So I headed to Borgata last weekend and this weekend for the yearly Borgata Winter Open. I had a very interesting week. Pre-emptive sorry for ranting at times but I like to get all my thoughts out and had a few interesting notes on the weekend (and my own personal horror movie scene). So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

So I get 51/495 in the $750 w/ 45 paying. Played 12.5 hrs before bubbling. Guy w/ like 75k limps for 3k utg and he had limp/called like 90 times so I make it 9500 w/ 50kish and KK after not having a pair above 4s since 300/600. J73dd flop he donks 12k, I jam for 40, and he calls w/ T9d. 7…8. 110k pot when avg was 80k at 1500/3k. The most tilting part is he started shipping his chips towards me and saying nh b/c he didn’t even realize he had a straight until the dealer told him (he just thought he had a flush draw). I almost punched him in the face but amazingly got out an “nh gl,” before skipping to the parking lot like a happy little boy. I realized after this weekend that I have to be the most leveled person when I play live poker, even if I am completely bonkers online. I’m such a swell guy.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty tilted and consider driving home in the morning but meh’d myself into playing. So I sucked it up and played the 1k the next day. 522 runners w/ 150k for 1st. It was at this point I realized if the 750 had 5 more runners it woulda paid 54 instead of 45 and I woulda min cashed and not bubbled. Yet another tall finger up to Borgata.

I was short pretty much all day w/ a horrible seat w/ this massive lagtard (young kid who was rly good) sitting on my left. Table finally breaks and I hit a big rush at my new table. Have 100k at 1/2k, when the standard mkind cooler happens. Young guy opens to 6k in CO w/ 70k, I 3b otb w/ AKo for 17k, and sb cold jams 78.5k. I had already 3b/f vs the orig opener w/ air on my 2nd hand at the table, and raise/folded vs the sb earlier bvb and he showed 74o. So obv I call and naturally he has KK. I turn the backdoor flush draw but brick.

Old guy on my right starts berating me for calling w/ AK (he was right after all). He then tried to get the floor to ID me (the floor man literally laughed in his face even though this guy was serious) and when he failed said to me, “It’s ok boy, your dreams are my reality.” I suppose if my dreams incl. a 1980s haircut and a t-shirt he got free for buying 5 lap dances at once, he was right. Spent the rest of the day playing unexploitably and finish w/ 38.8k going to 2k/4k w/ 61 left (54 paying). I should also note that I lost my jacket (which had my car keys and ipod in the pockets) during one of the table breaks and had to spend 10 minutes filling out a security form across the casino to get it back. This was not going well.

At this point, it’s 2 am (15 hour days ftw!). I’m in great position to bubble; yet I now have to pay for a room. Problem is the entire city is booked…not one room. I had my mom call every hotel she could. She was super pissed at me for not booking a room earlier but I never thought I would still be in. Finally, she finds this motel on the strip. It’s 4:30 am now, in the heart of Atlantic City. This is a dark scary looking neighborhood w/ lots of ppl u don’t want to run into at night. The thing seriously looked like something out of a horror movie. My room is at the end of the hallway, LITERALLY right next to an alley w/ nothing to block pedestrians from walking thru the hotel. This was downright scary. I get through the night sleeping w/ 1 eye open and keeping the metal luggage stand next to my bed as a weapon. Keep in mind, I’m putting my life on the line in this motel just so I can likely go bubble in the afternoon. Poker is fun…for everyone.

So I survive and get back to Borgata (2 hrs early, so I had to watch Family Guy on my ipod until 2 pm). I have a terrible seat draw. In a tourney w/ like 50% of remaining players over 40, I have 3 guys under 30 on my left and an Asian woman, all with huge stacks (I’m also on table 1, so the table is not going to break at any point). 1st hand of the day I FINALLY catch a break. HJ shoves for 55k at 2/4. Hes young and showed yesterday he can shove light in spots where hes supposed to. BB is sitting out, so I figure hes shoving even lighter than usual and call ai w/ A9o. Ofc he has AK but theres a 9 in the door. After the night I had, I deserved it.

Few mins later another young guy shoves 53k in CO and I reshove AJo from sb and hold vs his A5o. I get as high as 170k as the bubble bursts, but the structure completely goes to hell and the blinds go up to 3/6 w/ the avg at 115k. I then lose 40k w/ AQ on a J high flop to some mega nit before the final hand.

UTG raises to 20k. He’s this mid 20s Asian guy w/ 250k. Hes raising a good amount of pots to all different amounts (some as high as 5x) and has folded to a ton of 3bets (incl. 1 to me when I reshoved 17 bbs on his co raise w/ KK in a spot where I prob shoulda flatted but figured his Asianness would make him call).

**DISCLAIMER: Bluff Magazine nor I discriminate against anyone or race. I am simply using a common live poker location tell, which to be fair, holds true like 90% of the time.**

I have TT utg+1 w/ 135k. Honestly, I felt I shoulda folded because he gave some speech about how he wasn’t folding this time when he raised and he was raising utg (which he hadn’t done yet). But I felt my shove would look absurdly strong from this spot and my hand was decent enough, so I put it in. Folds to the young guy who made my life hell yesterday who has 200kish. He tanks and reshoves. The Asian guy calls the clock on himself and folds (he said he had JJ and I think I believe him). Amazingly, the young guy has AK, but it’s me in a huge flip so u know what happens. 300k pot w/ the avg at 120k. Sigh. I hated my shove in this hand but that AK call was pretty bad once I did vs my perceived range (and this guy was rly good too). Idk what to think about it.

So I got 52nd for $1578 and loads of horrible memories from the weekend. Played 30 hours of live poker and still lost money. Love that poker. At the very least, it’s my 1st recognized cash in a 21+ casino so yay.

I then came back home to start class this week (I’ll save that post for later) before coming back to Borgata today. My original plan was to just watch TV all night and then wake up for the main event tomorrow. I had an excellent PLO session yesterday (which I’ve started to play a fair bit lately), so I was taking great momentum into Sunday. Naturally, I decided to go against my instinct. Genius.

So I head downstairs to play a sng satellite. I planned this trip poorly and didn’t have much cash on me, so I played a $460 sng despite only having $457 on me. A kind gentleman lent me the extra $3 (which I paid back later) so I could play. Played 3 hands in the entire SNG and literally got shown AA all 3 times. Talk about killing momentum. But should I go to bed? Nooooo fn way, gotta get some mo’ back. Bad idea, kid, bad idea.

Since I was cash busto (again rly poor planning on this trip by me), I had to play online. Lets just say I had one of my worst PLO sessions ever. I didn’t exactly play great but I ran pretty lol too. At this point, my momentum heading into the main event (starting in t minus 9 hours) is completely south of the equator.

So my hope here is to make this post (in all seriousness, I’m starting to consider a career in writing, which is something I’ve been told I should do for as long as I can remember), express my thoughts, and sort of cleanse my soul. I’m trying to expel the bad karma and bring back the good vibes I’m gunna need to make an impact in this major tourney this week. So here’s to exercising the demons and running good (at least until Thursday!). And if not…

–Jason