My Birthday

As usual I have turned my birthday into a week long celebration that I suppose will finally end tonight. Thanks to Lauren it has been the best birthday I can recall for quite some time. Thursday we headed down to Atlantic City for a delayed celebration after the long Memorial Day Weekend. I had booked a rock star suite at the House of Blues and we were having dinner at the Foundation Room that night, too. We got down early so I could play a little poker before dinner, but since the Showboat poker room doesn't have alot of action, we strolled over to the Taj to find a decent game. I found a decent No Limit game and managed to win a few hundred dollars in about an hour and a half and we headed back to our suite to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was amazing. There was only one other table of people in the place so it was very private and we took our time with the courses, finishing up with desert nearly three hours after we first sat down. Good wine, good food and great company!
After a late morning breakfast in the room we headed back over to the Taj and I found another juicy game. After getting down a little early on I regrouped, took a breath and renewed my attack. In no time at all I had managed to get all-in three times with the nuts and won three large pots, much to Lauren's excitement! It was the first time she had ever sat and watched me play and the poker gods were smiling favorable upon me. I cleaned three players down to the felt, including an older player who blew through $600 in less than 30 minutes. We got it all in with my pocket kings against his pocket queens, then he bought back in and we got it all in again with my Ace-Queen against his Ace-Jack. I made two pair and he lost again to me, informing the table he was done for the weekend as he got up and left. The third all in was a dream as several players limped into the pot and I managed to get in cheap with the 2-4 of hearts. The flop came 3-5-6, giving me the nut straight, although I didn't like the two diamonds that came up as they could easily give a player a flush draw to beat me. More money went into the pot as it came around to the man on my right and he raised it up. I re-raised him and it was folded back around to him. Surprisingly, he made another large raise and I immediately moved all-in figuring he was drawing to the diamond flush. He called me so quickly that I was amazed when all he turned over was A-6 giving him top pair, top kicker. What was he thinking? He was shocked at the strength of my hand and made a few verbal displays of his disgust with the situation. While the turn gave him two pair, my hand held up and I scooped another large pot. I decided to quit ahead and racked up my chips, cashing out with over $760 for about 2 hours work.
We spent the rest of the day checking out the shops at Caesars Pier with a little sushi overlooking the ocean.
It was a great time and I will be heading down again next week and with the Borgata Summer Open starting the following week on June 9, I am looking forward to getting back into some tournament play.

Cash Game at Borgata

So the brew fest at Iron Hill was sold out so early I never stood a chance. By 11 am there were no more tickets and I was still sound asleep at the time. I will just have to wait until next year.
On Thursday I finally sauntered back into the poker room at the Borgata after a brief hiatus from the live action and mostly playing online. There was a short wait to get into a juicy No Limit game and I finally took an open seat and unracked my chips. I watched a few hands to get a feel for how some of the players were playing and then joined in the action. I mostly folded early on as I was not getting any really playable cards and the few hands I got involved in I was unable to continue after the flop. After about an hour I was stuck a bit but stayed patient and stuck to my game plan. Since it was my first game back I decided I would walk if I doubled up my chips and that was not looking like a favored expectation in the early stages of the game. After almost 2 hours I started getting some decent hands to play and at one point went a on a 6 hand streak where I was dealt 88, 99, JJ, QQ, AQ and AK suited consecutively. With the nines and queens I ended up making three of a kind on the flop to win two huge pots and I even managed to win a big pot with my AK with no improvement when I sensed my opponent had just a little less of a crappy hand than I did. I had bet the flop when nothing came on the board to help me and she called very quickly. I bet the turn again with no help and she called that bet, too. On the river a scare card came that looked like it had completed a spade flush draw. I thought about betting but if she sensed I was weak and raised me I would have had to fold, so I decided to save the chips, check and put out a weak vibe that she might interpret as strength (weak means strong alot of the time in poker, its a tell you just learn to pick up on the more you play). I think she thought I was trying to trap her so she checked and announced "I missed" and I couldn't believe I had wont he pot with an ace high. The rest of the table was pretty surprised, too. As I had more than doubled up my chips after the six hand win streak, I grabbed some racks and proceeded to pile up my chips. I jokingly offered to sell my seat to another player who was anxiously awaiting my departure so he could move into it. I walked to the cashier and left with a nice profit for a three hour session, just shy of my favorite four-figure mark.
I will be heading back again next week and can't wait to get back in the swing of things again!

Brew Fest!

Not a whole lot to report right now. I have been laying a little low on the poker front, but I will be playing in the Borgata Summer Open which starts June 9 and runs through the 24th. Right now I'm looking forward to the Iron Hill Beer Festival that will be held in Media next Saturday. It's always alot of fun, I just hope the weather is going to be nice this weekend. I will be heading down to the Borgata this Thursday for some cash game action and that is about all I have actually planned out for the week so far.