No Limit Hold'em Double Up

I noticed a new type of tournament (well, new to me) on Doyle's Room called a Double Up tournament. It was cheap, so I tried it out. I paid $5 to play at a 10 person table. The idea is that the top five all win the same amount, double what their buy-in was.

After a few minutes I had three times the chips of the next player, and realized I was likely to be in the top five for a prize. Then it occurred to me that once I got to 5th place I would be assured the most that could be won. There would be no reason to continue. Maybe I should just go all in every hand until I get knocked out and collect my prize.

As it turned out the tourney ended once we got down to five players. I was the chip leader at the time and took first place. I collect my $10 and logged off to play another day.

There are other buy-in amounts. I see $1,000 and $100. I think I'll skip $1,000. Maybe I'll try a $100 Double Up next time.

Lobster Feast at Harrah's

Harrah's in Atlantic City is one of my favorite places to play poker. I'm going up there this Friday for Lobster feast.

They are comping me two "lobster feast" dinners at the Waterfront buffet and a Friday night hotel room. The Lobster Feast includes a whole Maine lobster, lobster ravioli, and more. As I recall, it is the regular Waterfront $25 buffet plus $10 extra for Lobster Feast. Comparing the price to local restaurants, the buffet might be a bargain even if I was not getting it for free.

My hotel room became a problem in that I waited to late to reserve it and Harrah's was sold out. So I am staying for free Friday at Showboat.

I think I will avoid the 11:00 Friday poker tournaments at both locations and aim for the 2:00 and 7:00 tournaments, then the Saturday 11:00 AM poker tournament.

The new expanded Harrah's poker room is my favorite in Atlantic City, with Showboat being number two. A little poker to tide me over until the May 9th bus trip.

Poker Host Acid Test

I hired a new person to run poker tournaments and he ran the Monday night tournament at Addy's Bar and Grill. The acid test for whether or not a poker host is good is if I can sit down and play poker and concentrate on the game, not what he is doing.

Even though it was his first tournament, he did very well. I did in fact get up from my seat three times to correct mistakes he was making, but it turned out well. In the end I was at the final table, albeit shouting instructions to the second tournament that started playing while I was at the final table of the first tournament winning all the chips and finishing first.

I had an impressive chip lead early in the game, but in one hand I lost most of my chips, and was soon down to only three chips of the smallest denomination being played. Linda to my right unwittingly encouraged me on saying that my lack of chips was not likely to stop me from running the table.

I went all in with a 7-3 and was called by K-3. I flopped a set of sevens and won enough chips to get back in the game. Now it was time to quit playing cards and start playing poker.

Poker is a mix of three elements - 1/3 math, 1/3 luck, and 1/3 psychology. Had I not been short stacked, my going all in with 7-3 would suggest I know nothing of math. Winning with 7-3 suggests I got lucky. With that luck I was able to establish a table presence that allowed me to use psychology to go on to win the tournament.

Luck hit my game two more times, and as luck would have it I hit on sevens both times giving me a table image that some found hard to get away from. I pressed my psychological advantage and won the tournament.

I hated knocking them out of the game, but I enjoyed playing with Roger and Linda at the final table.

Bus Trip to Atlantic City

The Red, White, and Blue Poker League had their first bus day trip to Atlantic City today. We went to Showboat, the Mardi Gras casino. Showboat has the prettiest poker room in Atlantic City and it is also the fifth largest behind Borgata, Taj, the Trop, and Harrah's.

The new poker room was relocated from upstairs down to the main floor. It's in the back, next to the boardwalk. In fact, you can see the people walking by on the boardwalk through the windows that look out on the boardwalk and ocean beach.

Showboat's poker room is House of Blues themed, along with being a signature WSOP poker room. It's spacious and has a 60's type of atmosphere in the wall paintings and decoration. The poker room is filled with plasma TVs and is a great place to play poker.

It took us about three and a half hours to get to Atlantic City. We all got a $15 bus bonus - a voucher to play in slot machines. The trip was a bit less that eight hours in the casino, we all agreed we want more casino time for the next trip.

The available poker tournaments at Showboat were at 11:00 and 2:00 and were $100 + $20. There was also $1/$2 no limit as well as $2/$4 limit games.

Everyone had fun and we are all looking forward to the next trip to Atlantic City.

In the Hospital

I'm sitting in the hospital wondering what is going to happen. It is now Wednesday. I really don't feel like typing this in.

On Thursday evening I started feeling bad at a poker tournament. On Friday after lunch a doctor at a walk in urgent care office told me while he did not know what I had, he suspected appendicitis. Specifically, he told me to go to the emergency room and get a CAT scan, or I would die. I told him I didn't feel confident with his diagnosis and that I wasn't going to the hospital and apparently was going to die.

My plan was to get some antibiotics and stay in bed for a few days and wait it out.

The weekend passed but on Monday the pain had not. I dropped by Addy's to look in on the poker tournament, collect some sign ups for the Atlantic City bus trip and then drove down to the emergency room. The delay to be seen was too short to use the free Wifi in the waiting room. I got the CAT scan, which involved my drinking a Barium isotope in four doses over three hours, then going through the machine.

After the results of the CAT scan were studied, my doctor told me she did not know the cause of my problem but was diagnosing me with "intestinal pain". This was obvious to me before coming in. Somehow I expected more from a multi-million dollar piece of diagnostic equipment.

I'm sitting in a hospital bed now. I'm told I have lots of infection near my appendix, which is also near several other organs. I'm told it's probably not appendicitis. I suspect the treatment for all the suspected ailments involve antibiotics, rest, and not eating.

Expect to see me Sunday at the $200 tournament, then on the bus trip to Atlantic City. Or, I might die instead. Who knows?