I first arrived in Atlantic City after a long 6 hour drive. The minute I got there it was time to play some poker before the alcohol was in the picture for the bachelor party.

Session 1

I left the non-poker playing friends at the roulette table and headed for the poker room with a few other friends. I sat down at 1/2 NL kind of as a refresher and to get back into the swing of things as I was expecting to play 2/5 NL later in the weekend.

I bought in for $200 though the max buy-in was $300. After a few quick hours of not getting too many good hands I was up $60 and left to get ready to go out. Really nothing too eventful but did notice how poor the play was.

Session 2

After going to a couple of bars I carried myself back to the poker room around 2 in the morning. Decided to buy back into the 1/2 game since I had been drinking instead of trying out the 2/5 game.

First hand I am dealt in the BB was AhAc. Middle position player opens with a 4x raise, the button calls, and hoping to take the pot down pre and set a tone for my table image I overbet ($35) the pot ($19) making it $27 more to go for the players already in. I still had $165 behind. The original raiser, with what looked to be about $500 behind, calls and the button folds.

At this point, with no reads except to notice that he is up since the max buyin is $300, I have to think that he has two big cards like AK-AQ or a pretty nice pair like TT-KK. I wasn’t really laying good enough odds for much else to call.

Flop brings 8h 5d 2h

I bet ($60) 3/4 of the pot ($78) hoping that he has an overpair and is willing to go with it. If he just calls, I would have the perfect size stack to make a value ship with the rest on the turn ($105 into $198). To go along with the possibility of him having an overpair, he declares that he is putting me all in.

Without really thinking about it, I call knowing I was pretty much priced in getting nearly 2:1 on the flop with AA one being a heart.

As I put the last of my chips in, I asked “Did you hit a set on me?”

He sheepishly shakes his head yes as he turns over his 55. Needless to say, the turn and river was of no help.

I quickly reach back into my pockets to rebuy for another $200.

At least an hour of break-even play went by. A few more beers down and a run of no cards was getting me antsy as this next hand occurred:

At this point I had reads on the styles of 3/4 of the table and had a couple strong physical tells on 1/3 of the table. The table playing loose, I look down at the Qc7c from the button after 4 limpers and elect to call. The SB calls and the loose aggressive BB makes it $16 to go. It is folded around to me and I make a loose call thinking I could outplay him as I had a good read on him. SB folds.

The flop brings 7 5 2 (no flush draw out, forget the suits though).

BB leads with a pot-sized ($40) continuation bet as he has done 3 or 4 times in the last orbit and a half. I sit there and think for about 10 seconds, my opponent really did look uncomfortable. So I decided to call planning to bet if checked to me on the turn no matter what came.

Turn brings an 8 (rainbow).

The BB checks, I look at the pot which is now at $120 and I have about the same. So going with my read and my plan, I decide to ship and hopefully take down the pot. To my dismay, I get called pretty quickly.

Again the board reads 7 5 2 8, guess what he had!

44!

And guess what came on the river, a 6 to give him the straight.

I slowly pushed away from the table as I watched him drag the pot away. I said in awe “I can not believe you called over a hundred with that, but nice hand I guess” and I walked away in disbelief.

In no way, was I playing the hand the way I did just because I had top pair. I played it this way by going with my read. I was really playing the player more than the cards. I guess I was correct in this instance, but the outcome was unfavorable.

End of day 1, down 340….. Day 2 to come later.