Ok, Its been nearly a week since I got back from Atlantic City. I spent the last few days just gathering up thoughts that I have in my head about the whole trip. First of all, I did actually win in Atlantic city. I had a total profit of $600 in 3 days of playing. Most people would say that 1 buy-in per day is running pretty normal. But...I did anything BUT run normal during the trip....

My 4 other friends and I got to the Caesars poker room around 12:30AM. All of us sat down at different tables spread out around the room and started to play at 12:45AM sharp. My first impression of the poker room was that it was surprising different from the ones that I saw on TV, because I am so used to seeing the large fields of tables on the WSOP episodes. I initially bought in for $200 in chips at the $300 max 1/2NL table. When I say down, I immediately noticed that there was this old lady who was just absolutely wasted out of her mind and what Joe Hachem would say "passing out the sugAH". Immediately, I was like FISH, JACKPOT!!! But for about the first hour I was there I was absolutely card dead and got all sorts of combinations of trash such as: J3, 92, 83, Q5, etc. I MIGHT had made a stab with them if some of them were suited but, that didn't even happen. Of course the some fat guy busted the drunk lady with a nasty two pair for her near $400 stack. I felt like the money was robbed away from me since that fat guy was sooo incredably bad. After that I had a pretty good read on all of the players at my table. the 3 better players all sat to my right and all the bad calling stations were to my left. So I was extremely happy about where I was at in the game. But soon after I got familiarized with my table, half of the table decided to leave and I was relocated to a different table. My new table was even juicier than my last. The I would say half of the table was older tourists who might have watched poker on TV. But 2 good players were to my left, so my position wasn't exactly to great. Everyone in AC is also a preflop overbetting-DONKEY. Who the fuck opens up UTG for $15+ with KQ?!?!?!?! So playing like a nit at at AC was actually gonna be a lot more profitable than it usually would be. About 5 hands in, I picked up 88 in middle position, and I limped. One good asian guy two seats away from me raises to $15 and 3 other players had called by the time it got to me. So my 88 was got pretty valuable especially if I make a set, so I smooth called:

Hero: 88

Flop: 787 (JACKPOT!)

I check, original raiser bets $40 and 2 out of 3 players call before me and I smooth call as well.

Turn: Blank

Everyone checks around.

River: Blank

I was first to act, So I make a $50 raise. Everyone folds but I get a call from the last guy. and I take down a decent sized pot. I think this was the first big mistake I made on the trip. It was mainly due to the fact that it was my first time playing in a casino and playing so high up in limits. To think back, I had like 20 dollars left behind of my $50 river raise. The only person who was going to call me was probably with a overpair or another 7. So it really didn't matter how much I raised on the river. At the point I only bet $50 because I didn't wanna scare anyone away. Stupid me!

After that hand I really started to get into my grind. I played the best I could and had the winnest night of the whole trip. I had to play literally until noon time on monday because we couldn't check into our rooms until then. Through out the night, I played mainly Tight and Passive. I allowed other people to bet into me because I knew most of the people would not hold back from betting if they made top pair reguardless of kicker. The only time I would make a raise if the board was extremely dangerous. It worked out very well, I won several pots with Ace high flush and getting paid off my K high flushes :-D. At the end of the session I turned the initial $200 buy in into $750. It shoulda been over 1k but I got sucked out when I had AA by a old asian guy who decided to play 75 offsuit >:-(. But I played the hand extremely bad because I decided to check the flop of J84 to allow someone who had a J to bet, but instead the old guy runner runnered a straight on me. It stun kinda bad.

Day 2(monday):

After going to sleep at 12:00pm I got up 6hrs later and had dinner with my friends at a shitty burger/hotdog joint inside the casino. The food was overpriced, but I really can't complain paying for it with the money that I won from the previous session. Soon after dinner, my friends and I all headed to the poker room once again. I was seated at a table a lot tighter compared to the table I was at the night before. People came and went so I ended up being the one who stayed at the table the longest(14hrs :-P). There was this one huuuuge fish who sat with us at the table but just got rediculously lucky in the 4-5hrs that he played. One somewhat good experienced old guy decided to bluff him on a board that only needed one card for a straight. This fish essentially called an all in over $600+ with a trash two pair. The whole table went CRAZY after that. I applauded the old guy for making such move, but I also told him that you just simply can't bluff an idiot. I personally had a rough start at the table. I wasn't catching much cards for the first hour, but I picked up 77 and this one mid-aged asian guy sat down at the table and decided to post. I raised a standard $6 and it was HU btw him and I to the flop.

Hero: 77

Flop 347

I bet out $15. He smooth calls

Turn: 6 (I was like, fuck...game over)

we both check

River: blank

He bets $50, I call and lose to 45 offsuit(awesome!!!) There was a lot of situations such as this when I just KNEW I was beat but I still called for some reason. I really think I could of came away with at least another $300-400 in winnings if I didn't make stupid calls like this. Then this fucking donk goes on an tells me that poker is a game of pure feeling and that when you feel that a certain hand is gonna win...you should play it. So, you can imagine all of the words I was using to curse him and his family. >:-(

So after that blow, I replenish my stack with another $100. This guy gets up and moves to another seat at the table for some reason. 10hands later I picked up QQ with 3 limpers to my right, I make it $15 and I get 2 callers including the old asian guy who just cracked my set.

hero: QQ

Flop: QJTr

I raise $35, one guy smooth calls, and the asian guy makes it $50 more. I immediately go all in knowing that the guy who smooth called was proabably on a draw and the asian might actually had a hand. The only hand I was worried about at this point was AK and 89. But It didn't make sense for anyone to reraise on the flop if they already had AK but if they did, I still had outs. As I expected the guy who smooth called folds and the asian guy immediately calls. He flips over JJ and I turn over my QQ with the biggest smile on my face. Everyone at the table pretty much stood up and congratulated me on the hand. The turn and river bricks and I take down a nice $650 pot.

After this point I had a very good image at the table, and a lot of people were folding to my raises. It was nice to have this rather than to be sucked out by some crazy shit people pull out of their asses up in AC. For the next few hours I couldn't really make a hand and made a couple of stupid bluffs, and my stack was just going up and down. I decided to call it a session at 12:00pm on tuesday and walked away with a $450 profit. I went to my room and slept, but woke up only after 3hrs later and just could not go back to sleep. 3 of my friends had went to bed early from the previous night because they were down a lot. I actually had to borrow out $800 to 2 of my friends through out the entire trip. I got up and took a shower and called up my friends and turned out that they were at the Bally's poker room because the bad beat jackpot was up to $150,000. I looked in my wallet and I had close to 1k in cash not even including the money that I had borrowed to my friends from the night before. I was extremely happy with myself. I went down stairs just feeling like a million bucks and actually walked around all of the shops and enjoyed the setting for a good half an hour. I went back to the same burger place to eat by myself and I actually got the whole meal comped because I had played for so many freaking hours just the 2 session before. After dinner I headed out to find my friends. Then something happened that probably changed the WHOLE entire trip:

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I was going up the escalator and there was this black guy by himself coming down and he goes: "hey brother, you got some money you can give me so I can get some dinner?" Ok, normally I am a very nice guy and and very simpathetic towards the poor because my family wasn't exactly well off all my life. But it was just this situation that made me not wanna give him any money because I am NOT simpathetic towards the degenerate gamblers who come to the casino with all of their paycheck and just to gamble it away. So I proceed to lie to the guy and told him that I was losing a bunch of money and I couldn't spare any to him. Immediately I walk away from from, I was like SHIT, I hope this doesn't come back and bite me in the ass. (ohhhh, I had nooooooo idea what was in store for me in the next 15hrs.

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I finally found my friends at the Bally's room where they were playing 1/3NL in a room filled with a bunch of old old old people. I sat down at a table half full of old guys and it was to get a penny out of them. I played at that table for a good 1hr and made about 25 bucks and moved to a table that was making crazy commotion every other min. I get there and immediately notice the guy who sat to the right of me who had like 1.5k on the table. So apparently he was running hot before I got there. I also noticed this other guy named Ricky who was just an absolute dick who was loose and sucking out on everyone. I played for about 2hrs and just couldn't get anything going. Then finally I picked up AKcc and I call a $15 dollar raise from that guy Ricky and bad player to my left moves all in for $50. When it got back to Ricky he reraised it up to $100 which was close to half of my stack. When the guy to my left moved all in, I already made up my mind that I was gonna call. But when Ricky made it $100 I tanked for liek 5mins. I knew that the guy to my left was just getting impatient with his short stack and just moved all in with 2 face cards and decided to gamble. When Ricky reraised to $100 I put him from TT-AA. KK and AA was slightly unlikely(statistically) because I had an A and K. Since they were suited as well, I decided to make the call and see a flop.

Hero:AKcc

Flop xx9ccc (miracle flop)

He of course moves all in, I do my best Phil Hellmuth impression and get my money in as fast as possible. He turns over JJ and I show him my Nut flush.

Turn: J

River: 9 (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!, GAME OVER)

After this hand I was on mega tilt. I still had $100 left after that hit and boughting for another $200. 5 hands later I run my pocket pair into QUADS and I double up a short stack and lose another $100. But I clawed my way back up to $300 stack again then this hand happened:

Hero: AQ

Hero raised to $6, 4 callers(including Ricky)

Flop: TQJ

I raise $25, everyone folds but Ricky raises to $75. At this point I so on tilt I just shoved hoping he had like 2 pair or something and he'll fold. But of course he had K9 with the wrap arond straight.

Turn: A

River: Q

Karrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrma!!!!!!!!!!!!. The world rebalanced itself. A few hands after this, the table broke and I took my money and got the hell outta Bally's. I actually came out a $75 winner! My friends had busted another buy in and had went to dinner earlier. I called them up and they were back at Caesar's.

My Last Session of the Trip:

So I get back to Caesar's and I get seated at this table that had this one kid who was my age and was reading a cardplayers magazine with a 1k stack. So I assumed that he was pretty good and watching him play a the first couple of hands he was in, I noticed that he was very aggressive with his raising especially on the turn and river. Through out the night I played a couple of hands with him. He ended up getting the best of me when he two paired on me twice when we were sharing cards. But the highlight of the night didn't include him. It was this over-betting donk that was sitting across the table from me. He is one of those players who raise on "feeling" with no knowledge of position WHAT so ever. One hand he raises $22 UTG with 35off and flopped a boat....sickness. Then this one hand comes up. I had QToff and I decided to limp since I havent seen much action thus far. He makes it 15 dollars and everyone folds and it gets down to me. I call to see a flop and I checked in the dark.

Hero: QT

Flop: 98J

I flopped the nuts. I checked dark. Before the flop came and he moved in with a $100 dark. So...he pretty much screamed AA to me. So I put him all in and he calls.

Turn: 9

River: 9

I get runner runner AGAIN!!! Absolutely sick!

5 hands later, He is UTG and pops to $13

Hero:99

2 other callers

Flop: 697

Everyone checks

Turn: 3

I check, guy behind me raises $20, Over-bet donk raises to $50. Me being on tilt doesn't even consider what he might have had. So I shove and he calls with 45 with a straight. Of course I cant suck out at all and I lose.

So After all this I go from a 1k+ winner I was down to my last $250 worth of profits. Then there was this one momemt where I was like fuck this. This is poker I am playing and I cant just sit here for cards only to have donks suck out on me. Then I went on to play the best poker of my life in the next 6+hrs. I out played that kid who was at my table by doing all types of things such as floating with air and all types of moves. I eventually grinded back up to a 600ish profit and I called it a session being tired as fuck. Through out the whole trip I had at 2 meals thus far and slept for lest than 7 hrs in 3 days. I think the lack of sleep really had a huuuge effect of my bad run on the last session and also not giving that black guy money might have had something to do with it too haha. But I came away from trip with $600 profit. I am not exactly too happy with my results after my good run and how bad some of the players are at AC. I calculated that if I didnt lose those 98% chanced favored to win hands, I woulda proabably walked away from this trip with a 3k profit. Its just so nasty to think about it. I coulda be fully bankrolled for 100NL online. Now my bankroll is 1k. My goal is to continue to play home games and win as much as humanly possible and then take whatever I have and take another stab in AC when summer break starts. I goal is to have 6k by the beginning of the summer and grind $1/2NLHE online for the entire summer.