Atlantic City is a place filled with degenerates. I don't mean that as a derogatory term necessarily, only that there are lots of people there who exist on the fray of what is considered 'normal' society. The addicts. The drug users. The morally reprehensible. Occasionally, the morbidly obese. Gamblers. Gamblers who play with money they can't afford to lose. Shadows of humanity. People like me?
My latest trip to Atlantic City was filled with poker, false-start friendships and White House submarines. I checked into my hotel (The Trump Taj Mahal) around 4pm. I noticed a long line at the check out desk and a sign that said "Check out begins at 6pm on Sundays". As it was only 4pm, I was confused and sought out an employee named Tom standing nearby to help sort out the contradiction. His face wore deep grooves, lines that held stories and a hoarse voice to match. He said they'd been checking in people all day. I thanked him but before I could step in line, he yelled out to a man standing at the executive, VIP (for serious gamblers) checkout counter. "Hey, Lou! Check in my daughter!" and ushered me over. Lou quickly and obediently checked me in, only asking if I was really his daughter half-way through the process. I laughed, shook my head sheepishly, wondering why it mattered. He laughed too, and, in a very New Jersey accent said he 'had to ask' as he gave me a key to my room. 3502. I was optimistic: a good start to my trip! I found my room, directly across from the elevator, I took a brief shower, washing off the night before, emptied out my bags and hurried into to the poker room. I signed up for a tournament and was one of only 5 entrants. We played for about 3 hours and I managed to outlast everyone at the table. It was a friendly game.
The key to tournament play is picking your spots. I kept my stack close to me, not entering too many pots until the blinds started to rise and managed to get the right cards to keep me steady. I didn't make any mistakes and I won the tournament. The payout was minimal, only $155 for my $65 entry fee, but I was elated to have won the first live tournament I've ever played in! I celebrated by grabbing a sandwich (Read: sub) at White House Submarines (which was AMAZING). It was hot and vegetables and provolone cheese. I devoured the whole thing on the phone with my Dad as he regaled me with a story of the time he went to Atlantic City and lost $1000 playing poker before he retired to his room to watch The Matrix for the first time. After our phone call, I played $1/$2 no limit, buying in for $200. Playing late at night proved a good idea because a lot of people tend to be drunk at that point and make terrible calls. I made $300 in two and a half hours. At that point it was almost 2AM, I was still hungover from the night before, and I went to bed.
Checkout time was noon but I had to make sure I got up early enough to get some coffee and a bagel before entering into the 11am tournament, so I checked out around 10:30. This time, 10 people signed up for the game. My seat was assigned next to a woman named Judy. She was around 65 or so and visiting from Virginia. Her husband only liked the slots. She only played poker. I liked the role reversal. She was friendly and we got to chatting. It turns out that she grew up on the street around the corner from where I grew up, only she lived there in the 50s and I, the 80s. What are the odds? I grew up in a small city (Read: town) and didn't even expect her to know the name of the place, let alone the house I called home for 10 years. We laughed about it, she called her sister. We played poker. She ended up placing second in the tournament, I was out in 4th. I made about 3 crucial mistakes after I started drinking beer. I was card dead for most of the tournament, getting the worst cards I've ever seen in my life (online and off) and entered about 3 pots in 3 hours. (No joke). As the blinds went up, my cards got better (thank god) but I got a little too excited and made a few bad calls with marginal hands. I didn't push with Queen Nine when I was short-stacked in the big blind, didn't push enough at all toward the end and I got blinded out. I know I had a really good chance to win it and I know where I went I wrong. Lesson learned. (On to the next.)
After the tourney, I grabbed another White House veggie sub (OMG those things are good) scarfed it down and played $1/$2 for another 2 hours and lost about $60 bucks, I was tired (not used to playing so much) and I decided not to stay for the 10pm bus and left at 6.
All in all, the trip left me up about $250 but if you subtract what I payed for food, transportation and the hotel, I guess I was only up about $100..... But from the desperate looks on their faces, that's more than most people in that poker room could say, I'm sure. The poor motherfuckers.
I don't think I'll go back to AC alone again any time soon... as much as I enjoy the game of poker, my sensitive heart can't take being alone around so many lonely, desperate, sinking people who've forgotten how to swim. Or maybe they're just caught up in an undertow?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Poker Beginnings
To begin, I'm going to tell you my poker story. At least, some of it. In truth, I've got more than one poker story but I've got to save something for future entries....
It all started a long, long time ago in a land far away from the concrete jungle I now call home.... Maryland.
When I was a little girl, my mother would drive us from our little house in Virginia and take me to visit my grandparents where they lived on an island in Maryland. I must've been about 8 when my grandfather sat me down and brought out a large jar of pennies and counted them out for us to use as chips. He taught me the many different versions of poker. I remember we played a lot more five card draw than we ever did hold 'em. I understand now that that was probably because it's a lot easier to understand how to play five card draw than grasp the complicated betting strategies of hold 'em. I don't even know if my grandfather really understands hold 'em. He's more of a rummy man. Anyway, I loved cards. My dad and I also used to play spades all the time with his friends or my brother and sister, when they were old enough. I was good at spades. Cards were so fascinating to me. I even invented my own card games. Like "Peaches" and "Lightning". They never caught on....
Fast forward to adult-hood. Occasionally, from about 17 - 25, I would play poker online on Yahoo Games but it was so annoying because, as most of you who might be reading this know, when you play with play money, no one takes it seriously enough to preserve the integrity of the game. Then, in 2010, I saw the world series of poker on television. It was like the sun had just come out after months of rain. I was transfixed. A guy who worked with me at the hotel bar where I worked at the time saw my enthusiasm for the world series each night and told me about his online poker hobby, where there were websites that you could deposit real money into and play for real! I deposited $40 and was instantly hooked. Combined with the fact that I was quitting smoking cigarettes at the time, it was easy to develop a poker hobby (read: obsession). I played with that same $40 for about 8 months, going up and down... playing for pennies. Now, here I am, a year and a half later and I'm still completely in love with the game. I've watched every episode of multiple seasons of most of the poker television shows. (Read: almost everything on pokercast.tv and pokerstars.tv) It's a little embarrassing to admit the amount of time that I've spent watching poker in the past year, so let's just say I probably hold the world record for a girl my age. Though, then again, it's only been a year, so... maybe not. I'd venture to say that my familiarity with the game is far beyond that of most people who've only been playing for a year. I find the strategy of the game deeply fascinating and spend most of my free time studying the game.
So here I am.
Writing this entry.
I'm a writer by nature so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I started a Poker Blog.... My plan is to write about my experiences playing poker and perhaps delve into the world of poker hand analysis at some point. I hope whomever might stumble upon this blog and is passionate about the game finds something of interest in the things I write here.
Sadly, my bankroll is limited to non-existent so I don't get the opportunity to play as often as I'd like lest I risk my rent money, but I am going to Atlantic City this Sunday to play in a couple tournaments (my FIRST live tournaments!) so my next entry will detail my adventures there!
It all started a long, long time ago in a land far away from the concrete jungle I now call home.... Maryland.
When I was a little girl, my mother would drive us from our little house in Virginia and take me to visit my grandparents where they lived on an island in Maryland. I must've been about 8 when my grandfather sat me down and brought out a large jar of pennies and counted them out for us to use as chips. He taught me the many different versions of poker. I remember we played a lot more five card draw than we ever did hold 'em. I understand now that that was probably because it's a lot easier to understand how to play five card draw than grasp the complicated betting strategies of hold 'em. I don't even know if my grandfather really understands hold 'em. He's more of a rummy man. Anyway, I loved cards. My dad and I also used to play spades all the time with his friends or my brother and sister, when they were old enough. I was good at spades. Cards were so fascinating to me. I even invented my own card games. Like "Peaches" and "Lightning". They never caught on....
Fast forward to adult-hood. Occasionally, from about 17 - 25, I would play poker online on Yahoo Games but it was so annoying because, as most of you who might be reading this know, when you play with play money, no one takes it seriously enough to preserve the integrity of the game. Then, in 2010, I saw the world series of poker on television. It was like the sun had just come out after months of rain. I was transfixed. A guy who worked with me at the hotel bar where I worked at the time saw my enthusiasm for the world series each night and told me about his online poker hobby, where there were websites that you could deposit real money into and play for real! I deposited $40 and was instantly hooked. Combined with the fact that I was quitting smoking cigarettes at the time, it was easy to develop a poker hobby (read: obsession). I played with that same $40 for about 8 months, going up and down... playing for pennies. Now, here I am, a year and a half later and I'm still completely in love with the game. I've watched every episode of multiple seasons of most of the poker television shows. (Read: almost everything on pokercast.tv and pokerstars.tv) It's a little embarrassing to admit the amount of time that I've spent watching poker in the past year, so let's just say I probably hold the world record for a girl my age. Though, then again, it's only been a year, so... maybe not. I'd venture to say that my familiarity with the game is far beyond that of most people who've only been playing for a year. I find the strategy of the game deeply fascinating and spend most of my free time studying the game.
So here I am.
Writing this entry.
I'm a writer by nature so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I started a Poker Blog.... My plan is to write about my experiences playing poker and perhaps delve into the world of poker hand analysis at some point. I hope whomever might stumble upon this blog and is passionate about the game finds something of interest in the things I write here.
Sadly, my bankroll is limited to non-existent so I don't get the opportunity to play as often as I'd like lest I risk my rent money, but I am going to Atlantic City this Sunday to play in a couple tournaments (my FIRST live tournaments!) so my next entry will detail my adventures there!
Monday, March 19, 2012
For the love of the game
This blog is my foray into the poker writing world. I had a dream last night that I was a poker writer. I woke up this morning and wondered why I wasn't.
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