Borgata Poker Open September 2011

So I decided to spend another week playing tournaments during the Borgata Poker Open. Unfortunately I don't have any exciting news. Luckily for me, I broke even for the trip. I mean really broke even after all expenses. Approximate results:

Tournament winings $2,500

Tournament entry fees $5,500

Cash winnings $3,200

What these results indicate to me are that perhaps I should stick with cash games. My biggest cash game results were while playing $2/$5 Pot Limit Omaha. Generally there are one or two players that don't really understand the game and you just bid your time until taking their stacks. Sometimes you can trap an overly aggressive regular PLO player as well. While playing PLO I had my first pumpkin or orange $1K chip. I hope this isn't the last I see of these.

I played 14 tournaments and one Sit-N-Go. All were No Limit with the exception of one PLO tournament. I don't remember any really bad play but that could be a result of faulty or selective memory. Generally the way I left a tournament was losing some sort of coin flip. In one tournament I lost three in a row which isn't a good long-term strategy. In one tournament I saw a guy get dealt pocket aces three hands in a row and he won every time. Within half of an hour the table was dealt five pocket aces and two pocket kings. Unfortunately I was just a bystander during this action. In one tournament Gavin Smith was at my table. I irritated him by pushing on him with a large overbet with AK after he made a standard raise in early position. Apparently he is expected the birth of his second child soon.

In my last tournament both Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen were at the table next to me.

My only cashes were two final tables in smaller bounty chip events. Unfortunately I was tossed out around 7th place when you really need to make the top three to get any real money.

I kept my expenses low by using credit card points for one Saturday Night at a Holiday Inn and then got four nights comped at Harrah's Resorts and two nights at the Borgata which is a first for me, especially when one night was on a Friday night. I also used comps to pay for certain meals. Again it was a most enjoyable time and I can't wait to do it again.