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Old 12-25-2005, 10:51 PM
TheSeeker03 TheSeeker03 is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Default 5/10 Taj trip report. Very long. Some content

This is a follow to the thread I started a few days ago:

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SETTLING IN.

We got to the Taj at 2pm on Wednesday. By some miracle, we got a deal for $35/night for Wed and Thu night. I guess he demand this week was really low. Rooms are clean, nice, and have a safe. Can't beat the deal.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

Taj poker room gave me a chilly welcome. Not the floor personel, but the players. Cheap sneakers, crummy jeans, rough looking unshaven middleaged dudes, with zero courtesy. I said excuse me when passing between the tables, guy didn't budge, pretended not to hear me. Im slowly pacing out side the room waiting for a table, some guy walks out crossing my path three inches in front of me, not even looking, as if Im not there. No excuse me, no nothing. Just keeps walking. Profanity is omnipresent.

No, not everyone there is like that, but enough of them to set that kind of atmosphere.

More generally, bitterness is in the air. As oppose to Borgata, where everyone is a happy-go-lucky tourist, at Taj is seems that half the folks are AC locals. They live in that miserable dump of a town, and they bring their misery with them to the room. They are always in a bad mood.

Overall, the crowd is pretty old. Quite a few guys seemed to be in their seventies.

SCOUTING FOR GAMES.

I was curious to see what the 5/10 games are like, so I walked around the room looking for them. Luckily, toughness of limit games is much easier to judge than that of no limit. In tough games there are few open-limps, few people see the flop, lots of steals, lots of post-flop aggression, and almost no PF cold-calls. I was very relieved to see few pre-flop raises, lots of open limps, 5-player flops, and a few cold-calls preflop.

I approached the signup and asked how many 5/10 tables they had. She said 1. I said there have to be at least two, because I saw two! I had to actually walk with the floor guy and point him to the other 5/10 table that I found, in his own card room!

FIRST GAME.

I got a seat at around 3 pm. From the first hand it was cleat that the game is very beatable. Plenty open-limps, some cold-calls. Just play tight ABC poker and you'll be just fine. One thing I also noticed is that the players were extremely predictable. I can count on one hand the number of flop raises that were NOT for value! These old guys will raise a set on a dry board, but they will not raise for: semi-bluff, isolation, free card, bluff, pot equity value (nut flush draw with many callers), etc! Turn check-raises were even more uncommon, even for value. They don't check to the flop bettor when they make their straght/flush, they just bet it out! But they will call you down to the river with a pair.

On one hand I had AJs in CO, and raised. Flop came QJrag, 2 clubs. Checked to me, I bet. Turn a rag. Checked to me I bet. River a 9 club. check, old guy bets, I fold, the checker folds. The pot was may be 8 BB, 9 with his bet, normally I would've called. But not from that guy. He was too predictable. A Stop and Go from him is a sure thing. I folded to his 2pair/set/straight/flush.

This was typical of most players at the table.

Long story short, i made 6BB in three hours, while experiencing a few suckouts.

THE "10/20 GUY"

Not all players were as predictable. About an hour into the game a young Asian player with a Poker Stars hat said down. I thought: "oh oh. better keep an eye on him". Sure enough, he three bets a straight draw heads up on the flop. Then check raises the turn with the straight.

Another hand there is a raise, guy to the right of me, a middle aged Asian guy who seemed decent 3bets, PokerStars caps. Flop is rags. My right bets, PS raises, fold, my right calls. 2 players. Turn is a Q. My right checks, PS bets, my right raises, PS 3 bets. My right calls. River is a rag. My right check calls. PS has AQo, my right has AA and takes the pot. "Nice hand", I say to him, "that guy is something else". "Yeah" he says, "that guy is not a typical 5/10 player. He's got that 10/20 style". For the rest of the game I mentally referred to him as the 10/20 guy. He certainly was aggressive, but I don't know about that turn 3 bet. That was too much, if you ask me. But then again I don’t remember the suit situation of the board, which important.

4/8 AT TROP

We got to the Trop in hopes of sitting in the legendary Pink Chip game. We got our names on the list, but unfortunately the PC game never got off the ground. Not enough interest that night. While waiting for the game we sat in the 4/8 game.

The game was tougher than Taj. Tighter and more aggressive. It still looked beatable, but I didn’t do too well. Dropped $90 in 2 hours. When it was clear that the PC game won’t happen, we headed back to the Taj.

WED NIGHT AT TAJ 5/10

We got to the Taj at about 1AM. And got into games. I played 5/10 and my friend wanted to try $1-5 spread limit 7 stud. He later said it was easy. He made $200 in 3 hours.

My 5/10 game was the easiest game I have seen in a long time. Every pre-flop raise had cold-callers. 6 handed flops were norm and very passive, predictable post flop. A guy to my right literally did not know how to play. He was kind of learning as he went, and made some incredible suckouts. Eventually he ended up blowing through $800 that night, much of it found its way into my stack.

I couldn’t believe how easy the game was and how bad the players were. They ranged from weak semi-tight to completely clueless. But the frustrating part was that for two hours I didn’t get any cards. So I sat there drooling as hundreds of dollars were changing hands in front of me, but there was nothing I could do except wait. I wasn’t going to find a better EV game anywhere else, so I just told myself to be patient. My cards finally started to arrive at about 3AM. In the next two hours I made $500.

DEALER ERIC

There really isn’t much more to add about that game except we got this really cool dealer one time, guy named Eric. He is white, looks like late 20s, short dark hair, about 6’1”. The guy was amazing. Did card tricks, fast, and funny. The table came even more alive when he dealt and the game speeded up by a factor of two. A good dealer doesn’t just speed things up by dealing fast. If he is fast it’s like he subconsciously sets the pace. Everyone plays faster. I think he also deals in Borgata.

AFTERNOON TAJ.

Next day I woke up at 1PM and played a few hours in Taj afternoon 5/10. Hopped a few tables. One table was tough, others typical semi-tight passive. Made about $70. Then we headed to Borgata.

BORGATA BUFFET

Borgata Buffet is totally worth $30. I’ve never associated buffet food with quality, but this was really quality food, often healthy food, with large selection. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. I had three full plates and then desert. We just sat there and stuffed ourselves for like an hour and a half. If you get the chance, pay the $30 and get the dinner buffet. You won’t regret it.

BORGATA 6/12

Borgata 6/12 didn’t treat me well. It wasn’t tough, but not much chip spewage either. I dropped $120 in about 2 hours and gave 1/2 NL a shot. But my friend did well. He said the game got better after I left. By 3 am he had made $500.

Here is a hand that bothered me for a while. I think I played it too weak:
All fold to CO, who limp. Blind folds, SB calls, I am in BB and check with Qh9c. Flop is JT rag w/2hearts. SB checks, I bet, CO raises, SB folds, I call. Turn is a rag heart. I check fold. Too weak? Probably. Perhaps I was used to the TAJ that when people raise they have it, and semibluffs are useless, as there is no folding equity. I didn’t feel I was getting odds to call either. So I took a stab on the flop and folded when straight didn’t come.

BORGATA 1/2 NL CHOKE

No limit was a mix of college kids and a middle aged couple, they were bad. I found that I choke in No Limit live games. Online when I play 50NL on party I am not intimidated to bet the right amount. But live, I choked. I just couldn’t take $50 – 60 worth of chips and make the correct pre-flop re-raise with AKs.

Guy to my right who has been raising a lot, made it $15. I look down and see AKs. But I only re-raised to $35. A bad player behind me, small blind, and original raiser call. A frickin $140 pot. Flop comes Q and two heart rags. It’s checked to me, and I bet $50. $50!! Into a $140 dollar pot with a flush draw. What the hell kind of bet is that!? Again I choked. Only original raiser called. He moved in on the blank turn for the rest of his $100 or so. I folded and he showed AQo. Looking back, it was probably best that I bet so little, because he was calling anyway with that hand, but still I played it wrong.

There is something about live NL that makes me freeze, even when I know what the right thing to do is. I think from now I’ll only play live NL with money I win from limit games. That way it will be psychologically easier to bet and raise large amounts.

Overall I still managed to come out some $100 ahead in that game.

We went back to Taj at about 3AM. I went straight to bed, my friend played till 9AM.


Next day we had to get up and leave early. He had some emergency come up at work. Pink Chip game will have to wait till next time. But Trop dealer who played at my 5/10 table said that it’s the loosest game in town.

Poker profit: $598
Total trip expenses: $255
Pure profit: $343

Im happy.
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