A Friday at Borgata

I was actually staying at the Taj, and after a late breakfast I headed down to the poker room to try to get into a $560 buy-in, single table, winner-take-all tournament which if I won I would use the proceeds to play in the $5,000 buy-in Trump Classic main event. There were a few players muddling around the registartion desk, but we needed ten to play and it just didn't look like that many people were available to buck up. I remembered the Borgata had a tourney every Friday at noon so I jumped into a cab and headed over towards the marina.
I was there in plenty of time and was near the front of the line to register for the event which has a $100 buy-in with unlimited $100 rebuys in the first hour of play and then an optional $100 add-on after that. I got my table and seat assignment and waited for the event to start. When we finally sat down to play there were 7 tables of ten players each. The action was fast from the start, as it most often is in rebuy events, but I managed to stay out of trouble for most of the first hour. I consider the second hour of the tournament the real start of the event since that is when most of the maniacs are eliminated or stop playing like maniacs. Just before the end of the rebuy period I got involved in a hand where I held pocket fours. I flopped a third four and had bet out with my trips and was called by one player. A three came on the turn (there was also one on the flop) giving me a full house and I bet out again. I was raised by the other player and called, putting myself all-in. I turned over my full house and my stomach dropped when he turned over his pocket threes for quads! I was drawing to one card, the case four, to win and it didn't come. I knew I was playing well and the rebuy period was just about over so I called out for a rebuy and with the add-on I would be starting the second hour in decent shape anyway.
It went slow at first, but after I was moved to another table things started to pick up. I began to accumulate chips and was getting a good run of cards. When we got down to 3 tables I was the chip leader with close to $80,000 in chips. My chip stack was so intimidating that I was able to run over most of the players at the table and cruised into the final table with over $100,000 in chips. With the rebuys and add-ons we were looking at a prize pool of over $24,000 with nine players getting paid and first place getting $9000. Since we started the final table with ten players, one of them would be leaving very disappointed with no money after 6 hours of playing. We decided to chip in $20 each and give him a consolation prize. I know what its like to be the "bubble boy" and bust out with nothing so I'm sure it took a little of the pain away for him.
We battled it out for some time and players starting dropping as the blinds and antes rose. We were down to four players and we were facing an ante of $2000 each and blinds of $10,000 and $20,000 so chip stacks would be dwindling rapidly if you didn't play. We halted play for a chip count and to discuss a four-way deal for the remaining prize money. I was the short stack at this point with just $99,000 in chips. Two players had about $150,000 each and the chip leader had just over $200,000. Even though I was the short stack the other players knew that I would demand a premium to make a deal since things could change dramatically with each hand. They offered me $3600 which was more than double what I would be scheduled to get if I was the next player eliminated. The others would get a pro-rata portion of the prize pool based on their chip counts and after double checking the math and getting approval from the tournament director, we ended it there and everyone walked away happy. I would have liked to have played it out, because I really think I had a chance at winning it, but after 7 hours I was ready to head back to the Taj and I still wanted to win a seat in the Trump Classic which was starting the next day.
I took my winnings and hopped back into a cab for the ride across town. I played a little more at the Taj, but was unable to win a seat into the main event. It wasn't a bad tournament overall for me though. I won two smaller satellites, cashed in a preliminary no-limit event with over 900 players (I finished 20th) and won the $3600 at the Borgata. Since I wasn't playing in the big one, I checked out of the Taj and drove home.