Borgata Fall Poker Open

Another Borgota Poker Open, another trip to Atlantic City. Mrs New and I drove to AC early Saturday morning so she could play in the ladies event of the Borgota Poker Open. Unfortunately she was unable to cash in either the ladies event or a later event. During the ladies event she had her aces cracked when the board came with all diamonds and she held the ace of diamonds; her opponent flopped the flush after calling a 4x bet with J4d. In her other tournament she overplayed her KK when she raised preflop was called by an opponent with A4 and reraised pushed on an ace high flop. Not sure about that play. My wife told me not to mention that play ever again.

My tournament results were also as impressive meaning I played seven tournaments and did not cash in one. I noticed that the younger players like to overplay their small/medium pocket pairs preflop which worked when I held an overpair but not when holding a drawing hand like AK. Some routine endings:

1. After playing seven hours in the six max it is folded to the button who makes a standard raise. I reraise in the big blind with AK and the young kid instantly pushes with 66; I don't win the flip. I push next hand with QK and two players call. I flop a king but an opponent with 88 hits his set.

2. After playing six hours I am busted set over set.

3. I push as a shorter stack with a king high flush draw and straight draw and am called by the ace high flush draw; we both make our flushes.

I am a bit disappointed in my tournament results as it is a continuation of results from the last open. I heard the same refrain from several other players. It is crazy but I now recognize so many players when I go to AC. One guy, Vincent Spinelli, told me that his poker game got nabbed and he may have to go to jail for a few months although he is trying to home detention. He is a great guy and given the small scope of the game he ran I feel police resources could definitely be spent better elsewhere. I also met some new professional poker players like one kid who regularly plays $25/$50 NL. Great stories about people's time at the world series last summer. There was this one guy who sat down at the $2/$5 PLO table that was the classic definition of a whale. He was a middle aged age with a large belly, dressed well and just was hyper aggressive and dropped four buy-ins before leaving. It was the first time I saw someone with a Borgata Titanium card and with a handfull of $5K chips. Not only being results oriented but I am tending more toward cash games versus tournaments. I enjoy the flexibility of cash games and usually the camaraderie is much better.

I kept my costs low by getting two nights free at the Borgata and two nights free at Harrah's Resorts although you still have to pay all the Atlantic City fees. I was even able to use a free Harrah's buffet coupon and had a great breakfast. I didn't realize that there was such a thing as a hash station where a cook will prepare your own personalized hash concoction. It was my first time eating at the noodles place in the Borgata and I had a decent Pad Thai. Of course I had my standard morning breakfast of Starbucks oatmeal and my late night snack of a turkey burger at Harrah's Bill's Bar and Burger Restaurant. I generally used comps for most of my meals.

I love the free wireless at the Borgata. I found a free app for Amtrak and was able to view train schedules and actually make ticket reservations using my Itouch.

So I ended up spending about $2,200 in tournament entry fees but my cash game results easily covered all those expenses. Checking my spreadsheet, as my tournament entry fee's keep growing without any offsetting tournament winnings, my profit ratio has significantly changed so that now tournament winnings are 2/3 and cash game results are 1/3. I was querying several professionals and semi-pro's asking how much a successful poker professional could make playing $2/$5 NL and it appears the consensus is about $60K/year. My goal would be about $100K/year so that may mean some adjustments would need to be made such as getting tournament staking, playing higher limits, grinding more hours, etc.

I also purchased a blackjack card from the gift store (using comps of course) which states that if you follow the instructions the house should only have about a 1% advantage. I am attempting to work out a plan that increases my comp's with minimal effect to my bankroll. I only played about three 15 minute sessions of blackjack. At Harrah's I played $5 blackjack (always playing two hands at a time) and won $50. At the Borgata I played $15 blackjack and lost my $200. Later before leaving I played once more at the Borgata playing $10 blackjack and won $125. Normally I play about 15 minutes of video roulette in order to let the casino know that I am spending some money in their casino.

Using my poker winnings from this year I bought a new Toyota Prius IV with all the available options. At least I'll have something tangible to remind me that playing poker can have its rewards.