My AC trip report (long and includes cash game play)

[KKsuited]

I posted this here because I most often read this section of 2+2. Sorry if it has to much cash game stuff (for the people who get really pissed if you post under the wrong section).

I took off from Atlanta last Thurday to head up to Atlantic City for 3
days of poker. I planned on playing 3 tournaments and the cash games.
There were two $225 events and one $20 rebuy event I was going to play,
but ended up only playing the rebuy event.

Tropicana - $20 rebuy

Added on at the start and triple up to about $7k in the first hour. Put
the worst beat I've ever seen on a kid (first live tournament ever for
this kid, may be his last). Right before the rebuy period was up, I
picked up QJ, hit the top pair (Q) on the flop and moved in.
The kid calls me with a set of 8's. Turn Q, river Q...quads for me, the
kid is busted. I don't think the kid had the money to rebuy (or just
wasn't planning on putting that much in).

Bad news was by the second level after the break, blinds were already at
600, which left me only 10 bets above the big blind. I lost with AK
twice and was beat with it once. Pretty much it for me. I made it to
about 120 out of 190, whaahooo. What a waste of time. Based on this
structure and how well I was doing in the cash games, I decided not to
play the other events. I heard the $225 at the Taj is very good, but I
was doing to well in the cash games to make it.

Before the tournament, I found my new love. No not a 6 ft blonde with
huge cans, it was NL cash games. I usually play limit, but when that
was full, I took a spot at the 1/2 NL game at the Trop. I will never
play limit again. I had played NL cash games before on the internet,
but didn't like it very much. That all changed last week.

I played about 20 hours total. I'm over the "see how long I can play"
stage. When I sat down Saturday mourning there were college kids (I'm
28) bragging about how they had played all night and were cutting
themselves off at 20 hours. The one kid had his "profit stack" as he
called it, in front of him that totaled about $75 bucks. I took all
that a few hands after sitting down. Great job dude, you played all
night and broke even. Please see Negreanu's articles about never
playing for to long at one time and never playing tired and not on your
"A" game.

I'll go over a few of my hands in the NL game:

1) With the college kid who played 20 hours straight. I know tons of
people do this, but it really is pretty dumb to do (unless of course
you're making a bunch of money, if so, carry on).

I call a raise in position with J,10s (college kid was the raiser, I'll
call him CK). Flop comes 10 high, CK checks, I bet, CK calls. Turn
comes an 8, making two 8's on the board, CK checks, bet, CK raises my
$10 bet to $35, I call. River is a blank. check, check, I win the pot
as CK mucks. He said he thought he could scare me when the second 8
hit..lol. I told him logic would tell me that is was very unlikely he
raised prelop with any hand that included an 8 except for 8,8 (not
likely) or A8, not likely, but possible. Get some more sleep so you
don't do dumb [censored] like that. Sorry about taking your "profit stack."

2) The hand of the weekend. I lost it, but it got a good rise out of
the poker room. I had built my stack up pretty good (up about $250)
when this hand comes up.

Preflop raise, I call along with 3 others. I hold AKs and the flop
comes QJ10, 2 hearts. I have spades. First bettor bets, gets raised, I
resaise them both all their chips, button reraises me all his chips
(another $75 to me) with A10 of hearts. The guy put all his money in as
a 3-1 dog (basically 3-1 because the other 2 players had KK and an open ended st8 draw). I could be wrong on those odds, but I'll take that bet every time anyway. The guy is on a flush draw with a gutshot to split the pot. At this point the pot is
about $600.

Turn blank, river a K of hearts!!! Royal flush for the button. Unreal.
Good news is I'm still in good shape for the day, even after losing a
$600 pot.

3) The guy who hit the royal on me got his later in the day. In 2
hands I got all my money back and some more. I flopped a nut flush, let
him hit his set, then he paid me pretty well.

A few hands later, I hit a set of 4's on the flop, get 3 callers. There
is a club draw that I know these guys won't laydown, so I kind of played
it like a puss. I bet $30 on the flop and turn, then on the river, the
club flush came. Luckily for me, it paired the board. The royal flush
man was wise enough to lay down his flush when I bet out $100, the other
lady was not so wise and paid me off.

I played about 20 hours in 3 days and made a little over $1,000 ($50 an
hour is not bad for me). I played 4 different sessions, taking no less
than $200 each time. The one thing I really capitalized on was
Supersystems advice of Playing Hands that Can Bust People.

2 of my biggest hands were calling preflop raises with 7,10s and 5,4s.
I hit str8's and won huge pots. Both times other people in the pots
were on big pairs and could not lay them down with the flops that I hit.
I've played around 25k tournament hands and feel I know how to play
these hands. Some people can get in trouble with these, but like Doyle
said, if you know how to play these hands, you can make some good money
with them.

I had a great time and will be returning in December.

Note: I'm no pro, so feel free to bash my logic if you feel it is necessary.