Quick Getaway to Borgata
December 21st, 2016 at 6:31:10 PM
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We needed to get away for a couple of days prior to Christmas and the Borgata made us an offer we couldn't refuse; two free nights in one of their Fiore Suites. These are beautiful rooms located in the "round" ends of the building. The huge main room has curved floor to ceiling windows the length of the room, king size bed, large flat screen tv, couch, chair and assorted desks and dressers. The bathroom big enough to live in, with a double vanity, a full tube and separate walk in shower along with a full closet, vanity table and separate toilet room. If you get a chance to stay in one of these rooms I highly recommend it.
We stayed Monday and Tuesday and were quite surprised at how busy the casino was this time of year. There was 5 roulette table open, 4 craps, 10-25 red chip BJ tables and another dozen or so green chip tables. This in addition to the high limit area. All these areas were quite full.
It was a good BJ trip for me. I got to play around 10 hours spread over the two days and ended up over 50 units to the good. After a couple of losing trips earlier this year it was good to finally have a good trip. I made 2 mistakes during that time, both corrected by alter dealers (thanks!) before moving on. In one case I needed to take a card and the other I needed to stand. Yikes! Really simple BS stuff, not sure where these mistakes came from, though both were fairly late in sessions so perhaps I was getting tired.
The staff was extremely friendly as were most of the players I sat with over the those 10 hours. To the players credit most played fairly well though there are some noteable exceptions. One player would not double very often (even on hands like 10 vs 7) but finally decided to double an 8 vs 2!?!?!? It worked. So again later he doubled 8 vs 2, and it worked again. Perhaps I've been doing it wrong all these years :(
As my name implies I play BJ mostly for fun, so the following incident was really a downer. There were 3 of us playing at a $10 table when a gentleman came and bought in for $600. This is a pretty big buy in at a $10 table and he immediately started playing green chips with green also on the Lucky Ladies side be. He was down and up for a while when I thought he was going to cash out, but instead decided to make a really big bet. Of course it lost, and he started chasing these losses and was definitely on tilt. When he got to zero he bought in for another $500 which was quickly lost, followed by 2 more $600 buy ins in quick succession clearly starting to shake and yell at the cards. On the latter he bet all $600 and dealer had an A up. He bought in for $300 more to take insurance. He won the insurance bet, but the $900 that remained was quickly gone. For those keeping score that was $2600 lost in 15 or 20 minutes. Why he was playing these stakes at a $10 (H17 - 8 deck) game when he could have gotten an S17 - 6 deck game just one pit over I don't know. I found it extremely sad, upsetting and down right depressing. I'm glad that I have much better discipline. If I lose my buy-in I'll walk away for a while and relax before returning to the table to play (and not win it all back in one hand). Granted he was quite unlucky during this run, but I weathered that storm just fine and ended up this particular session at even never chasing my loses.
We had comp tickets to the comedy club which included 3 good comics one of which was Jimmy "JJ" Walker of "Good Times". For those of you my age you'll know exactly who he is. His set was quite funny and he even managed to work his merchandise into his routine quite smoothly. The show is $20 if you have to pay for the tickets. That might be a little steep, but as a comp it was definitely a good time for about 90 minutes.
We ate at Noodles of the World one night and at Metropolitin another. Both meals were quite good. I had General Tso chicken at NoW and some Creole Shimp and Crab dish at Metro. All and all it was a great get away, exactly what I needed! Can't wait to return.
We stayed Monday and Tuesday and were quite surprised at how busy the casino was this time of year. There was 5 roulette table open, 4 craps, 10-25 red chip BJ tables and another dozen or so green chip tables. This in addition to the high limit area. All these areas were quite full.
It was a good BJ trip for me. I got to play around 10 hours spread over the two days and ended up over 50 units to the good. After a couple of losing trips earlier this year it was good to finally have a good trip. I made 2 mistakes during that time, both corrected by alter dealers (thanks!) before moving on. In one case I needed to take a card and the other I needed to stand. Yikes! Really simple BS stuff, not sure where these mistakes came from, though both were fairly late in sessions so perhaps I was getting tired.
The staff was extremely friendly as were most of the players I sat with over the those 10 hours. To the players credit most played fairly well though there are some noteable exceptions. One player would not double very often (even on hands like 10 vs 7) but finally decided to double an 8 vs 2!?!?!? It worked. So again later he doubled 8 vs 2, and it worked again. Perhaps I've been doing it wrong all these years :(
As my name implies I play BJ mostly for fun, so the following incident was really a downer. There were 3 of us playing at a $10 table when a gentleman came and bought in for $600. This is a pretty big buy in at a $10 table and he immediately started playing green chips with green also on the Lucky Ladies side be. He was down and up for a while when I thought he was going to cash out, but instead decided to make a really big bet. Of course it lost, and he started chasing these losses and was definitely on tilt. When he got to zero he bought in for another $500 which was quickly lost, followed by 2 more $600 buy ins in quick succession clearly starting to shake and yell at the cards. On the latter he bet all $600 and dealer had an A up. He bought in for $300 more to take insurance. He won the insurance bet, but the $900 that remained was quickly gone. For those keeping score that was $2600 lost in 15 or 20 minutes. Why he was playing these stakes at a $10 (H17 - 8 deck) game when he could have gotten an S17 - 6 deck game just one pit over I don't know. I found it extremely sad, upsetting and down right depressing. I'm glad that I have much better discipline. If I lose my buy-in I'll walk away for a while and relax before returning to the table to play (and not win it all back in one hand). Granted he was quite unlucky during this run, but I weathered that storm just fine and ended up this particular session at even never chasing my loses.
We had comp tickets to the comedy club which included 3 good comics one of which was Jimmy "JJ" Walker of "Good Times". For those of you my age you'll know exactly who he is. His set was quite funny and he even managed to work his merchandise into his routine quite smoothly. The show is $20 if you have to pay for the tickets. That might be a little steep, but as a comp it was definitely a good time for about 90 minutes.
We ate at Noodles of the World one night and at Metropolitin another. Both meals were quite good. I had General Tso chicken at NoW and some Creole Shimp and Crab dish at Metro. All and all it was a great get away, exactly what I needed! Can't wait to return.
December 23rd, 2016 at 11:14:08 AM
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Borgata is great, and very generous with the comps. I played almost exclusively low stakes pai gow poker there every weekend and never paid for a room or a meal. The lounge for Black Card holders has great food and drinks. I have since moved to Las Vegas, and they consistently have been sending me $800 a month in match play offers along with free room and comedy club offers. I used to be a Ballys and Harrahs player in AC but once I tried Borgata I never went back to a CET property.
