I woke up Saturday morning freezing cold. I had wrapped a flat sheet around me and used a light blanket as best I could, but even with my hoodie on, the cold morning air was creeping through the glass back door and I couldn’t fall back asleep under these conditions. Fortunately, Roose was already awake and taking his dog for a walk.
The night before, I took a train from NYC to Roose’s home on Long Island. The plan was to sleep there and then head to AC in the early morning. It meant an hour long train ride to LI and an extra hour of car time from LI through NYC before we hit AC, but for poker and Roose, it was worth it.
It was probably 8am or so, not late by weekday standards but ‘crack of dawnin’, now I’m yawnin’ for a weekend trip. Roose and I first stopped at a LI bagel shop (the best bagels in the world are made on LI) and then started our trip.
It’s good to have a friend like Roose. Our discussions are like short-hand. Most people probably wouldn’t know what we are talking about or what we are on, but we know each other so well that it is all very smooth and natural. In the entire car ride, I did not look at the clock once. It could have taken 3 hours or 1 hour. It all felt the same. The key was, we were on our way to where the air is sweet.
We had some tentative goals for this trip, first and foremost being a stop at White House Sub Shop on the way back to NY. Oh, and poker too. The specific plan was to get in at least one tournament, but also to spend some time relaxing instead of just poker poker poker.
We arrived at the Trop and made our way to the lobby where I secured a room in the North Tower. We were actually given our choice of towers. The nicest one is probably the Havana Tower because its the newest. However, it was located more in the shopping area of the casino, and we wanted to be closer to the action. I haven’t stayed in the South Tower for years, so I skipped that altogether. It’s location is not particularly bad, but I have to stick with what I know. The West Tower is in an area of the hotel a bit off the beaten track, between the shopping and casino floor. But the ole North Tower is a good, safe choice. It’s closest to the casino floor and I’d stayed there enough to know that the rooms were decent. Hell, at this point, whenever I enter a North Tower room, I think to myself, “Have I stayed in this one before?” I think I’ve seen a good 90% of the room layouts.
Roose and I dumped off our stuff and I took a quick shower, something we usually skip in AC. After freshening up, it was near 1pm, so we returned to the car and took the drive to the other side of the Boardwalk to hang with my old pal Showboat.
On the way, Roose and I were feeling the hunger for something other than poker, so we kept an eye on the side of the road for a decent place to eat. I’ve said it hear before, but the Showboat woefully lacks in the food department. They need a food court or a burger place or something that you can get in and out of quickly. The one option they have, Chelsea Market, is terrible.
We ended up at a random pizza place where I had a cheese steak slice (pizza with beef, peppers and onions) and Roose had his old standby Italian hero. Once satisfied, we hit the road again and arrived at the Showboat, where we paid $5 for parking. (Incidentally, parking at Trop was $5 too, but I had a free parking comp as part of the insane deal Trop had bestowed upon me).
We made the usual walk through the casino and arrived at the poker room after a pitstop at the Total Rewards desk to get Roose a new card. Once registered, we walked the casino floor again and settled on a Pai Gow table with $25 minimum stakes. We played for 15 minutes, during which Roose lost $50 and I broke even.
Back to the poker room. I grabbed my seat, Roose grabbed his, and we got down to business.
I used to love the Showboat tourneys, but this one didn’t impress me as much as yesteryears. First off, they start you with 15k in chips, but blinds started at 50/100. It’s the classic scheme: raise the stacks to make it look like more value and increase the blinds to take away the value everyone perceives to exist. The result was that by the 200/400/25 stage and certainly by the 300/600/50 stage, there isn’t much game to play. Consider this: at the 200/400 stage, a 3x BB bet preflop is 1200, almost 10% of your starting stack!
We started off with only 6 people at the table. Regardless, I couldn’t get any traction going and stayed near-even for most of the tournament, dipping a bit but then coming back up. Our table filled up, but my luck did not, and I remained card dead for a long while.
I was blinded down to 11k or so when I lost about 6k+ trying to push someone off of a hand. I failed miserably but didn’t have to show when my opponent pushed all-in on the river. I was trying to play the players and this guy was playing way too many pots, but, in the end, it was all my mistake. I could’ve probably sat back for a longer while.
I was down to under 4k and dropping quickly due to antes. I saw a situation in late position with one limper and pushed without looking at my cards. Everyone folded and I checked after the fact, J7o.
Feeling emboldened, I pushed the very next hand after an early limper. This time, I actually had a hand, 88. The early limper called my all-in with AK and I lost the race, out of the tournament relatively early. Roose, meanwhile, had been hanging out in the casino since the second level, where his set lost to an inside straight draw on the river. Lemon!
I looked for Roose but stumbled upon Jamie from the Wall Street Game first. We chatted briefly until I saw Roose in the distance looking around for me. I made my goodbyes and rejoined my homie.
Our next stop was back to the car. After all, we were staying at the Trop, so might as well give the Trop our love and attention. It was barely 4pm, so we decided to play in the 7:15 $100+22 tournament at the Trop. But before that, I wanted to kill some times playing cash games.
When we return, we’ll discuss some of the cash action, the tournament, some more cash action, and maybe even a little poker soul searching with the help of Davey Roose.
Until next time, make mine poker!
I didn’t play many hands. Eventually, I found myself still on my 10k or so stack with blinds