Delaware Park and Showboat - Trip Summary

This mysterious place known as Delaware Park was holding a series with some low buy-ins, including the bane of my existence, Omaha8, so Craig, Yvonne, Tony and I planned a trip to take it on, and then stay the night in AC where Elizabeth was, play the Showboat 11am tourney the next day and then head home.

So, Delaware Park. Ghetto on the outside, and kind of equally ghetto on the inside...no real decent food options, low ceilings, and just quite simply not very hospitable as a venue. Pluses - the track was nice outside, the Omaha8 dealers were VERY on the ball (unlike Harrah's), and there were two full rooms of poker action going on...no real waits, and lots of games were being spread.

I, of course, busted out about halfway through. Tony lasted the longest of us, and I lost about $14 in an uneventful 1/2 NL session while we waited. When all of us busted, we made our way to AC.

I was too tuckered out to play, so I went to my free Showboat room, ordered room service and went to bed, hoping that in the AM I could play a little cash before the 11am tourney. No such luck.

I got up at 8am and the room was deserted. I mean, empty. I could have just strolled over to the Taj and found a game, but I have sworn that I will never set foot into that hellhole again, so that was out. I did get some news about The Revel while I was waiting around....this is the new behemoth of a hotel/casino that has been sitting unfinished on the Strip for years, and now is finally opening, apparently in installments until a grand opening in September. It seems a lot of the Showboat personnel might be jumping ship to work there, or at least, that is what it sounded like. Apparently the Revel is touting a great poker room, with $2.50/hr comps. I'll believe it when I see it.

So, the cards flew at 11am, 45 runners. 20K chips. About 20 minutes in, a chatty foreign regular tangles with me. I get AK preflop at 100/200, I raise to 700, and a call from CFR. Flop comes 2A7 rainbow, I fire 2000 into the pot, a quick call. Turn brings a spade draw 4, I make it 4000, and a quick call. I'm thinking that if he called my 700, he isn't going to keep flatting with trips, and if he has hit top two, I dont think he'd call a raise with a4 or a7, and would most likely raise with top two. My main worry was him flatting with a2. A K hits on the river and I shove. He calls, and I felt him with A10. Up to 39K.

I basically floated there for a while with little pots here and there. I then flopped top two with a2 suited, trapped a guy and felted him as well. Up to 49K.

I then joined Elizabeth at a very lively table, where I kind of went en fuego. Quad queens, set of 5s, then a set of 6's that turned into a boat brought me to a very comfortable stack of 122K that I rode all the way to the final table.

Paying 5, I, in my usual charitable manner, start making chatter about paying the bubble their buyin when we got to 6. Everyone seemed to agree, and a good thing, because guess who was the bubble? I was busted by a dude who was in his first tournament, that guy that always asks what the next bet was. I was at about 11 big blinds after a long string of bad hands, and shoved with ad10d. He showed up with AJos, and I got two diamonds on the flop, but the third one did not come. So, even. Elizabeth cashed for $600 after a 5 way chop...but I was happy with my play. It had been since December that I had even cashed in anything, so it was a good feeling to just bubble.

I plan on seeing ALL IN-the movie this week in NYC...I'll be posting a review!

PARX 08 Tournament, etc

Another trip to PARX, this time with Craig and his cousin Ken.

In my bones I feel like I have the appropriate mindset for 0E, it is a thinking game, a patient game and often a folding game. Somehow, though I succeed playing it in cash format, the tournament success has evaded me - I've never ONCE cashed in an 0E tournament, save a few one table SNG's online. I've read all the strategy (what little there is for a fixed Hi-Lo tournament)and I feel like I am doing things right, but I somehow end up getting counterfeited all over the place. Anyway, this trip was another failure in that department, busting out 92nd out of a mere 138 players.

Then I sat down at 1/2 NL and promptly won my buy-in back in, oh, about fifteen minutes? No huge pots, I just ran over the table for about an orbit with some good hands, and some not so good hands - it is so liberating to have two cards to play when you have just spent five hours with four cards in the hole. I should always ply a little Omaha first and then go to NLHE, because I always seem to win that way?

Anyway, not much time to go into detail today, but I left down $5.