The best, the worst, and the mundane of what was the Borgata Poker Open

OK! There's a lot to cover and I don't want to make this a loooong read so I will get straight to the highlights. It was a long 2 weeks. Some pretty cool stuff happened and some pretty stupid stuff happened, but for the most part, it was a pretty standard two weeks.

The Ladies Event:

If you don't already know, A male entered the event and managed to win it. His name... Kortoski. You can find out about the whole shenanigans by googling Man wins ladies tournament, Borgata. But the gist of it was a little bit of an injustice done by the article written in the Philadelphia Daily News. Which consequently was picked up by almost every single media outlet in the nation. Christ, I saw it on the drudge report.

That article was written by a friend of mine. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to pick titles, and the title led the reader to think that Nicole was upset that the guy was allowed to play. Which couldn't have been further from the truth. Heck, she didn't even know that a guy was playing until half way through the tournament. The article also led the reader to believe that she wouldn't chop. Which is also a little misleading. Nicole offered to chop when she got heads up with the guy. He said he would only chop if he got the trophy and first. This irked Nicole a little because, well, as she told me, she's a competitor, and she felt she was playing not only for herself, but for every other woman in the tournament. She had no problem splitting the bulk of the money with some on the side and playing it out. But this guy didn't want to. He said play for it all or I'm not chopping. Now, in the article, he was quoted as saying two things. 1) "If the Borgata had asked me not to play, I wouldn't have" and 2) "I offered her a chop and she refused to take it."

Both of these quotes are horseshit. If he did make those quotes, which I know he did, he lied. Flat out lied. The casino has to allow any person over the age of 21 the opportunity to play in any posted event, regardless of age race or gender. It's a federal mandate. But when no less than 4 men tried to enter the tournament, Borgata staff politely asked them not to. And they didn't. They're men. This guy, sneaks in under late registration, after all personnel is in the tournament room managing the tournament. He walked in and tried to sit down. One of the staff asked him not to play. "It is a ladies event after all." This guy flat out refused to observe the fact that it was a ladies event. He also insisted in playing.

When it got to the chop, exactly how I stated it above is how it happened. He wasn't valiant in his effort to offer a chop. He specifically said, "No trophy, no chop". Again, Nicole had two issues. One was being the competitor she is and standing up for her fellow ladies who tried to go after this guy the whole time. Second, Nicole already had a second place finish in the 2007 ladies event during Borgata's Winter Open, and she really wanted to win. She felt it was her duty to play it out and try to accomplish the win.

Many of the women in the tournament were pissed at the Borgata for allowing this joke of a human being to play. A lot of them made comments that they would never play again. Unfortunately the Borgata has to follow the law like everyone else. And unfortunately, most didn't bother examining the law before passing judgment. As for the future of the ladies event, who knows. imagine every swinging dick trying to enter and win against a field of women. It's unfortunate, but what the hell are you going to do? I can tell you that the Borgata went above and beyond with their treatment of the situation. I can also tell you that Nicole is very happy how things worked out as well. She is a true competitor and no doubt will have success in the future in poker.

The Maven

When covering a tournament, one of the first things you do is find out who the players are and pick a few to cover in the early stages. Especially during the main event when there was 1,018 players. We don't do up to the minute chip counts and such as poker news does. That's not what we are hired for. We do updates, and who's who in the field, but we also tell stories of individual players who we think need to be told. We are hired by the Borgata so we try to bring the best stories that will attract people to that casino.

After doing this for almost 3 years, one thing that is inevitable is random players coming up to us looking for a little mention, or coverage. Most know who we are and will ask for a shout out, or some kind of mention because their friends or family are following. That's a good thing. Especially when it's a no name regular who is grinding his or her way to a career in poker. Of course during the main event, the field is so spattered with professionals that I've never heard of, or seen before, that it's a little hectic running around making sure I don't miss one of them. At least one that people would want to follow. There are also ways to act when alerting someone to your presence. If you think you have a presence. Let's take the Maven for example.

Unfortunately I had no idea who this guy was. Nor have I ever heard of him. I'm walking through the field table by table looking for familiar faces. As I walked around the corner of one table, this guy jumps up and asks, "Are you covering the event?", to which I replied yes. "My name is David Chitcosky." "OK", I said as I continued walking heading for a table with at least 4 players whom I recognized.

He grabbed my arm as I continued walking. Now let's think about that for a moment. Those of you who know me. He... GRABBED.... my arm. Envision that for a moment and think about the look on my face as I came to a dead stop, snapped my head around looking first at his hand on my arm and then my expression as I looked him squarely in the eyes.

"David Chitcosky man... Online player of the year... The MAVEN??" he looked baffled that I obviously had no idea who he was. "I took a breath, smiled, and said "I got it".

Needless to say he never got one mention in the blog. Now, that's as far as the story would go. Except...Lucko and Stoner played in the main and had explained to me that the night before they were at the B bar. The "maven" was there as well and approached Stoner because of something stoner had written on 2+2 or somewhere about this guy and the way he did business (he apparently has started a virtual training company with Bodog Ari). This douchebag approached stoner and basically told him to stop and he shouldn't and blah blah blah. This is something stoner wrote like a year or so ago, and this guy goes on to say he's licensed to carry a concealed weapon, and his body guards are over there, etc. Anyway they got into a slight argument right there and the body guards appeared. Nothing transpired but the story lent itself to this guys character. That of a friggin mouse in my mind.

He made it to day three. I had a post up all ready to go. It talked about Michael "The Raven" chikofsky (all wrong names) and how an unnamed player stated that the guy was doing nothing, and probably just waiting to make the cash. Unfortunately, that post never made it to the blog. He went busto shortly before the cash, and I thought better of ripping someone on someone elses blog where we are being paid to write for. It was a lose lose battle for me, so going unmentioned was the best shot I could do. What a total douche. He did eventually approach Al because he heard Al recounting the Lucko/Stoner story and he thought Al was the guy being harassed by his body guards. He told Al he wanted to apologize for his employees behavior and swore it wouldn't happen again. Too funny... or sad. I haven't figured out which one yet.

Runner UP

The final table went down to heads up pretty quick. It was the heads up match that was epic. And epic only for one reason. The guy who won was down to a million and a half chips. His opponent had 30 million at that point. It's over right then and there no? Here was the problem. Mr. Runner up was drinking. He was a bit of a talker as well. Young kid. Always jawing about busting people and so on. But from the moment he sat down at the final table he was asking for cocktail service. He must have had at least 12 beers while playing, and it was evident that by the time he got down to heads up he was pretty ripped up. At one point, he had ordered shots of Patrone for all his boys. 11 total, including one for himself. During every tape break, he would disappear with one of his buddies and do God knows what.

He started out pretty confident, but as the day wore on he would become evidently overwhelmed. See, the players were mike up. Not so that the crowd could hear them but for the taping of the show. We had a speaker box up on the media perch and could hear ever single word this guy was saying. Every single breath. It was pure comedy. The sighs, the "jeeezus'", the slight belching of being inebriated. I also heard him tell a friend that "he wanted one too", when his friend said he was going to the bathroom to "do something". Oh ya, I heard what that one thing was. Just not appropriate to post here. Not like I haven't :) Don't worry waffles, I'll explain on girly chat.

It came to a point where he just stopped caring about the cards. He certainly wasn't a poker player. Not in the sense you and I think about. He had probably around 5k in cashes over 4 events in the past 4 years. So he does play. But he also stated how he was stuck $150k playing black jack. So obviously a gambler. It was appropriate to give him a nickname. I decided on "asphalt" because his opponent just kept steam rolling him towards the end. The outcome was a no brainer, with exception to when he was down 29 to 1 in chips. But the poker gods intervened with some timely short stack double ups and the right guy won.

Overall the event was a huge success. One Thousand players for a $3500 event is huge. I don't care which poker bitch argues that it wasn't "prestigious" enough because of the low buy-in. They better get used to it, cause that's how things are going. If you want to play in large fields, and have an opportunity at a million for first for less than 5k, that's how it's going. $10k events are seeing less and less players these days with the exception of the big one. The $3500 allows more players access to a huge payday. I'm always amazed at the fields the Borgata gets. Kenna James not only played but sung the National Anthem on both day 1's of the main event to start it off. He asked the Borgata to do that. Apparently it's what he does. Kudos to the Borgata for allowing him to do so. Although I thought it was a little gay before he actually did it, I think most players appreciated it, and it was actually cool. He's a good singer, surprisingly.

Thanks goes out to Al, Gorilla, and Brad Utz for being the crack reporters they are. Brad is from North Carolina and loves poker and writing. He's good at what he does as well. He can talk to anyone, knows everyone, and I mean everyone. Knew their nicknames, their online histories, everything. Gorilla... Jeez man. Al and I joke that this guy could have a threesome every single night if he wanted to. And we're talking Borgata Babes here. Not waffles style beach chics. Anytime I needed something from the bar, I just asked gorilla. It was quicker than hunting down a waitress because they were always fawning over him. He is truly the best at what he does. Al is Al. Truly an insider and brings something else that none of us could. I can tell you that the Borgata was very happy with our performance. They have never had more readership than this time around, and we are looking forward to January. I'm sure more of the same stories will come about, and I'm also sure there will be more of an opportunity for even crazier stories!

Borgata Poker Open thoughts

We are in the last day here of the WPT Borgata Championship. It is down to 2 players and the one is such a FUCKING douche bag, I can't wait to write about it.

That, the ladies event debacle, and all the other shit that went down here since day 1. All good stuff coming shortly

Pimpin Truckin'

Go read... This shit is good!

And I'm jammed up still from the Borgata back and forth and other business dealings. Check out the Borgata Blog for all the action. See you in a week!

September 2009, Vol. 8, Issue 9

Welcome back to the September issue of Truckin’.

1. Tangerine Rockets by Paul McGuire
Lennie was an international legend. His father walked away from a plane crash and passed along some of those good luck genes over to Lennie…. More

2. The Red Pill by Sigge S. Amdal
She dropped the face and began to cry, as tensions rose around me. The waiters stopped waiting tables, people stopped talking; they were just exchanging knowing glances and judgmental comments… More

3. Fine Tuning by Milton T. Burton
He looked perplexed. I slipped my hand beneath my coat, came out with the little silenced .22 Magnum auto, and shot him right in the center of the forehead. The hollow-point bullet exited the back of his skull, making a colorful little jet of blood and brains as it went… More

4. On Scoring by Human Head
One look at the eyeliner, eyebrows, gold hoops and herringbone chains, and I knew this was the Angel we were supposed to see. As she drew closer to the door, the tattoo’s left little doubt. She didn’t say anything. She just looked at me… More

5. The Joys of Gambling by Johnny Hughes
Saratoga Springs, New York in August was the gambling capital of America in the 1920s, with the horses, the spa waters, large and ornate casinos, and America’s wealthiest citizens in a gilded age, when money and wine were treated like water… More

What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been…

From the Editor’s Laptop:

The September edition of Truckin’ marks the return of the Human Head after a four year hiatus. I’m enthralled to have him back in the mix. Everyone’s favorite Norwegian word wanker, Sigge, returns for a second month in a row. We also have a couple of Texan scribes in Johnny Hughes and Milton T. Burton. And of course, I have a story inspired by a recent trip to Colorado.

Borgata Poker Open

The Borgata Poker Open starts tomorrow, the 9th, and goes until the 24th. The Open this year is another WPT event with a $3,300 buy-in + $200 fee, and includes a $2 million guarantee!

Among the other events are $1,000 deepstack no limit, a 6 max NL deep stack, and a $1k double elimination heads up tourney.

You can see the full schedule here. The crew will be down blogging it again. The line up will incude myself, Gorilla, and Al. Lacey Jones will also be keeping a daily diary which I will post towards the end of the day, each day. She will also be helping out spordically with some regular blogging as well.

The Borgata has really put together a tight schedule based on what has worked and what they have learned from their core base of players, as well as what they expect will attract more of the regluar tournament circuit players. It should make for a great event.

If you plan on stopping by, make sure you hit us up at the media table. The event will be held upstairs in the exhibit rooms, instead of the poker room this time around to accomadate more players.

WAAAAAAAH!!!

Does it seem like shit is just going bad lately? Like really bad for everyone? The analytical part of me says it's just my age. Or OUR age. That is, those of us in our 40's, shit like this just happens. Cycle of life type shit.

loved ones pass with more frequency, friends get sick, life issues happen. I understand it and expect it. A neighbor died a couple, three years ago and my father in his wisdom said, "get used to it kid, you're at the age where you will be going to more funerals than weddings, and on a more frequent basis."

But it's really starting to wear. Both my sister and Aunt have been diagnosed with cancer. My aunt has it all over... pancreas, kidneys, lung, and they are doing a brain scan today based on history that says he type she has usually gets there eventually. My sister has very special kind of cancer which I never heard of and can't even fathom. It's in a place were you would never think of and puzzles the shit out of me because I never heard such a thing.

The encouraging part is that they were both diagnosed a month apart, and over 6 months ago. My aunt seems to be doing fairly well, but obviously is in a dire position. My sister was cleared and then two weeks ago got the bad news that it was back. Or at least still there.

My father had a blip the other day as well. Nothing big, but just enough to piss me off. Just another reminder that his 75 years are pushing the envelope of his own family history. He has managed to out live his parents deaths by 5 and 10 years. He seems to think that this is some kind of benchmark and is feeling "lucky" that he has made it this far. Fucking Joke.

See, I don't get sad in these situations. I get angry. Jammed up, if you will. To the point where I speak down to people. Especially doctors. "Look John, you are not as smart as I am so just say what you want to say and I'll figure it out". I said that to one of the doctors.

That stuff makes me sad after the fact because after I get home and settle in, it reminds me of how much of an asshole I can be. And I'm really not an asshole. I just hate bullshit. Tell me what you need to tell me without sugar coating things so that we can get something done. So that we can start a plan of action. Everything else is horseshit.

On top of this, a lot of people close to me are reeling financially because of job losses, or other horseshit. Then I hear about an $1100 weekly bill for pills that someone needs for cancer treatment from the pharmacy. That person decides to go through Mail order and can get them for $65 via that route. Only to be told that the insurance company actually will cover the expense. She then gets the bill from the insurance company showing what they were charged.... $20,000.

Health care reform needs to come. But it needs to come internally. Within the industry. Not among the subscribers. It's all a horseshit money grab. Fucking pigs.

I understand these are issues that everyone deals with, and I am feeling pretty fucking happy that I am not dealing with some issues others are having as well, and I keep them all in my prayers. You know who you are. We all know who they are. The old adage "If everyone threw all of their problems into a big pile, most would pick their own right back out" holds true.

I'm just looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, but don't expect one. I've been finding peace in little pieces throughout the day from my kids, my wife, the neighbors kids, family and friends. But when we sit down at the end of the day in a dark room thinking and staring at a computer screen smashing buttons my mind starts to wonder and thoughts of why we live in a geographical place where the scenery is so cookie cutter when we could be in the mountains of New Zealand, or the beaches of the Carribean... Yeah, I know the answer, but those thoughts happen. And the older I get, the more sense it makes.

I'm heading up to the Aunts this weekend with all the brothers and sisters and their families for a labor day weekend camp out on her property in the Poconos. I can't wait for it to happen. I plan on getting bat shit drunk on Saturday and fishing and camping with the kids. Poker with the brothers and sisters and wives and husbands, and an overall session of sitting in front of the fire for hours on end solving the worlds problems. Or more like arguing with my brothers. I hope we have chance to realize just how lucky we are.

This reminds me of Eh Vegas

Perusing FB, I had friend from the Borgata post this. It's a voicemail from a douchebag. I personally think it's fake, but it's funny none the less.

Those of you who participated in the Saturday afternoon procedure should get a kick out of the chic's name, and I wonder if it could be her.