“People walk by and stare like I’m somebody Important. But more and more I’m just feeling like I’m dormant. This must be the calm before that big storm hits.” Anonymous.

The theme of my trip to Atlantic city seems to be the same thing over and over again. Play all day, lose towards the end of the night. Yesterday I played the 2k tournament. It started at 11am and I busted around 11-11:30pm. I think it had 230 people and I got about 50th place with 27 getting paid. The tournament was awesome. You started with 15k in chips and 60 minute levels.

The first hand I play a guy to my right raises the cutoff to 200 and I call with JJ on the button. Flop comes KT8r and we both check, the turn is a 3. Check Check. River is a 9 and I bet 200 and he calls and loses with A8. Take note of this player because he couldn’t win a pot and was visibly frustrated at the beginning of the tournament.

UTG limps, and the same guy to my right makes it 175. I call with KJo and utg calls. The flop comes AJ6dd. It checks to me and I bet 300. The guy to my right calls. The turn comes the Kh and we both check. He bet 400 on the river and I beat his A9cc and was up to about 16.5k

UTG raises to 125 and the guy to my right calls from sb and I call from the bb with 57cc. The flop comes K36hh we all check, turn is Kc we all check, river is 4d sb bets 300 I make it 800 and he folds. So this is three straight pots I have beat him out of.

The very next hand utg raises again to 125. Guy to my right calls on the button and I call in the small blind with 99. The big blind calls as well. The flop comes T94r and we check to the button. He bets 300 and I make it 1200. I made it more this hand because I thought he was getting sick of losing pots to me and would pay me off lighter. The turn comes Kd putting two diamonds up and QJ gets there. I decided what to do. I really thought the guy had a T here and didn’t think he had a drawing type hand. I should of lead the turn since I’m not going to fold anyways but I wanted to see what he did. I checked to him and he bet 1600 with about 6k behind. I thought about it for a minute and decided to move in and maybe he would call me light with just a T or a JT QT type hand. He mucked and showed KThh for top two. I guess I should have lead the turn and played that street bad.

I raise QJo at 50/100 the bb calls. The flop comes J55dd and I bet 400 and he called. The turn came the 9h and he lead for 700. I really thought he turned a 9 here somehow, maybe with a flush draw. I called. The river came the 3d and he bet 800. I didn’t think he would bet this small if he hit the flush and decided to call. He turned up A9 and lost. I am at 22.6k now from my starting stack of 15k.

UTG limps 2nd position limps and I limp button with 66 red. Flop comes 882ss and UTG bets 450. I decided to call here and see what happened on the turn. He checked the turn which was the 4h, I checked as well. On the river he bet 700 after the Th fell and I decided to look him up. He showed QKss for a missed flush draw.

I had two Internet players at my table, BadgerPro(andy) and fratboy247. Andy was active early and I didn’t really mind. Sometimes I mix it up since was two to his left and apply the pressure early but I decided to wait and apply the pressure when the antes were in play and blinds were higher. So I decided not to 3bet him until those levels unless I felt I had to. He made it 450 in middle position and the guy to my right called. I called as well with TTd. The flop came J45ddd and they checked to me. I bet 800. (The blinds are now 75/150.) Andy folded and the other guy called. The turn comes Jh and we both check. The river comes the Ts and I bet 1900. The guy looked me up with 66 and I scooped the pot. I am around 22.5k

UTG limps for 150. I limp in 2nd position with QTss and sb and bb are along for the ride too. The flop comes 972sss and I flop the third nuts. It checks to me and I bet 350. The sb calls. The turn is the Ad and I bet 700, he calls again after checking. The river is the 8c and he checks. I bet 2200 into a 2500 pot. I thought he had the As and would call the river, he mucked. 24k

There are two limpers at 100/200 and Andy makes it 900 in middle position. I have JJ on the cutoff and decide to just flat. Fratboy calls as well as one limper. The flop comes A44cc and we all check. The turn is the Ah putting two flush draws up. I wanted to bet after they all checked to me but I thought Andy could have KK or QQ here and would call. I guess I should still bet to see where I am at considering the fact that I think I have the best hand here unless he has KK or QQ only. I didn’t really think about it in the heat of the moment. There was about 4k out there and I just knuckled. The river came the Ks and we all checked and Andy won with a rivered QK.

Andy had chips until he got into this pot. I want to talk about a lay down he made that not many people would make. He raised to 600 preflop and the guy in between us called. The flop came 852ss and he bet 1100 on the flop. The guy made it 2200. Then he reraised to 5600. His opponent was pretty straight forward and hadn’t gotten out of line or anything. The turn came As and Andy checked (after already putting like 6k into the pot with a set of fives) and the guy instantly bet 4k. Andy had about 10-12k behind still and folded his 55 face up almost instantly. The guy showed T8ss and he won the pot. It’s tough to not fall in love with your hand here on the flop and continue to go with it. He made a good fold and didn’t try to fish on the river or anything. He knew he was beat and got rid of his hand without trying to talk himself out of it.

I raise J9hh UTG to 800 at 150/300 and the big blind calls. The flop comes T8hhQ. He checks to me and I bet 1200, he calls. I turn the straight flush with the Qh. We both check. The river comes the Ac. I am praying he has AQ but he checks into me, I bet 2k and he mucks, up to 26k.

Guy limps 2nd position to 400. Active hijack player makes it 150 and I call with Qjss in the big blind. The small blind calls as well and we go four to the flop. It comes Q74r and we all check. The turn is a 2 and I bet 2300, they all fold 32k.

A new player gets moved to the table UTG his first hand, he limps. A couple other limpers and I have JJ in the sb. With the antes and dead money out there I decide to make it 2700. The utg limper then makes it 4k more. It was a weird spot given the potential psychology involved, but after playing with the guy for longer, I realized he was a nit and most likely had AA or KK there. While the hand took place though I thought I could be getting outplayed lol. I guess I always think that.

Blinds now 300/600 and this tight guy makes it 3150 on the hijack. I pick up AQo in the bb. He has about 12k behind. He has been really tight and I wasn’t sure what his big raise meant. I was worried about him having AK and I tanked it for a minute. I really was stuck in this spot because he raised so much preflop. I had seen him raise larger preflop but never this big. I decided my hand was too strong to fold and I moved all in. He instantly mucked and I was at about 30k.

I went to dinner break with about 12k in chips going into 400/800. I got back and the very first hand Andy makes it 2100 with 18k behind and the guy to my right calls 2100. I have 88 on the hijack and tank it for a minute. I didn’t know how wide Andy was opening but I figured he would open a lot of hands here still, since he had been all day. With the extra dead 2100 out there I had to shove I decided. I moved all in, Andy folded, and the guy between us thought for a while before calling the 12k more. He had 33 and I won the hand and was up to 32k.

At this point I stopped writing hands to my blackberry. The table got really crazy and one of the players was having a fit. We had the floor called to our table probably 10 times in the span of 2-3 hours. I tried not to get upset. One hand I had the clock called on me after only a minute of thought because the guy said “he thought I was going to fold.” Anyways, it was kind of crazy, people were mad and it wasn’t good poker environment. I didn’t want to write the hands down to my phone and potentially get in trouble while I was writing on my phone and I didn’t want to get up from the table every hand I had to write about. Also, there wasn’t much to write about after this point.

I was card dead, and I had a stack size where I had to just wait for hands. There were two players at the table who were basically in every hand and I tried to hang in there. The blinds were 500/1k and I only had about 20k and shoved AK one time. Other than that there wasn’t much that happened.

I got moved to a table with a couple Internet players when we were down to about 60 left. I had about 20k in chips at 600/1200 200a. I moved in one hand with JTo on the button and picked up the blinds and antes. Another time a player to my right who was limping a lot limped UTG and I shoved AJo in 2nd position and picked up the blinds and antes as well. I was just hanging around trying to find a spot to double up when this hand came up.

An active Internet player (not sure who he was) made it 3200 on the cutoff. A tighter player called on the button and I looked down at JTo. I had 1200 invested and had to call 2k more in about a 10k pot. 5-1 on my money, I’m not folding many hands here. I call and the flop comes T64cc. I check and the Internet kid thinks for a minute before betting 5600. The button had about 25k behind and I had about 20k behind. My first instincts were that the Internet player wouldn’t bet here because he would be worried about the tight guy calling on the button. After I thought about it a little more I realized the Internet kid had 60-70k and that he would probably bet here any hand he raised because we both either have to shove or fold. Neither of us can really call vs. him in this spot. Also maybe he wasn’t worried about the guy calling on the button because he had more history with him than I did since I just got to the table. I only saw him limp AK utg and then tank it for a minute to call a short stacks all in, so I figured he was a tight live player. Anyways, the button folded and the decision was on me. I came to the conclusion that the Internet kid would bet here his whole range considering hes only rising 5.5k to win the 11k in the pot and the fact that we either shove or fold on him. I moved in for about 15k more and he asked how much more it was and said call. Dang. I told him i had a T and he said he did too. I prayed it was 9T suited or something but he flipped over KThh and I didn’t improve and I busted in about 50th place.

I think the last hand I can’t get away from. Also the blinds were going up to 800-1600 300a in about 3-5 minutes. I really couldn’t get anything going in this tournament. Again, it was a tournament where I didn’t get AA or KK at all. I had AK twice with no showdown and QQ once. I did pick up JJ about 5 times though lol. I keep talking about this. I know you see a lot less hands live but after playing for 10-12 hours and probably seeing 300-400 hands the odds are supposed to catch up. I need to stop talking about that haha. Anyways, It’s frustrating getting deep and playing for so long and getting nothing out of it. At least it’s experience.

I have a good Atlantic City story. Today my buddy Hans left his shower on while he went down to sweat our friend Tim who was still in the 2k but bubbled it. He was supposed to check out of his room but he wanted for it to appear as someone was there in the shower. He probably left the room for about 30 minutes. We get back to his room, and step inside and immediately step into a puddle of water. LOL. We open the bathroom door and the whole bathroom including the side room where the toilet is is covered with water. The floor had at least 1-2 inches of water on it. It had even seeped through into the closet, outside the hotel room, and on the outside wall of the bathroom lol. It’s a pretty serious water disaster. I know how bad water damage is so I’m not sure what the deal is. We spent about an hour cleaning up the bathroom with towels and ringing them out in the sing and the shower. We haven’t been back to the room in a couple hours. We were supposed to bring towels from my room to go clean the rest of his room but we went to White house subs (awesome sub place in Atlantic City) and then have been in my room ever since. Hopefully the damage isn’t anything serious and he doesn’t get in too much trouble lol.

I’m not playing until the 3k on Sunday/Monday. I will probably play on Sunday and avoid playing online that day. Hopefully the 3k is my tournament since none of these other tournaments have panned out for me. I would hate to leave Atlantic City empty handed. Talk to you guys later.