I’ve had an eventful couple of weeks. I’ve been in 4 different states and as we speak—well, as we type, I’m en route to Tampa for the 2nd time in two weeks for a Deepstacks University poker camp. It’s the first camp I’ve done so it should be pretty interesting. The few experiences I’ve had with teaching poker, I felt like I’ve done it fairly well.
Before the camp, I was in Borgata for a $3500 tourney. It’s remarkable how big the fields are in Atlantic City. It seems almost as if AC and Los Angeles are the two most populous spots for poker in the US. Time and time again, they never fail to bring out tons of players of all shapes and sizes to these tourneys. It’s a healthy environment. I was flying in from Tampa the day of the tourney and for whatever reason (because I’m a buffoon), I decided to not sleep the night before. So I played the entire day one on the 15 minutes of sleep I got on the cab ride over. I still ended up being late for the tournament, an hour late actually. There was 15 minutes left in level one, 25/50, when I sat down.
Within 10 minutes I managed to play a pot for the most amount of big blinds I’lll probably ever play in my entire career. Here’s how it went down. A man in his early fifties raised to 150 preflop in the cutoff. I was on the button with 34cc and being 600 big blinds deep (30k starting stacks), I was happy to flat in position. No one else called but the big blind accidentally flipped over his hand, A2o no club. While it doesn’t take away my pair outs, my straight possibilities are slightly slimmer now but whatever, I already called. The flop came down 852 rainbow with no clubs. Solid flop. He bets 200, I call. Turn is the Ah. Bingo! Even more pimpalicious the dude bets 800, slightly over pot. I could tell this guy really liked his hand and wasn’t in the mood to fold so I made it 3000. He called rather quickly. River is a non-heart 7. It now makes my straight the 3rd best but I didn’t think this guy was capable of having either of these two straights given the way the hand played out. So while I’m debating what to bet on the river, he bets out 6k!!! I’m ecstatic. I think for 15 seconds as to whether I should ship, flat, raise to 18k and opt to ship it. When I shoved my heart started thumping practically out of my chest. It was pretty intense. He thought for 15 seconds and called with A8o for top two pair! And just like that I had 60k after playing for 10 minutes. A 1200 big blind pot. Just absurd!
I ended up busting midway into day 2. I wasn’t happy with how I played on day 2 but obviously had I won a flip or not gotten 3 outed during the day, things would’ve been different. I just couldn’t the ball rolling all day. While it’s no excuse, there was no hot water at the Borgata during the tournament because of a faulty boiler, and to anyone that knows me, I got to take a shower in the morning.
After Borgata I decided to hang out with my brother for his birthday in New York City. It was a fun, exciting weekend. While LA is all about driving places, taking cabs, New York is more about subways and walking. It took a little bit of adjusting but by the end of the weekend I was used to it. The cool thing about NYC is everything is in such close proximity when you go out on the town,. You can walk to so many different bars and eateries. So, if one bar sucks, there’s a plethora of different ones to try out. Also, it seems like on the weekends, everyone has the same mentality of enjoying a night out. There’s a vibe about the city that I loved. I’ll definitely be making routine trips to New York in the future.
Alright, the plane is landing now so I have to wrap this up but I’ll be back next week! Oh, and check out my website at www.roothlus.com. As well, I’m no longer adding people I don’t know on my facebook, but I do have a fan page if you want to follow along my adventures.
