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View Full Version : Trip report- Tropicana in Atlantic City


Easy E
03-31-2003, 11:02 PM
The spouse and I headed down to the Jewel of the East Coast (I think that someone wrote something like that about AC once, I’m not sure… it popped up when I was typing, sorry) during the evening last weekend, arriving at the Tropicana around 7 pm. The route in (AC Expressway) was remarkably uncluttered, maybe because of the time that we came in.
We could see the looming, dark hulk of the Borgota to our left as we came in. I wasn’t aware how much closer it was to the Expressway than the other locations- I’d expected it farther out, close to the Harrah’s/Marina casinos. It’ll be interesting to see/visit it this summer (end of June is what I’ve heard rumored)… and find out if the trash landfill that it’s on top of smells! More importantly, the poker room planned for the Borgota supposedly has between 36 (number I’ve seen in print) and 43 (rumor from a soon-to-be tablemate that evening) poker tables, unsure about the limits being spread….

But I digress. The construction on the Trop has taken over a lot of the areas leading to the casino- every view was of ongoing building/construction. Just another effect of the Borgota-itis that’s sweeping the area, I guess.

Since I hadn’t been to AC or the Trop in a while (4 months!) the poker room changes seemed newer to me than they probably are. I’ve finally gotten used to seeing slots where the tables/keno lounge was. The sign-up desk relocation has also gotten familiar. The missing wall in the former non-smoking room seems normal now also. They either lost or moved the hold'em table that was in the entrance, near the Royal Flush prize wheel.

OT SEQUE- Slots fans, I have some info. For dime and penny slots, they disperse dollar tokens rather than pennies/dimes (new NJCCC ruling, from what I heard). Therefore, you CAN’T turn in dimes and pennies at the Change Redemption cages- don’t try! You’ll look silly taking buckets of coins BACK to your car (trust me on this)
I’m not sure why they allowed me to turn in nickels (don’t dimes take up less room in a hopper?), but that won’t be the first time I’ve been confused by a casino policy…… YOU HEARD IT HERE THIRTY-FIFTH: Coins are on their way out…. once people get over bitching about the idea… and then I assume coin attendants will be history.
They even had a self-serve coin counting machine for the quarters/nickels, near the video poker section back near the poker room area, which dispenses vouchers, I believe, with your consolidated total. Probably a good thing, since they had ONE WINDOW open at that cage, though there were 3 employees or more behind the cage (of course, the empty “Employees Only” window had to be manned, but unavailable to the people standing 15 deep)… I eventually dragged my buckets over to the main coin redemption cage on the casino floor.

Back to poker room changes- they've instituted a new policy (this, and other news, are detailed in the newsletter at the sign-up desk as well). Instead of getting your initial buy-in at the table, you are supposed to get an initial stack at the poker room cage and take that with you to the table. Minimums are 20 chips (white or red). From what the regulars said later at my table, this is intended to cut down on the frequent table fills…. which is a good thing, I guess, since the fill button at my table sat there for around 2 HOURS before it finally was taken care of. Supposedly the floor never called the fill button, sitting in plain sight, in to whoever schedules the fills. It didn't affect us too much, but was still a little disconcerting.

The other change concerns the free bad beat jackpot. I guess it's been getting hit too often recently (newsletter said 4 times this year alone… and a regular said 12 times or so since it started last summer), because they've made it harder to hit starting on Feb 21st.
For those of you not aware, the Tropicana self-funds (i.e no extra rake taken out of the pots) a bad beat jackpot. They add $5600 a week (22K total a month). To win the jackpot, you have to have a minimum pot size ($40) and a certain number of players dealt in (6-7). Only Hold'em and 7 stud ring games (high and hi/low) are eligible- Omaha and tournaments are excluded. 40% goes to the "winner", 20% to the suckout hand, 40% divided by the other dealt-in players

Last summer, the qualifying hands were:
HE- Aces full of Kings beaten, had to use both of the down cards to make your hand and their hand.
7stud- Quad Queens beaten.

With the new rules, the higher qualifiers are:
HE- Four deuces beaten, pairs in both hands
7stud- Four Aces beaten

I guess the new rules must be working, because the jackpot was last hit on February 10th… and the current jackpot is $28K.

There was a list, so I waited for about 30 minutes before I got into a $2/4 hold'em game. The $1-3 and $1-5 stud games were open (my spouse sat down right away, lucky stiff!). While I was waiting, I noticed that they were spreading a $2/4 half kill Omaha8 game, which was the first time I'd ever seen that spread anywhere in AC (Taj Mahal regularly spreads 2/4 Omaha8, the Trop used to spread it sporatically). I was on the list, but didn’t get called before I ended up elsewhere. What little I saw of it, the play wasn’t too aggressive.

The usual low limit games were being spread: $2/4, $4/8, $7.50/15. There was also a $10/20 HE and I think a $30/60 (maybe $40/80)… though I’m not sure, since I wasn’t planning on hitting the middle-high limits. The 7stud8 was $10/20. Other games were being spread, not sure what they were. All of the games except the baby stud games had lists. The room seemed to be at least 90% regulars.

I finally got seated at my $2/4 game a little after 8 pm. Typical regulars, mix of tight passive and loose passive. Very few people would bet or raise post-flop with top pair or middle pair/overkicker… making it tough to read hands (several times early on I bet myself into top pair or two pair through the river) or get a feel for the danger I was in. There were two players that kept me at the table- an older woman who played just about every hand, didn’t raise much (but did raise occasionally) and later on, a younger kid who didn’t seem to play that well (pretty obvious what he had).
I didn’t get to stay as long as I’d have liked (my spouse wanted to go home, after blowing through 4 buyins at stud, as well as some blackjack funds…. Did win back the blackjack losses on the slots, though), left a little before 1 a.m Sunday morning. The room was still full almost to capacity.

My personal experiences: After suffering some beats early, and throwing away money playing too loosely from EP, I got my head straightened out, played smarter, got some help from the poker deities and managed to fight back from –22BB to +2 BB. Sadly, our table didn’t even sniff the jackpot.
Some of the key hands in my comeback battle were:

1) Raising with AK (suited and off) several times, then having to fold them on the flop, once on the turn. One minor beat- raised pre-flop, got several callers. Ace flops, I bet through the river, where some numskull with A4off spikes a river 4. Nothing unusual there….

2) Trying a turn steal raise, with K7off, when an Ace and King were on the board. Missed the river, check-folded to the Ax that didn’t go away (I didn’t think a river bet would have worked, but I wondered about it later). I think I got paid off several times later in the evening because of that move.

3) Black tens in EP that I raised preflop, got 5-6 callers. Flop comes 8 high, two tone with 1 spade. My bet gets 4-5 callers. Turn is Qs, I check behind the blinds, others check also. River is the As, I check again expecting to be beaten, but no one bets and I win (I was a little gun-shy about the high cards at that point, having run myself through with them earlier).

4) This bad beat was a killer, but I was proud of how I handled it. KK in middle position, I raise (I was one of the few to raise at all pre-flop, much less with a fair amount of hands), get 5 callers. Flop is Q63, two hearts. SB bets out, UTG calls, I raise, one caller, SB reraises, UTG calls, I call fearing trips, others fold. Turn is black 6, SB checks (he does NOT have trips, obviously), UTG checks, I bet top two, others call. River is the 5h. SB checks, UTG bets (arggh!), I call, expecting a flush, SB folds. UTG turns over 42c (FOUR-TWO of CLUBS called 1 cold, then 2 cold on the flop!!!!) I couldn’t believe THAT one… but I swallowed it down, didn’t let it affect me for long.

5) 85s in EP (table was pretty passive, thought I could get away with it).. but EP raises. 5 people CALL to me, so I call. Flop is 3 beautiful spades, I bet through, getting several passengers along the way (including one on the river, who mucked his hand when I called it)

6) J9off on the button, raise preflop. JJ9 flops, I raise the flop, get 2 callers to the river and one who called the last bet…. ?!

7) Last memorable hand- KJc, flop is AJx rainbow. I called the flop bet, along with 2 others. Turn Ten is raised, I call to catch Q on the river. I bet, one guy calls, raiser pops it, I just call and the trapped guy calls? Raiser and I split the pot.

All in all, a typical game of $2/4 at the Trop. I played poorly early but made up for it later (not steaming overmuch with the beats, so the poker gods rewarded me). The other players saved me a lot of bets (and some pots) by being typically passive.