The final count was around 430. I didn't make it to the tourney, but played some 1/2nl

It was busy, but not necessarily busy for an event day. I think they expected it to be busier as well because originally the regular tournaments were canceled, but they had the 7pm anyway and there were still a bunch of empty tables.

well I did get 3 outted.. but it was nowhere near the bubble *sigh*

it was a frustrating day...

could not get anything going in the big tourney... ran one disastrous bluff.. then my KK got run down by AT...

spent about 5 hours in 1/2 and ended up down $5... but I played really bad and prolly left $150-$200 or more on the table...

7PM tourney was goin pretty well, then the blinds started gettin crazy... felt like I went from a well above average stack to 12BB in about 30 seconds until finally my AhKh < Qs4s.. although I actually butchered that hand cause I forgot the blinds had just been raised and so my PFR ended up bein just a min raise

blech

just got home.. goin to bed

Well... it was a big day for me. I made the final table and chopped for $7,800.

It seemed like I was in cruise control all day. My chip count never dipped below 9,500. By the first break, I was at around 15,000. By the second, I was around 30,000. By dinner time, I was over 100,000. And when the final table started, I had about 450,000.

More than anything, it was a day of no bad beats. I always seemed to get my chips in good, and my hands held up. I won all the two or three races that I faced, including a key hand just before the final table when I pushed with 125,000 chips w/ AJ, got called by the small bind with TT, and made my hand on the river.

The final table was interesting. There were two big stacks with around 1MM, a stack with around 800,000, and then the rest of us. It was clear immediately that the tournament was going to end with a chop, and so the final table played more like a super-satellite end-game than a MTT end-game.

There were two very small stacks at the final table, and the chip leader made it clear that he was not chopping until they were gone. Once they busted, there was still one small stack with around 80,000 chips. By now, the blinds were 50,000/25,000 w/ 10,000 ante. So, now the deal was to see whether this guy would make it through the blinds.

Here is where my biggest decision of the day came in. I was in the BB with around 290,000 chips. The UTG player was an aggressive player with about 450,000 chips, and he opened for a raise to 150,000. It folded to the short stack, and he shoved. Now it folded back to me, and I looked down at AQo. I was very uncertain what to do. I knew I couldn't just call with half my stack. Could I really fold this? I thought really long, and finally I shoved, content to take the sixth-place money of around $3,900 if that is what happened.

Incredibly, the UTG raiser folded! When we turned up the hands, the short stack showed AK, and I was dominated. The UTG claimed that he had 44, which would have held up and busted both of us.

After that hand, we agreed upon a chop. The top three took $12,000. The rest of us took $8,500. Then we kicked $500/per player to the chip leader for taxes, and $200 per player to the number 2 guy for his taxes. Then we all cashed out.

All in all, a very good day.

Congrats on your payday, MXP. Sounds like a great day to me.

Just curious, how many people were involved in the chop and what time did the tournament go to?

Congratulations again.

vnh sir!

First, thank you very much for the congrats. I really appreciate all the good wishes.

There were 7 people involved in the chop. The prize pool for the top 7 spots was about $73,000. We set aside about 5% to pay the dealers, and split up the remainder. We cut the deal around 10 p.m. or so.

As I noted, the deal at first was for the top three to take $12,000, and then for the rest of us to take $8,500. We all agreed, and the tournament ended.

Then, someone asked what the order of finish should be because we were each going to get 1099s. The 2d place guy said, "let's cash out in reverse order of finish." In other words, the shortest stack (me at that point!) was going to have to cash out as first and report a $29,000 prize to the IRS.

Let's just say that there was a brief dust-up about that. We had definitely not discussed this issue. Also, every time that I had ever chopped a final table, we cashed out in order of chip stacks, from high to low. We talked it over for like a minute, and then agreed for the bottom 5 to kick in some extra money to the 1st and 2d place finishers as I mentioned above.

Then, a few players went over to the floor managers to start cashing out. By the time that I ambled over, two players had already "claimed" the bottom two prizes. Thus, I officially took 5th place money, despite being the short stack.

FWIW, these are the approximate prizes that I remember for the final table before the chop:

9th - $1,900
6th - $3,900
5th - $5,700
2nd - $12,000
1st - $29,000

Thus, in the final deal, every one made more money than they would have unless they finished in the top two. Given the extremely high blinds and antes compared to the chips in play, no one wanted to take on the risk. Hence, a deal was made.

Mini TR

Played 1/2 NL Friday night for 6 hours (white collared shirt and green plaid shorts, if you played with me)...ended up cashing out for $630 after buyin for $240

Saturday: i was wearing maroon phillies shirt, if you played with me

Busted out of tourney in 3rd hour. Got both lucky (A9 vs. A10 on a77 flop, allin j on river to chop) and unlucky (AK vs. AJ ace on flop, jack on river)....whatever, it's a tourney

Went to 1/2 for 6 hours: bought in for $300, cashed out for $1040
Big $600+ pot with set of 8s against guy who would call everything and anything, but didn't have a problem losing to me because him and i were on a friendly basis (it pays to be nice and social to your table, especially when you raise every three hands, like i play)

Overall:

+390-250+740=$+880

Thought I played pretty well the whole weekend, considering it was my first time playing in almost 6 months. I especially liked the way I changed gears and how I played post flop when I was playing LAGgy, making the proper folds and the proper bets/raises/bluffs/whatever

Love the new poker room. I'll probably be back next the first week of august.

I'll chime in more if people ask questions or something. Lemme know if I played with you.

Very nice room, large windows with a nice view of the Boardwalk and ocean.

I'm an Omaha guy, so not much action for me.

I think I might have played with you... were u in the 1 seat at this table?

yeah, 1 seat both nights

where were you?

I'm the guy who overbet shoved the 9c8cx flop

MXP, CONGRATS ON THE CHOP!!!

I also played in the tournament yesterday, i busted in 20th for a whopping 571.05. LOL

Hey MXP, im just curious, how did that kid who was down to 3k and then seemed to get aces like 15 times within 20 hands end up finishing?? I think he was over 100k when I busted out.

seat 6?

i suck at remembering hands

Thanks, Pocket.

The guy that you are referring to finished second. He was one of the two guys who started the final table with about a 1 MM chips. If you were at his table when we were at 20 players, then I was at the table next to you. I was in the 2 seat at the last table in the row, wearing a yellow and white striped Callaway shirt. Did we play together at all?

Congrats MXP and nice to see everyone else enjoyed the room. I especially liked it when the first guy busted and everyone clapped at him. He did have AA.

lol... that was very funny. It was like 5 minutes into the tournament, and then we all hear a dealer yell out, "seat open!" Someone at my table guessed that aces had been cracked.

I thought it was nice when we all applauded the guy who went out on the bubble. He got it all in with AA v. another player's KK. The other guy rivered a K for a 2-outer that sent him early. What a tough way to finish the day!

Congratulations on the big payday.

But I don't understand why you would give extra money to the leaders "for taxes".
No matter what it says on the forms, you only legally owe taxes on money you actually win. The only potential issue that would come up here is proving your actually winnings to the IRS.

When I have gotten a chop for an amount above reporting requirements, I have in the past asked to other players involved to sign a brief statement stating how much I chopped for, in the remote case that I get audited. But in practice, you accumulate so much in gambling winnings and losses over the course of the year that the chance seems remote that the IRS would be able to decipher the fact that you are "underreporting" the winnings from a single 1099 (when you are actually reporting truthfully).

I think we were still at 3 tables when I busted, Only because they guy that busted in 21st busted like 2 seconds before i did and they hadnt broken down the tables yet, i really cant recall playing with you although im sure we did, i was at the table where the guy busted on the bubble with the KK vs AA hand, im the guy who collected all of the money from every table for the bubble, i had a greay t shirt on and was wearing my headphones all day. I cant beleive that kid went from literally having 3k in chips to finishing second, thats just sick, kudos to him. and BTW ROD, i was looking for you all day yesterday, guess i never came across you, i just wanted to say whats up. See you guys in september again, if everyone didnt know, kellie announced that they were going to have the tournament again on september 13th. Cant wait for it.

Yummy!

Seat 7.. black short sleeved shirt with white trim on the collar

Kellie actually dealt a few hands on our table cause our dealer needed to go to the bathroom

OMGWOW

Same here - Table 40?

Played some 2/5 at SB tonight, we had a (IMO) pretty moronic floor ruling. The gist of it is 3 players see a J32 flop with two hearts, Player A bets $25, Player B raises to $50, and Player C 3-bets to $110. A folds, and B tanks, C then says "I'm telling you now, I'm going broke with this hand, I have a set" B says "really?" then tanks some more, he then asks what C has behind, and is informed it is $120. He (B) then counts out $180 and starts pushing it towards the betting line while saying "I'll double you up."

Just before his chips reach the line, C exposes his hand to reveal 33 for middle set, B then stops his chips just shy of the line and mucks his hand. The dealer asks him for the two stacks ($180) and he protests saying that he was just kidding and hadn't called. The floor was called (Kevin) and he ultimately ruled that B hadn't called the bet. I protested pretty vociferously, that the combination of his actions and statements should constitute a call (otherwise it opens up too much room for angleshooting/douchebaggery), B then agreed to let the action stand if he could get his hand back (floor correctly said no), C then said just give me $60 and we'll call it even, which they did.

There is no question player C was wrong for exposing his hand prematurely, but B's statement can only be made with two intentions, 1 to actually call, or 2 to intentionally make an ambiguous verbal statement to get C to expose his hand. 2 is clearly an angleshoot and should (IMO) never be rewarded with a floor ruling justifying it. Kevin seemed not to understand the import of his decision, going so far to say that pushing chips up to the line to get a reaction from another player was OK. In all other AC casinos that have a betting line and bigger games (2/5 and up) forward motion is a bet, I'd never seen a ruling on this at the SB, but was pretty shocked. There was a Borgata dealer playing in the game and he agreed (as did most of the table) that it should have been a bet.

When I disagreed with his decision Kevin told me, I should be quiet because I wasn't in the hand, which IMO is as moronic as his ruling. If I'm in the game with money on the table I'm affected by whatever rules apply and have a right to voice my opinion on them. Not sure if it affected the decision, but player C is well known and disliked by most SB dealers and many players, in fact when he first was seated and went to get chips another player referred to him as "a fuc.king jerk-off" and no one disagreed with that assessment.

Congrats MXP...nicely done....

Can't believe someone suggested reverse order for tax purposes...that is a major LOL....

Amazing how people don't understand that when you are talking about a significant 1st/2nd place prizes, there will be tax implications....

You guys came up with a good solution....its the one that should happen....

Sequence should be:

1) agree that all want to chop
2) agree on amonts
3) determine how much less than prize top 2 (sometimes 3) are going to actually end up with
4) determine amount of tax on that portion (I usually use 30% - ie: here 12K = 17K less than prize, 30% of 17K = ~5K...player taking top "ticket" should get ~4K kicked in from others....your chop actually a little below that, but that's up to the top guy what he pushes for)
5) chop pot and go home happy.

Again congrats!!!!!!