question on trip to ac

[Ed 0]

OK, so I'm tentatively planning to spend the day playing poker in AC tomorrow. Not sure which casino yet (probably a couple). Anyway, here's a question. I've heard some people I know talk about going up there and starting their play at 4 or 5 in the morning, to try and catch the worn out crowd/drunks that are holdovers from Friday night.Is this worth it? We're talking limit HE here, probably 3-6. On the positive side, a good 8-hour session could bring a decent profit, and you're outta there by 1 or so in the afternoon and I have the rest of the weekend to do whatever (it's a 3-hour drive each way, just for information). But I guess I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this and if your own fatigue at driving in the middle of the night and playing that early worked against the advantage of playing other tired/liquored up players.For what it's worth, usually when I go, it's to get there about noon and play til 8, so I'm home by 11:30 or so. Also, if any of you have done this, and there's a particular casino where this type of strategy would be particularly efficient, let me know. Thanks.Ed

[Chez52 0]

If youve ever been to AC Before than you know the only place to play poker is the BorgataMY advice is to get there as early as you can because last time I was there it took me about 4 hours to get a Hold Em table....and I left about an hour later because my friends were nagging me to homeI dont know if you got that line from Tilt about beating drunk players out of thier money.....but whats the harm in trying.....you get there at like 5-6AM and can beat drunken players....thats great.....if there are no drunks there....have some breakfast, go out to eat with your freinds and play at like 9 AM.....either way thats what im going to do the next time i go down.....There is no way im waiting 4 hours and pissing away my money in 3 card poker to wait for Hold em......get there ASAP and youll hae plenty of time to play

[Ed 0]

If youve ever been to AC Before than you know the only place to play poker is the BorgataMY advice is to get there as early as you can because last time I was there it took me about 4 hours to get a Hold Em table....and I left about an hour later because my friends were nagging me to homeI dont know if you got that line from Tilt about beating drunk players out of thier money.....but whats the harm in trying.....you get there at like 5-6AM and can beat drunken players....thats great.....if there are no drunks there....have some breakfast, go out to eat with your freinds and play at like 9 AM.....either way thats what im going to do the next time i go down.....There is no way im waiting 4 hours and censored away my money in 3 card poker to wait for Hold em......get there ASAP and youll hae plenty of time to play

Definitely don't play 3-card poker while waiting for a HE table. ... If I have a long wait and I get there at noon or something, I just grab food and watch a basketball game or something til my name's called.Actually, it was funny when the Tilt girl said that, because it was the exact same thing I'd heard from a trusted poker friend of mine (his work is published on "another" forum site) that I play a home game with. I agree Borgata is probably the best place to go in general, but I'm wondering if I wouldn't hit more degenerates and shoe clerks at Bally's.

[dpianomn 0]

the earlier you go the quicker you'll get a table on a saturday at borgata. it is the best room in ac though.

[nydude 0]

hey there are alot of tourny's in a.c. everynight and day, dont know if your into tourny poker or not ,,,,,also the borgata is cool but taj isnt bad either is the trop!i trop has a good pink chip game (2.00 dollar chips i believe) but alot of people like this game .

[Shred 0]

I'll be heading to AC as well and will probably check out Bally's new room. Hopefully getting a 5-10 game. I'll be there between 1pm and 5pm.

[AC BillP 0]

While I lived/played in AC, there were around 4-6 players at the $10 to $20-40 level who all came to "work" between 3-4:00 AM. It's not for drunks (there are few), it's to get people when thet're tired and into fixed patterns. The nicest place to play is the Borgata. The best to actually win money is the Taj (at this hour). BUT--at the low limits, just go where you want--they place horrendously at all times!!

[Ed 0]

While I lived/played in AC, there were around 4-6 players at the $10 to $20-40 level who all came to "work" between 3-4:00 AM. It's not for drunks (there are few), it's to get people when thet're tired and into fixed patterns. The nicest place to play is the Borgata. The best to actually win money is the Taj (at this hour). BUT--at the low limits, just go where you want--they place horrendously at all times!!

That's what I'm counting on. :)I'll probably just leave here at 7 or 8 or so from NW Baltimore and get a good full day in on plenty of rest.Somebody mentioned Bally's "new" room - did they change things up there recently? I haven't been there since September.

[AC BillP 0]

I don't know about Bally's. The thing to remember is that all casinos from Friday on are a mobbed zoo now, due to the internet. The best places to win money are the Taj followed by the Borgata followed by the Trop (south side of strip). Get ther before 11:00 in the morning or after 3:00 in the morning. When I played there everyday, the reason I liked the first two casinos is they are big and there is a good selection of games (once in-put your name on a list to change tables if there's a better game). Internet players forget, it's not easy to switch from a bad to a "good" game easily in a live room. If you do get stuck at either around 5:00PM then you can play the tournaments for a giant prize. It's crowed though. If a kid bad beats you, don't forget to ask for ID--You might still get the pot!!!

[Ed 0]

Alright, well, probably only fair to post a short trip recap since I did end up going.Decided to go to bed a little early Friday night (about 11:30) and get a good night's rest before heading up. Managed to do just that, logging 8.5 hours of sleep (remarkable for me). Up at 8 and out the door by 9. Had a couple things to do on the way out and got to Atlantic City about 12:30. Decided I would go to Bally's first, see how it was and then go from there.Usually when I get to Bally's around this time, the poker room is only about half-filled, but the wait for a 2-4 or 3-6 game is still about a half-hour. I tend to like to buy-in to any game (online or live, limit only) for 25BB, and I brought enough to cover a 3-6 buy-in. In looking at the lists when I got there, however, I would have been 5th in the 3-6 list and 1st on 2-4, so 2-4 it was. Got my seat in less than 2 minutes and we're underway.The makeup of my table was pretty much what I was hoping for when I sat down. There was one younger guy, and everyone else was 45 and up. One woman was a pretty solid player - the two grandmothers to my left were playing every hand. I watched 6 hands before the blind came around to me and I bought in, and on the last hand before the blinds hit me, the woman to my left limped in with J-3 offsuit. I knew she would be doing this kind of thing for the rest of the session when she had a boat by the turn and took down a huge pot. As it turned out, her short-term luck proved golden, as she profited about $170 when she cashed out. The other one cleared about $70.Once in, it didn't take long to find playable cards. A-J spades on the first hand, hit the flop for a pair of Jacks, but no spades at all. Called 1 bet on the flop but then another dud for me on the turn that put 3 hearts on the board. Felt it was a good time to get out, and a flush carried the hand. Second hand, it's K-Q hearts. Missed this flop completely and dumped it.And then, that was about it for a while! At the 11-person table, I went a whole dealer shift without playing a hand. And the few playable hands I picked up in the first couple hours went nowhere. The good hands that I raised with preflop missed entirely and were well beat by the turn. About 2.5 hours in, I was down to $55 and not enjoying life.Things turned around when, in mid-position, I'm dealt K-8 diamonds. I'm not crazy about this hand. For a long time, I would've folded. But I remember one famous board resident mentioning that tossing this hand to unraised blinds, mid to late position, is leaving money on the table. Got to limp on, so let's go for it. Two diamonds on the flop, another on the turn. Dragged a decent pot. Puts us up to $78.This example came up again when I was one off the button on the next round. This time it was K-5 spades. Limped in to a J-5-2 flop. I call one bet on the flop and a woman raises. She had been raising consistently with overcards on the flop. I stay in. If she has A-K, and a King hits, she's got top pair and will fire away into my 2-pair. Turn is a 5. I lead, she follows. River is a 2. I lead, she follows (thought about going for a CR, but I always end up just losing a bet there - so I just bet out normally to ensure a call). Now we're back to just 3 dollars under .500.Another hour or so passes with nothing much exciting happening. Meanwhile, the makeup of table is changing. Most of our senior citizen friends are now off to Bingo or whatever and the table is getting younger and younger - and more aggressive, as well. This new group also brought light on the biggest hand of the day for me.Mid-position - I squeeze out J-10 spades. I'm going to play this for one bet. But it gets raised by the small blind. Everyone calls. OK, big pot already, I'm not folding for one additional bet, so let's roll. Flop comes J-J-4. Trips! It's checked to me, I lead out. PF raiser raises. And he does it very casually, as if he's not even concerned about what came on the flop or what other people are doing. He's got Aces, I betcha. And I'm happy, because he's wayyyy behind now. And thankfully, other people are staying in. Is someone in with A-J? Hmmm. So, with a rainbow flop, Aces man has 2 outs to beat trip Jacks, which he said later he KNEW I had. .... So what comes on the turn? ACE! I suspect he has Aces full now. But it's checked to me and I lead out in case my read is wrong. He raises, everyone else gets out. So I have to call one bet, figuring I'm beat, but with a very nice pot already built. No way I can fold 3 jacks here heads up, I feel. So I call.Now, a little back story. J-10 suited is one of my favorite hands in these 2-4 casino games. Lots of great possibilities to gain a big hand and take down a huge pot. But you usually do it by outdrawing or sucking out on someone. So when it came back to me raised pre-flop and I had to put one more bet in - I thought about something Smash posts occasionally in his recaps. And I said to myself, "Who's the King of Suckouts? Me!"The River ..... Jack #4.Aces full bets out, I raise. He calls, and I flip up the quads. He fired his Aces skyward in a bit of disgust (he actually took it very well). And I scooped a wonderful pot. It was one of 4 occasions of quads taking hands that I saw in 8 hours at this table - and one guy got them twice (and lost money for his session).The interesting thing here, of course is, this hand was really a comedy of errors. He KNEW (he said) that I had 3 jacks on the flop. All that could have saved him was another ace, so he had 2 outs, and stayed in (perhaps it was the right move, given pot size and such). After the Ace hit the turn, I had ONE OUT. But given the pot size, and given it was heads up, I felt that there had to be some rationalization in there to stay in, even I knew I was crushed (probably same thing he had been thinking on the flop). How I didn't go nuts to give away something that would have kept him from betting into me when it hit, I don't know, but I'm happy I could. I was up about $48 at that point. This only about 75 minutes after I was down $47, and this from winning just 3 pots. Things dried up considerably after that - I won one pot when EVERYONE folded pre-flop to me in the small blind (I couldn't believe I saw that). I raised the BB with 10-4 offsuit and he called. Flop came 7-7-8 and bet out, and he folded. Won another 4-way hand for just the blinds. I hit 3rd pair on the flop, but everyone kept checking all the way down. By the end of the hand, I had 5th pair. But it was the winner. :)And now folks, for the Ed Mistake of the Day. About an hour left in the session, and I've been whittled down to about $20 up. I'm in the small blind and see 9-4 offsuit. Only 2 call before me, so I feel like gambling and complete. BB checks. Flop comes 4-9-A. Bingo! Yeah, bingo if I hadn't played it like an idiot. I bet out, get 2 callers. Given the Ace on board, a check-raise attempt would have made more sense here, but I'm still not very good at recognizing such situations. Dumb move #1. I don't even remember the turn, think it was a 6. There were 2 clubs and 2 spades on board. For some reason, I checked here, I'd seen a lot of people, including the lead bettor in this hand, playing a lot of A-x. And I let myself get two concerned over him falling into two pair with this kind of hand. BB bets out, A-rag dude raises. So now it's $8 back to me. I chickened out and folded. If I was going to play that hand, and get that jackpot flop, I had to keep playing. Lesson learned. Both had Aces with mid kickers, but neither kicker paired the board so I folded the winner.In the last notable hand of the session, being perhaps too aggressive allowed me to stumble into a big pot. I had 6-2 suited in the small blind. I always complete in the SB with any two suited. Flop comes 4-4-2. I lead out, figuring that the way the table was playing (lots of raises on the flop), someone would tell me if they had a 4. No raises, 6 callers. Turn is a Queen. I decide I can't check here, I have to stay on the attack, and bet out again. This yields 4 callers. Hmmm. Someone could be slowplaying the 4, taking value from all the overcalls. Or someone could have the Queen for higher two pair, and again, taking advantage of all the callers to pounce on the river. But with no raises, it still hasn't cost me much to get here. River is a 2. Bingo, unless someone has a 4, which no one has shown to this point. I lead out once more, and this time everyone folds down to the only older gentleman at the table. He was dressed in a suit, never made an out of line move and had everyone's respect at the table. He was also on a 1-hour rush where he had A-paint every showdown. He built his stack by about $130 during this time. He thought it over, and thought, and thought. I don't see folks usually go in the tank this much at a low-limit table, but he did. Finally, he called. He was all the way across the table from me (we were at opposite ends), so I tossed my cards about halfway and said that if he had a 4, he was good. He didn't. His rush of cards was continuing - he had A-K. Paid the blinds one more time before my 8 hours ended with the 9 p.m. dealer change. Cashed out for $146 after buying in for $100. So +$46 for 8 hours of play; $5.75 an hour, about 1.44 BB/hr. Not the greatest session I've had, but given the long periods I went without playing a hand - including one where I went 2 dealer shifts and played 1 hand - I can't complain too much.Of note, Bally's is now running tournaments on Wednesdays and Fridays. They have information for these at the poker room registration desk. ... I really wish their room was a little more open - the smoke just hangs in there like a smog cloud. ... Another fun side sport while folding hands was watching the no-limit tables next to ours. They were $200 min. buy-in. At one, in an hour, I saw no less than 5 people buy in, play one hand, and go home. The table was full, and half the folks were regulars I'd seen there every single time I've been to Bally's. One of them had a stack of about $2200 when I left. I saw one player buy-in for $200 twice in 20 minutes. There was also fun and games at the other no-limit table. First, the card room manager had to come over and yell at all 10 players because someone was marking the Aces. No one fessed up of course, so I guess they couldn't figure out who was doing it, but that added some fun and excitement. Then, later, someone who clearly had been busted out, perhaps on a bad beat or whatever, started yelling about how "I didn't come up here to get broke! I'll give you my number! I'll play you for $1,000 heads up!, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda." The rest of the table got a pretty good kick out of it and it made for some nice entertainment for the rest of us. I felt like I was back on Stars or something.OK, well now that I've written like 2,000 words and bored you to tears, I'll shut up.

[phrankguy1 0]

Ed,Lately I have been in AC 2 days a week, so I know my way around town pretty well. I used to be strictly a Taj player, I just kinda liked some of the staff and I felt at home there. I decided to give Borgata a try a few weeks ago and now I doubt I will ever go anywhere els4e. Their poker room is so much niceer than any other in AC, also the FISH ARE SWIMMING AROUND LIKE CRAZY. I know you say you play 3/6 alot, my friend (who isnt that great of a player and has done nothing more than dump cash every other time he has been in a poker room) finished a 18 hour session (over 2 days) with a profit of $400, and the week before he made about $200. Go to Borgata. I cant say enough about how easy the games are. I play 6/12 there and I have come out ahead every session except one (it was one of those sessions from hell that you just cant recover from, ended up dropping $800 in one night playing 6/12, won 5 hands in 9.5 hours). I normally never leave a table with less than $300 profit, and most of the time its closer to $500 profit. After that bad night I came back the next day and made about $550 profit, so I recovered my losses pretty well.Anyway... check it out. The place is exceptional and the crowd is RIPE to say the least. I roll down normally monday night til wednesday morning and I catch about 5 hours of sleep while I'm there, not very healthy, but hey... I'm a player - I come to play poker and empty pockets (not mine, theirs !), not to sleep. Ed if you ever wanna get together and maybe catch dinner or a drink at Borgata give me a shout via email. my email is phrankguy1@yahoo.com .ps - if you do decide to check out the poker scene at Borgata - the early morning buffet is excellent and is only around $14, also the Metropolitian is a good place to grab a bite, and the Gypsy Bar is a fine establishment to have a drink. Specchio is the italian place and its pretty decent as well.

[Smasharoo 0]

The low limit games at the Borgata are stunningly soft 24/7. Plus, there will be drunk people at noon anyway. Don't worry about when you play.Might be easier to get a seat at 5 AM though.