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?
No comments:
Post a Comment