The Trump Taj Mahal has one of the biggest poker rooms in AC. They spread a wide variety of games and, as well as nine 1-2 NLHE cash games and a 60 runner NLHE tournament running, there are also 2-5 and 5-10 games of NLHE and 7-Stud plus two Omaha Hi-Lo games going as I sit down. I buy in pretty short and settle in to play until the jet laq gets me.
I have a couple of things I don’t like about myself when I play that I want to try and address during this trip. One is a propensity to tilt after playing a hand poorly and another is to overcome the boredom of being card dead by getting a bit too speculative. So I have vowed to try and avoid doing both of these on this trip
This session is pretty uneventful and am pretty card dead. I am just impressing myself with not falling into the bored trap when I pick up KhKs and two callers before having to fold on an A high-all diamond flop. The next hand I raise by accident when two $5 chips stick together but thankfully manage to pick up a reasonable pot and a loose image when I hit a lucky flop.
I had the father of all calling stations on my right. He somehow managed to drop $500 in less than 90 minutes, never raising once and winning just one pot containing a whole $12. He busted out after limping in mid position with AA and check-calling a J high draw heavy board. Enough said.
Mid way through the session the shuffle-master (the machines which give you 25 hands per hour – and the casino 25 rakes – rather than 20 hand dealt hand you might normally expect) broke down. My expectation of us all having to move tables was unfulfilled when the floor manager simply lifted the machine out from the table and swapped it for a spare. The casinos lease these machines for thousands of dollars each month, so its difficult to imagine they keep a huge stock of spares
Late on, one hand sums up the session for me when I turn a straight only to have a pot bet and a reraise ahead of me and have to fold with three hearts on the board and no heart in my hand. The winner of that hand rivered a Queen high straight flush and got a $200 bonus from the Taj for the Hight Hand of the day.
So, I book a losing session and leave saying goodbye to the dealer who was called Jepsy. Its a popular name in Columbia, apparently.