start with T200. i hold my own for the first two or three rounds, but poor jazbo feels a special kinship to broomcorn's uncle! they are both plagued with the problem of anteing themselves to death! at 25/50, people start to drop out, and by 50/100, we've lost about half of the original 50 entrants. here's one big hand i remember: jazbo has got the bring-in (surprise, surprise), and the king in #7 raises. #8 is dave, a bartender at the taj, who's had a couple and was playing fast and furious, but sucking out some amazing cards. dave calls, and so do middle cards in #1 and #2. #3 drops, and i look at my cards and see three jacks. i call. on fourth street, dave pairs his door six, and bets out. #1 calls, #2 folds, and i raise it, showing jack-ten offsuit. the king folds, and dave just calls, as does #1. dave buys an ace on fifth, and i get a live seven. dave checks to me, #1 checks, and i bet. dave calls, and #1 folds. nothing happens on sixth street; check, bet and call. on the river, dave looks at his card, shuffles his hole cards, and bets into me. i carefully look at seventh street, and i find my second ten. i raise; dave makes it three; i go four; dave just calls. i show my full house, and after he shows his sixes full of aces, he says he had it on five cards (no way, jose!). just before the break (75/150 i think), dave raises with a queen. there are two callers, and i re-raise with split kings. it's five-handed, again. dave gets a suited four, but nobody else helps. i bet and get four callers. on fifth, dave has an off-suit ace, but i've now got split kings and jacks. four checks to me, and i bet. dave calls, one guy calls all-in, and we're down to three-handed. on sixth street, dave pairs his door queen and fires a bet into the pot - "i don't need no spade!" i'm not gonna get myself involved about thinking on this one; i raise to put him all in. yeppers. i read it right. he *was* on a flush draw, and didn't get there. it's a real big pot! :) by the time we consolidate at the final table, the only rgp'ers left are myself and "big sam", a buddy of jazbo's who plays at irc. i'm the second biggest stack, but big sam only has a few chips left. sam busts out, and so does the other small stack, and i'm sitting at a table with five people who play poker every day of the week. #1 is fran (loud, tall, obnoxious guy who won a tournament about two weeks ago after being down to a single chip). #2 is "glasses" (bespectacled man about 50, quiet, solid player). #5 is jack (man about 60, with an unusual way of moving his right arm - i suspect he suffers from either "frozen shoulder" syndrome or "frozen elbow", caused by some physical trauma). #7 is nick (man about 65, shock of white hair, who is *always* at the high limit stud games at the taj). #8 is rico (man about 60, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, who is also a daily high-limit stud player). yeah. i'm still in #4. for a while, we just push the chips back and forth. "glasses" has the smallest stack, and he's knocked out by rico. fran is now the short stack, and he raises on a jack. i re-raise with split aces, and he calls. he pairs his door on fourth and i ponder his bet. i manage to show my aces as i toss my hand into the muck, and jack murmurs to me that i might have made an error. hey! it's surely not the first one i've made in my tournament career! but nick busts fran out a couple hands later, and we're down to four about-equal stacks. my last hand comes when rico limps in with a ten, and i raise with split kings. he makes an ace on fourth and checks, so i bet my split kings and eights. he calls. nobody helps on fifth, and i bet after his check. uh oh. rico picks up his stack and measures off four neat piles of three black chips. i've only got $675 left, and that ain't gonna go very far at 300/600. i put the rest of it in. he was rolled up and i didn't help on sixth or seventh. hey! that's ok! fourth- place money of $160 isn't bad for three hours of fun! :) tournament assistant director carol page again walks me to the cashier's cage and i tell her that i could very easily learn to like such trips :) rico finished third; jack got second and nick won. i see jack at the cage, and he asks me if i knew anything about those computer guys who were at resorts two weeks ago....it turns out that jack has been wanting to get involved in rgp, but was sick when we were all in town for atlarge. i give him the url for rgp, and maybe he'll let us know that he got here! :) part 3 - end like a hero i play 5/10/15 at resorts for a while, win a few bets, but i don't really like the line-up, so i cash in and walk next door. i meet my buddy ray, and we go to dinner at the new delhi deli (soon to be replaced by a hard rock cafe). after dinner, i play 5/10 for a while, and get bored. i decide to get drunk, so i cash in, sit down at a 1-5 stud no-smoking table, and order a rusty nail. i win the first hand i play, and announce to the table (1) that i am going to get drunk, (2) that i'm going to win all their money, and (3) that no one is permitted to buy a drink as long as i am at the table - they are all on me! :) three hours later, i'm *very* drunk, and i'm winning close to $150! i've paid for more than 50 drinks for the other players, and when i finally stand up and totter away, the entire table starts to laugh and applaud! we *all* had a great time!! :) i make the 1:30 am bus by exactly one minute! :D i'll seeya all next weekend! tiger p.s. husband-and-wife jesse-and-karen were esconced in their usual 20/40 hold 'em game at the taj this weekend. dealer richard sooy told me that he hasn't been able to learn anything yet. p.p.s. room prices are starting to creep upwards - it's getting closer and closer to peak season.

Trip Report by Dave Meeks Well, by now we must all be back to our normal lives, which means lots of avoiding work and even more IRC :) I'm sure the net will soon be flooded with many a story, anecdote, or card story to tell from the wonderful event known as ATLARGE. So, why should I be any different, right? Here goes my version of the tale... Wake up bright and early Friday morning after going to bed very late. Palmer 'Filaman' picks me up and we are off to meet up with Bozo and Irwin. As usual with those two, we arrive 15 minutes early, they arrive 15 minutes late. But, Frank brings food so he's quickly forgiven and Bozo's driven, so I ain't saying squat. We took what I like to refer to as 'The Postman's Route' down to AC. You know, we went through Rain, Sleet, and Snow to get to our appointed rounds. Some of the biggest mutant snowflakes I've ever seen in my life (it was New Jersey afterall...) were the highlight of the trip down. Even with the conditions being less than ideal, we make excellent time. We arrive in AC and it's time to GAMBOOOOOL!!!!! We try to check in, but the lady says no way.. bummer. Palmer and I store our gear in Frank/Bozos room. It would be tomorrow before we would see it again. We head down to the poker room and notice how small and QUIET!!! it was. What a change from the noisy maelstrom most poker rooms seem to be. A number of games running, but we all gather to sign up for the 4pm tourney and head over for the buffett. Wow... what a surprise this was. I finally got to put the faces behind the names and see people for what they truly are... and a motley crew we were too :) Got to meet Chuck W. right off, along with Doug Anderson, Bruce Kramer, Jarman, and many others. Awesome. Already this trip was worth it... Lunch was good, but I was itching to go lose some money, so I inhaled my food and got ready to bolt. Finally, it was ... The Time... Time to GAMBOOOL!!!! Upstairs we head, getting onto whatever lists were running. A bunch of us get seated right away at the 5-10 Holdem. Hmmm.. this should be interesting, as I know most of the people there... Frank, Bozo, Palmer, Loboc, and some others, as well as a couple of unknown quantities. From the very get-go, the cards were coming off pretty well for me. Took a couple of bad beats as the #1 seat (Oh god.. that wonderful #1 seat) was quickly identified as the Call Station Who Happened To Be a Bigger Fish Than Me.... in other words... Money!!! I quickly got into a nice little groove, playing within myself and generally playing good poker. But, they were about to toss the cards in the air for the Limit Holdem tourney, and I had to leave the table. I was up +320, and feeling real good. Then came the Resorts Limit tourney. I'd never played in a Limit tourney before, but I figured it was worth a shot. Spent most of the first hour or so trying to remember that this was in fact a limit tourney, and not a NL one. Dug myself a hole, but finally managed to get out of it. I was protecting my initial stack like it was my life savings, not showing much variance at all. But, like inflation does, that stack started to look smaller and smaller. But wait!!! The Miracle Occurs... I finally get deal QQ on the button. I get some callers and I raise. I end up all in against someone when the Q comes on the flop.. All Hail The Queen.. Savior of the Good and Worthless!. I nurse that win a little while and get a few more to build my stack into one that wasn't easy to bully when IT happened. Yes, IT... I came to the rescue of a fellow ATLARGER and backed him up... Oh what a mistake this would be... Sippy got involved into a hand with guy inbetween the two of us, and the hand saw Sippy nearly go to the felt. Well, the turn comes and obviously didn't help him any. He's down to his last chip. The other guy goes to bet and is starting to count/stack his chips. We tell him Sippy's only got T100 left, and we finally got him to understand so he only pushed in the T100 he needed to get Sippy allin. Then, the dealer, for some unknown reason, reaches over and grabs Sippy's last chip. The dealer then tosses over the river card and the other guy turns over his hand. Sippy looks up, confused, and announces 'Wait, I didn't call the bet'? The floor was brought over, and after some confusion, it was agreed that Sippy did not call the bet and could indeed have folded (which he did). Sippy survives, just barely. After that, tables broke down rapidly. I found myself on the final two tables. Wow... 8 ATLARGERS left out of the final 18!!! Way to go guys... Many of the locals were teasing us, but I think some left with a little more respect. I started to roll at that point, winning some big hands. I soon became BigStack at our table and busted out Nolan with Quad Ks. Tables quickly dissolved, we broke down into the final table... YES!!! I'm in the money!!! And, I think I was #3 stack at that point. Hands go by in a blur, until we are down to 4 players.. Sippy and I make it to the final 4!!!! Awesome baby... As Dickie Vitale would say... Sippy was a true PTPPer (Prime Time Poker Player) and I was the Diaper Dandy!!! Guy in the seat to my right has huge stack, Sippy's almost done. Then, it all went down hill from there. I get dealt a couple of very nice hands.. AQs, AJoff, AKoff. All three I raise on, all three I lose to the guy on the right, who was calling with anything. I seem to remember losing to 46s, 87off, and Q3 or something. Blech. Now I'm hurting. I end up all in with the guy when I'm dealt AQs again. He calls me down, and wins with something like 83. Double Blech... Oh well, 4th place... I'm psyched. Cash out $596. Moment of the Day though, was when Sippy has folded and the two other stacks battle it out. Guy to Sippy's left gets all in with top pair, guy with BigStack wins when the river brings a 5 and he turns over PRESTO!!! THE CROWD GOES WILD!!! PRESTO IS PROCLAIMED FOR ALL TO SEE AND HEAR!!!! It was awesome, the normally quiet Poker Room erupted with a exclamation of PRESTO, and Frank makes a mad dash for the table. Sippy ends up in 2nd thankx to the Magic of Presto.. A very auspicious start for this ATLARGE weekend indeed... After the tourney, we went to dinner and eventually made our way back. Played 5/10/15 Stud with many ATLARGERs. Did well, ended up about +200 or so. Played some 5-10 holdem and 10-20 holdem/omaha split after that. Saturday came in with a bang. Got down to the tables at about 9am. Signed up for the tourney and sat down at the 3-6 omaha/holdem split table. Went on a remarkable streak in the omaha portion that put me way up. Beat up on Loboc on great hand. I have 66 in middle position, so I play the rush and raise. Loboc grins back and reraises. Being very stupid, I reraise him right back. His capping the preflop betting let me know he had AA and I was a toastpuppy. But wait!!! Our hero spies a 6 on the flop. Hee Hee.. BadPlayBoy turns into KRUSHBoy!!! I think 66 was about the last hand Doug expected to see me turn over. After only about 1 hour, I found myself cashing out up $380. At 3-6... wow... Tourney comes and goes. I get busted early when my AKs loses to Jeremy Millers QK, when the flop brought a Q and two of my suit. That's ok.. I go back to the tables... Over the next 10 hours or so, I managed to bring in another +$500 on various tables. I did very well at the 5/10/15 Stud table again, and got sucked into trying my hand at the PotLimit table. Blech... Got to sit next to Nolan and watch him and Bozo roll over people. I quickly lost about $200. I got lucky when Steve, who had been straddling and winning alot, straddled with KQs, but I had AK. Flop brought the K and he raised the pot, which I also returned back. That win put me back up. I saw myself at +$50 at the PotLimit table and decided that was more than I'd ever expect to make at that game, so I quit. Decided to head over to the Taj. Quickly got myself into a nice 5-10 Holdem table, with Richard Sooy dealing. But, guy in 8 seat was a CallStation OnaRoll... I went into two or three hands with best hand only to see him RunnerRunner me... Booo.. -$200. I FINALLY got over to the 5-10 Omaha 8/better table. This was why I came over here. Started very poorly, the dealers sucked, and it seemed like a very unfriendly table. David S. came over and we both went on a roll. I eventually got up +200 there, which put me even for the Taj, so I decided to go home. Dave and I ended up blowing about $100 at the 3-6 Omaha/Holdem split tables. We convinced ourselves to never play that silly game at 5am. 7stud in the morning!!! I get on a good table, with Jazbo, Keith Miyake, Tiger, Peter Secor, and others. I'm playing very well, stealing/playing it hard and tight. I build my stack up to excellent proportions when disaster struck. First hand, I split As and end up heads up with Tiger. I get him to push all in and I'm well ahead. He's showing a KQJT and I'm showing the split As and a 3 card str8. He hit's his 9 on 6th street, I don't improve. Tiger survives :( :( Then, about 2 hands later, I get those silly split As again. I raise and end up isolated against Keith Miyake, who's showing a middle club. I improve to two pair and a 4flush by 6th street, and I'm betting it the whole way. But, on 6th street, Keith raises me back... DAMNDAMNDAMNDAMN... He ran me down and hit his ragged flush draw. Well, I call hoping for a flush (actually had a str8 flush draw) or a boat. The PokerGods give me a str8 instead. That's no good, I fold, but that hand took a great deal out of me. A few hands later, after folding my antes away, I end up with AKJs, the A up. I get heads up with Jeff Woods when I hit a T of my suit, to give me the str8 flush draw. However, it was not to be on this day, as my flush/str8 never showed and Jeff's split As turned into trips... DTM is dead... Oh well, Palmer and I head over to the Taj and play some 5-10 holdem then 5-10 Omaha. I ended up in holdem and down in omaha, basically even for the day. Time to head home... It's been a great trip though. I ended up finishing 4th in one tourney, and taking home almost +2000 for the weekend. And, I met a bunch of excellent people. One person who probably won't get mentioned, but I have to is Leslie S, the wonderful wife of David. Her and I ended up on a number of tables together and had (IMHO) a great time playing togeter, joking it up, etc.. If you are reading this, it was a pleasure.. Oh, and before I go... just one word to the MuscleMan on my right... Pain... You are a GirlyBoy... Part 2 Here is my unofficial list of the Top Ten things that happened at ATLARGE, at least for me... 10) Watching Doug Anderson's face when I flopped a set a 6s to beat his rockets, and realizing that with the capped pre-flop betting, he didn't have a clue why I played like I did (ok, 'fish' comes to mind) 9) Having a very profitable weekend (though my wife has already spent it :( ) 8) Meeting the whole crew 7) Actually WINNING money in PotLimit (ok.. but $50 is $50...) 6) Busting Jazbo out for the 2nd time in a NL Holdem contest :) 5) Seeing the Mutant Snowflakes From Hell on the drive down 4) Playing at the same table with Leslie Schenkel (David's wife) over and over again, and having a lot of fun beating up on the other players (A9 r00lz!!). We had a lot of laughs at others expense :) 3) Hearing the crowd erupt 'PRESTO' and seeing Sippy take 2nd because of it 2) Coming in 4th in the Resorts tourney and finally, 1) Sitting next to 'Pain', who is a rather well built young man, pull out a nice little flowered purse when he wins his first hand, and begins to pull out $.50 in pennies, nickels, and dimes for the dealer tip. And then calling him a GirlyBoy and living to tell the tale... -- David T. Meeks