AC Tropicana trip report (long but mostly poker)

[richmhv]

Just got back from a three day stay at the Trop using the poker rate ($89 per night with 4 hours play a day). Overall it was a very good trip. I arrived Sunday 07/24 at about 11 AM. I got into a 4-8 Holdem game almost immediately. The game was super soft and I was up $160 when I left to check in to the room and go to the beach for a while. Ocean temps are warmer than normal this season so I stayed out there until about 4:30, then had dinner at Cuba Libre in the Quarter. A bit expensive, but I had $25 in "Havana dollars from my last visit to put to it. Meal was delicious and there is an excellent selection of rum cocktails as well.
Back to the cardroom after dinner for some 5-10 Stud. I've been doing great with stud online and wanted to give it a try at a higher level than 1-5. Ended up down $81 largely because I made the cardinal mistake of staying in with an OESD against a paired door card. Made the straight and lost to a full house (ouch). Stud can get dull live because you get so many 2 out of 3 hands that you can't play. (hands like 2 of one suit etc.). I did win a nice pot with an ace high flush in spades when I rivered one against a player with an ace high flush in diamonds, winning because I had a jack in my hand which beat his second highest card. Lesson: The second card can be important.
Monday, I won another $145 in another soft 4-8 game early in the day and decided to enter the $20+$10 R/A tourney that night. I played a brief session of 6-12 before dinner, but missed all my hands losing $155. The tournament was awful, I won some chips early with a set of nines but the structure is so bad it rapidly becomes a crapshoot. I was out by about 9 and decided to try the 1-2 NL. I was first going to go back to 4-8 and bought $200 in chips. I had $45 in chips from the 6-12 debacle and decided to jump in the 1-2 NL since they had immediate seating. Things went just OK for a while although I was down about $150. (I did rebuy for an additional $100). Then an amazing had happened. I was dealt AQ, raised to $15 and got 2 callers. Flop came 3AQ rainbow. I led out for $25 and a female player on my left with a massive stack reraised to $75. Third player folded, I called the extra $50 and the turn brought an ace. I bet out about $50 and she moved all in! I had the nuts so I instantly called and won a $465 pot. She had 33 and had the baby boat and blew off about a third of her stack. Just an amazing hand. I left a short while later up $126 on the session.
Tuesday started out kind of funny when a hooker trailed me back to the hotel room after my morning run. No I did not partake. What happened next wasn't so funny. It was brutally hot, a day for the beach so after breakfast, I headed there. I was having a good time until on returning from a swim, my knapsack was missing with my car and room keys in it! The bag was found in one of the casino restrooms and went to lost and found. Whoever took it was looking for cash, found none and dropped the bag. I had to wait until the next day to get it back. The hotel gave me a new key and sent a locksmith to open the luggage so I could get my wallet. At least I could eat dinner and play poker that night. I had found out they had the bag but would not be able to recover it until Wednesday morning. Played some more 1-2NL and won $273 more in a series of small wins. Also played a brief pre dinner session of 4-8 and lost $25. The tournament that night was $100+$20 with one addon, so I went with the cash game.
Wednesday, I got the bag back with the car keys (yea). Only my old sports watch was gone. My canteen, Harrington Vol 2, trail maps were all there. The watch wasn't worth much. Much relieved, I checked out and went back to the card room for some more 1-2 NL and won another $345 before I left for home late in the afternoon. All in all, great waves (I boogie board), great poker and except for the pack incident, a good time. The card room spreads 10-20 HE on weekends mostly but has 10-20-30-30 and 15-30-45-45 stud and I also think stud HL going most of the time. I am not experienced enough to want to try the higher limit stud games, so I have no idea how tough they may be. The 5-10 was no harder than 1-2 on Stars. I lost but only 8 big bets, not a catastrophe. Overall great trip, up $658.