Thanks to everybody that participated and supported The Junkies Poker Open 5. What an unbelievable turnout! With the economy in shambles and everybody cutting back on discretionary spending we were fairly nervous about how this tourney would go. We knew we’d get our loyal listeners and die hard poker players to participate. But to think we’d get 525 DC metro area people to take a day or two off from work, drive 3 plus hours to AC, donk off $300 for the tournament and whatever else on hotel accomodations etc…. is mind blowing.  Honestly, what other show could get such a turnout? Maybe the Stern show…. that’s probably it. We have the greatest listeners in the world. Our previous record turnout was maybe 100 people less. And it’s impossible to know exactly how many others didn’t get into the tournament because they cut the line off about an hour or so into the event.Â
Props to The Borgata for putting us up at The Water Club too. What a great hotel. Great rooms, awesome bar, cool views, delicious food, beautiful people….seriously…the place is sick. Ray the director of poker marketing always takes care of us but he outdid himself this time.Â
We got up there on Wednesday after the show. I was the first one there but was determined to work out a little before hitting the tables. I told myself if I could get 2 workouts in over the 3 days at the Borgata I would be thrilled. I knew they would have an amazing workout room at The Water Club which was added incentive. But the truth of the matter is every time I leave AC or Vegas I feel like shit. I eat horribly, drink the whole time and just sit on my butt and see flops. This trip would be different. Mostly because I’ve never worked on my fitness more than I have the last 3 months. I have just completed the P90x workout and no chance Im gonna throw it all away in 3 days.Â
So after checking into my room I went straight to the workout room for the first time in my life at a casino. I actually used an eliptical for the first time too since I work out at home and I have a treadmill and bike but thats it as far as cardio. To be honest I didn’t really like it either. I felt like I was crouching and sorta uncomfortable the whole time. Maybe it was just because it was new to me. It definitely didn’t feel natural.
Anyway after working out we only had a little time before Dinner with everybody from WJFK so I decided to just chill instead of play cards for an hour or so. I never play well when I have a short window of time. First of all I don’t play many hands and live poker is full of enough variance already. No need to turn it into more of a wild card in some hurried session. I definitely didn’t want to tilt off a couple hundred before dinner. That would have pissed me off.Â
I’ll continue with my trip report later…I’ve ordered the Couture Lesnar fight and a bunch of people are coming over to the house to watch it in the media room.Â
Ok…It’s Sunday morning. The Lesnar fight was amazing to watch. What a beast. I have no idea how technically proficient this guy is but he appears to be pretty damn good.  He’s not just a big monster like a Kimbo Slice. This guy has all the tools. And props to Randy Couture for even getting in the octagon with this animal. Randy is 45 and he thinks he can compete with anybody. He said last night he thinks he’s still getting better. No chance this guy is quiting. His face was battered and bloody, his tooth was loose and this guy wants to keep doing it. I cannot relate to this guys balls at all. Props to both guys. By the way, was it just me or did Dana White appear to be less than thrilled that Lesnar came in and won the title in 4 fights? He seemed to barely congratulate Lesnar after the fight and was way more concerned with Randy afterwards. I don’t know if thats just a respect thing for all Randy’s done and his age. It seemed to me Dana didn’t like the big famous WWE guy coming in and beating the Hall of Fame MMA champ.Â
So back to the Borgata report. After dinner we had a listener party at the B Bar which was great. I had so many drinks and shots that I knew playing cards was now entirely out of the equation. Long story short some of us stayed up drinking till 2:30ish and we had to get up at 5 to do the damn show. That’s not a recipe for success particularly when you have to navigate a 500+ person poker tournament right after the show.Â
Thursdays show was blast though. Everybody is always on a high when we are at a casino. We even got Cakes to do a 3 Irish Car Bombs for cash during the show.
The tournament itself was pretty typical. Unfortunately because we had so many players still trying to get in the morning of the event- the start was delayed and they had to shorten the levels to ensure the tourney was completed in one day. Consequently the tournament gets a little shove festy shortly after the antes kick in around the 4th or 5th level. I was actually so tired after drinking, getting about 2 hours sleep and then doing the radio show that I was having a hard time focusing. Frankly I wanted to go to bed. I can’t imagine how some of these poker superstars like Phil Ivey, Daniel, Matusow etc take most of these tournaments seriously. Particularly the first few levels when the action is so slow and virtually meaningless. And when these high stakes guys are used to playing pots for hundreds of thousands of dollars how do they get motivated to play for several days for a 5 or 10K buyin?Â
I misplayed one hand in particlular which really set me back. It was the last hand before the lunch break and I had doubled up to almost 20k in chips which was probably below average but still acceptable and in good shape. Its been so long that I can’t remember the exact action but essentially I flopped 2 pair and after checking to my opponent I flipped a 5K chip in after he bet 1500. I was too tired to talk and thought it was obvious I was raising. When the dealer said call I knew I was fucked. (Having not played a lot of tournaments I didn’t realize a single chip raise has to be declared. Apparently if I had a bunch of smaller chips that amounted to 5k- my raise would have been understood.) Long story short I was trying to get all my money in the middle after my raise but when it was declared a call I got thrown off my game and eventually my opponent caught his gutshot and I called his shove on the river. This cost me about 13k or so and crippled me right before lunch. (The ironic thing is even if my raise was allowed and I got my opponent to get all the chips in the middle after the flop I would have lost anyway because the card hit. But, he could have folded and I would have had 23K or so and in great shape.)
After that hand it would take a miracle to get healthy again and I busted out in the next level after a couple all ins and my K10suited was called by 77 and after the 7 on the flop I was back in bed. I dont’ know if I’ve ever been happier to bust out and go to sleep. Tournaments are weird. I like the potential to get a big score. First place was $39k. In fact Scotty Bags from our home game won the joint. That makes our home game 2 for 5 at Junkies Poker Opens. My boys can play!Â
The next two days were pretty uneventful. I ended up only playing 2 long sessions of 1-2 cash. I lost $153 Thursday evening. Nothing too interesting. Just boring live poker. Friday started out horrible. After the radio show I rested and worked out again! (That’s 2 workouts at a casino- A new world record). Immdediately after sitting down at a 1-2 table lose big pots with smaller boats. I remember thinking how much I hate live poker and I never seem to run well. But I hung in there and after a table change I ran super hot and felted a few dudes.  After reloading I cashed our for $725 which was a net $225 win and a small profit for the trip. Â
I had dinner with my boy Squirel at Wolfgang Pucks and actually went to the room to play online and crash. Pretty sad. I’m at a casino with my boys and I end the evening watching sportscenter grinding online. Ha! Overall it was a great trip though and I can’t wait to do it again. Peace, EB
3 Responses to “Borgata Trip Report”
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“In fact Scotty Bags from our home game won the joint.”
Not quite. Actually he chopped. I had pretty much top stack and he was 2 hundred K below me minimum. I only wanted 3rd place taxes, so me and the new york guy let him have the top spot which gave him the 6300 chop plus the 13k in tax money for taking the 40k tax hit. If there was an actual vbraclet i might have fought him for it. too bad they don’t do the chop at the borgata. you have to have people take the top 6 spots. But definitely he didn’t “win”
Not that he played bad or anything, at that point it was going to be pure luck with a trip around the table costing 320k. Finishing in the top 13 of over 500 is pretty good.
EB – I brought 5 guys with me this trip. We all donk’d out early in the JPO, but we played in the 7PM $100 tournament and I made it to 24th out of 140 players. Knocked out of the money on a bad beat but I’m improving thanks to the JPO trips.