Atlantic City Day 1
I played a 4 hour session tonight at the Trump Taj Mahal and talk about what could have been. Have you ever had a session where you made money and still felt like you lost? No, it wasn’t because of bad play either.
I sat in on what was possibly the loosest poker game that I’ve ever been involved in. After doubling up my buy-in within the first hour, I was absolutely salivating with the possibility of making so much money. Unfortunately though, I went completely card dead. I think I had about five playable hands in the next three hours while some players where absolutely giving away thousands of dollars. Literally thousands of dollars. I have never been so frustrated and I actually almost came to tears. Really.
Pre-flop raises were $20(this was a 1/2 NL game) with usually three or four players seeing the flop. Most pots were anywhere from $100-$400 and these guys were playing complete crap hands that no decent poker player would ever think of playing.
Example 1. Three players all-in preflop with, and I swear that I’m not making this up , A-9 suited, Q-10 suited, and yes 5-6 suited. The button much to his dismay threw away 8-8 and missed a set and $750. Amazingly enough, none of the players hit anything on the flop and the turn. A six on the river gave the biggest donkey at the table the best hand with a pair of sixes and he scooped the huge pot.
Example 2. Five players see a flop of Qd-9d-7d after a $25 preflop raise. First two are all-in with A-Qo and 9-7. The last player to act calls with Ad-5d for the nut flush. His hand holds up and he collect an $800 pot.
This went on for my entire 4 hour session. Now I’m a very TAG(tight aggressive) player and I just couldn’t bring myself to play hands like 3-3 and 4-4, which were my only pocket pairs, for $20-$25 pre-flop against 3 or 4 other players. Other than that I was dealt absolutely nothing. As frustrating as it was, I did have a lot of fun watching these guys throw their chips all over the table with mediocre to poor hands even I wasn’t able to benefit from it.











