Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:10:58 -0400 From: Paul McMullin Subject: [BARGE] Borgata tournament trip report As promised to a few people on the AtLarge list. In a discussion with my step daughter at dinner in May, I mentioned that a bunch of friends had played in the main event of the WSOP a few times, and that I was investing in a syndicate to back another Barger's entry this year, and that I wanted to play in it sometime. She called my bluff, telling me that it wasn't going to happen if I didn't just go and do it. When I said that I couldn't really pull it off this year, she told me to get off my duff and start planning now to play in it in 2008. Nothing like having an adult child unit pushing you... Maybe I could pull this off. A "plan" is formed. At Barge, I played in 7 poker tournaments (4 Barge ones, and 3 "house" ones at various casinos) and made it into the money in 3 of them, and I also snagged sixth place in the Barge Blackjack tournament. Flush with my successes, when I returned from Vegas, I told Edith that I wanted to try making a day trip to A.C. once a month to try to put together a stake for the WSOP main event (my plan being to play in a tournament on each trip, and if I bust out before making the money, play in a ring game until time to return home to see if I could recover the cost of the tournaments). Not surprisingly, she wasn't too impressed with this "plan". Maybe I'll have to win the lottery instead. Putting the plan into action? Tom, from at work, (who attended Barge last year with his wife, and again this year with his wife and "barge virgin" 5 month old son) said that he would take some of those day trips to share the driving with me. His wife and son flew to Florida to visit Tom's in-laws on Thursday, so I jokingly said "Hey, if you're batching it, why don't we run to A.C. while she's away?", and his face lit up! Oops, now I have to convince Edith that this is a Good Idea(TM), having just returned from Vegas two weeks ago. Somewhat to my surprise, she agree to go up with us. Maybe I SHOULD buy those lottery tickets. What is a trip report without travel weirdness? Tom lives 20 minutes the other side of Interstate 95 that we'd normally be taking north to A.C., so he agreed to meet at my house around 7am for the (when I drive) 3+hour trip that would get us to the Borgata with time to spare to park the car, find the new poker room. buy the tournament entry, and find a sandwich before the 11am start of the tournament. Edith and I were loaded into the car and she was backing out of the driveway at 7 when I thought to call Tom and ask how he was doing... apparently he hadn't heard his alarm. Ok, we'll pick him up and turn north from his house. On the road at 7:20, using an alternate route to get to Baltimore to pick up 95. For some cosmically unexplainable reason, Edith doing 80 in a 65 zone in a Cadillac doesn't draw cops like I do at 71 in a minivan, and we somehow are pulling into the Borgata Valet at 10:00am. Maybe I should have her drive more often. Snug as a bug until the antes go in. I had posted a note to the AtLarge list asking about the Borgata tournaments, and I got a few responses telling me that the Friday fields were soft and that I needed to get there early because people in line 1/2 hour before the start were often seated as alternates and anyone much later was at risk of being shut out, but that Saturday's event usually wasn't at risk of selling out, usually with 150-180 entrants, though probably not as soft a field. On this trip, the Friday event wasn't an option. The tournament started with 10,000 chips and half hour levels starting at 25-50 blinds - apparently LOTS of play. My pre-tournament strategy would be to try to avoid much gambling early on and look for solid hands until the pots got big enough to be worth trying to steal. About one orbit in I decided that KK in position might be considered a solid hand, but then found myself meekly making a call of a 1300 bet on the river against the lone opponent who had stayed through my preflop raise and bets on the flop and turn on a unsuited, disconnected (thankfully aceless) board, having already put 1700 into the pot - NOT the way I had intended the hand to come down. It turns out he had decided to blow me off of my obvious overpair with his no-pair, no-draw, unsuited Ax, and my cowboys survived as I became the table chip leader in the first significant pot of the day. An orbit later, AA in the big blind seemed like another solid hand... 3UTG had made it 150, and four others had come along in front of me; I wanted to thin the field a bit, so I added 500 on top and succeeded in reducing the field to the opponent that had taken the shot again the kings. Ding! as A 8 4 (two hearts) flop. I've read over and over that you make more betting out with trips, so I trotted out 800 and he called. The turn paired the 4; I decided to slow down, which induced a 1300 bet which I merely called. The river brought the Th, and I decided to try to confuse the situation a bit with a 1800 bet, and to my delight heard "all in" from my opponent! I called, and his "You don't have a boat?" was met with my "Only quads beats me". His 5h6h flush sent the tables' first victim out, and I ended the first round with 21000. Maybe this firmer field isn't all THAT firm. Chipping away, building my stack... I played a few hands each blind level and either showed down a winner or was uncalled, and ended the next few levels with 22225, 23750, 31400, and then managed to "donk off" 8k when someone decided he'd seen enough and pushed back, so I ended the fifth level with only 23700. Still, only 1/3 of the field was out at this point, so I was above average and continued being selectively aggressive with mostly unremarkable hands, with levels ending with 28300, 28900 29900 55800, 58600, 106000, 120000. They had a 10 minute break every three levels, and when I stood up at the third break I felt a bit woozy, and realized that I'd been playing for nearly five hours without eating or drinking anything. A brisk tour of two shops outside the poker room didn't spot any candy bars, but I found a couple of "Chocolate Chunk Cookies" at one of the food court vendors down the escalator just outside the poker room. What the labels left out was that they were chunks of chocolate in a sawdust base, but I choked them down and the lightheadedness abated. Maybe I'll have to remember to pack a snack on the next trip. Oh, yeah, Tom... Tom has hosted a "home poker game" that plays irregularly about once a month for a couple of years; I've played in it a couple of times, but they mostly play $5 buy in, 6 minute blind, shove-in no limit tournaments, for which I don't have much utility. Before the Barge trip, I talked them into playing a 'standard ring, limit structure' mix of stud games so Tom and I could refresh ourselves with the mechanics of stud games before we got to the Barge horse games and stud/8 and stud shootout tournaments. I felt guilty cashing out for $24 on my $5 buy in, but no one else seemed uncomfortable with the hour of Stud, hour of Stud/8, hour of Razz where I tried to explain some of the concepts of drawing hands/big fields, high pairs/thin fields, position, and "punishing the low draw"... In any case, Tom's two Barge trips had provided his only live tournament experience, so he wasn't up for the $300 + 40 entry fee of the Borgata Saturday event, and planned to play in the 3-6 ring ring game while I crushed the tournament (I LIKED his thinking here), as this was only his fourth trip to play live casino ring games. We spoke on my tournament breaks, and he was mildly frustrated that several of his TPTK and "top two" hands had lost to rivered straights and flushes in the large fields that 3-6 games tend to foster, but I encouraged him to continue playing well. At some point, he went and got a sandwich, and while walking back to the cardroom he found a picture of everyone's favorite president lying on the floor in the casino... when he offered to "turn it in" to the nearest pit boss, he was told to put it into his pocket because they'd have no way of identifying whose it was (no cameras on the main casino floor recording the walkways between slots or some such). Ding! The extra $100 put Tom back ahead for the day, despite getting rivered on many of the hands he played in the 3-6 game. Maybe I'll try to pay attention more when I'm walking around in casinos. My first bad beat of the day... Edith has attended a few *ARG weekends in the past, and has been allowed to sit behind me to watch my play, and wanted to know if that would be allowed at the Borgata, so I called the poker room on Friday and they said that railbirds were tolerated but not encouraged, and that if the room got crowded they would bar them. When I bought into the tournament, I asked if an end seat might be available, but the cashier said that the computer assigned seats, and they couldn't do anything for me. Still, I drew table 2 seat four... if they were breaking tables down to the low numbers this would mean that she wouldn't have to move to follow me around if I survived for a while. And the tables at the Borgata are about as well-spaced as I've ever seen in a casino; there didn't seem to be any problem with her sitting behind me the entire time. Table one behind me seemed to be throwing a party for the first five hours... much loud trashtalk, and a steady stream of calls for the floor because they had busted out another one and were playing 6 or 7 handed while the rest of the room was 9 or 10 handed... They did it again when we were down to four tables, and the floorman decided to take the big blind from our ten handed table to their 7 handed table... and that was me. So, I go from being one of the two top stacks at the table I've played at from the start (where I'm familiar with everyone), to being a middle stack at a table of loud gamboolers, and I get seated in the 10 seat between the dealer and a guy with a mountain of chips that has been running the cocktail waitress ragged; he was a big guy and looked like he might be playing offensive line somewhere today - not so easy for Edith to squeeze in to watch my play. Still... maybe buying in early like I did is a Good Idea(TM), (presuming they assign the early entrants to the low numbered tables) so you don't have to move often as tables are broken while the tournament progresses. Unfortunately, I pick a poor time to go card dead... I moved my 120k of chips to the new table, quietly finishing the next level at 98k. The mountain of chips to my right was raising 1/3 of the hands, and I never found anything worth playing until I was down to 85k and caught the impressive looking QhTh 3utg 8 handed where the lineman had mistakenly mucked instead of preemptively raising. Well, I gotta play SOMETHING, so I raised the 6k blind to 20k, which was called by the 2 seat, followed by the 4 seat calling all in for 12k. The big blind recognized that he had two cards from the same deck and autocalled, getting an apparent 437-1 odds (or some such, "Math is hard") for putting in 14k more; I guess everyone at the table had been looking for a hand where the big stack took a breather. The flop came Kh 9H 5c, the big blind checked, I put in the rest of my stack, and the 2 seat and big blind folded. The dealer pushed me the 24k side pot, the all in turned up A9off, and seat 2 seat started complaining about how could I bet at this point when leaving in the other two might increase the chances of knocking out the all in and moving us up another $200 in the payouts? I shrugged and said something about the side pot being worth collecting on its own (mountain man loudly agreeing, encouraging me to play my own stack and telling the 2 seat that he should either have the balls to call or shut the f*** up - I didn't bother to point out that I had thought I had at a 12 outs twice draw on the flop which certainly made getting my money into the pot worthwhile if my two live opponents would either both fold or both call...). As it turned out, I had 18 outs twice against the A9 all-in: http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2980044 pokenum -h qh th - ac 9d -- kh 9h 5c Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 5c Kh 9h cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV Qh Th 607 61.31 383 38.69 0 0.00 0.613 Ac 9d 383 38.69 607 61.31 0 0.00 0.387 Being somewhat short stacked, that seems like a pretty good place to get my money in... and the dealer cooperated by putting up the Jc on the river. With the antes and small blind, I'm up to 150k or so, and in short order we're drawing for seats at the final table. I catch the 3 seat (end of the table means that Edith has an easier time watching), and the draw for the button puts me into the cutoff. Lets see - 156 entrants started with 10k, and we're down to 10 players, so the 145000 I have at the start of the 6000/12000/2k ante round at the final table is slightly below average - but we're putting in 38k an orbit, so even though I'm close to average, I'm really pretty short stacked. I have dreck through the blinds, and hold Q5 or 93 for another half dozen hands while two people manage to give 1/2 their chips to the mountain-of-chips-man now in the 10 seat, and someone else busts out. I fold another drecky hand 2utg, the button in the 9 seat raises 45k, the mountain goes all in, the one seat's smallish stack of chips beat his into the pot from the big blind, and the 9 seat ponders for a few seconds and folds. The one seat's AA survives the 10 seats' AK catching a king on the flop, and I'm the third shortest stack. Dreck UTG, the 9 seat shoves, mountain calls, the blinds fold, and the mountain man's AK (again? where do I sign up for card-rack lessons?) somehow manage to outlast the 9 seats' 52s, and I'm in the blinds as the second shortest stack, with the only shorter stack being directly to my left. Raise from 3UTG, mountain man stares the raiser down for a bit - the raiser looks pretty calm about the prospect of being called, and it is folded around to me... a momentary glimmer of hope is dashed as the two sharptopped cards resolve into a pair of fours. I ponder for a short while and decide that I don't really want to go out against someone that looked as calm as he did when the mountain of chips was staring him down, and the raiser obliges by flashing QQ after I muck. Maybe I CAN read some hands. And poof, it is gone... QQ guy min-raises the next hand, and it is folded around to my black 66 in the small blind. I probably make a big mistake by not just shoving here, instead calling about 1/4 more of my stack, and the big blind calls. The flop of 7 5 3 (two spades) somehow registers as "open ended draw" for my second error in the hand, and my chips go in... the big blind calls and the raiser folds. I've got 6 outs twice as the big blind shows the black nines, killing my runner-runner flush draw, and the dealer fails me. I don't know if he would have folded from the big blind had I pushed preflop with the raiser yet to act behind him, but I wish I had given him the decision to make. I'm left with 30k or so, and when it is folded to me on the button, K9s looks like as good a hand as any to get my ministack in with... having more than doubled up, the small blind shoves to give me protection and I'm drawing live against AQo, but the dealer fails me for the second hand in a row against the same opponent, and I'm out in 8th place. Edith tells me that I made a much more serious error by not bringing a bigger stack with me when I switched tables to the ten seat earlier, but that overall she thinks that I played pretty well, and I thank her for her sage advice. Maybe she understands more of the game that I give her credit for. 10% is a start! After tipping, I cash out for a $1003 profit, and I've got a start toward my 10k entry. It would have been nice banking the 15k first prize and putting the stake together in one trip, but that probably would have been anticlimactic. On review, the K9s final hand was the only hand I played ALL DAY where I was all-in and covered by my opponent, which is somewhat of a miracle in itself. So maybe this "plan" isn't entirely hopeless. Enough for this trip. Tom had recognized that his frustration level had risen to the point that he wasn't playing entirely in control, so he had cashed out of his ring game just about the time I was busting out of the tournament. On Friday, we had discussed the 'nominal return time' and agreed that we would probably play until 9ish if I wasn't still in the tournament, but that had been with the reasonable assumption that I'd be out of the tournament before dinnertime (most of the field IS, you know). Having finished in 8th place at 7:30, without having had dinner, we decide to hit the road. Tom retrieves the car and offers to drive the first half of the way home, but as we go through Delaware I realize that 8 1/2 hours of play without a dinner break had left me pretty drained, and Tom wasn't having any problem with the driving, so we didn't switch off until we got back to drop him off. We were home around 11:00pm, just as the Redskin game was ending. Maybe I'll have more to tell in another month or so. -prm