Weekend in AC

I'm just back from a weekend at the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar's in Atlantic City. The place impressed me when I was there last fall and Tom McDonough, the table games manager, invited me back for this event. He made me feel like a king when he surprised me by bringing me up to a big round of applause from everyone in the room for the $5,000 main event, and letting me say those classic words, "Shuffle Up And Deal!"



Not only did Tom and his crew take care of me, but they ran a well-organized tournament. I particularly liked the way they broke down the tables in a checkerboard pattern as players busted out, so that the remaining players had plenty of elbow room. I also liked the action in their $5-10 cash game, which played more like a $10-20 game, with most stacks in the $4,000-$5,000 range, and players who had no problem putting their chips into play.



I got to AC early enough on Wednesday to play in a $300 sit-and-go and was one of four to outlast the 80-person field to win a seat in the main event. When play started Thursday, there were 208 of us, and I made it through two-thirds of the field before this hand came up.



I had about $37k in chips, below the average of $60k. With blinds at $1,500-3,000, a pretty good player to my right made it $7,000 to go. I put him on AK or AQ as I looked down at a pair of nines. Since I could close the betting, I decided to call and see three cards. I considered shoving right there, but if he had AK, I might have gotten a call and I thought it was better to make that play after the flop. My plan was that, if it came out rags or anything but ace-king-queen, or if I hit one of my two-outers, I'd shove, and with about $30k left in my stack, I'd have enough fold equity to get him to lay down his overcards.



The flop came JJ3 with two spades. He bet $7,000 again. I thought for a minute. Then, based on my pre-flop read, I went all-in as planned. He insta-called, and a guy to my left said, "He must have ace-king of spades." Two other players agreed. At that point, I would have been happy if he'd only had the overcards and the spade redraw. Instead, he turned over AJ, and I was done in 66th place.



Ironically, I did make it to the final table in another way. The main event was won by Samuel Chartier, who beat his fellow Canadian John Nixon — while Nixon was wearing a hat with my autograph on it! It turns out that John and I had played together at the British Columbia Poker Championship a few months ago, and he'd asked me to scrawl my name across the bill of his cap, and that's what he was wearing in Atlantic City.



Now, I'm off to Uruguay for another event on the Latin American Poker Tour. Details on that when I get back. As always, if you have questions or comments, please e-mail DennisPhillipsPoker@gmail.com. I may use them on my blog (TheChipLeader.com), or on my radio show.