CARDRUNNERS

PCA - Eating and Drinking

Food

Food at the Atlantis does not come cheap, but if you're willing to splash out (and not think about your health too much) there's definitely some really good stuff on offer.  

Fine Dining

For fine dining options, my favourites were Nobu, Mesa Grill and Mosaic. We had Nobu on the last night and after a week of cheeseburgers, steaks and Philly cheese steaks it was simply a godsend. I managed to get dealt three Aces at Three Card Poker and win $500 while waiting for our table so we also nearly freerolled the meal :).

I didn't try Mesa Grill last year but heard everyone talking about it so this year I thought I'd try it out. It ended up being unbelievably good and we returned for a second helping the night after. Here's a picture of the pork tenderloin I had on the first night - it melted right in your mouth!

Mosaic is a slightly upmarket buffet at the Cove which offers, among other things, unlimited sashimi (mmmmmmmmmmmm...), an on-the-spot pasta chef, great grilled meats and a decent selection of cheeses. Its desserts are surprisingly disappointing but on the whole I highly recommend it.

If you go to PCA next year, other places worth checking out are the Seafire Steakhouse and Marketplace.

The Marina Village

If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the casino and hotel, the Marina Village is the place to go. It has a very laid back atmosphere and feels almost like a sanctuary compared to the surprisingly intense hotel and casino.

At the end of the Marina is a Johnny Rockets which we had a couple of times.

There's also a place called Bimini Road which apparently offers traditional Bahamian fare. I had the steak sandwich...

Finally, we tried a place called Murray's Deli which was pretty terrible but provided great entertainment value. The clown there (Bozo) was completely off his face and between scaring the shit out of children and making rude comments about his fellow employee's boyfriends, we're pretty sure he is now unemployed...

Drinking

Truth be told, there really isn't that much to do at night at Atlantis. On one side of the casino is the Atlas Bar and Grill, on the other is Dragons Bar, and that's basically it. Fortunately, in addition to meeting Sam and Lisa, we also met three girls from San Diego who were pretty cool so we were able to have a pretty fun week. I also managed to catch up with Boston Lisa (a girl I met at PCA last year) so that was pretty neat.

The San Diego girls at Atlas

The girls at Dragons

Boston Lisa and me at Dragons

Everyone's last night at Dragons

The Player Party

On the Saturday PokerStars held a Player Party with Kelly Rowland featuring as the special guest. I felt kind of bad for her because no one was really into it so whenever she shouted "lemme hear you say 'ohhh ohhhhhh'!" she was simply met with silence and a flash of cameras.

Overall though the party was surprisingly good. The food was decent (though sparse), there were unlimited drinks (including cocktails), we had a nice chat with some Latin American PokerStars pros (and their pretty-on-the-eyes ESPN presenter friend), and I even managed to run into a Scandi I final tabled an APPT Sydney side event with (shout out to you Hienrich!)! Fraser also got to have his photo taken with Daniel Negreanu which I think made his week or perhaps even year :).

Aura

After the Player Party we hit up Aura, Atlantis's nightclub. It reminded me a lot of Jet in Vegas, the only other nightclub I've been to in America (and let's face it, Atlantis is basically American). Though I don't remember much of the night (damn, those Bahamians like their drinks strong!), from what I do remember the night was a lot of fun.

Our tequila "shots" (more like cups!)

Conclusion

So that brings me to the end of the PCA portion of my trip report. It was loads of fun and I'm pretty disappointed that I can't go back next year. For those who haven't been yet, I highly suggest you do. You won't regret it :).  

To finish, I thought I'd leave you with this pretty hilarious video of Lisa dancing with some guy at the Player Party. The guy was quite the chick magnet, and as soon as she saw him, Lisa made a beeline directly for him!

Introduction

Atlantis.

Paradise Island.

The Bahamas.

Loll those words around your tongue a few times and it's hard not to get a little bit excited.

When I left Atlantis a year ago I was already counting down the days till I would return, so when the taxi doors finally flung open and I stepped out to be greeted by the splendid glow of the Royal Towers at night, I couldn't help but smile to myself.

I was back!

PCA - Main Event Day 1B

So I've been thinking about how to structure the PCA portion of my trip report and I've decided to break it down into little sub-sections: poker, slides, drinking etc. Since most days basically mirrored each other, I imagine my Vegas day-by-day format would grow rather tiresome. Anyway, today will be about the Main Event.

Table Draw

As usual I was the first to my table and watched in despair as a bunch of randoms sat down; probably a good thing, but let's face it, we all like having a few well-known pros on our tables! There were two seats left, the 8 seat and the 9 seat, and just as play was about to start none other than Mike Matusow took the 8 seat and Vicky Coren took the 9 seat. I guess name pros like to make an entrance!

The one thing that quickly became apparent was that Mike really lived up to his nickname. The guy literally never stopped talking! I couldn't quite believe it, it was like he didn't need air or something. It ended up being quite distracting, but he more than made up for it with some highly entertaining (and potentially controversial) stories which I won't repeat here.

Backdoor Flushed

My first hand of note I raised AQ and got called by a middle-aged man in late position. The flop came Qd 6d 5h, I bet and he called. The turn brought the Jh, I bet again and he called again. The river brought the 2h, I checked and he bet. I thought for about a minute before finally calling and he showed AKh. Lame.

The very next hand I opened 77 and got flatted by a younger player behind. The board ran out Q733J rainbow and I bombed all three streets, hoping to look a little tilted from the hand before. He called down all the way and mucked, showing AA.

Big River Bluff

So I was treading water around my starting stack when the following hand went down.

With the blinds at 100/200, Matusow raised to 600, a player called in the HJ, I called in the CO with AQ, and the big blind called. The flop came A23r and it checked to me. I bet 1500 into 2500 and the big blind was the only caller. The turn was a 7 and the big blind checked. The pot was 5500 and he had 14950 behind.

If he had 5K more I think this would be a clear bet/fold but I was kind of concerned about bet/folding here because he'd just lost a big pot (hence he only had half his starting stack) and if he was on tilt (or was just really bad at poker) he might check/shove a worse Ace if I bet on the turn. It'd put me in a really tough spot so I decided to check it back and just go for one more street of value on the river. I figured that if I bet the turn and just got check/called I'd be checking back a lot of rivers anyway and even if the river came safe for me to value-bet (like a deuce), it's not certain that he pays off on a third street with worse. Thus I didn't think I was missing out on too much value by taking this line.

The river came a 5 for a final board of A2375 and my opponent led for 2600 into 5500. My plan was to call just about any river but this river card combined with his bet-sizing really concerned me. It looked like a value-come-blocking bet: scared of the four straight but wanting to milk some value with something like two pair or a set. I thus decided that fold > call.

The pot now had 8100 in it though and I didn't really feel like folding. He had 12300 behind and after a little bit of thought I threw in three 5K chips. I figured that he wouldn't call it off here for his tournament life without a 4, and the only way he could have a 4 was with A4 or 44. Compared to the combos of 22, 33, 55, A2, A3, A5, and A7 that he could have, I thought the bluff was worth it. I obviously would've liked to be able to raise only 3x or 4x his bet tops, but I really felt I had to set him in for this bluff to work.

As soon as I shoved, he groaned and sat back in his chair. I already knew the bluff was going to work.

"Nice one Joey", I smiled to myself. 

He then said "do you raise there with a bare 4?" and I was like "shit, this guy's going to hero-call me because he thinks I need 64 to raise". After probably 30 seconds of thought he sighed and eventually said "I have to call" and did.

I sheepishly turned over  my hand and he flipped...

Pocket fours.

FML.

What I can say though is that I'm now certain that my bluff would've worked had he not had a 4. I mean, he tanked with two of them!

Tangling with the Pros

After that failed bluff I was left with 15K. I managed to work my stack back up to the mid-twenties courtesy of some interesting pots with Vicky Coren.

In one I isolated her on the button with J8o and got calls from her and one of the blinds. The flop came AK8ss and it checked to me. For various reasons I usually c-bet this flop despite having some showdown value but on this occasion I decided to make a delayed c-bet because I had seen Vicky open-limp an Ace before. I felt she would lead it on the turn with the flush draw out there and thus could make pretty perfect turn decisions if I checked it back on the flop. The turn brought my gin card, an offsuit 8, and the small blind led for 1K (about pot) and Vicky called. I pondered raising but decided that it would look too strong and would probably squeeze them both out right then and there. Although I was risking a bad river card by just calling, I felt there was no chance either of them would fold an Ace on an AK88x board if I let them see showdown for just one more bet. So I called, the river bricked and they checked to me. I fired pot, the blind folded and Vicky ended up calling with presumably an Ace after some thought.

The other hand was a bit weird and I'm not sure what I think of it. Again Vicky open-limped, I called in the SB with A8o, and the BB checked. The flop came 542hh, I led and Vicky called. The turn brought the Ah (I had no hearts) and I had an interesting spot. Given my read that Vicky limped Ax hands, all of which would have peeled the flop, I was kind of concerned about losing to A9+. At the same time, my hand had so much showdown value and was unlikely to be bluffed by worse that just checking and hoping to see a cheap showdown seemed perfectly acceptable. I decided however to turn my hand into a bluff and fire three bullets, just in case. She would almost certainly peel the turn with A9+ but would probably fold most rivers on the three-flush, four-straight board. Again, it's pretty hard for her to have a 3 in her hand or two hearts, so I decided that the bluff was worth making since I conceivably could have anything from the SB.

So I led for 700 into 1100 on the turn (she called) and then overbet 3300 on the river. She folded pretty quickly.

I also played a pretty uninteresting hand with Matusow that I nevertheless thought I'd recount here. He open-limped, I isolated with A3h and we were heads-up to the J83r flop. He checked, I bet and he called. The turn brought the 6h giving me a flush draw and I decided to fire again, hoping to fold out a pair between mine and jacks. He folded pretty quickly, told me he had 99, and then made a big speech about how I definitely had him. Not quite Mike!

Push/Fold Time

Though I recovered to as high as 27K at one stage, I found myself slipping away towards the end of the day and was down to 15bb's when the following hand came up. I had A9o in the small blind and it was folded to a young player on the button who was also the chipleader on our table. He thought for a bit, pondered putting in a raise and then just open-shoved. The big blind had 20bb's.

I feel like I have a decent understanding of shove/re-shove/calling ranges but these situations are definitely not my strong point. A long time ago in an FTOPS event I open-shipped A2o on the button with 14bb's assuming that this would be standard and profitable but a friend pointed out that it's actually a losing play if the blinds are remotely competent at calling. Since the button was risking 20bb's in this spot (since the big blind had more than me) and there was still a player to act behind I decided to fold. It was disgustingly close spot I think though. If I had AT, or I was in the big blind instead of the small blind, or the big blind also had 15bb's, then I think I have to call.

Of course, I could be way off on this and it should be a snap regardless. Anyway at the end of the day he told me he had A6s. Oh well.

Not to matter though because exactly one orbit later I 3-bet/shoved from the small blind with 99 and won a race versus AQ to double through to 25K.

Bustout Hand

With 10 minutes to go it was decided that we would play 4 more hands and call it a day. Before the number of hands was drawn I told the guy to my right that I wanted 3 more hands so that I could play my button, cutoff and hijack. When they drew 4 I joked "I'll probably bust on that extra hand".

Well, I was close.

On the first hand I got dealt QQ on button (with 30bb's) and UTG+1 raised. I 3-bet, he 4-bet, I shoved and he called with AK. The flop was 9 high but the turn brought the Ace and that was that!

Wow I just had one of those "sit back, do nothing wrong and watch your money disappear" sessions. Lost $11K in 500 hands and was $12K below-EV. One of my tables was a Cereus ante table which plays super aggressively because it has $5 antes at 10/20 rather than the $3 that FTP has. There I managed to run AKs into KK and AQs into AA four-handed and when I finally got it in good with KK v 44 I couldn't hold.

SB ($2000)
Hero (BB) ($3856)
Button ($3339)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5, 5
Button bets $70, 1 fold, Hero raises to $230, Button calls $160

Flop: ($470) 4, 7, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $320, Button calls $320

Turn: ($1110) K (2 players)
Hero?

Total pot: $1110