Top Poker Rooms

Bonus :$500 Bonus :$600 Bonus :$600

Poker Room Reviews

Poker News

Atlantic City Revisited – Return to The Taj

I went to AC on Tuesday. A real good friend of mine had planned this out so we booked a hotel room at the Taj Mahal.  The good thing about the Taj is that it’s right next to the Showboat so I could always play there if the Taj wasn’t doing it for me.

I haven’t been to Taj Mahal in awhile, the last time I was at the Taj was maybe over a year ago.  What a difference a year makes though. There’s new carpet, new paint, it’s brighter and they’ve added a bad beat jackpot.  The room looks great, better than before when the room was low lit and the carpet and paint were equivalent to a bad 80′s haircut. But the best thing about the Taj that didn’t change were the players…but more on that later.

We arrive at the Taj at about 2pm in the afternoon. We check in and chill for a bit in our room. We’re watching Olympic Handball and we put a friendly wager on the game. I took Spain and he took Poland. Spain was dominating the first half but Poland came back. The game was tied late but Poland got the go ahead goal with 8 seconds left in the game. Spain had a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime but they couldn’t get a shot off in the last 8 seconds.  Reminds me of the New York Knicks. I’ll admit the game was exciting to watch. Hey any game that goes down to the last second has got to be fun even if we didn’t understand the rules of the game completely. We watch a little table tennis action also, he took the US and I took Singapore. I won that wager so we’re even.

After the watching the Olympics for a few hours while we wound down from the drive up we decide to go to the Showboat for some real gambling. I register for the 7pm tourney and he heads straight for the BlackJack tables.

I’ve written about the Showboat tourneys before, it’s a shove fest after the first hour because the blinds are so high. I’ve played in a couple of these so I know what my strategy is. Gamble early on and hope to collect enough chips to counter the coin flips I’m going to facing later in the tournament. I build my chip stack to 15k when the 300-600 levels starts (3rd level).

I lose 4k when my A/Q falls to K/10 shortie. The blinds are now 400-800 and I have about 9k now. I’m in the BB and I wake up with JJ. Everybody folds and the SB raises to 2k. I shove and he calls. He has me covered. He shows A/8 offsuit.

An ace on the flop ends my tournament. He said he thought I was bluffing. He admitted it was a loose call but he felt I was pushing with air. I actually wanted to think I was bluffing and the plan worked but if not for the fickle poker gods I would be still in the tournament. Oh, well there’s always the cash games.

I buy-in for $250 and get seated in the first position. I personally like sitting next to the dealer. There’s more leg room and I don’t have to worry about the players next to me peeking at my cards. I’m playing pretty tight early on, folding mostly and trying to pick up any cues I can from the players. The lady in 6th position likes to play suited cards, the players in 4th and 5th position are weak passive, they’ve limped in with A/K, QQ those types of hands. The older guys are calling and gambling way too much. The player in seat 8 is super aggressive. The player in seat 10 is short stacked ($60) and pushing when he has a hand.

During the second orbit I’m in the BB with 4/6 clubs. There’s a weak raise from EP to $6 and I get 5 callers. I come along for the ride and see what the flop brings. I get an OE straight draw but I check. EP person bets out $10, two players call. There’s $80 in the pot. I’m getting 8-1 on a OE straight draw plus I can backdoor a flush also, I’m getting good odds so I call. The turn hits my straight. I check. EP bets out another $10, the short stack pushes his last $40 and is all in. I raise all-in to block anyone else from outdrawing me and everyone folds. A 5 hits the river to fill his boat. He shows 77.

Later on, I’m on the button with 9/7 clubs. It’s a family pot and limp in. 8 players. I hit top two pair on the flop. Passive weak guy bets out $6. There’s one caller and I raise to $25. Weak passive guy calls. The turn is blank and he checks. I bet out $40. He moans out loud about his luck. He asks me if I hit two pair. I know now he has a pocket pair because he’s the guy who limps in with any pocket pair lower than QQ. He says he has a good hand and he calls. An Jack hits the river. This time he bets out $25.

Interesting. Seems like a value bet especially coming from him. The bet is screaming please call me. I’m guessing he hit a set and slowplayed me but for what’s in the pot, I have to call the $25. He shows JJ. He hit his set on the river. Oh well, the cards are going against me but I pick up valuable information on this guy. He’ll only bet when he has the goods and this helps me out in a hand later on against him.

I’m stuck $180 plus the $65 for the tournament. Not a good start but I know I can win back my money if I get a little help from the cold deck that I’ve been fighting. I reload $100 so I have chips to play with.

I win a decent pot when I hit the nut flush vs. a guy with Q high flush. I win another decent pot when my A/J hits top two pair and get paid off when a shortie misses his flush draw.

The shortie who cracked my straight earlier takes me down when he hits a straight on the river to counter my set. I win the side pot though so I broke even on that hand.

It’s about 11pm and I’ve fought my way back to being down only $50 or so when I get into another hand with the weak passive dude who hit his set of Jacks on the river. I have A/5 suited on the button. An EP raises to $6, three callers so I come along for the ride. The flop is A,9,9. Everyone checks and I bet out $20. Only the weak passive player calls. If this guy is in the hand then I’m probably out kicked so I’m slowing this thing down. The turn is another 9. That’s a good card for me. Now I have a full boat so we’re tied at least and the only hand that beats me is quad 9s.  There’s no reason to bet here as I’m pretty sure we’re at least tied but there is a chance that he has the case 9. Based on his play he could very well have A/9 suited, K/9 suited or 10/9 suited, plus he’s done this before checking and waiting for the other player to bet for him. He checks and I check.

The river is a blank and instead of checking this time he bets out $50. This is the same thing he did to me when he hit his set of Jacks on the river earlier. I go into the tank, I look at him. Usually he’s talking the hand through out loud or complaining about his lousy luck, this time he’s quiet as a church mouse. After a minute he calls for time on me. Maybe it was the way he called for time (too confident, too assured), maybe it was the way it looked and acted but I mucked my Ace. I offer him a buck to show his cards, he proudly showed his case 9.  This was a pure read. I’m not usually that good at reading people but this guy was an easy read, he always bet or re-raised when he had the goods on the river and would just call people down when he had a monster. Even a donkey like me has his moments.

11:30pm my buddy comes over and says to me he’s hungry. I tell him I’ll play one more orbit and then we’ll get some grub. I’m still down about $50-$65 but that’s managable. It sure beats being down $200 like I was a few hours ago. The shortie who cracked my straight with his full boat is still hanging around with about $90 or so. I’m 2 from the button when the dealer deals me two cowboys. There’s the usually dead money limp ins and the shortie raises to $10. I flat call for the trap. Everyone else folds.

The flop is all low cards. He bets out $20. I don’t think he has a set because based on his earlier play he’d always check when he held a big hand hoping for the check raise. I re-pop him $50 he moves all-in and I call. He has QQ. The turn and river doesn’t help him and I finally stack this guy. Just like that I’m positive on the session. I leave the table with a $49 profit.

It’s midnight and all the restaurants inside the Showboat are closed. So we go to back to the Taj and order room service. We both order burgers and a couple of appetizers but the room service person tells us it’s going to be a 45 minute wait before our food gets to us. We decide to rent a movie while we wait for our food. The movie we rented was called “Street Kings”. Keanu Reeves was in the movie and most of the time any movie with Keanu Reeves in it would suck but I had read that this was a decent movie about crooked and dirty cops in L.A. Sort of like Training Day but with more violence. It wasn’t half bad.  Forest Whitaker was in it. The guy from the TV show “House” was in it also. It’s not Oscar worthy but the plot, the action (alot of violence and shoot outs) and story made it worthwhile.

It’s about 2:30 am or so by the time we finish our food and the movie ends. My buddy is dead tired and falls asleep. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t so I decide to go down to the poker room at the Taj.

I buy-in for $200. The late night crowd at the Taj was interesting. I’ve played late night before and only the hardcore degenerates, the local “pros”, poker dealers and drunk guys are still left. This could be good or bad depending on the situation.

I’m seated at a table with two guys I know from playing in AC before. I’ve written about this guy also in the past. One guy is named Brian. He’s the “rounder” in AC. The dealers know him by name and I know from past conversations that he plays poker a lot. I’ve played with him at the Showboat before. I guess he’s making his rounds. He’s super aggressive and loose and he’s a bit of a jerk also but hey he gives action so who am I to complain about his bad breath and general bad attitude.

This session I was smoking hot. The table is aggressive and a little loose. I’m on the button with J/8 clubs. Super aggressive guy bets out $15. Two callers. I call also hoping to catch a little luck. The flop gives me two pair. Super aggressive guy bets out $40, I decide to trap and flat call. I float in this spot hoping to take him down on the turn for an extra bet. The turn fills my boat. He checks and I check. The river is an Ace. Now I’m cooking. I’m hoping he hit his Ace on the river and will bet out. He does indeed bet out $50. I re-raise him $50 and he calls. He had A/Q. I take down a nice pot.

Later on I’m on the button with 7/8 hearts. 4 players limp in and I raise it up to $12. Two callers. The flop gives me an open ended straight draw but there’s also two diamonds on the flop. It gets checked to me and I bet out $25. I get a caller. The turn fills my straight. It gets checked to me and I bet out $25 again. Villain flat calls again. The river is a blank. Villain this time bets out $50. I guess he hit two pair on the river or he’s slow played a set but I have the nuts and I’m open for business. The thing is how much do I bet to get paid off without scaring him off the hand, also if he’s putting me on a missed flush draw then I can get him to call a bet that looks like I’m bluffing and trying to buy the pot. He seems like a solid player so I opt for the big value bet that can look like a bluff. I settle on $125. I basically re-raised him just a bit more than the minimum. I think this is a good bet. If he’s got two pair he might call just for showdown value, if he’s got a set then he’s going all-in anyway so I don’t want to scare him away if he does indeed hold two pair by going all-in. He thinks for a bit and calls. I show him my straight. He mucks.

By this time the AC rounder ”pro” Brian and his buddy has changed seats. They are now sitting directly to my left. Both of them. I tell them I liked it better when I had position against them. They chuckle. It’s true. Position in poker is crucial, especially against loose aggressive cannons like Brian and his buddy. They said I’ve been getting good cards so they wanted to sit there. It’s true I’ve been blessed by the poker gods this session. I’ve gotten a few monster hands that got me paid off. But the real reason I suspect is that they’ll have position on me, which isn’t a good thing.

5am and I’m on point. I’m up $300 and counting. The table is respecting my bets and raises a little too much while Brian and his buddy are trying to stack me. I go back to playing tight, only raising when I have a really good starting hand. A shortie with about $80 has been shoving a lot lately. He’s probably on tilt after he lost a huge hand when his baby flush lost out to a Q high flush (this was a $400 plus hand). He’s now pushing when there’s a pot of $20 or more preflop. I’m middle position and an EP raises to $12. I peek down and I see two aces. I’m open for business again. I flat call hoping that the shortie guy will do his all-in move. He does. EP folds and I call.

He flips over 66 and I take down the pot. The original raiser laments that he would’ve hit a set on the turn if he had stayed in but I tell him if he calls I’m pushing all-in anyway and there’s no way he’d call with 77 in that spot. He agreed. I’ll admit I got lucky that hand, everything had to fall neatly into place for me to take down that hand. First, I needed a raise in EP so I could limp. Then I needed the shortie who was pushing to have a decent enough hand to push with. Thankfully, it worked out for me.

6am. I’m still running hot and I get my stack up to the $700 range after I make a good read and river call against the super aggressive guy. I had 88 he had A/K ($150 pot).

Up until this point Brain, his poker lackey and I haven’t been in too many pots against each other. We were involved in a few but not for any decent sized pots. That changed near the end of my session.

I get Q/10 clubs on the button. There’s a few limpers and I raise to $8 because I’m feeling good and I’ve been running hot. Brian on the BB calls and I get another caller from EP. The flop comes out A, 8, 4 with two clubs. Brian bets out $15. EP calls and I call. The turn is another club. Wow, this is what it feels like to run super hot. Brain checks, EP checks and I bet out $40. Brain calls and EP folds. The river is a blank. Brian checks. I bet out $50 and he re-pops me $65.

I pay off his nut flush. I was really thinking of raising him in this spot but here’s a guy who’s trying to make a living playing cards and I kind of know his style, I might have folded if the bet was bigger because then I would put him on a bluff or the nuts but since it was only double my bet and he’d been playing pretty conservative against me anytime we were involved in hands together so I just figured raising would put me in a bad spot, so I decided to just flat call.

7am. Now I’m getting tired. I also remember some advice from Ksnyde (nice shout out huh? lol). He had recently commented to me on a previous post on why during one session I didn’t leave with a profit instead of giving it all back. This was the same situation. The table is aggressive and loose and I’m up a decent amount and I feel that I can win some more but this time I quit with a profit. I count my chips and I have $585. I cash out and before I head up to my room, I blow $35 on a hand of blackjack.

Hey, there’s more to Atlantic City than just poker you know…