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Bar Poker Open East Coast Championship 2018

11-02-2018 11:26:12 PM

Had a great time at the Borgata. Was a rough rainy ride for the final two hours, but we made it in time to see the Sox lose in 18(!) innings. So it was a rough morning the next day for Day 1A. Had a good first couple of hours, then went card dead after moving tables.

Bought into Day 1B and showed up late on purpose, Hellmuth style (lol). Was seated next to the dealer agian, which is not my favorite spot. But I picked up kings and aces back-to-back, then KK vs Manny Avila's QQ blind vs blind to basically cruise into the money. Or so I thought. Tablemates were telling me to go take a nap. I folded a bunch of hands, trying to avoid a confrontation with my "nemesis" John Beady. At one point I even folded AK in a three-way pot. Lucky for me, the 77 of Mike Diaco would have held anyway, and he doubled through John B's A10 instead. G Dull was also at my table, and he was quite the personality. Little did I know that he finished top 3 in last year's final table along with John B and Manny A!

So I get moved again to another table, and I raise with 99 and get reraised all in by the bb for not an unreasonable amount. I call and he tables 10 10. So I am down half my stack. Shove again later with A8 and one of the blinds has AQ and the board runs out A A x Q x. At this point it is blind stealing mode. Somehow, enough other players get knocked out and we are in the money! Just enough time to watch the final couple innings of the Sox winning in Game 5.

The next morning, I sit down and see that Manny A was to my left! The guy I thought I had knocked out in the KK vs QQ blind-on-blind hand. Turns out that Manny had won the "Masters" event, which guaranteed him a spot in Day 2 with 250,000 (actually 240,000) chips. He was essentially freerolling on days 1A and 1B for a bigger stack! Must be nice.

In addition to Manny being at my table, "nemesis" John B was also there. I survived a couple of orbits, included two A8s hands, (one of which chopped vs AQ when the board brought all diamonds). After stealing John B's blinds a couple times, he ends up raising on my blind. I look down at 78s, which was the hand I had just folded in the sb the previous deal. I took this as a sign and defended, essentially all in. John tabled 66 and I felt pretty good. I did not improve, and was out in 62nd place, one spot ahead of "G Dull", ironically enough.

Other highlights from the trip were my girlfriend winning over $300 on Sex And The CIty slots, and my sports bet of the Colts. Best meal was the burger at Wingcraft near the outlets. Most impressive hotel has got to be the Oceans Resort.