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#1
11-30-2003, 12:59 PM
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Underage in AC - A Trip Report (Part I of III)
Tuesday Night:
Well, I caught the Greyhound at Union Station in DC. I don't have a car, and the trains don't run to AC, so I really didn't have another option. The Greyhound isn't bad, but it isn't great, so I don't see myself making the trip again for the long stay. It was my first time in AC, and I was really impressed by the facade of all the casinos on the boardwalk. I love that they all try to have the biggest signs to draw you into their casino. I already had a reservation at the Econolodge across from the Trop (40$ a night? Yes, please,) so I cruised over there and dropped off my stuff, put on my black zip-up jacket, jeans, and UB cap, and went off to play some cards. Another note - as the title suggests, I am only 18. Walking into a casino for the first time underage always makes my heart skip a beat. At first, you see a floorperson and get worried. But I didn't get a second look at either the Trop or the Taj, and fell into my comfort zone rather quickly. I had a roll of about 700, and was allowing myself an ATM withdrawal of 300 if I hit a bad streak. Which happened right away when I sat down at 7.50/15.00 at the Trop. I learned four very important lessons about B+M play in my first twenty minutes at the Trop. LESSON #1: Don't sit in a game that is bigger than your bankroll is prepared for EVEN IF that game is the only game with open seats and the floorman is pushing you into it. WAIT for the game you are comfortable with. LESSON #2: Don't sit in a game when you are starving after a long bus ride. LESSON #3: Don't sit in a game when you are tired after a long bus ride. LESSON #4: If you violate lessons 1, 2, and 3, then make sure you don't play a shorthanded game, and play five hands, and your opponent makes 2 pair or better each hand while you make a second-best hand. And definitely don't drop $250 in your first twenty minutes. Ouch. So much for starting out well. One hand that sucked, and I wonder if I should have laid down. I have Tc 9c in the BB. It's four handed. UTG folds, Button limps. SB completes, I check. Flop: 2c 5c Qc SB checks, I bet, Button folds, SB calls. Turn: 8c SB bets, I think for a while then call. River: blank SB bets, I call. SB sloooowly turns over his hand. They are stacked, so all I can see is the Js, but then he spreads his two cards and out comes the Ac. And all I can think about is....he's a slooowoooowowooroller. He's a rat. BTW, Tommy's CD rules. I think I need to fold on the turn. But in my tired state I threw out another thirty. Oh well. I walk out on to the Boardwalk to get some fresh air and get cornered into taking a rickshaw ride. I'm like, what the hell, I'm starving, and walking takes energy. I find out that rickshaw drivers get worked over by their company. It costs $50 dollars a week to rent a rickshaw, but there's never any business on the weekdays - my driver had all of four rides in eight hours. So, it would seem better to rent for single days on the weekend, but it's extremely expensive to rent on Saturday and Sunday, so they are all kind of stuck, begging for people to give them business. Sad state of affairs. Anyway, this guy gave me a ride over to a pizza joint, and then over to the Taj on the other end of the boardwalk. And the Taj didn't get any better. I sat down at 3/6 at the Taj around 9:30. I broke even for a couple hours, when the table looked like it was going to break, as there were only four of us left. But the dealer was hilarious, so the four of us stuck around and played shorthanded. As luck would have it, I went on a twentyfive-hand run of cold cards, so I dropped about 80 dollars total in the session when our game broke. I was still feeling alright when I moved over to 5/10. It was a good game - a couple of ok players on my left, a very loose-weak player on my right, and a couple more guys to the right who weren't great and had a couple beers. There was one player out of the eight sitting who was solid, but he was 3 to my right so I wasn't too worried. But, if you don't get the cards, you can't get paid off. My Queens got cracked both times I played them, my Kings couldn't hold up, and My AK which flopped an A got cracked by 56. You just aren't going to have a winning session when stuff like this happens. I wasn't playing many other hands, so when you have the cards but the flops aren't working out, you are in trouble. Anyway, I dropped the 120 I had from the 3/6 game and 40 more here, when around 3:00 I decided that I'd had enough and it was time to get some sleep. One hand from 5/10. - we're eight-handed. I have QQ on the button. 2 limpers to me, I pop it, relatively solid SB three-bets. limpers call, I cap, everyone calls. Flop: J x x rainbow. SB leads out (uh oh,) limpers fold, I raise, he reraises, I think for a while and then cap. I want to see how he'll react to the cap, and figure out if he has AJs or if he has me beat with Kings or aces. He calls the cap. Another blank comes on the turn, and he checks to me. I check along. The river comes another blank, and he leads out. I tell him I'm almost certain he has kings, but i can't lay down an overpair for a single bet on the river. So I call and sure enough, he has the kings. Would it ever be right to lay this down? I don't know. But I was pretty damn certain what two cards he had in the hole. I thought over my play on the day and i decided that I played pretty poorly in the 7.50/15 game, but I played allright in the 3/6 and 5/10 games at the Taj, the cards and flops just weren't coming. When the few big hands you have get cracked, and you miss all eight of your flush draws, it's going to be a losing session. So, I chalk the -500 day up to a bad swing, and get ready to play the next day. And, unfortunately, it looks like my one ATM withdrawal is going to happen very soon. Parts 2 and 3 will be forthcoming. Will 
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#2
11-30-2003, 01:49 PM
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Re: Underage in AC - A Trip Report (Part I of III)
I learned four very important lessons about B+M play in my first twenty minutes at the Trop.
Too bad you cannot learn some of those lessons in a book [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] I would have advised you to stay away from the pink game without at least 100 big bets. That game gets very wild.
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#5
11-30-2003, 07:04 PM
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Re: quick question re: underage
That's a good question.
I don't know because I've never been caught [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] And I've never seen anyone get caught. So all I can offer is guesses. You'd get kicked out, and you may or may not lose the chips you have in front of you. I'd doubt they'd take it any farther than that. What I can tell you is that, from my experience, poker rooms are just not looking out for underage players. I went to all of the big rooms in AC - the Trop, the Taj, and the Borgata - and the only room where there was a slight hitch was the Borgata. I didn't even get a wink at the other two. At the Borgata, it was clear some of the players knew I was underage (other than MG, who I told,) and when I tipped the dealer at the end of his shift, he said, "thank you, young man." Also, when I was on the main floor, I saw a friend playing craps and walked up to ask how he was doing. I was immediately asked by the dealer for ID, and I said, "Sorry I'm not playing, I just came by to see how he was doing," and walked away. Anyway, essentially what I learned is that you can play poker in AC and not get carded. Even though I looked young, I also looked like I knew what I was doing, and that might have counted for something. Will
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#6
12-01-2003, 12:47 AM
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Re: Underage in AC - A Trip Report (Part I of III)
"I don't have a car, and the trains don't run to AC, so I really didn't have another option."
You DO have another option...you can take Amtrak to AC, and it is much better than the bus (though more expensive, $100 RT with Triple A Discount). Go to the window at Union and say one to atlantic city...you go through 30th street station in philadelphia (check the web and time it out so there is no delay when u catch the local train in philly to AC). It is much more comfortable and trains leave often. Whole thing takes 3 hours. Jeff
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#8
12-01-2003, 02:46 PM
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Re: quick question re: underage
When I was underage, back in the bronze age, my mother used to paint a moustache on me to help me pass for 21 in the casino. An interesting childhood, but that's another story.
My girlfriend once hit a $1,000 jackpot in a nickel slot machine. She was underage and I was over 21, but before I could get over there to say I had hit the jackpot, the casino guys were there asking for her ID. A big to-do followed and the end of it was that my attorney met with Steve Wynn and he gave us $500. Nice writing. I look forward to parts II & III.
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