My Haphazardly Put Together Trip Report - LONG.

[ammbo]

It was quite a good trip. I averaged 4 hours of sleep the whole time, so forgive me if I leave out critical details.

Piemaster and SteveGriff flew into NYC on Wednesday evening and we all opted to go out for a few pints that evening. I was planning to play the $500 tournament at the Borgata the next day so we only stayed out until 12:30 or so. I thought the tournament started at 8 AM (duh) so we got up at 5 and drove to AC. Of course, the tournament was not until 11 AM so we had to cool our heels. In the tournament I made a few good bluffs but overall failed to take advantage of an early chip lead at my table. I got the lead by nearly tripling up in a raised pot with 63o. I was BB (50) and called an UTG raise from a super aggressive player after 5 others called. The flop was . I checkraised his $500 bet to 2K and got two callers. The turn was the lovely . I checked (bad idea) and it checked around. The river was (action killer) and I value bet 1500. Both called, I assume with AK and a flush.

I made it as far as the dinner break before this hand came up on the last hand before dinner. I had AQ, BB reluctantly called my raise. I c/b on a flop of A44. He bet into me when a T turned and I put him all in. He called with AT and rivered another 10. I had all of dinner to strategize what I would do from UTG with an M of about 2.5. When I got back from dinner I pushed with and ran into KK. That was all she wrote.

I wanted to stay and rail Primitive but he insisted he was a big boy (he is 7ft something, after all). Off I went to the cocktail reception. There I had the pleasure of meeting numerous people for the first time, including Rocket and Wynton, both of whom live in NYC not too far from me.

That night I played the midnight madness tournament, and to be perfectly honest, I remember very little about it. Apparently I busted somewhere in the mid ranks.

The next day I played the limit event. I got a bit crazy at my first table, raising tons of pots and playing against Sami nearly every time he was in a pot. I managed to suck out a few times and build a bit of a stack but got moved and lost all table image. I was out before too long.

In the NL event that day I wound up getting nice and lucky and finishing fourth. Christine (ammboswife) finished third. It is her custom to outlast me in every tournament we enter. She is good. We stayed to rail Pie and Wade as they went HU. Pie finally made an "Oh, screw it I am tired" all in call and Wade took the trophy.

That evening I was quite tired and decided to go to bed early-ish. Christine and I had gone to play nickel slots and get free drinks for an hour or so after the tourney. We went back to the poker room and found a very drunk table of ITHers playing a 2/4 game. Actually, on the way over there we ran into MX at a non-ITH 2/4 table and watched him value raise seven limpers from the BB without looking at his cards. On a flop of he finally looked at his hand, only to find he had and had flopped the nuts. The hand was capped on the flop and the turn and two people paid him off on the river. Insane!

Inspired by MX, I took Nside's offer to play his stack while he tended to a very drunk SuitedPair. I lost a fair bit of his money and decided to play one more hand when he came back. I capped blind from MP, with Ed Miller reraising behind me. The flop came . I looked at my cards only to find I had capped blind with ! The flop was capped and right before the turn card came out, Ed yelled for the queen of clubs. Lo and behold, the hit the turn! This gave me the nut flush draw, a gutshot royal draw, and the nut straight. We capped again. The hit the river and I value bet. Ed folded his two small clubs and Ciaran sighed as he paid me off with . Nice pot, but Nside gave it all back when he got his chair back, the big fish.

In the ITH main event I played a nice aggressive game and trapped both Torch's 55 and SuitedPair's AJs with KK. The joke was on me when SuitedPair hit her ace and I was gone.

That night we decided to play the midnight madness tournament, a $100+20 turbo. 12 minute levels, $120 to buy in, 12K in chips, and starts at 12:12 AM. Oh, and no antes. Big fun! I played my normal tight-but-opportunistic-in-position game and was pretty short most of the time. I open pushed at one point with TT and got called by AJ. When the cards were rolled the girl next to me said she had folded AT. Ugh when the A hit the flop, with a J on the turn and then my miracle ONE OUTER on the river! The blinds were getting crazy so I got a bit crazy, too. Highlights include open pushing from UTG with 22 at a 7 handed table. SB called with QJ and went home. SB limped in my BB and I put him all in with . He called with A7o but I flopped a straight.

Osmosis and I both made it to the final table. I shifted back to fairly tight until the shorties busted. Osmosis lost a lot of chips with AQ and a few hands later pushed 100K at my 40K BB. The SB called all in for about 90K. No brainer. I actually got laughed at by the ITHers railing for looking at my cards before calling. Needless to say, my 94o busted both the SB's AK and Osmosis' AQ. We got to 4 handed and I was refusing to make a deal. 4th place paid $800, first paid $5400, and I had 800K in chips to the next stack's ~400K. No deal. Until, that is, I doubled up one of the shorter stacks when his Q6s made a straight against my K7s (he called all in). That reduced my chip lead and then the blinds went to $40K/$80K. I made a deal, taking $3K and everyone else got about $2.6K. The thing ended at 7AM, the perfect time to buy a few rounds for the rail!

Monday at work was no fun. None whatsoever.

I am really looking forward to the next convention and/or AC meetup!

[ciaran]

[ammbo]

That was the flop as close as I could remember, it was late... I knew it was ITH staff at least. You flopped the nuts in that hand?

EDIT! Ciaran had JJ.

[ciaran]

Yep. I had red jacks.

[ammbo]

[rocketplayer]

My memory of the events seems to always be with the following directly to my left

Ammbo
Osmosis
Tanya

Learned quite a bit from those three on playing tight

[sami]

Nice report ammbo! Despite your sneaky isolation raises, it was great meeting you and your wife!