AC Trip Report (long)

[Bulldog]

4 AM Saturday - rxl182 busts out of the 2/4 HK game at Lottery Larry’s, so the game is breaking and the Borgata trip is on. The Watcher is on the fence, so we all go to the Wawa while he makes a decision. Besides, rxl182 and The Watcher claim there is some amazing looking female working there.

4:05 AM - Arrival at Wawa. I'm trying to determine if the hot chick is the 50-year-old in the deli or the 40-year-old behind the counter. Colin bails on AC but rxl182 and I plan to leave his truck at a hotel and jump on the turnpike and go.

5:15 AM - Emergency stop at the AC Expressway rest stop. I'm about to fall asleep at the wheel but rxl182 has kept his eyes open (barely) the whole way, so we are still alive. I am in dire need of a five-minute rest so we stop and take a little break.

5:45 AM - Rolling into AC, rxl182 has finally fallen asleep, about five minutes before arrival.

5:50 AM - We find a nice spot on the first floor and just being in the parking garage of the Borgata gives both of us a second wind.

6:00 AM - We're both on the 6/12 list (one game just broke, and there is only one left), first and second. I also get on the 1/2 NL list.

6:05 AM - I'm on a 1/2 NL table, sitting in with $300 as the #2 stack, with several between $50 & $200 and one kid at about $1,600. Remarkable 1/2 NL hands:

88 UTG. I limp in and get several callers. Flop 854 rainbow. I bet out $15 and get raised to $30. All fold to me and I push in. Raiser has only about $60 more and calls. He doesn't show but says he has pair and straight draw. I show mine and don't like to see the board finish (854)23, but he must've had 87 or 75 because he folds and I'm up about $100.

8 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] on the button. Five or six to the flop, A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. I pick up a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. EP opens for $15, one caller, another caller (the big stack), and I call. Turn is the 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], giving me the nut straight and my flush draw. EP again bets $15, one caller, and the big stack makes it $40. I can't figure out what he has. Maybe 32 since he's been playing a little loose with his stack, maybe a set of sixes, maybe A6? I'm not sure. I've got the nuts and would like action so I decide $120 is the right price. Two folds and the big stack quickly goes all in. I call and he shows 87o. Good news and bad news. I'm not ahead, but I can't lose and I'm freerolling for his half of the $800 pot. No spade on the river and I have to settle for half.

AQo in the SB. EP makes it $15, CO calls, and I call. Flop is Qxx rainbow, so I bet out $30. EP makes it $60 and CO goes all in for $102. If I had a clue I'd fold to the raise and reraise, but I call and so does EP. EP had $104 so I'm not risking too much. EP shows KK (overpair) and CO shows QQ (set). I'm drawing all but dead and of course lose the pots.

KK on the button, next hand. I bust a small stack with JJ and make my $100 right back, just in time to get my 6/12 seat.

6:30 AM - I move to 6/12, up about $150, in Seat 8. rxl182 is already there in Seat 10. He played a little 3/6 before he got called over. It's definitely an interesting table. There is a little Indian dude in Seat 7 who is drunk and ranting, mostly at Seat 3, who has a militia/cult look going. For about two hours it's the world against Seat 7, at least if you asked him. Finally a floor guy overhears him offering to go outside with somebody (this kid was about 5'8" 130) and has a chat with him. They let him stay (good thing, he was losing money left and right) and he settled down. rxl182 kept getting beaten up and I was pretty much holding steady.

More interesting at our 6/12 game was the guy in Seat 5 wearing a suit. He steadily built a stack of about $900 from maybe $300, winning ridiculous hand after ridiculous hand. rxl182 got the first stomach punch from him. I'm not sure of the particulars of the hand, but the pot was capped four ways preflop and rxl182 had KK or AA. Board ended up something like T8424 and "Jacket Guy" had 64o. A little later there was another four-way capped pot, flop 975, and drunk Seat 7 and Jacket Guy raised each other the rest of the way. Seat 7 flopped a set of nines but the board didn't pair and Jacket Guy of course had 86o for the flopped straight. Jacket Guy got one from me when I limped in with A9. Flop was 988 and I bet it and he just called. Turn was a 6, I checked and he bet, I raised and he called. River was a 7 and I knew I didn't want to see it. He had 65o.

So he keeps this up and I start begging him to go play upstairs. Take some casino money instead of ours with the horseshoe up you’re a$$! So he goes upstairs, loses a hundred bucks playing blackjack, and comes back down and starts hammering all of us again.

Finally rxl182 gets KK to hold up against him and wins a big pot. I told rxl182 he was the dragonslayer, and that they'd write folk songs about him, which cracked up the whole table. Jacket Guy lost another one or two hands (I got one big one from him and said I thought there should be triumphant horns playing) so he cashed out about $750 and left, to everyone's delight. Normally you like to keep that terrible player there, and I really don't believe in luck, but I was glad to see him go.

10:30 AM - rxl182 and I start discussing when to leave. I suggest noon, and he points at his stack of about $120 and says he might not last that long. We settle on 11 and play on.

11 AM - I'm down to about my initial $300 and rxl182 is under $100. He wants to press on so we do. He goes on a huge run and wins maybe seven or eight pots in the next hour. I take down a couple as well.

Noon - rxl182 is back to $304 (up four bucks) and I'm at my high water mark ($473, +$173), so that final hour turns out to be a good idea. We cash out and hit the lunch buffet.

1:30 PM - We're on the road and I'm feeling pretty awake until we are within about ten miles of the bridge. I struggle my way through the next hour or so and we survive (despite one close call on the Schuylkill) and make it back to the hotel.

3:00 PM - I'm almost out of gas so I drop off rxl182 and go looking for a gas station. I fill up and then go find a restroom. My phone was off, charging, so I turn it on and make a call as I head back toward the turnpike entrance. I listen to my voice mail before getting on the turnpike and I have three messages from rxl182. The first is him telling me he left his keys in my car. Luckily I hadn't gotten on yet so I turn around and call him back. He's already walked to a little strip mall to buy his mom a birthday card (he went to AC on his mom's birthday!) and I find him there. Apparently he realized he didn't have his keys the moment he got out of my car but I was so oblivious that I didn't notice him sprinting behind me trying to flag me down!

So he goes in the card store and I listen to his other two messages. One is just some background noise followed by "f***" and a click. While I'm sitting in my car laughing about this, waiting for him to buy his card so I can drive him back to his truck, he comes back out, and finds his money clip that he LEFT IN MY CAR next to the seat. Yep, he left his keys and his money in there. Good thing he wasn't driving!

4:00 PM - Finally home, I turn on college football figuring to watch a little other action before Penn State at 6:00.

5:00 PM - Asleep on the couch, until 8 AM Sunday morning.