Atlantic City Trip Report

I'm back from Atlantic City just in time for fourth of July. The World Series of Poker Main Event, the most prestigous poker tournament in the world for those of you who don't know also started today and once again I'm not playing in it. It's unfortunate but hopefully I'll play by 2009. Anyway, AC went pretty well I wanted to make close to a thousand bucks for the trip but I only made 500. Not bad for just 2 days though. The first night I played at the Taj Mahal because my room was there, a 450 dollar room my friend Derick got for 14 bucks. I don't understand how anyone pays that much money to stay there, at those prices each room should come with a prostitute or else it's just craziness. So the first night went pretty bad, I couldn't get paid off when I had anything good, the table was pretty stacked with decent players. Usually a 1,2 game is slightly fishy (couple of donks) but this table was tight and people were making good laydowns against me. In the first ten minutes I flopped 9's full of kings against this guy who made it 12 bucks to go in early position. I didn't get any action as he folded to me on the river after I tried to checkraise him twice. Derick was playing at my table too so I wasn't in that much of a work mood also so things were going downhill. I was stuck 200 and had to go to the atm again which I did not want to do at all. I had to play for 6 hours and finally made a small profit of 100 bucks. I also met up with my friend Jimmy who I used to hang out with when I lived in AC for 2 months. Being back in AC was great and I really miss it. It almost felt like I was home all summer and was returning to college to live there again. So I hung out with Jimmy and Derick and thought about how AC has everything I need except friends. The trip was great becuase I was hanging out with people, most of the 2 months I was there I didn't so much but play poker cause I don't know anyone. But I do have a couple of friends there and when I'm haning out with them everything is chill so I should jsut move back and give it time and I'll have as much as a social life as I do at home. I've been home for like 3 months playing online and it's kind of wack, but I have so many close friends around so I'm here. But this trip made me realize I really need to go back to AC and just get a place, friends will eventually come with time. Derick doesn't even live there but if he ever decides to move there me and him are definately going to get a place and destroy the 1,2 games there. But I'm still thinking about going even without him, fuck it. I need the option of live poker or online poker, I love live poker, I can't stand just playing on the computer. And when I play to much live I say I can't stand it and play online for a while, so I need to give myself the option. It's so much easier for me to make money when I have both options at my disposal. Atlantic City got a little out of hand when I lived there cause all I had was live poker and it wore me out, cause live 9 handed poker is very slow and long. The mistake I made then was not playing online as well, and the mistake I've made at home is only having online. When I have both like I did on this trip I am a money making machine. After my long 6 hour session where I only made 100 bucks I went upstairs to my room and played online (I bring my computer everywhere and have portable internet) I picked up a quick 40 bucks and made the earnings for the day a little more sufficient.
Anyway the next day I got up sometime like after 6pm and realized we had to check out in like 12 hours and I was so upset that it was practically over already. It really made me believe I should move back and get a real place to live. I put on jeans and a really pimp shirt and got my volumizing moose on, yeah baby. I started walking by myself down to the poker room, Derick was still sleeping cause he had been awake for 75 hours. I decided to play somewhere else because if you dress up it makes no sense to play at the Taj Mahal because everyone there is a little scrubby. I wound up walking all the way to Ceaser's Palace for some reason with 400 bucks on me. Not a smart move at night in AC, the whole time I was worried I was going to get mugged or maybe attacked possibly? Then after the long walk was almost done I see a group of African American fellas standing together being very loud. They were all dressed in slanted baseball caps and jersey's, doo rags, gold chains, you know. So I really felt threatened and wanted to move to the other side of the street, but they were right in front of the entrance to Ceasers. It would of been so obvious I was avoiding them if I went to other side and then came back the same direction to walk into Ceasers. So now it's a whole Curb your Enthusiasm scenario. If I go to the other side of the street I look like a racist and if I don't I know there gonna fuck with me. They have to, a lone great looking white boy all dressed up, what do I do? Even when I'm not playing poker I'm making decisions that I really can't afford to be wrong on. I decide to just walk past em, one of them holding a bunch of cash turns to me and says 'hey you need something brotha?' Or something similar to that, I'm not sure, which pretty much means he's asking if I need to buy drugs obviously. I say 'No I'm good.' And keep walking, and he screams 'Damn boy I was just saying what's up! Not all black people sell drugs!" And then they all laughed at me.
I went over to my poker room of choice in Bally's which is connected to Ceaser's and picked up a cool 300 in like 4 hours, I played perfect poker and folded a lot of junk preflop without getting impatient, although it was very tough. There was a cute little blonde at my table but she didn't really know what she was doing and lost her money before I got a chance to really talk to her.
I walk back to the Taj at 4 am with 700 bucks on me this time and was even more scared I was going to get mugged. I had to walk by several bums with no shoes on and it sucked. I don't know why I didn't just drive there. Derick was awake by the time i got back and was deep in the Taj's midnight madness tournament. Oddly enough it was the same tourney that I chopped 4 ways for 550 profit the day I met Derick and Jimmy. So I root Derick on for a bit and then played seven card stud with old people as I waited, and actually made 100 more dollars. Soon enough Derick was at the final table and wound up chopping it 3 ways after much debate. He took home 1300, for a 60 dollar entry fee. We were both pretty ecstatic, it was great times. If we had an apartment we would of just came up with 2 months rent between both our winnings that single night. We stayed up all night and could not pass out before checkout. I drove 3 and half hours home earlier today on no sleep, it sucked big time. But the trip was awsome and I can't wait to go back. I'll leave you all with this fine piece of filmmaking from the trip: