Once again it’s been too long since I had time to play poker in Atlantic City, but I managed to get there today. (It helps that DC Comics is closed all week!) I sat down at a $1-2 No Limit Hold-em table at about 10:30 AM and played for about 1.5 hours, winning a few small and medium sized pots, but also losing a few. No big, dramatic hands. At noon I broke for lunch a few dollars ahead.

After lunch I sat down at another table and played for two more hours. This time I was getting better cards and in bigger hands. My $200 stack of chips went up and down in larger bites. Early on I was dealt 4-6 in the big blind, and no one raised, so I was in the hand with about five people. The flop came 6-6-6, giving me quad sixes! This was a potential Bad Beat Jackpot winner, if my sixes were beat by a better hand, so that got my attention! I checked the first round, and a player to my left bet $10. Everyone else dropped out, I called, and it was just the two of us. Next round I bet $20 and she called. Things were looking promising, at least she had a playable hand. Another round of $20 bets (didn’t think a big raise would have been called), and I won against her full house. No Bad Beat payoff.

At one point I was up about $5o and found a pair of Aces in my hand. I got into a bidding war with another player, but the cards on the table didn’t look promising for me. I had a flush draw, but otherwise just my Aces. When he went all-in for $135 I couldn’t call, and that brought my stack down considerably.

I had decided to leave at 2:30, and it was 2:15. I’d only have a few more hands to play, and my stack was down to $100, meaning I was behind $100. I was dealt Ace-Jack, which seemed promising, and the flop turned up another Jack and two low cards. Another player bet $20. I decided it was time for a big move: either double up or go home broke. I went all in. He called. I figured I had about a 50-50 chance of winning with my pair of Jacks, putting him on a possible two pair or even trips (three of a kind). Luckily for me, another Jack came out on the River, giving me trip Jacks, and a big win.

The very next hand I was dealt Ace-King. The flop brought out another King, giving me a pair. I bet strong, and took that pot, too. At 2:30 I left the table ahead $70. A nice payoff for a fun few hours of poker. Wish I could play more often.

This week at Caesar’s Palace casino in Atlantic City there’s a WSOP circuit event, and today I played in a satellite tournament to the big game that will be played there this weekend. Buy-in was $200, and there were eventually 30 people in this small tourney. I did pretty well at the start and in the middle, knocking out two other players, and just getting to the final table, but went out there in ninth place, and out of the win. Top three players earned a $1600 ticket to the weekend tourney, fourth place got about $140. Ah well, maybe next year…

Saturday I went back to Atlantic City to play poker at the Taj Mahal casino for the first time this year. I sat down at about 10 AM at a cash game and played for an hour, winning $86, largely from one player who I thought was making a lot of loose calls. Every time I bet he raised me, and finally he went all in for $40. I had a pair of sevens, so I called and beat his ace-high hand.

At 11:15 I entered the small morning no-limit hold-em tournament for $65. I did well in the first hour, doubling my chips, then coasted for a while, winning one large pot in the second hour. I had pocket queens, the flop was jack-ten-five, the turn was another jack, giving me two pair. One other player kept raising, and I thought it was likely he had me beat with at least three of a kind, maybe a full house, but his raises were low enough to keep me in the game. Finally the river turned another queen, giving me a full house, queens over jacks. I went all in, and he called with a lower full house, so I doubled up. That kept me going well into the third hour, where I won a few small pots. The field of 50 dwindled, and by the time it was down to 11 players in the fourth hour, my stack was getting short. I managed to stay around into the money, though, going out in seventh place with a win of $109.

So, the cash game win of $86 plus the tournament win of $109 makes $195, minus the $65 entry fee on the tournament is $130. I contributed $5 to the bubble boy loser, finishing just out of the money, as did the other 9 players remaining, and spent $8 on lunch and $5 on parking, so my real win for the day was $112, which is just fine. I enjoyed playing, though my legs do get sore from the cramped position they’re in at the table. I don’t know how older guys can sit at big tournaments for days on end! It was a fun day overall despite that, and I wish I had time to play more often.

I haven’t had time to play poker in Atlantic City in months, but finally did today. I decided to play at The Borgata, after checking their website, since they had a $50 tournament this morning. Last time I played a tournament there on Sunday morning it was $120. It’s a new format with two rebuys allowed in the first six levels. I did well in the first hour, doubling my stack, coasted through the second hour, and gradually crashed and got knocked out in the third hour, about halfway through. Too late to rebuy, and I had about an hour left before I needed to leave for home, so I played in a 1-2 No LImit cash game for that hour. I sat down at a new table, so all the chip stacks were about even. I had $200 in chips in front of me. About three hands in I was dealt Jack King, not suited, and called the $20 raise by another player. The flop showed two Jacks, giving me three, or trip Jacks, a pretty nice hand. One player bet $25, another went all in for about $50. I went along for this and another round of large bets until all the community cards were out. At that point there were three spades on the board, making a spade flush possible, but otherwise I thought my hand should be good. I called another bet of $25 from my dwindling stack of chips. The all-in player turned over a pair of aces, a losing hand. I asked the other better, “Do you have the flush?” He turned over Jack Nine instead, and I showed the winner, collecting about four hundred dollars (including most of my own $200 in chips)! Not a bad way to start, and if I were smart I would have left the table then, but as usual I stayed to play out my time and lost some the winnings back. I came home $107 ahead for the day, though, which is fine, lots better than losing!

Image from “IHateGoogle.com”

The big news in Atlantic City poker this week was the size of the Bad Beat Bonus at the Trump Taj Mahal. A bad beat is when you have a really good hand that SHOULD win, but get beaten by an even better hand. A Bad Beat Bonus is a pool of money collected in small amounts from every game of Hold-em at every table in the casino, which builds up into an ever larger sum as time goes by. Different rules apply to what qualiifies to win the pool at various casinos, but here’s how it works at the Taj. First, at least four people have to be in the hand. Second, at least $20 has to be in the pot. Then, if you have four of a kind and are beaten by a higher four of a kind, or a straight flush, your table wins the bonus. Also, if you have a straight flush and are beaten by a higher straight flush. Further, your two hole cards have to be part of the hand in question, so having three aces in the community cards on the table and the fourth ace in your own hand doesn’t count. Now, all those hands are remarkably rare, so getting two up against each other is astronomically high odds, but it does happen, and the Bonus is usually won once in about every two week period on average. In the picture above, one player has four aces, and is beat by a straight flush, for example. (And you have to feel bad for the other players who all have full houses!) As for the payout, the player who is Bad Beaten gets half the bonus, the player he beats one quarter, and the remaining quarter is split among all the other players who were in the hand at some point, still quite a nice piece of cash!

So, the big news was that the Bonus HADN’T been won at the Taj in about a month, making the value over $670,000 as of today. I had some time, and I decided to go play for a few hours. (No, I didn’t win the bonus!) I played 2-4 Limit, a Hold-em game I haven’t played in a few years, as I usually prefer No-Limit. In Limit, as you might imagine, your betting is constrained. This means it takes a lot longer to lose your entire stack of chips, conversely a lot longer to build up a winning stack. I decided to play that game because I was pretty much assured a seat at a table for as long as I wanted to play, while with No-Limit I might have lost my entire bankroll on one hand.

The difficulty in winning Limit is that it doesn’t cost that much for a player to stay in a hand until all five community cards are dealt. An average hand with no raises costs you $12, so even a marginal hand is often worth staying for, unless people start raising. Sometimes everyone checks around, making it even cheaper. So, it’s quite common for a lousy hand to blossom into a winning straight or flush. The first hour or more I was getting all low cards, no pairs, and I played some, but lost steadily. Then I finally got a pair of pocket Aces…and lost to two pair. Things tend to even out over time, and in the last hour and a half my luck changed. I started getting winning hands, bringing my stack back up to where I started (from down $100 at one point), and then ahead, finishing up winning $46. Not much for almost four hours of play, but it sure beats losing. No one claimed the Bad Beat Bonus while I was there. It was fun to see the crowds trying, though. As one dealer said, lately at the Taj, every minute is like their average Saturday night, with nearly every table in the poker room full, and a line waiting to be seated. Good for the casino, the dealers and even the players, I think, at least those who know what they’re doing. I’ll be watching the Atlantic City Press to see when the Bonus is claimed, and how much the total is. Hope it isn’t a few minutes after I left, at my table!

UPDATE: And here’s the winner, in a story in this morning’s AC Press. Looks like I didn’t miss seeing it happen by much!

Went to the Trump Taj Mahal to play the $60 No-Limit Texas Hold-em tournament today. The last time I tried it I finished 15th out of about 60 players, pretty good, but not in the money. The time before that I was the Bubble Boy, finishing just out of the money, a very annoying place to finish!

But, hope springs eternal and all that, so I was ready to try it again. I did well in the first half hour, winning some moderately big pots, and doubling up my starting stack. Then there was a long dry spell where I couldn’t get any cards I thought worth playing. Around the end of the second hour I got hot again, winning two large hands back to back, both with pocket Jacks, and another with Kings. That put me in good enough shape to make it to the final table, down from about 55 players to 10, but I was the smallest stack, so it didn’t look good.

Then we were down to eight, then seven, then six. I was still the smallest stack, not getting anything worth playing most of that time. So, it looked like I’d be the Bubble Boy again, until one of the other players spoke up. “I suggest we have a Bubble Bonus,” he announced. How about if everyone gives $15 cash to the person going out on the bubble?” Naturally I thought this was an excellent, if surprising idea, and everyone else agreed. What nice fellows! I asked the proposer why he had suggested this, and he told me, “A while back I went out on the bubble three times in one day. That gave me the idea.”

Sure enough, I was soon all-in with a pair of Nines, and lost to three sixes to that same player. Everyone opened their wallets, and I went around and collected $75, with many thanks. Then I went home happy, instead of annoyed, and actually ahead a few dollars! What a great idea, and it proves that poker players can be as nice as anyone. If I find myself in that situation again, I’m going to suggest doing the same thing. If you play poker, I think you should, too. Make a Bubble Boy happy!

It’s been a while since I had time to play in a small poker tournament in Atlantic City, and while this seems like an odd time of year for it, today I found I was caught up with everything: work, Christmas stuff, even in good shape with my next Logo Study, so I went to the Taj Mahal to play.

The Sunday morning $60 tourney was a small one, 38 players. Guess most people had other places to be. The top five players would finish in the money, and I thought a smaller field might be good for me, as I get tired of sitting there after a while, and this one shouldn’t go too long. I started out well, winning one big hand with Ace-Queen and a flop of Ace-Ace-Eight against a man with the other ace but a lower kicker. Won a few other small pots, and by the end of the first hour had doubled up my starting chips. The second hour didn’t go as well. I was getting nothing good to play with, and got caught in a semi-bluff attempt when the player I was up against raised me all in. I couldn’t call. By the end of the second hour my stack was dwindling, but so were the players. I went all in with King-Queen of diamonds, was called by two players with better hands, and lucked out by pulling in a straight, so that tripled me up and kept me good for a while.

In the third hour we got down to the final table, then things really slowed down, and I was getting nowhere. Finally I was dealt a pair of Kings. I called, and the guy to my left raised enough to put me all in, which I was happy to do. And his raise chased out the other players, so it was heads-up, usually good when you’re short-stacked, as I was. He turned over a pair of sevens, and I doubled up again, but even so was still the short stack. The guy on my left went out, leaving six players, with me as the shortest stack. Again, I was getting nothing worth playing, but did pull off one bluff to keep me going.

Finally I was down to six big blinds, time to go all-in for the last time. I was in on the big blind already when someone raised enough to put me all-in. I had King-seven of spades, and I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, the other guy showed pocket Aces, and I was soon out of the game in sixth place, just off the money. That’s called being “on the bubble,” I was the Bubble Boy today. Ah well, so it goes. I think I played well, just ran out of luck at the wrong time. There’s always next year…

I haven’t played poker at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City in a while, but decided to go there today. I knew I’d be playing in cash games, not a tournament, as they’re running more expensive-to-enter tournaments on most weekends now, with entry fees too high for me.

I enjoy playing at the Borgata, their poker room is large and comfortable, but I was a little hesitant about playing in cash games there. Minimum buy-in for the $1-$2 no-limit holdem games is $60, but most players start with $200. I usually start with $100, but the last two times I tried that I lost about half my chip stack early, and then spent the rest of the time trying to get back up the hill and not succeeding, so this time I also bought in with $200 in chips. That way I had a bigger starting stack and other players were less likely to try to push me off hands with big raises.

The first hand I played was a pair of pocket fours, and the flop did me no good, so I folded. The next hand I played pocket sixes, and the flop was 6-8-Jack. Very good for me, I’d flopped a set of three sixes. The player to my right, on the big blind, bet out $20. I called, everyone else folded. The turn card was a nine. Now there was a possible straight, but no flush draw, so my sixes looked pretty good. Player to my right bet another $20 and I called again. The river card was another Jack. This gave me a full house, sixes over Jacks, which was terrific, and meant I probably had him beat, but there was a small chance he now had a better full house than me if he started with two pair, one of them a Jack. He bet $50 and, while I was tempted to raise, I just called. He showed a straight, and I won the pot, about $120. A great start, and after that I continued to play my conservative game, building my stack slowly. By lunchtime I was ahead $270, and I cashed out and had something to eat.

After lunch I sat down at another table with $200 in chips again. This time things went more typically for me. I gradually lost about $70, then won it all back with a straight. Went down $40, and won it back with a small blind special, a 2-3 that cost me only $1 to play, and a flop of 2-3-6, giving me two pair, then another 3 giving me a winning full house. Didn’t get much betting on that one, though. When it was time to leave, I was down $55, so went home ahead for the day $215. Very satisfactory. Wish it always went that well!

© Nick Gerrard.

The gods of luck and chance had it in for me today, no doubt as payback for my third place finish in the last poker tournament I played in. I sat down at the morning $60 tournament at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and found I’d been doomed with a fatal combination: great cards and terrible luck. I lost with pocket aces. I lost with pocket kings. I lost with a full house to a better full house. Finally, with a dwindling chip stack I went all in with A-J, and an ace on the board and lost to three eights, out in less than an hour.

Had lunch, and then sat down to a $1-2 No-Limit Holdem game with $100 in chips. I played conservatively, not calling raises with moderately good hands, and saw three pots that I would have won if I did. Finally I got pocket queens and bet big. There was an ace on the board, and one lady called me. I figured she probably had me beat with a pair of aces, but I was down to my last $35, so I went all in anyway. There was one more card to come, and it was another queen! I was sure I had won until she turned over a pair of pocket aces, beating my three of a kind with a better one.

I know when to quit. But the gods had one more laugh at me…I had to drive through two torrential rain storms on the way home that slowed traffic to a crawl and added a half hour to my trip.

Okay, you got me. But I’ll be back!

I played the morning $50 no-limit hold-em tournament at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City today, as I occasionally do when I can, and for the very first time I finished in the money! The entry fee is $65, and it begins at 11:15 AM in the Taj poker room. There were 52 players today, a number on the small end, I’ve seen it over 100. With that many players, the top six would cash, with sixth place winning back the entry fee, and each place winning progressively more. In the past I’ve gone out as close as 4 from the money, but never cashed. Today I started out well, winning occasional hands, and not losing more than the blinds for the first two hours, so by the start of the third hour, with players down to about 30, I was in good shape, perhaps in the middle of the pack in chip count. I continued to do about the same through the third hour, and when the fourth hour began at the final table of 10 players, I was down a little, but still holding my own. At that point I got into and lost one pretty big pot, which hurt my chip stack, but then I made some back, and got into the money, the top six. Two lucky wins with low cards got me to the final three just before the end of the fourth hour. I called Ellen happily to tell her why I’d be home a little late.

Perhaps my favorite moment at this small-potatoes tournament was when, as we got down to six, they put up one of those velvet ropes around the table and made the handful of spectators stand behind it, just like on TV.

So, of the three left, an older gentleman (at least he looked older than me) had about two-thirds of the chips at the table, leaving me and a young guy in a Phillies t-shirt to battle for second place. We went at it, going all-in back and forth several times, but unable knock the other out. Finally he went all in when we were almost exactly even in chips. I had Jack-Seven, not a great hand, but I was tired of sitting, so I went all-in too. He turned up a pair of Kings, and it was over for me, I went out third. A minute later the game ended when the top two agreed to split the remaining winnings. I won $390, and after subtracting my entry fee, came home ahead $325. The other two got about $800 each.

So, considering how often I’ve played this tournament (about 15 times) I’m still way behind, but it felt great to win something. My only other tournament win, at The Borgata, was also a third place, so now my goal is to reach at least second. I’ll probably give back my winnings attempting to do that over the course of this year, but it’s fun to try.