Subject: AC Trip Report, or "How I learned to stop worrying and love the Trop" (long) From: "RCC" Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Tue, Mar 26, 2002 9:23 PM Message-ID: "I'm a reasonable man, so I know this isn't snow" I leave my office in Fayetteville, West Virginia about 3:45 P.M. this past Thursday. It is 65 degrees, sunny, and no wind. The plan is to drive to my parents' house in northern W.Va. for dinner and then drive to AC Friday morning to play poker for 2 days before driving back on Sunday. (Turns out I am innocently running smack into ATLARGE) One hour later, the sun is gone. Rain starts to fall. The wind picks up. Over the next hour the rain starts looking a bit light and fluffy for standard H2O. I'm reminded of an old Doonesbury strip where Uncle Duke is standing on a tropical beach and it appears to be snowing. This is where I got the title for this section. Anyway, I start to reason that this must be some freak mountain thing, and that it is still warm so the snow will not stick to the road. About this time I notice my radio antennae has 1 inch of ice on it and that my windshield wipers have frozen solid. I stop at the next exit, and have to force my car door open. It got so cold so fast that the rain on my car froze into a shell. Not a good omen. "Severe Tire Damage" Without further incident, I'm checked into the Comfort Inn on Rt. 30 and at the Taj by 5:00 PM on Friday. I like the Trop better, but I've had good success at the Taj 5-10 in the past with the intention of either running $200 of the $500 I brought up to where I can sit 10-20 or higher, or being out $200. I sit at a 5-10 HE table and see familiar faces. Not the best table to be at but I figure what the hell, I could use some experience against tougher players. I figure that from my past trips I have an idea of how they play, but since I play here maybe once every two months, I'm not around enough or memorable enough that they have any idea of how I play. Besides poker for me is more about the challenge than the money. I started my current bankroll with a $20 bill in a home game 3 years ago and through home games, occasional trips to AC and Indiana, and paradise .50/1.00 I've run that up to around 2k. I have the financial resources to bankroll myself and start out at the higher limits, but somewhere along the line I decided to try to learn the game and build a decent bankroll out of that first $20. I sit in the 4 seat, and shortly thereafter I find 2 red aces. I raise and get 3-bet by the 8 seat. I cap and we see the flop 3 handed with the 6 seat along for the ride. Flop is Q93 two diamonds. I bet out, 6 seat raises and 8 seat 3-bets. I remember this guy and know he likes to try to run people over. I cap it, the 6 seat drops, and the 8 seat tries to make it 5bets, but the dealer stops him. I know he would bet this way with aces, kings, or queens at this point, and a very slight possibility of a flush draw + top pair. Turn is the Jd, giving me the nut flush draw. I check and call, river is a 3c, I check and call and get shown QQ. The only other hand of note at the taj was JJ in the small blind. 2 callers to me, I raise, and we see the flop 3 handed. Flop is 349 with 2 spades. I bet out, the 8 seat calls, and the 10 seat drops. Turn is the 7s. I check, 8 seat bets and I checkraise. He stops, looks at his cards and calls. I figure he has the small flush and check the river, he checks and shows me JTs. At this point I've played for 1 hour and am down $200. I've had aces three times, Kings once, and have won no pots. I did, however chop a pot when my 2 red aces were matched by two black aces. No big deal, I play kind of aggressive and ran into some big hands, which happens occasionally. However, I only have $500 with me to play this trip, so it is time to move down in limits. 2-4 at the Taj is depressing, so I set off for the Trop. I go to my car, and as I'm driving out of the garage all of a sudden I see VERY LARGE METAL SPIKES in my path. I also see the words "Severe Tire Damage" out of the side of my vision, so I jam on the brakes, making a mess of my car's contents. I then figure out that I'll be fine as long as I don't back up over the spikes, and gingerly drive forward. As I drive to the Trop I can't help but be somewhat alarmed by the spikes, and even now I can't justify their existence, as there has to be a less violently dramatic way to keep people from sneaking into the garage through the exits. I guess maybe the Taj is just evil. "And I still have the damned quarter" So I get to the Trop and get into a 2-4 game. Early on I get 33 in the cutoff, 3 callers to me and I call. Button raises, I call and we are now 4 handed. I catch a 3 on the flop and win a decent pot when the Button turns out to have KK. First game breaks up. I then get into the 2-4 game near the podium. Every hand has averages 6 callers, with 3 going to the river, not much pre-flop raising, typical 2-4 stuff. On my second big blind, I get a free play with 73o. Flop is AAJ, all check, turn is a 3, all check, river is a 7, and I check hoping to induce a bluff. No bet, my 3 pair takes down the $9 pot. At this point I have approx $130 in front of me, and $200 in my pocket. Then, the innocent 2-4 game turns into the kind of game had it taken place on line it would have resulted in several "{Site Name Here} is rigged" type posts. Wild, flushes over str8s, boats over flushes, etc. I'm looking for good multiway starters, pairs, suited connectors, suited aces depending on position, and so on. I'm seeing J4o, tossing it, and watching absolute river carnage. All is fine and good, even as I flop a nut str8 with 89s in a 8 handed raised pot and get whacked by runner - runner spades and lose to K8s. I'm having fun. As far as I see it if you complain about this sort of thing you need to either stop playing 2-4 or go play golf and get really aggravated. I just love the comments and LLHE logic tossed around the table during these kinds of games. About 2hrs in I have won no pots, and I'm down to $40, so I rebuy for $100. At this point the player on my left leaves and Hakt0ne sits down. I continue to bleed chips. Draws miss, some hit on the turn and get killed on the river. More people with nametags are sitting down. Still haven't won a pot. Aha, I get TT in the big blind. Six callers to me, and I raise and flop is seven handed: T73 rainbow. I bet, 4 callers. Turn is a 9. I bet, get raised and everyone else folds. I re-raise forgetting that this isn't 10-20 or 5-10 or even paradise .50/1.00. The raiser looks at me with a confused and worried look. He had been giving a lot of poker advice to us helpless fish and had physically threatened one player after he thought he got slow-rolled. This is when I now KNOW he has 68. He calls. River doesn't pair the board and I check. He checks and I ask if he has the small end. He says yes with a worried look and I muck. He then snaps into "I knew that fool only had trips and I was going to reraise on the turn but I wanted to see if he'd fill up and then I wanted to checkraise blah blah blah blah...." I mean, why buy books to learn to play when you can come to the Trop and learn to give free cards to make sure you lose less in case some one fills up to beat the gutshot you hit on the flop. No pots won yet, down to 6 lonely white chips on the table. I post the big blind and get a free play with 3-4. Flop is 34K. WoooHOooooO!! I bet, and Hak raises me. Whoops. I call, just us in the pot and he shows 44. Hey, I can still nail running threes to win or Kings to chop. Needless to say, I'm soon rebuying with my last $111 of trip money with the stated goal of winning one pot. All I want. Either I go broke for the trip and get a quick start home in the AM or win a pot. It's all one poker game, right? Anyway, when I'm down to about $75, Hak tells me about an Italian good luck charm, he slips a quarter under my chips and says that if I add that quarter to the toke when I "win my next pot" my luck will turn around. Soon, I'm down to my last 5 chips. I have 78s on the button four callers to me, I call, flop is six handed and comes 88J. A guy whose name (I think) is Carlos bets out, I raise all in and we are heads up. Turn is a 2 and the river is, well not a 8 or 7, which I need because Carlos has 22. 7.5 total hours of 2-4, down $287, won 2 pots, really didn't take any seriously ludicrous beats, just lost to a lot of flushes, houses, two quads, and the occasional 2-outer. I don't recall ever laying down a winner, and I laid down many hands. I had KK 4 times, all with flopped aces (one came on the turn - thankfully the guy to my right called when his Axo flopped bottom pair) and laid them all down amid multiway post flop action. I think my favorite was when an eight of spades on the river made one player a set of 8's and another a flush, both beating my two pair. What I would consider weak play online seems to be a good idea in this kind of game, just read the players and fold when they have a better hand. Begins to get a little weird when it happens every time you are in a pot. "The final analysis, or Random thoughts from the 567 hour drive back to God's Country" 1) Although I lost, I had a very good time and felt good about the fact that I didn't go on tilt. I stuck to my starting hand standards, I didn't let my dry spell cause me to play weak in that I still bet my draws for value, made very few mistakes in reading my opponents (not real tough at 2-4), and didn't do a lot of whining outside of some gallows type humor and goofy comments. It was a bad run and I really didn't care except it seemed statistically anomalous, like making a hole in one in golf or bowling a perfect game. Funny thing was, other players were complaining to me about their luck. In a way, I guess as long as I am blessed with the ability to not worry so much about a 70+ BB loss in a 2-4 game I am lucky to some degree. Now if something like this run happened to me on the golf course, I'd probably have a stroke. Go Figure. 2) I had more fun losing at the Trop than I usually do when I win at the Taj. This does not auger well for my future presence at the Taj. 3) 2-4 seems to hold unique challenges. I play mostly .50/1.00 on paradise, which I thought was low limit poker, but I have semi-bluffed reraised with 22 on a paired flop on paradise, in certain situations, and with much success. If you semi-bluff re-raise in a typical 2-4 game, well, good luck with that one. Now, re-raising for value with a nut flush draw and 6 other players, that can happen. What is really humorous is the people who take this game seriously, pose as experts, that get upset with other players, give lessons, etc. when the edges are so small and the variance so high that short term results are meaningless. Hell, I figured I played very well and didn't win a pot for over 5 hours. 4) While driving through Virginia, I went over the Shenandoah river and through the Blue Ridge Mountains, which John Denver sang about in his ode to West Virginia, "Country Roads". However, the Blue Ridge Mountains are not in West Virginia and the Shenandoah river cuts across a corner of the state for like 10 miles and is roughly as historically and culturally significant to W.Va. as is Derek Jeter. This is why this state is a joke - because people here love the song, play it at WVU football games, etc. I mean, if Sinatra sang about the Sears Tower and Michael Jordan in his song about New York, I doubt it would be liked much by New Yorkers. Its like we are so pathetic that just to be noticed is enough. Just a rant. It was a long drive. 5) I'm always cracked up by the fact that just into wva at the White Sulfur Springs exit on I-64, the little blue sign for "lodging" has two choices: "The Budget Inn", and "The Greenbrier". Like I said, long drive. Rob Catlett a/k/a suddenly a/k/a Placebo350