2 Lessons: Free Hands are not free, Never Throw Dice!

I rode with Keon to a local $5-$10 3-way rotation game Saturday evening. Keon is a 1-trick pony when it comes to poker, but felt he needed to give some action. So I said I'll roll up there with him. The vast majority of the game are from the old school...I'm talking about 65 and older. We are babies to them! Anyway, I miracly was able to run my original $200 to a lil over $500 and leaked a little bit before cashing out cause Keon and Ricky busted. The plan was to head up to Atlantic City afterwards. Its around 11:30 and we are headed up to AC.

Keon had to stay behind and play Mommy so it was just Ricky and I. I didnt' want to drive, neither did Ricky, so lets just rent a car...we stop at BWI Airport and rent a fully loaded Chrysler 300M chromed out, leather seats, wood grain panels...It was indeed a very nice car!

Get to AC and stop at the Trop and play some poker. I get into the game for $400 at $1-$2 NL. No hands really stand out except the standard E plays and I finally get even, actually, up $45 bucks. Ricky is walking around the trop and I call him on his cell phone and ask if he is ready to roll now that I'm even, I say aight, come to my table and get me when you ready, I said that to buy some time till I was UTG. I always wanna see my "free" hands, but who knew it could be so expensive, He says, lets go, I say, got 5 more hands, 3 of 5 hands in, he hands me a rack to rack my chips up, I said, got 2 more, bout to go, get to my 2nd to last hand and look down to TT...Ricky already knows its gonna get ugly so he steps back and watches the hand go down. I make it $7 to go and get a couple riders and gets re-popped from Mr. Hollywood to $30...I tank a few seconds and make it $75 to go. He calls. Flop comes out KQ5 I believe and he checks and I stupidily check behind him. Turn comes out a 8 and I honestly don't know what happened after...Ricky knows...but the J falls on the river he checks and I check behind...he rivered a set of Jacks and for some reason I tought my TT was good all the way to the river not realizing he had JJ LOL I even said something like damn I was good all the way till the river, I swear, you'll always find the fish in the river! Um...He was ahead the whole time FISH.

After that hand, I cashed out $255 and head to our room and go to sleep for a lil while...Woke up, took a shower and hung out on the boardwalk, played some craps, did OK till I threw the dice...I even said, I can't throw dice cause for some reason the dice just can't cooperate with me. I threw my point, took the dice, one of the dice landed on the side of the chip, 5 up, the other a 2...WTF...man fuck craps, that was a $100 reminder not to throw dice, ended up stairs at a $15 Black Jack table and got my Meatball back from the Crap game and called it a night, had to be home Monday Morning by 7, so we left AC at 4:15am and headed back home...Of course I didn't make it by 7, I was lucky Cheyenne's Mom was running late in dropping her off!

My Pops First Live Game

Talked my Dad into playing some fun poker hoping it would help me get the bad play out of me since we sat at a $2-$4 Limit Game. I let my Dad sit first and watched him play. You can tell he was nervous. The table just looked so serious and everyone was quiet....till I sat down...RAISE IT as I slam $4 shiny white chips on the table...oh that woke everyone up...got le-laised by some bama dude, and fold round to me...CAAAAAPPP ITTTTTT and we are heads up, I bet, he calls all the way down to river thats when I decided to look at my cards...oh yeah? 4To beat that sir...he taged a pair of 8s with his A9s cards...I pretty much kept saying shit you would hear at the pink game, they were pretty confused.

Thats how it pretty much went till the prop bets started, with me and young boy playing black/red for $2...I punished him and he decided to stop it, but bama dude picks it up saying he'll play, kool, lets up it to $5...actually, lets play $5 red/black, all black/red flop is double, suited is tripple...wow, he punished the hell outta me black every flop i might hit 1 out of 8, but I didn't wanna quit...got angry caus all my chips are done, dealer, im $1000 behind. I lay ten $100 bills down "cash plays" dealem' out and play continues. I did wake the table up, and heard the bama dude say he hasn't had so much fun playing in a game like that, My Dad said I wok the table up, it was pretty funny...I had a blast playing at that table, I definately had a great time giving away $115 bucks...I'm pretty sure everyone else did as well, my Dad enjoyed his first live game, which is what I pretty much wanted. I thought it was pretty funny cock teasing the table thinking that $1K was actually gonna be disbursed amongst themselves.

Pacific Ave and the wall of Casinos

Did you know there was a thing called a boardwalk on the other side of Pacific Ave and those buildings that we call casinos? If you are like me and my friends, you rarely frequent the "other side" of our wonderful adult playground. If we go casino to casino, its easier for us to catch a cab rather than walk the board walk. Hell who am I kidding, I'm lazy as all hell! Not to mention some of the casinos are connected with a walkway.

anyway, after waking up around 1pm, I got up and got myself together, my Dad took Cheyenne to the beach to swim and play while my mom was downstairs playing slots. I caught up with them and took Cheyenne so we can hang out so that my parents can chill and do what they do.

The day was great! The weather was good! We pretty much walked the board walk, playing arcade games, carnival games at the Steel Pier, riding rides and the Haunted Story was unsucessful though...it cost us both $20 bucks to get in, to see a bunch of actors tell a scary story, but the settings of the theater was too scary for Cheyenne, we stayed a record time of 45 seconds in there. I was pretty pissed cause she wanted to see it then we just wasted the money, I'd rather had just gone to the Ripley's Believe it or Not...Maybe next year I'll take her there, but for now, im ready to hit the Hard Rock Cafe over at the Taj Mahal and eat on the boardwalk.

After all the fun and games, we rode the lil carts that get pushed down the boardwalk...man, if I ever have to walk the boardwalk again, I'm jumpin in a cart and get my lazy ass pushed down the boardwalk!

Got back to the hotel and just spent the rest of the night at the pool till it closed then grabbed dinner at 6ix bistro then called it a night...Well Cheyenne called it a night, its poker time for me!

Welcome to the other side of the Trop

Small story...So the table moved and we picked up a couple new players, and maybe yall know "Johny" Spanish guy with a heavy accent, young bushy haired guy, was very drunk during the wee hours of the morning...slowing up the game worse than me!

Anyway, I'm still sitting with almost $800 in my stack and got in a hand with Johny...again, I made it my standard $7 and got I think 4 callers...

Pot: +\- $28
Flop came out 2s5s8d

check, I bet $17, Johny raises to $35, folds around to me and I push on his ass for his remaining $28 bucks...He tanks and starts talking, "should I call" "what do you have" the normal gay questions people ask while playing poker...I answer yes johny to all his questions. He then turns to one of the new kids playing, alot younger than me and he says, should I call? this guy says Yeah call him man...Ms. Linda then says, in her mean voice, uh uh, no you are not supposed to say anything, meanwhile Johny is saying, OK I'm going to call you...Did I mention that while Johny was tanking, I said, Ms. Linda, I know he is slowing up your game, if he calls, you get to drop his $28 bucks for you...when he says call, Ms Linda runs the cards out with all blanks and I turn over 2-4...he looks at me and i say, Johny, turn your fuckin hand over, don't you slow roll me and turns over 8-3. Ms. Linda says put them out (to the guy that said something and especially to Johny) and I go balistic on the guy that said, you should call him. the whole table actually gets mad at th kid and the old man next to me said he should even me out for that stupid shit he did...mean while Johny is is giving the kid a high five and yelling out loud, he put me all in with a 2 and a 4 and would laugh...Kid at the next table said, thats his favorite hand though! LOL...I was pissed and continued to leak out $200 cause of the whole thing and said im done...I picked up my rack of red birds and went to the cage and called it a night.

High Limit Room is No Longer

After having a great meal from Room Service, and Cheyenne thought it was real cool that we had room service, we sat around and watched TV for a lil bit and it was getting late, she was about to go to bed, so it was time for me to make a move back over to the Trop.

To my surprise, Paul is still at the Trop playing...but his stack looks allot different, I asked what the hell happened, He told me a couple hand histories and I just said Wow...really...a $10K stack at a $2-$5 table just blew me away, a $10K stack by it self just blew me away, what was really funny was that he needed to make 2 trips to the cage when he cashed out!

anyway, James mentioned to me earlier that they were closing down the High Limit Area as we were playing and they were moving players from the HL side over to where you find most of the limit games going on, but thy filled us in from back towards the front. Our table was second to last that they broke. No one wanted to leave but they said we would all sit in the same order and button continues where we left off...thats fine, whatever, I said, lets get this last hand in first, This is the last hand dealt to us 8 before the room is closed and I wanna scoop this pot as remembrance of my favorite spot in the whole poker room!

I am UTG and make it my standard $7 to go, and got 4 callers. I'm sittin on about $400.

Pot: $31
Flop: 5dThKs

checked all around

Pot: $31
Turn [5dThKs]2h (Everyone knows by now at the table that my hand is 2-4)
I bet out $25, fold, fold, Raise...$75, I le-laise $175, Guy goes all in, I insta call.

Pot: +\- $750
River, [5dThKs2h]Qc

I table TT and he tables 55, SCOOP!

Nice pot for my last pot in th High Limit Room at the Trop.

8/11/08 in the wee hours of the morning the High Limit Room closes for ever. Slots shall take over that room after renovations have been made.

I been a Trop Poker room regular since 2000 so I have many memories up there playing with my friends and the locals, Its fine sitting in the stupid part of the poker room, but please, please, I hope I never have to sit in the Simulcast area!

Check In, Stay In

So we check in our room and I go lay down while we all get situated. I told my parents to go play and me and Cheyenne will go to the Steel Pier tonight and go hang out and play arcade games.

Soon as we get ready to go, its a damn Monsoon outside, its raining super hard, the lightning is making the sky look brighter than it already was with all the lights coming from the casinos, and the crack of the thunder made sure everyone took cover in all the boardwalk's entrances into the hotel...and they were soaked. There was now way we were making it to the Steel Pier tonight, I'm hungry anyway and so is Cheyenne. There really isn't anything to do in Ballys for kids other than the pool that was already closed. She was a bit upset, but she got over it when w actually got lost trying to find our room. I never had a reason to learn Ballys, only because I rarely play there, non the less get room there, so yeah, it took me and Cheyenne a good 45 minutes to get to our room, after going back and forth, more than two occasions down the same hallways, elevators...I gave up trying to figure it out and just asked some security guard where the hell is my room at.

We finally made it and immediately order room service, my parents walk in and are in for the rest of the night, so thats my cue to go and play more poker...I kiss Cheyenne good night, grab some money, my room key, my Poker Card and find a cab to drive me over to the Trop...I aint walking in the rain, but its don past, still aint walking though....Got the first cab that past me and I had to hear him talk about his girl the whole ride, im thinking, dude, shut the hell up and just drive me to the trop man...I get to the Trop and History is made...well in my book it is, but it is a sad, sad story coming up.........

Off To Atlantic City I Go...

After a very, very long weekend this week, I had plans to go to Atlantic City for a couple days with my Mom and Dad and Cheyenne. Things have not changed through out my Family...My Grandparents always going to Atlantic City and my parents bringing me as a kid like Cheyenne gets to go to Atlantic City with Her Grandparents and me bringing her down as a kid. She is just like Daddy, Loves AC! She couldn't wait to go since I told her we were going up. When she hears me saying going up, she knows "up" is AC. Damn I wish I had a scanner to scan some of my baby pictures in Atlantic City on that board walk or me and my cousin Nat running up and down the boardwalk just roaming the beautiful hall ways of each Casino down the board walk hitting up all the arcades, stores, trying to catch a chick to hang out, eating and just goofing off while our folks gambled. How many of you all remember when the House of Blues was a big ass bowling alley...wow, we stayed there for hours playing Kid Niki!!!! Man I remember me and my cousins sitting outside the Taj Mahal on a bench for hours watching the people walk past some throw up on the board walk and we laughed for hours as we watched people stumble over it so they don't step on it, some just looked at it, and some stepped in it, that was the funniest! Can't forget meeting Lionel Ritchie in the morning. He was walking down the board walk and me and my cousin were practicing doing olley's on our skateboards. I said whats up, shook his hand and went back to skate boarding, wow, my life is soooo complete now!

Anyway, we leave for AC around 5AM...I'm dead tired from the weekend, so I slept, and snored, all the way up...I asked to be dropped off at the Tropicanna and I'll meet up with them when they check in the room at Ballys. Rooms were free, cause my Mom plays a ton of slots and my dad is playing roulette and craps.

So I walk in and see Paulson, If you all played Trav and Nelly's old game and my my old game and the game at the club house, you all will remember Paulson that went to Howard U, that played alot of poker with us. He moved to Philly so we don't see him alot, so we spoke and got caught up...I asked how he was doing, he had been playing since since Saturday and sitting on a stack of about $4k at a $2-$5 NL game. I'm asking why the game is paused, it just hit the Bad Beat Jackpot and since Paul was dealt in the hand, he got a $1600 piece of the Jackpot in cash. It was good to see him doing well, but I wanna play too, so I go get chips and get seated at a table where James is dealing and me and him shoot the shit while he is in the box. For some reason I wanted to play the morning donkament, so I sign up and sit back down to play some $1-$2. I won half the buy in of the tournament within the 30 minutes I was sitting down...so I go cash out and sit at my table, played my 1st 2 hands and I end up all in to a dude that flopped a set of 6s when I raised Kenny's 7-2 hand and flopped top pair and moved all my chips in the middle when dude check raised me hahahahaha well that was a fun 10 minutes of tourney...oooohhhhh now I remember why I don't play these things!!!

Get back in the $1-$2 NL game and proceed to ship $400, this is gay, I'm going to the room...and walk down the board walk....

wow...as much as I go to AC, I rarely walk the board walk...Luckily its not a muggy summer heat wave and feels soooo good outside with the breeze, no humidity and the temperature being 81 degrees! Its a whole different world out there, it was scary at first, but I adapted pretty quickly!