Back From a 3-day vacation

After one night at the Borgata in Atlantic City I am never sure how I will ever be able to leave. By the third night, I have one foot out the door and no plan of returning. I have only been back home for about 36 hours now and once again I am craving a return trip. I guess this kind of indecisiveness is to be expected from one of the most beautiful, disgusting, miraculous, hideous, and most magical places on the east coast.

Prior to this trip the biggest live game I had played was 5-10 no limit with a $2,000 cap. So as you can imagine it was quite a jump sitting in an uncapped 10-25 no limit game on our first night in Atlantic City. I sat with around $8,000 which was quite short for our table; the average buyin being around $15,000. The skill level of the players was no worse than anything I have to deal with from the midstakes online games. In fact in terms of skill level of players, the games are much easier than I had expected. However it is extremely intimidating to sit at a table with players who are much more comfortable splashing around in pots for thousands of dollars when I am used to "big" pots online being around $500. Within the first thirty minutes of playing I got bluffed out of a pot or two while I sat patiently and waited for the perfect spot to win one of the biggest pots of my life. The wait was for nothing, as I soon was involved in a 3bet pot with AK on the AJ4 flop facing a decision for all my chips. In terms of how the game was playing this wasn't a very big pot at all and considering I was up against one of the loosest players at the table, I wasn't able to fold the AK and I lost my first five figure pot to AJ who had flopped top two pair. As I saw what amounted to a little over $10,000 being pushed away from me, I couldn't help but smile. I knew this was what I wanted. I have heard plenty of stories of revelations people have had in the past and I have never been able to understand what exactly they meant, until now. Yes I still plan on going back to school, yes I still plan on having a family and living a normal life, but poker will always be something I enjoy and something that I take very seriously, and for now, the way I make my living.

Even after losing the five figure pot, I managed to win a few buyins at 5-10 to make back some of the losses leaving me down around $3000 overall. The second most eventful part of the trip was about to take place. Greg playing $100-$200 no limit. A game that had an average buyin of over $40,000. Luckily I was able to invest some money into his buyin which amounted to 7.5% of action I had on this game. With most of the players being millionaires, you can imagine how big the pots could become. The exchange of tens of thousands of dollars only lasted for a few hours and in the end my 7.5% had amounted to a little under +$2,000 to leave me down around $1,000 for the trip. After this I didn't play as much poker as I would have liked, but I had a lot on my mind after what I had just witnessed and been a part of. On the final night of the trip I had dinner at Bobby Flay Steakhouse in the Borgata which, as always, is an amazing way to end a trip to Atlantic City. $20 shrimp cocktail appetizers, $50 filets, and $10 sides are worth every penny.

I returned from the trip down $1540 including hotel, food, and all other expenses. I have never been so proud to book a loss. I learned countless things about the game of poker and where I stand in that game.