Borgata Poker

The Borgata is a first class establishment. Their accommodations are superb, they have a great poker room and of course their tournaments are among the best in the world. Their tournament director Tab is as good as it gets.
All in all it was a trip of good fun, good food, good friends and good poker.
<b>Cash Games</b>
I spent my time playing the $5 $10 NL game at Borgata when I wasn’t in a tournament. There are always a good number of tables at this limit compared to the $10 $20 NL game where at times there weren’t any games running. I had a really good run at the cash games this trip, the action was outstanding and because the WPT was in town the regulars weren’t as heavily stacked per table with so many extra tables running.
<b>WPT Tournaments</b>
I passed on the $300 opening event which drew an astounding 1650 players. I played the $500 on Wednesday and had a pathetic run of cards. Bluffs and steals kept me alive into the 5th hour of play. With blinds at 200/400 a25 with 11 big blinds I open shoved with K10 from mp and got called by an 8 big blind stack in mp holding QJo, huh? Of course he spiked a Q and on the next hand my measly all in with Q5s couldn’t overcome a call from pocket KK’s. GG me.
After an early cash session on Thursday morning I headed to the tournament room to play the $750. A couple of minutes before the event started I ran into my friend Eric “Rick” Bankoff.. Rick and I decided to swap a piece of each other for the event. I steadily chipped up through the early levels. Late in hour 4 our table broke. This was the first of 3 breaks I would face in less than an hours time which really sucks. My first 2 new tables were soft and I continued to build my stack. I took a stack of @ 20K to my 3rd new table at the 200/400 a25 level. I was avg or slightly above with @ 2/3rds of the field gone. About 4 hands after sitting down at the new table I’m dealt pocket 10’s in the sb. The bb is immediately poised to muck. A young internet looking kid open raises to 1150 from mp and I assume he sees the bb’s intentions. The action folds to me and I decide to take an unusual line against this unknown and raise it to 6150. I assume his range is enormous and want him to think I’m making a play and have him think he has fold equity against me if he shoves. He obliges, immediately moving all in, he has me covered by a bit. I snap call hoping to see an under pair or suited connector which I thought he might do this with. Unfortunately it was a race as he tabled AK. Trip K’s are good and I’m gone in a flash, meh. Obviously didn’t like losing but I really have no regrets. The chance to be double average, 100 big blinds deep and table chip leader as we approach the bubble is exactly where I want to be.
After cooling off in the room for an hour (very necessary for me after busting a tournament) I return downstairs and check in on Rick who early on had been down to less than 2500 chips. Somehow he’s now sitting a 60K+ and we’re going to have a long night ahead of us. I hang on the rail until the dinner break and then head to Bobby Flay’s with Rick where we meet my partner and another poker playing friend. After a great dinner Ricky heads back to the tournament room. I decide to squeeze in a quick cash session with my partner. A couple of hours later I’m up nearly 2 buy ins and decide to cash out and head back to the rail to find Ricky. He’s still healthy chip wise but now has Hevad Khan sitting to his direct left with mountains of chips. To shorten a really long story I rail Ricky until 2AM when they halt play for the night with 31 players remaining. Ricky had been over 120K not long before but ends the day at 80K+. Hevad is the chip leader with over 300K.
I buy into the $1000 the next morning and don’t get any real momentum going for hours. Nice guy sitting to my direct left winds up cold decking me every time I pick up a hand. It was so sick. I made so many big laydowns that would’ve busted me out. Here was the sickest. With 6500 chips at the 100/200 level I open in middle position w AQ to 550. Same villain of course finds a hand and calls. We’re heads up to the flop of AJ3 rainbow. I lead for 750 and get called. The turn is another A and I get an awful feeling that I’m about to get cold decked for the umpteenth time. I check and villain fires out 1500. After a little chatter on my part and a long study I decide to muck leaving myself with a little over 5K. Nice guy that he was showed me pocket 3’s for an under full, wow.
By this time play has resumed for the final 31 in the $750 and as luck would have it I am sitting with my back to the rail with Ricky right behind me. We’re chatting constantly in between hands. After falling to about 3K I manage to chip up to nearly 8K and then 3-bet shove against what I feel is a weak raiser in front of me holding AQ. Wouldn’t you know the same villain on my left looks down and insta shoves, yuck. We’re heads up and I’m up against KK. This is the same exact scenario I doubled with at the WSOP at Harrah’s last month and I did it again with an A on the flop and another on the turn for good measure. Now I had the chip lead at my table and was above average for the first time all day. Less than an hour later right after posting the blinds we break. Right before this happens, Ricky with 14 players left in the $750 standard raises from the button w red AQ. The big blind a known aggressive internet player jams for 120K and Ricky snap calls. Ricky has 160K to start the hand and has the kids As10c dominated. The flop is Axx 2 clubs. The turn is the Q clubs giving Ricky 2-pair. The river club falls and Ricky is the new short stack, gross. He busts soon after that for a tidy but unspectacular profit and plenty of what could’ve been thoughts. Incidentally the kid (who happens to be a really nice guy) goes on to chop the tournament, taking a lot of chips from Hevad along the way.
Back to me in the $1000. For the first time all day I find myself at a new table and wouldn’t you know I sit down to the BB after just posting both blinds on my original table. Not a good sign. This table has a bunch of healthy stacks. We’re at 300/600 and I’m sitting on at least 20K. First hand there’s a limp and a raise to 2600 and I look down to see the A5 hearts and decide to muck as does the limper. Very next hand I’m in the SB. UTG raises to 2K. UTG+1 calls as do 2 players in middle position, what does everybody have? I look down to find AKs, wow. With nearly 10K in the pot I feel my only play is to jam. UTG painfully folds which was good as he was my main concern. Surprisingly UTG+1 moves his chips to the middle with no hesitation, really? The other 2 players get out of the way and I’m up against KK again, unreal. No A to be found this time and I bust as we approach the money bubble yet again. Dammit.
Cool off in the room again then meet Ricky and my partner for dinner at Sea Blue, another fine establishment. We have a great relaxing dinner and then head back upstairs to the tournament room to watch the end of the $750. Hevad had just went out in 4th place and we get to see a long 3-handed battle. Hang for an hour or two with some great people who I had never met before face to face but are well known in the poker community such as JoeytheB and gboro (another Giants fan see below). Also meet ShankingYou who had busted me a couple of weeks prior in a $100 deep stacked Stars tournament. He is friends with Jamie the kid who beat Ricky with the A10 hand. It was good people and good times.
<b>The New York Football Giants</b>
My original plan was to play the $1500 on Saturday but after getting some sound advice from gboro I do as he does and skip the $1500 in case I make Day 2 and then have a terrible conflict with the Giants game on Sunday. So staying true to Big Blue as I had all year I play an early morning cash session on Saturday, win another buy in and pack up the car and head home. I don’t need to tell you what a great day Sunday was. OMG OMG OMG. We’re going to the Super Bowl, what a season.
All in all it was a profitable and fun trip. Was poised to make good runs in 2 of the 3 tourneys but it wasn’t meant to be. Was hoping to head back to Borgata this week for the bigger events but am completely swamped at work after being gone all last week so it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Guess its back to the online grind for the time being.
-Doyle-

Well, I just wrapped up a grueling 2 weeks at the Borgata. I was playing everyday averaging over 10 hour sessions. Unfortunately, it was not a profitable WPT as I'm stuck a few grand for the duration of the event. Here is a recap of the WPT:
<b>SNGs</b>
I played a total of 22 SNGs (mostly $500, a few $250, and one 1K for a seat to the ME). There was always at least a couple guys in each SNG who I considered dead money, but ran badly at the end of these SNGs to show a 2k loss for them overall. The payout structure for the $500 SNG was 3500-1000-500. With the structure skewed heavily towards first place, most SNGs were chopped. The big mistake regarding the SNGs were the deals I was making. People were always talking chop when down to 3-4 players, and too many times I caved in on bad deals for myself. I felt that I should of demanded more in the deals as I was always the most aggressive in the end game and I could capitalize on the fears of the other players. This is a lesson that I have learned and will be better prepared in the future to deal with chopping issues.
<b>Cash Games</b>
I put in 32 total hours for a profit of 2K. I was playing 5-10NL the entire time and the Borgata poker room was averaging 5-8 tables at 5-10NL during the WPT. The problem is that I could never get into a rhythm in the cash games as I focused much of my efforts on the live SNGs. I regret this decision as I did not fare well in the SNGs and the games were decent the entire WPT especially the weekend before the 10K event started.
<b>MTT</b>
I played 7 tournaments with buy-ins of $500 or $750 and did not cash in a single one. I know this could just be due to tournament variance, but I would always play decent in these tourneys and then make a crucial mistake to cripple myself. It is so difficult to make it to the end of these huge fields that every decision is heavily emphasized as your tournament life depends on your every move. The play in these live tourneys were incredibly weak and I still see great value in them for the future.
<b>Random stuff</b>
This was the first time that I had the opportunity to play with TV pros and overall I was not very impressed. I am not going to criticize anyone in particular (it's not my style), but I've read online about how live pros are weak and my limited experience with them only confirms these findings.
This is a hand that I want to mention for pure amusement. My roommate and and an acquaintance I know name Charles happen to be playing in the same $250 SNG. They know each other through me and it seemed like a good idea to stay out of each other's way in the early part of the SNG. I have to mention thay Charles is a complete novice to poker when the following situation came up. The blinds were 100-200 w/ 25 ante when Charles limped UTG and my roomate pushed AI for 1500 in the SB w/ Q3off. The BB called and then Charles called. As Charles calls, he looks over at my roomate, gives him a smile and a thumbs up:) This was the last thing my roomate wanted as he wanted the pot to go HU to give him the greatest chance to win a showdown. The flop comes QJ2 and it goes check-check. The turn is an 8 and Charles moves AI. The BB folds and then Charles tries to muck his cards, b/c he doesn't want to knock my roomate out of the SNG. The dealer will not allow it and the players are confused about Charles' action. Charles finally tables T9 for the NUTS and it really looks like collusion. My roomate bails out Charles by explaining to the table that Charles is new to poker and he did not want to knock out his buddy out of the SNG. It is one thing to stay out of pots w/ a friend at the poker table, but this was absolutely ridiculous.
As for everything else, I love my new place and look forward to playing tons of poker. I just joined Cardrunners to improve my online game to compensate when the games in AC are slow. The only concern I have right now is that I may have a difficult time meeting people as all my time is spent in a casino. I feel most people make up their social circle through school or the workplace. Since I don't have either in my life, I will have to make more of an effort to make friends down here. For some reason, I'm not eagerly trying to hang out with all the middle-aged men that I compete against everyday at Borgata.

Impressions: This is by far the most premiere place to play poker in Atlantic City. They offer a wide range of games up to the highest limits. The NLHE tournaments attracts many players which generates huge prize pools. For example, the $250 buy-in Friday 50K Garauntee gets about 350 players on average. When you add the Summer Borgata Open while being the host to 2 WPT events, the tournament action is non-stop. Whatever game you play, I believe you'll find the action your looking for.
Atmosphere: The poker room has approximately 120 tables, very spacious, and has office style chairs. My only probelm is with the magnetic chips. For a poker player this can be annoying, because it is difficult for chip shuffling and other chip tricks.
Food: The Borgata babes are something else as seeing them live, you'll know what I'm talking about! They do not let food at the tables, but there is a full service cafeteria right below the poker room that offers Fat Burger, Philly cheese steaks, pizza, sushi, Chinese, Ben and Jerry's, and gourmet salads.

Headed down to Atlantic City this weekend to play in the $1500 NL tourney at the Borgata. It was brutal. Was 2nd best all weekend, KK ran into AA, 555 ran into TTT, but I did make one sick play. Got AA and raised, got 2 callers, flop came 973, I bet, fold, then got raised, I re-raised, he went all in. Took me a while, eventually folded ,and he showed 77. Last hand that sent me packing was KK in MP, I raised and got 2 callers, flop came TJQ with 2 clubs, I only had $300 left so I went all in and of course he had QQ, and I missed all my outs.
Honestly.. game was not that tough, the hands people were calling down were horrible, I was just card dead. I don’t know if I have ever seen cards that bad ever. K2, A5off, 73… just nasty, fold, fold, fold… I was a folding station. Got AA one time in BB and everyone folded around to me, FUCK!
I was at 2/5 and got AA 3 times, flopped a set all 3 times and got zero action. Just one of those runs.

Impressions: I come here every chance I get since it opened last year. This is one great poker room. I'm into sports betting when I come to Atlantic City and the room has tons of flat screen TV's to watch the games while you're playing. I play mostly $5/10 no limit, but have played both lower in the 2/5 game and twice was feeling good and tried my hand in a 10/25 game. I did okay, but played short-stacked and didn't do anything stupid.
Atmosphere: The room is new and everything in it feels great. Great tables, lots of flat screen TV's, great servers in hot black dresses. The room has lots of space and the atmosphere is great.
Dealers: The dealers are friendly and professional. In the old room they didn't always hire the best dealers, but they have really made a point to hire only smart, patient and knowledgable dealers here.
Food: There are plenty of Borgata Babes and they are very beautiful and friendly. They serve premium liquor and anything else you could want. On a sour note they don't allow food at the tables which I'm not a big fan of.
Service: There are lots of tables and games spread and the wait time is not usually long at all. It usually doesn't take too long to get a game. The managers are very friendly and the staff is good with faces and makes you feel welcome and at home.
Comps: The poker rate is $100-125 and its easy to get, but I have heard of getting shut out on room at this rate. I've not had any problems. I use their comp card and its pretty easy to earn points. Nothing major but it's pretty nice and there are few hassles.