ATLANTIC CITY HOTEL & CASINO ROOMS
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Seven Days Of Hold - Em
EDITORIAL REVIEW
In every office or home game, there's always one guy who thinks he has the stuff to take on the big guns. He comes to the game and tells you how he would have outplayed TJ Clouter or that "The Professor" Howard Lederer has an obvious tell. We here at CityAtlantic have taken our local poker power broker and called his bluff. We sent him out to play 7 tournaments to see how well he does against every level of poker player. He faced professional players from the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker circuit as well as the regular folks who are playing in the Atlantic City casinos everyday. For those of you who have been locked in a basement for the past two years, Texas Hold'em is the game of the day. No Limit Texas Hold'em to be exact - the game Texas Dolly called "The Cadillac of Poker". The average poker tournament pays about 20-33 percent of the total buy-in to the winner and about 10 percent get at least their entry fee back. Take a look to see if our guy is tough enough.
Seven Days of Hold 'em! WE SEND JOE TO POKER BOOT CAMP TO FIND OUT IF HE HAS WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A POKER STUD.
1.World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open Super Satellite
A great place for me to start my run was at a satellite tournament. Satellites are where people play a smaller tournament with the winners earning a seat in a bigger tourney. In this case, about three hundred of us anted up the $400 and tried our luck. I got off to a quick start with pocket queens and kings in the first hour, but early action means nothing. We started at noon and by 10:30 pm were down to the final 40 people. The top 27 would get into the 10,000 event the next day. I needed a river ace to survive and I got it. As the players got eliminated I was placed next to Ted Lawson, a World Series of Poker winner from 2004. As luck would have it, I was pitted against Ted who went all in with a crappy 6-8. He came up blanks and boom - I was in the main game!
2.World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open 2004
This event was the richest poker tournament Atlantic City has ever seen. The winner would get over a million dollars and the field was made up of the best players in the world including Johnny Chan, "Action" Dan Harrington and Phil Gordon just to name a few. For a fan of the game, this was like fantasy camp. I was placed at a table with Jason Lester who made the World Series main event final table in 2003. He and I didn't have a chance to mix it up. I lasted about 2 hours with my pockets aces getting crushed by quad sixes. It's okay, Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen didn't make it to day two either. Daniel Negreanu the 2004 poker player of the year ended up winning the Open.
3.Party Poker
Some days I'm too fat and lazy to get off my behind and take the ten minute drive to the casinos. On these days I will play online. Today I entered a $100 no limit event with 400 entries. The online game moves much faster and there is obviously less reading of your opponents. It took about 5 and a half hours to get to the final table. Within 3 hands I grabbed the chip lead. It took another fifteen minutes and pocket kings to narrow it to me and one other payer. I called his first big bet with an ace deuce. When the flop came 345 I made the wheel. Lucky me, he bet and I called quickly. My hand held up and I took down the crown, winning just under $10,000!
4.World Series of Poker Circuit Inaugural Event
After the stunning success of the World Series the last couple of years, Harrah's decided to expand it to multiple locations and events. The first one was held at Harrah's Atlantic City in January with a $500 buy-in. Most major pros were still in Aruba for the WPT event. The only major player the event drew was Phil Laak, also known as "The Unabomber". The event was an overwhelming success so I had to get in as an alternate. I waited 40 minutes after the tourney started to get in and start playing, but I was happy to just be a part of the event. Players only received $1000 in chips to start with and due to my late start I was already in a bind. Thus my experience ended up being short, as I got my AK busted by aces before I played 20 hands.
5.World Series of Poker Circuit Inaugural Main Event Single Table Satellite (That's a mouthful)
Big poker tournaments often have single table satellites, which means ten players put $1000 for a winner take all battle. Just my luck, one of the ten people I played against happened to be David Williams. He's the young gun who earned over four million in poker tourneys in '04 and had a supporting role in the ESPN series "Tilt". I played conservatively for about half an hour as 3 people went bust. I finally caught a big hand - pocket aces. Williams and the guy to my left called before the flop. No big draws on the flop with 2 7 9 so I made a pot sized bet. The guy next to me took 5 minutes to fold. The action went to Williams who raised almost all of my chips. I felt like I had no choice and called all in. David turned over two deuces and cracked my aces. David "fu@#ing" Williams!
6.Trump Taj Mahal Friday Night Big One
After playing with all of the heavy hitters and pretty much getting my hat handed to me, I decided to try out the triple-A circuit. This weekly Friday night Tourney at the Taj is full of budding pros, has-beens and a lot of never-were's. There are over 300 entries, making first prize over 20 G's. My stack is about average mid-way through the tourney. I had barely escaped when I hit a full house with A and Q over the straight. After the break, the antes kick in and my cards are not responding. The player next to me is a US Poker Open champ from 2004 and he is trying to coach me. At last, I catch another ace queen and go all in. The small blind calls me with sevens. It's a race (that's the term when the odds of either player winning are nearly 50-50). Guess what? Like Apollo Creed on the beach at the end of Rocky III, I lost the race.
7.WSOP Main Event Super Satellite
I started off slow but tripled up when I went all in with pocket tens against ace king, 8,8 and it held up. 511 people entered and the top 11 players get an entry into the main event. As the players click away, so does my stack - but the dream remains. I find pocket tens with 65 people left and make a medium raise - all fold but one and he raises all in. I make the call, he turns pocket nines and the tens hold up. I double-up plus some. We come to the third break and I am in ninth place, only 41 people stand in the way of my first trip to the richest poker tournament in the world. We get to twenty-one people left and I hit pocket aces in the big blind. Someone bets big and the button calls. I raise all in. The original bettor is all in so it comes to the button, the chip leader. He thinks but lays it down. The aces hold up and I leap into 3rd. Phil Ivey, I am coming to get you! I get pocket jacks when a guy with a pair of eights makes a big bet. I think I have him until he pulls an eight on the river (20 to one) to beat me. Instead of cheap leader, now I am 15th. With my stack getting eaten away by the blinds I go all in with pocket nines. Ace-king calls me and hits two pair and I lose in 17th place. Poker is cruel.
8.World Series Main Event July 2005
These seven tournaments have given me a good look into the world of pro poker players. I played with some of the world's top players and I can see what makes them so good. This has forced me to add some of their tricks to my own game. See a lot of flops. Be conservative early, aggressive late. All of this and the questions linger - does Joe Poker have the stuff to make it in the big leagues? Truth is probably not, but there's only one event that can answer this question once and for all. That's "The Big One", the World Series of Poker Main Event where the stunning victories of Greg "Fossil Man" Raymer and Chris Moneymaker have catapulted this game into the minds of a nation. I came within 6 people of turning my $40 buy-in into $10,000. Last year they had over 2,400 entries and in 2005 over 5000 are expected. That means the first prize will be at least a cool ten million. A chip and a chair is all you need...along with some luck and guts.
Seven Days of Hold 'em! WE SEND JOE TO POKER BOOT CAMP TO FIND OUT IF HE HAS WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A POKER STUD.
1.World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open Super Satellite
A great place for me to start my run was at a satellite tournament. Satellites are where people play a smaller tournament with the winners earning a seat in a bigger tourney. In this case, about three hundred of us anted up the $400 and tried our luck. I got off to a quick start with pocket queens and kings in the first hour, but early action means nothing. We started at noon and by 10:30 pm were down to the final 40 people. The top 27 would get into the 10,000 event the next day. I needed a river ace to survive and I got it. As the players got eliminated I was placed next to Ted Lawson, a World Series of Poker winner from 2004. As luck would have it, I was pitted against Ted who went all in with a crappy 6-8. He came up blanks and boom - I was in the main game!
2.World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open 2004This event was the richest poker tournament Atlantic City has ever seen. The winner would get over a million dollars and the field was made up of the best players in the world including Johnny Chan, "Action" Dan Harrington and Phil Gordon just to name a few. For a fan of the game, this was like fantasy camp. I was placed at a table with Jason Lester who made the World Series main event final table in 2003. He and I didn't have a chance to mix it up. I lasted about 2 hours with my pockets aces getting crushed by quad sixes. It's okay, Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen didn't make it to day two either. Daniel Negreanu the 2004 poker player of the year ended up winning the Open.
3.Party PokerSome days I'm too fat and lazy to get off my behind and take the ten minute drive to the casinos. On these days I will play online. Today I entered a $100 no limit event with 400 entries. The online game moves much faster and there is obviously less reading of your opponents. It took about 5 and a half hours to get to the final table. Within 3 hands I grabbed the chip lead. It took another fifteen minutes and pocket kings to narrow it to me and one other payer. I called his first big bet with an ace deuce. When the flop came 345 I made the wheel. Lucky me, he bet and I called quickly. My hand held up and I took down the crown, winning just under $10,000!
4.World Series of Poker Circuit Inaugural EventAfter the stunning success of the World Series the last couple of years, Harrah's decided to expand it to multiple locations and events. The first one was held at Harrah's Atlantic City in January with a $500 buy-in. Most major pros were still in Aruba for the WPT event. The only major player the event drew was Phil Laak, also known as "The Unabomber". The event was an overwhelming success so I had to get in as an alternate. I waited 40 minutes after the tourney started to get in and start playing, but I was happy to just be a part of the event. Players only received $1000 in chips to start with and due to my late start I was already in a bind. Thus my experience ended up being short, as I got my AK busted by aces before I played 20 hands.
5.World Series of Poker Circuit Inaugural Main Event Single Table Satellite (That's a mouthful)Big poker tournaments often have single table satellites, which means ten players put $1000 for a winner take all battle. Just my luck, one of the ten people I played against happened to be David Williams. He's the young gun who earned over four million in poker tourneys in '04 and had a supporting role in the ESPN series "Tilt". I played conservatively for about half an hour as 3 people went bust. I finally caught a big hand - pocket aces. Williams and the guy to my left called before the flop. No big draws on the flop with 2 7 9 so I made a pot sized bet. The guy next to me took 5 minutes to fold. The action went to Williams who raised almost all of my chips. I felt like I had no choice and called all in. David turned over two deuces and cracked my aces. David "fu@#ing" Williams!
6.Trump Taj Mahal Friday Night Big OneAfter playing with all of the heavy hitters and pretty much getting my hat handed to me, I decided to try out the triple-A circuit. This weekly Friday night Tourney at the Taj is full of budding pros, has-beens and a lot of never-were's. There are over 300 entries, making first prize over 20 G's. My stack is about average mid-way through the tourney. I had barely escaped when I hit a full house with A and Q over the straight. After the break, the antes kick in and my cards are not responding. The player next to me is a US Poker Open champ from 2004 and he is trying to coach me. At last, I catch another ace queen and go all in. The small blind calls me with sevens. It's a race (that's the term when the odds of either player winning are nearly 50-50). Guess what? Like Apollo Creed on the beach at the end of Rocky III, I lost the race.
7.WSOP Main Event Super SatelliteI started off slow but tripled up when I went all in with pocket tens against ace king, 8,8 and it held up. 511 people entered and the top 11 players get an entry into the main event. As the players click away, so does my stack - but the dream remains. I find pocket tens with 65 people left and make a medium raise - all fold but one and he raises all in. I make the call, he turns pocket nines and the tens hold up. I double-up plus some. We come to the third break and I am in ninth place, only 41 people stand in the way of my first trip to the richest poker tournament in the world. We get to twenty-one people left and I hit pocket aces in the big blind. Someone bets big and the button calls. I raise all in. The original bettor is all in so it comes to the button, the chip leader. He thinks but lays it down. The aces hold up and I leap into 3rd. Phil Ivey, I am coming to get you! I get pocket jacks when a guy with a pair of eights makes a big bet. I think I have him until he pulls an eight on the river (20 to one) to beat me. Instead of cheap leader, now I am 15th. With my stack getting eaten away by the blinds I go all in with pocket nines. Ace-king calls me and hits two pair and I lose in 17th place. Poker is cruel.
8.World Series Main Event July 2005These seven tournaments have given me a good look into the world of pro poker players. I played with some of the world's top players and I can see what makes them so good. This has forced me to add some of their tricks to my own game. See a lot of flops. Be conservative early, aggressive late. All of this and the questions linger - does Joe Poker have the stuff to make it in the big leagues? Truth is probably not, but there's only one event that can answer this question once and for all. That's "The Big One", the World Series of Poker Main Event where the stunning victories of Greg "Fossil Man" Raymer and Chris Moneymaker have catapulted this game into the minds of a nation. I came within 6 people of turning my $40 buy-in into $10,000. Last year they had over 2,400 entries and in 2005 over 5000 are expected. That means the first prize will be at least a cool ten million. A chip and a chair is all you need...along with some luck and guts.