Yea you shouldn't be busting with flushes on paired boards in omaha in general, let alone 10 handed where the nuts usually takes down any sizable pot. Sorry I didn't call you a couple weeks ago, I forget to check my PMs.

I was just checking the rates for Saturday June6th (for one night) and on Kayak the rates are #400 for Borgata, $459 for Water Club, and I can get it for $309+tax/fees on Borgata's own site (using my Borgata Card, etc.)... anyway to get a cheaper rate? poker rate? anything else available? I know it's Saturday, summer, bla bla bla

any help is much appreciated...

Who where you buddy? If you rather PM, please do so. That guy was a jackass, I was at his table. He was so pissed we would not get a bubble boy collection up, he slow played even at hand-for-hand to get even.

Well, after nine hours on day one, and seven more on day two, I got knocked out 13th. out of 330 entrants. I played well, went a bit card dead at a bad time, but never made any glaring mistakes that I look back on and regret. One hand that changed my tournament went something like this: I get 9/9 as the BB. Woman in late position raised it up 4X. Man in SB re-raised her 3X her bet. Now making this call is somewhere around 1/2 my chips, and of course I have to be behind or at least looking at three over cards between them. Easy lay down. Woman goes all in after my fold, man has her covered and calls. He shows J/J, She shows A/A. You know what comes on the flop...........9. Now, I easily make the 4X bet as BB it would only cost me 3X and who knows what they are playing, very wide range of hands. And the flop would have led me to murder as no over cards for Jacks, and Aces not seeing much on the flop would have been betting. Why did this guy have to re-raise? Ugh. Anyway, that tournament, as I stated earlier has such a great structure for only $350, I will surely be back for more. Oh, and on a side note, after dinner, 1/2NLH cash game went well, exactly $300 profit after 3.75 hours.

Flying in to AC from Calgary next month. Past two times in AC have stayed at Harrahs but played mostly at Borgata. This time for sure going to get a room at Borgata instead.

Although I signed up for the MyBorgata card and used it on both previous trips in the PR, they say I have no hours clocked. I asked about poker room rates, and was told that regular and consistent play over a 3 to 6 month period is required before even being considered. When I asked what 'regular and consistent' meant, she said there was no hard/fast rules other than you had to be a "real regular".

This sounds a bit harsh! I did get a decent room rate for the midweek stay, but for those of us flying down 3 or 4 times a year - is there no other way to qualify for a poker room lodging rate? Even if it was like the Venetian where you have to do 6 hours a day or something.

Cheers, and looking forward to some NLHE and tourneys next month

Question to all Borgata O/8 players....does the game start in the AM or PM ? I'm coming down in Aug and want to play....just don't want to wait for hours to be 1st on the interest list for hours.

I think you should consider staying in a nearby Absecon or AC chain motel. Ex. Days Inn, Comfort Inn, Knights Inn, etc. Should be no more than $175 if you do some shopping around. Knights Inn in Absecon would probably be cheapest and is not too bad considering.

I use the below link for great prices ten to fifteen minutes from Borgata, using Absecon NJ in the search:

http://wr.wyndhamrewards.com/Wyndham...dvanced_search

Can we get a list of the winners in the double play tournaments? Any chop at the final table?

oh whoops, did i just do that? did i just book a little trip down next week? i think i did, my bad! muhahahaha

Bubble boy sure was an a-hole, stalled with less then 5k for a whole level, I busted in 24th place, on table 2

OK, I think the entire final table did a sliding chop, where you get more for more chips, so the top nine may not be in actual order:

1) 28102 Eliano Mesquia
2) 16280 Larry Goldtein
3) 8043 Joseph Arena
4) 6783 Joanne Monteavaro
5) 5814 Andreas Zafiropoulos Jr. (who was a bit of wild player, ATC, always)
6) 4845 Tomasz Gliniecki
7) 3846 Jia Liu (someone tell this guy to was hands after using rest room. Oh wait, I did)
8) 2907 Duane Felix
9) 1938 Norman Rodriguez
10-12) 1260
13-15) 969 Dennis Farrell 13th., so close, yet.....
16-18) 678
19-27) 581
28-36) 485

The hand with the 9's made my tummy hurt for about an hour, but I fought tilting and won.

One hand I should have shoved just after the bubble, but pussied out was Q/Q under the gun I 5X bet, folded around to SB. Now, I had played for about six hours with this player on day one, but he just got sat at my table maybe 15 minutes earlier after bubble burst. He was very aggressive to a limp pot, but very tight to a raised pot. Now I 5X under the gun, so he goes all-in from SB, my read perks me up. Most times I am going to call, but after a long pause, I decide there is too much poker left for me to put $28,000 first place prize on the line. I show Q/Q and table laughs at me (well, not really laughs bet I get two "your nuts") and guy mucks without showing. Player goes over to rail and tells his friend he had A/K, I know this cause my friend Howie was standing at the rail next to him.

Nice to meet you Paul.

As I said earlier, he was just being obnoxious because his cry of "chip in $10 for bubble boy" was falling on deaf ears. It got to the point where he would just sit there when action got on him, pretending to think, just to slow the game down. That is why our table was usually last to finish during hand-by-hand. I told him, he should have said something before we went to break, as we could have used that time to collect a $10 bubble boy prize. On a side note, about an hour before bubble, he said "I don't care about bubble, but I have to get my money in smart". Well, maybe you should not have got down to five big blinds if that was true, as after that, is there really a "smart" time to get it in?

I'll get you the poker rate. Just PM me the dates and your card number.

Stan

normally, the game start mid mornings.

Stan,
Would you consider opening a Twitter account for Live Game Reports? WSOP just started one for there cash games for this summer.

The following is offered as an extended customer service feedback card both for the Borgata poker room, and the regular 2/5 players of whom I consider myself a customer as well. First, background on the customer. I have made 7 trips to the Borgata to play 2/5 over the last two and a half years. I have logged approximately 160 hours with a net result after time and tokes of approximately a negative 1100, (spreadsheet with exact numbers is on home computer and I am typing this at work). Prior to this weekend’s trip I was positive approximately 500 at Borgata, but ended the trip itself down 1600, netting the negative 1100 cumulative.

These trips are pure recreation, my only goal being to enjoy myself. I can afford any amount I am likely to lose. I consider myself a marginal player, and a marginal, but increasing, customer of the Borgata itself. I fit within a demographic that I believe is attractive to Borgata marketing, with many friends that travel frequently to Las Vegas. My friends’ general perception of Atlantic City as a whole would best be described as a fairly accurate picture of the Trop. Most do not understand the Borgata is different. With some success, I have persuaded a number of them to consider the Borgata by vouching that it is far more similar to what they would experience in Las Vegas. Unlike me, a typical trip for these friends would involve traveling with their wives, staying at least Friday and Saturday night in the hotel, wives spending time and money in the spa, dinner at a restaurant of Bobby Flay’s level, some poker, some table games, possibly concert or special event. At the 2/5 tables, they would qualify as moderate fishes who could afford to drop 1000-1500 in the course of a five hour session, but play well enough that they also would have a 30%-40% chance of winning.

An incident occurred on Sunday morning that I believe the Borgata staff handled okay, but the fact that it happened made me very uncomfortable. I wanted to post on it because while it will not make me any less likely to return to the Borgata, it is the type of incident that makes me less likely to recommend the poker room to friends less experienced in casino poker. I also believe that it would have a similar impact on others that the Borgata would want to entice to be more regular customers, but for whom a single bad experience can permanently change their view of a room.

About an hour prior to this hand, one of the 2/5 regulars complained to the floor that a friend of the villain who was not involved in the game was speaking to him in a foreign language during a hand. The floor came over, warned the villain not to be talking in a foreign language during a hand, and told the friend that he could stay in the poker room but was to stay away from the table. About a half hour later the friend returns and stands directly behind me in the 8 seat as I am looking at my hole cards. His friend is in the 6 seat, so there is no reason he should have been directly behind me. I did not want to make a scene, so I told the friend to move away from me, but I did not call the floor back over. About fifteen minutes later I am in a hand with villain with AQ. I raise preflop, villain calls, and I believe we had at least two other callers. Flop I believe is A-2-x. I bet, villain raises. Villain had been playing extremely LAG, and bluffing with a very high frequency. I push attempting to end the hand immediately. Villain’s friend rushes to the table, leans over to villain and speaks to him in a foreign language. I immediately object and call the floor over. As it turns out villain calls and had 2-2, so I was dead regardless.

I believe the floor removed villain’s friend from the room, possibly a 24 hour ban. I realize that it is impossible to police every situation, but the combination of having the floor already warn the villain and friend, tell the friend to stay away from the table, then have the friend lurking behind me as I received my hole cards earlier, and on a later hand rush to his friend to speak to him in a foreign language after I moved all-in, left me as a very dissatisfied customer. I realize the hand would have ended the same regardless. But as a customer, I expect a different experience at the Borgata. This may be unrealistic as I know a casino can only do so much with respect to security. But part of the great appeal of the Borgata’s poker room is that it creates a psychological feeling of safety greater than any other casino I have been in. This feeling was a least temporarily for me diminished by this incident.

I mainly want to make sure that Stan and his staff realize and appreciate what incidents like this can do to customers that are not your regulars. You have an excellent product and a great business model. When I recommend it to friends, I frequently joke that unlike the Taj, no one gets shot in the parking lot. I don’t know how or if you can do anything about incidents like what I experienced, but please know that everything you do to create the safe feeling, can evaporate in a customer’s mind quite quickly when players take these type of actions.

One further customer service note for 2/5 regulars. Some table talk by regulars hurts customer service and reduces the profitability of the tables for all regulars. As I said, I consider myself a marginal player. I made what may have been the biggest mistake I have ever made on Sunday morning in a different hand. It happens. Without knowing my hole cards because I folded after a re-raise, a regular went out of his way in the 4 seat to say that it was the worst mistake he had seen in months.

I have thick skin, but I could not help but think that this type of behavior is why I am hesitant to recommend the 2/5 game to many of my friends. They go to casinos to enjoy themselves, and by doing so create profit for the better regular players. But I do not want to tell them to go a level where they will not have fun. It is far easier to recommend them to 1/2, where they may stand a better chance of winning, and also will be far more likely to have a good time. By my doing this (and multiply this by other recreational players telling their friends the same thing), you reduce the pool of profitable players entering your game. I see no business reason for wanting to do this. I would think that the 2/5 regulars would want to make their games as enjoyable for non-regulars as possible to entice them up from 1/2. It baffles me that I repeatedly see behavior from regulars that does the exact opposite.

There are a number of other regulars that clearly understand this and are very enjoyable to play with. I say this even knowing that they have an advantage on me. Those that get it, might want to consider talking to those who don’t, because those who don’t, reduce all of your profitability. If it does any good, feel free to print this out and show them this as an admission from a recreational fish.

Hope the feedback is helpful.

I'm somewhat sympathetic that you feel you were the victim of their shenanigans, but the bolded parts of your post indicate that you knew the guy was doing this earlier, you knew the floor had told him to stay away from the table, you knew he was near the table and you decided to allow him to stay there so you could avoid making a scene. I don't think you can complain that more wasn't done when you didn't do more. Especially because, given the time differentials described in your post, there was probably a new dealer at the table when the second series of events happened. You could have easily told the dealer "the floor instructed him not to be near our table."

I recognize you concede this in your post, but the floor can only do so much and can't really do much of anything if they aren't alerted.

Sorry to hear, chesapeake.

Just wanted to note though, the "regulars" likely chiming in with the table talk:

...are not likely to be long-term winners. I agree that it is unnecessary, but these table-coach types are usually losing players. I could go on, but I am sure most people can figure out why.

chesapeake, i think you made a good, thoughtful well written post and I can understand why you are annoyed. Couple of things though....

In terms of the table talk of regs, it's something that is discussed often on these forums. It really is obnoxious for obvious reasons (many of which you mentioned) and it certainly discourages gambling and loose play which helps improve the conditions of any game. There really is nothing anyone can do about that. There are some regs at casino's everywhere who behave like this because they simply have nothing better to do with their time. They have no lives, are miserable people and they feel the only place they can feel good about themselves and have dominance over others is at the card table (the funny thing is that they actually don't they just feel like they do but are too dumb to realize what they are actually saying). So it's just not really something management can control. I recommend quietly asking for a table change if this is the case in your game.

In regards to the behavior of the villain/friend, I think you make a good point but it's hard to make a sweeping rule, or be so aggressive that friends or signifigant others can't look on for a few minutes (especially on the weekends) this would also discourage fish to enter the games so it's a tricky balance. If you were really annoyed by it you should have spoke up for yourself immediately, but you and I sound a lot alike so I know what you mean about not wanting to make a big deal out of it. Maybe quietly ask the dealer to intervene...

Pardo

There's a guy I see at the Borg every time I go. I go sporadically as I'm a full-time student... winter break, spring break and summer break... but he's always there playing the 10/20 LHE game. I've heard him answer his cell phone and tell people he's at "work" and claim to be a pro at this game.

He's an awful player. Just flat out awful. I mean the 10/20 LHE game is soft as ****, but I can't imagine he is more than a slight loser over time at BEST.

Every time I go, he takes it upon himself to comment to me on my play, or the things I do or how I handle myself. You just gotta brush it off. It's frustrating, but this guy probably sits here and dumps $$ off week after week (where he gets it who knows?) and is just grasping at straws.

Let's see, just last time I was there in the spring he sat there and lectured me for 15 minutes on why raising AK out of the BB is a losing play over time. Later I 3-bet his buddy (who was actually a decent player... would get crushed at 1/2 LHE online, but probably beats this 10/20 game) and he turned and whispered to him, "I hate playing against this guy. You need to beat him." which I, probably much to his chagrin, took as a compliment. It also cost his buddy a huge pot as he tried to FPS me and got taken to value town.

I'm really friendly at the table and generally come off as a nice guy (and I'd like to think that's the truth! :-P). I'm incredibly polite, generally keep to myself but try to make friendly conversation with everyone or at least smile and be likable... not only is that how I want to carry myself as a person, but it also helps the action against you. Yet still guys like this guy treat me like **** because I'm not a regular, and I take pots off him consistently. Just ignore em' and you'll be fine. There's miserable people everywhere in life, and the poker room is certainly no exception.

No offense to anyone here, (myself included lol), but a vast majority of the people I see playing live poker are REALLY... out there.

But the Borgata has the friendliest room I've ever played in, and it's the nicest room I've ever played in. I'd still recommend it to anyone just playing live poker for the first time, as the dealers and floor (except for one angsty guy who works the late night hours sometimes lol, but that's a story for another time), are incredibly friendly, helpful and accommodating to everyone.

I may be there this week! :-)

In the immortal words of Jules Winnfield: "English Mo Fo, do you speak it?

as a 2/5 Regular (if at least one a week is considered regular), I completely agree with you. I see the same few regulars everytime I play and without fail they are critizing players for bad play. I always find myself wondering why they would make the bad players feel stupid and uncomfortable making them prone to leaving the table sooner. Ive come to the conclusion that by pointing out other players bad play, it somehow makes them feel as if they are a better player and boosts their ego.

Also sorry to hear of your experience, Chesapeake.
But in business, in life, as well as in poker, you're always going to find some people who fail to emulate the highest level of social graces or consideration for their fellow players.
And, while they can be found anywhere, I must agree with Karak that, on average, you will find less of these kind of people at Borgata than you will at any other AC casino.

I usually have no problem letting people know when they're out of line.

If someone were to criticize my play, I might say, "Thanks. But when I want advice, I'll ask for it" or "Are you trying to get my to pick up my money and leave. Because, if you are, you're doing a good job. I'f I'm making bad decisions, wouldn't you want to stay and keep it friendly?"

I recommend not being argumentative, but using a tone that sounds like you're insulted or hurt by the comments, possibly encouraging the insulter to apologize and keep a better atmosphere at the table.