Wednesdays With The Donald

So I headed down to Atlantic City around 3 pm Wednesday and the timing was good because there was very little traffic once I got on the AC Expressway. I checked into a beautiful suite and immediately headed down to the poker room at the Taj. I was planning on playing cash games and I should have stuck to my plan, but there was a tourney starting at 6:15 pm and I decided to play it. It was a freezeout tournament which means if you lose your chips you're done, there are no rebuys. We started out with about 120 players total, ten to a table and we each had $5000 in chips with blinds of $25 and $50. The blinds would increase every 20 minutes so you don't have alot of time to sit around and wait for the right cards.
Things started out kind of slow for me and the dealer was particularly slow which really has a negative impact on the players since you need as many hands dealt each level as possible. I was getting cold cards for the first 20 or 30 minutes, but in the second level when blinds were $50 and $100 I started to pick up some pots and actually managed to get all in with the best of it twice. The first time I raised with pocket aces , had two callers and then a player moved all in. I of course called, the others dropped and it was my pocket rockets against my opponents measly Ace-King. The aces held up and I had about $8000. I won some more pots and a little while later had another great opportunity when I was dealt Ace-Queen suited in clubs. I made it $1200 to go with the blinds at $150 and $300 and a $25 ante. I had one caller and I got both a queen and two clubs on the flop for top pair, top kicker and the nut flush draw. My opponent bet into me and I reraised him all in. He called and turned over King-queen unsuited so he was about a 3.5 to 1 dog. Another queen came giving us both trips and a blank on the river meant my ace kicker played and he was knocked out of the tournament. At this point I had over $15,000 in chips and things were looking good. I won a few more nice pots with pocket jacks and twice with pocket sevens dealt within two hands of each other. Our table broke and I was assigned to another table. When I got to my seat I recognized two other players at the table that I had played with before. I also had about half of the chips in play on the table. The average chip stack was about $8200 and I had close to $30,000.
Unfortunately, the cards went cold on me and I lost alot of chips to the rising blinds and antes. With the blinds at $1000 and $2000 with a $300 ante I was getting low on chips and had to make a move soon if I wanted to have a chance. We were down to only three tables with 32 players and only 18 would be getting any money back. I made a move from early position with King Jack and got all my chips in, a bet of about $9000. Everyone folded around to the donkey who had gone all-in in each of the last three hands. He actually called my bet with 7-8! ANd it wasn't like he had tons of chips, the call was probably for maore than half of his chips. I catch a king on the flop and the donkey catches runner-runner cards to make a ten high straight! Unbelievable, but I was knocked out in 30th place and no prize money. That's the way it goes sometimes. That is poker. The way things were going I would have bet anything I was making the final table. Oh well, it's all good experience and I learned something I can use, as always.
It was almost midnite and I was feeling a little tired so I got some dinner, had a few beers and called it a night. I will be back down next week, but I am sticking to the cash games this time as I really need to start building my bankroll for next season when I plan to play alot of the big
tournaments.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Now I'm off to the BBQ where I'll be seeing Tedman in action on his grill!