Biloxi Trip Reports

This is a great trip report regarding poker at Beau Rivage and Hard Rock. Almost all the report is geared towards poker, so if you are not into reading about poker hands, reviews, I would probably skip this trip report.

Report is from AcesKracked and was posted over at TwoPlusTwo.com

Leaving from Upstate, SC – best flight was $225 out of ATL, GSP $400 – we decide we will drive (8 hrs. – ouch) By the time we drive 2.5 hrs. to ATL, wait at airport and pay for parking not saving too much time or money.

Thurs:
Get up at 3:00 for our 4:00 meeting for 5 us the join up (2 drove down Thurs. evening). Pull out at 4:15, a couple of fast food stops and $100 fill-ups we are in Biloxi by 11:30 Central time. Park our car and stop by to see about early check-in at the Beau Rivage – we had all booked our rooms through the poker room about a month earlier (79.00 Thur, 99.00 Fri/Sat). Everyone’s reservation is there but mine (no record of it) I run to the poker room and speak w/ Donna – she takes my information and takes care of it. Valet takes the car, bellman brings up bags and we are in the card room at the Beau 12:00.

A few of us decide to walk next door to the Hard Rock to check out their thurs 1:00 NL Omaha tourney. I sit in a painful 1-4-8 game (only table running) and wait for the tourney. Turns out only 6 people signed up and the manager wants to cancel – most of us were game to play short-handed but it was not happening. I somehow burn through 2 racks of whites in about 3 hrs. playing 1-4-8. I buy a 3rd and hover about even for another hour and decide to cash out and look for a real game. (Ever notice at the 4-8 games over time everyone’s chip evaporate??) $5 rake, jackpot drop, and dealer tip each hand pulls money off the table fast, hard to beat these games, and if you do, rarely for very much.

Register for the 6:00 $100+20+10 tourney at the Beau and sit at a NL 1-2 for about an hour before the tourney begins. Cash out about even and sit in the tourney. Had pretty crappy cards early and just won enough pots to stick around, tourney ended up having about 65 entries, come about 12:00 I somehow make it to the Final Table. Tourney only pays top-9, so we immediatley decide for each person to give the 10th man 15 buck, so everyone is guaranteed to get their money back +. I win a couple of pots, steal some blinds and find myself in the final 6, we talk about chopping again but 2 big stacks are against it unless they get #1 and #2 money, #6 guy did not like this too much. #1 stack is drunk and obnoxious, he is insistent in playing it out – he falls next (nice). #2 stack drops next and we’re down to 4. I start to look at the payouts more seriously now and see that 1st is $1700 and some change. Guy to my right goes on a little rush and knocks out another one, he is a monster chip leader, he has more than double my stack and about double the other guy. We discuss chopping again, TD tells us, split 3-ways payout is 1125. We decide to chop with me giving 150, and #2 stack giving #1 $100. We chop it up, after tip and my 150, my tourney fee, I net about $900 – pretty happy.

After finishing my meal I was eating at the final table I sit at a 1-2 game, my buddy is across the table from me, 2-3 solid players at the table and a couple of guys that are soon to go broke there as well (just hope I could be the 1 to bust them). I buy in for $300 and about my 3rd hand I hold K9o and flop the straight to the king. Solid and very aggressive guy to my left leads out $25 into a $30 pot, I call. Turn is a 10 (giving him straight to Q). He checks I bet $100, he raises to $200 and I go all-in for another 40 on top, he calls with the straight to the Q and a 10-high flush draw. River is of course a 3rd club, cracking my nuts and shipping almost $700 to him.
Same guy beats me a couple more times and sucks out another, I win a few from others at the table but decide to cash out around 4:00 am being stuck $400 on that session. Been up for well over 24 hours and playing close to 18 straight, decide to go to bed.

Friday:
I get up a little after 7:00 cash in my voucher for a buffet with a couple of other guys and head back to the room at the Beau. Another buddy who arrived in town about 11:00 is still sitting in the same 2-5 game I left him a few hours ago playing 3-handed. He has a stack of green at this point along with a couple racks of red and couple of blacks floating around too, he said the game was just too good to leave, and as it got shorter, it just got better.

I sit at a 1-2NL game with another buddy, he melts through about 500 in 2-3 hours, I get down early and end up about even after 6 hrs. Break for lunch about 1:00 and sit to play some more, this time at the Hard Rock. Sit to play 1-2NL, game is not nearly as deeped stacked as the Beau games and a lot more social, the scenery is unbelievable though as the night comes on and the Hard Rock clubs open up, also a Gretchen Wilson concert at the Hard Rock that night as well. Room had 4-5 NL 1-2 games going and several 1-4-8.

I play till about 3:00, cash-out up about $300 and head back to the Beau, intending to go to bed, sit at some variation of a table game and proceed to stupidly blow through $300. Figuring this needs to be a it for the night I cruise by the poker room at the Beau to see what is happening. 2-shorthanded NL 1-2 games going and a full 2-5. I sit at one of the 1-2’s at 3:30 am. Game gets crazy with routine $15-30 raises pre-flop with 5-6 callers. Pot odds meant nothing in this game, it was all about implied odds (or at least this is what I kept telling myself when throwing in an extra $25 pre-flop with 45o. Hit some big hands with crap, flopped a couple of sets and am up about $600. Watch the Ryder cup matches on the flat screen above me that I watched 24 hours later from the same table. Decide to call it a night around 11:00 am Sat. morning. Still wide awake but Head to the room for a quick nap.

Saturday:
Wake up around 3:00 and watch some Ryder Cup while taking my time getting ready. Have some lunch/dinner with a couple of buddies and sit back down at the Hard Rock around 6:00, only 1 seat at the 1-2 game so I give it to my buddy and sit at 1-4-8 until another opens up. Win a couple of medium size pots in :15 minutes and my name is called, seat next to my buddy is open.

I cash in my white and sit down up almost 100 bucks. 1-2 game is good, so I add some cash, in for 4 now and within the 1st hour I am dealt A Q from the SB. It is raised to 10 to me with 4 callers, I just call. Flop is A Q 6 I lead out with $30, terrible player 2 to my left calls (has about 200 left) and bad young player to my right raises to $130 from the button. I think for a minute and decide their is no way this guy raises a set to me here, is has AK. I push for $440 more, terrible player on my left throws in his 200 and button raiser calls pretty quickly, I think maybe he does have a set, I am toast. They turn over their cards and bad short stack has KJ, big-stack raiser turns over A J. I look at their hands an realize they are practically drawing dead. Turn comes out J and river is of course a 10. Runner-runner for big stack and he takes the lion’s share of the $1200 pot. I am absolutley sick after this and proceed to tilt off about $300 more dollars. 2 terrible plays during this run on my part due to tilt factor, not betting a flush card when I missed my straight on the river, other player missed straight too but wins hand with pair of 4’s – $200 pot. Another hand from BB I flop 2-pair with Q 4 – lead out with $25, get raised to $125, thinking I am against AQ or AK at worst with a chance of getting counterfeited I fold, he turns over A10 ($300 pot) my 2-pair would have held.

At this point I decide to add on 3 more hundred, decide if I go down, I am going down in flames – start doing the math and realize that if I lose what I am now in for, I actually lose money for the weekend.
Hot shot young long-haired, sunglass wearing pro sits down across the end of the table from me. I have AQ in the SB, he raises to 12, 2- callers, I call. Flop is: A Q 4 I lead out for $30, young pro wanna be pauses and says, “You know, if you want to learn to make money in this game, you need to check and let the pre-flop raiser lead out” He turns over kings or jacks and folds. I sarcastically thank him for the advice, ask him if minds if I write that down, and tell him I will try to learn from him to play better.

A few hands later I am in late position with 57 and call a $7 raise from the wanna be, flop is K105 It is checked to him and he bets out $30, folded to me, I raise to $140. He thinks for a while and folds what he said was jacks. I, of course, turn over my 57 and tell him good fold. He starts mumbling to the guys next to him and adds on a couple more hundred. I win a couple more pots and am up to around $300 and change, its now very late and I have a 8 hour drive coming up in about 4 hours. I am dealt A6 in the blind, a small raise to $7 and about 4 other callers, flop is 253 I lead out for $20, 2-callers and young pro raises to $120, another guy goes all-in for his 200, I think for a minute and figuring I am probably behind to a couple of sets here decide that I have a 4 to the nut straight or a spade to the nuts. I push my last 260ish in. 2 callers and young pro calls and table A4, 4 people in the hand 3 are all-in. Turn 7 River 7 I figure I am toast to someone’s boat and will win the side pot with the big-stack pro. Other 2 players muck with a lower flush draw and and the other w/ an over pair. NICE! I scrape it all, takes about 3 hands to stack all of my chips and I realize that somehow, thanks to this viscious suck-out I am actually up a few dollars on the night. Go on my first rush of the 50+ hour of poker weekend. Win 4-5 more pots and would have won about every other had I played them. Young pro goes to the cage and comes back with a rack of red and drops about 5k in cash on the table, just asks that I stick around a while to give him a chance to win ‘his’ money back. I play about another hour and end up cashing out up $90 for the night. Head to bed for a couple hour nap before getting up at 7:00 for the long drive.

Finish up the weekend up $400
One buddy won $2700, another 1400, another 300, and the others were even or lost a few hundred +.

Afterthoughts of the weekend:
- Biloxi great place for a trip, room rates are good, action is excellent, tourneys although expensive are very well run (at the Beau Rivage anyway)
- Its amazing how 50+ hours of play can come down to the last few hours in how you end up for the week. If I win this big AQ hand early, I am up well over 1k, probably go to bed early and finish the weekend up reasonable amount instead I find myself throwing almost 300 in on a flush draw late trying to break even.
- Played, I estimated, 1500+ hands on the weekend and was dealt pocket aces 1 time – I figure I am due for at least 6 in a row my next home game.
- The cost to play poker is enormous – timed rake at the Beau Rivage along w/ a 1/10 share of the jack pot drop equates to almost $800 for the 54 hours or so of poker I played
- Beau Rivage and Hard Rock are 1st class in taking care of their players with meal comps, etc. – never an issue whatsoever.

Thanks,
AcesKracked