Friday night action at the Borgata

Last night Eng and I went to Borgata. We left Livingston around 3pm and due to ridiculous traffic it took us 3 hours to get there. Once we finally made it we were itching to play and after some chicken teriyaki downstairs we found an open 1/2 table with 2 seats.

That game was so dead. First off, there was no money on the table. Probably like 1k not including ours. On top of that, the action was tight and passive. Everyone was a rock so it was hard to win big pots. After a while of trying to figure out where to move, Eng decided to go to another table and when a spot would open up I would join him. Well, as soon as he left I got involved in a hand with a guy that took his seat and a few more players sat down so the game started to liven up a little. The hand went like this:
Limped pot i'm in the cutoff with 78h. Probably like 5-6 players in the hand and flop comes Q 5 6, rainbow. Checks around to the guy to my right and he bets $15. I called and it went heads up. Turn was a 4 and he now bet $30 which was clearly a weak bet. There was no point in raising since i didn't want to scare him off so i simply smooth called hoping he would improve and ship it on the river. The river came what looked like a bad card and that which would stop the action, a 3. so the board was Q 5 6 4 3. He still decided to bet 30 which was really strange in my mind. For me to give him credit for top pair and a straight is almost impossible but nonetheless i had to raise, so i made it $100. He called with Q7....

After that pot I was up to almost $500 with my initial buy in of $300. I decided to take a walk around and check out the high limit area. I saw Ted Forrest walk by earlier so i knew there was definitely some high stakes poker going on. Apparently he was playing 500/1k short handed with John D'agastino and someone else. I think hold em, probably not NL but i'm not sure. The place was packed with every single table being utilized.
As i came back i made it just in time for the BB. A tight old man had raised to $10 which i'd seen him do before with QQ and the Button, who was a loose aggressive player who stabbed hard at every pot called too. I looked down at JJ and decided to call as well.
Flop came K 9 7, 2 spades. I checked as did the Old man and the LAG bets $25. I called and we went heads up. Turn was a blank, and i quickly checked it to him. He fired off $100 which was a ridiculous over bet. I studied for a little bit and decided to raise to $250 and he quickly folded.

After that hand I was up to about $630 and eng had signaled over to me that a seat was open. As i was racking up my chips and walked over to his table, someone else had taken it already. I decided to cash out and just wait until a seat would open up. I had about $30 in chips and went over to Texas Holdem Bonus and quickly lost that on my first hand with K2 against the dealer's 47, river 7... such a bad beat! The guy that was sitting to my right had about 4k in black chips, maybe more and was betting $600 on the ante and $300 on the following streets. Pretty sick.

I got back to the poker room and a seat had opened up 2 seats to the right of eng. This new table had some pretty huge chips. Probably like close to 5k on the table and what looked like pretty good action. The guy inbetween me and eng had close to 1k in chips, eng had like $900, and everyone else had between $300-500. I wasn't get many hands but then this one hand i got KK and this loose viet guy to my right makes it $8 to go, i re-popped to $20 and had a pretty solid image so i figured i could make it look like AK maybe. The guy to my left folded and Eng thinks about it and re-raises to $60. It goes folded around back to me and i ask him if he wants to check it down and he says "I can't." At that point it should've clicked to me that he didn't have AA but at the same time if i had simply called, the pot would be at $120+ preflop and we'd be playing for a decent size pot. Plus, what's the point of taking money from each other? I regretfully laid it down and he showed me JJ = /

It's ok though cause then the next hand this happened:
I limped with T6d and it went around to the BB who was a pretty tight player and made it $15 to go. I called and so did the big stack to my left. Flop came T 6 4, with 2 hearts. BB bet out $25 and i made it $100 to look like possibly i had a big draw and was steaming from the previous hand. The guy to my left says he's all in and the BB folded so i called and he had T4! Awesome double up right there.

About 30 minutes later I got involved in the biggest hand of the night with none other than what used to be the big stack to my left who was now steaming his head off. There were 2 limpers behind me and i looked down at AA and made it $15 to go.
Loose guy calls, Button calls, Sb calls, and Viet guy calls as well so we're 5 way to the flop....a little more than i had hoped for. The flop came K T 7, with 2 diamonds. Sb who was the tight player fired out $50. Folds around to me and now i had a decision, call or raise. There were still 2 more players left in the hand and the guy to my left had immediately sat up straight and was acting interested. We were both really deep stacked so I didn't want to face a hard decision if i were to raise and get re-raised so i simply called to peel off 1 more card. The loose guy calls as well so now we're 3 way. Turn is an 8. Not the best of cards but could've been a lot worse. Sb thinks for a little bit and then goes all in for $117. At this point i had to give the other opponent credit for a draw and could not let him get there so i re-raised to $250. He had about $400 total and after contemplating for a good minute or 2 he simply smooth called. At this point i was thinking what the fuck could he possibly have? No hand here makes sense, a draw should've folded and once he started thinking about it for so long i thought does he really have KT? River came a T and i checked it. He checked behind me and my Aces were way good. Sb had KJd and loose guy had 89d! Dodged a few there and scooped that pot bringing me up to around $1120.

A few rotations later me and eng decided to leave and collectively took 2k off the table lol. By now it had been getting close to midnight so it was best to hit the road. Eng ended up winning like $650 which isn't bad considering he always gets raped at Borgata.

Last Sunday I went to AC by myself from Adam's beach house. I brought 1k with me and took a devastating $700 blow. It was a combination of cooler hands but also I was definitely not in the right mind set. I misplayed a few hands and had no patience to grind. That was dumb and it left me with only $300, so this win brought me back up to $900 after paying my mom the $500 i owed for my credit card. I'm very thankful to be back on my feet. The swings are hard to deal with but as long as i can take it slow and realize that this game is very much beatable, I should be Ok.