PCA trip report.

Day 1I had a really early flight out of Albany to head to the PCA so I just stayed up all night packing and getting everything set for the trip. Get to the airport at like 5 for my 6am flight. Get to Detroit grab some breakfast and hangout until my 2nd flight. I see jcmoussa and his buddy from home brendon. When we are boarding we were stuck in the way back of the plane and jc and brendon happened to sit next to slickrick, who I met at tstone like 2 years ago at a random 200max game and than he pmed me on 2+2 and we started chatting often about hands etc. We arrive at Bahamas I'm a little shaky as I don't know if my hookah will give me problems with customs. The lines were very long and very slow moving but eventually we get through. And the customs desk was really a breeze. We wait for our bags obv, mine takes 10minutes longer than everyone else. Finally waiting for a taxi and can't seem to get one split one with 2 other poker players. Who I find out later are premier and someone else whose name I forget. We get to Atlantis and we check in, I was told we had a suite so I assumed it would be similar to the suite we had in tstone with multiple rooms with a door between them. The room was all the way at the end of the hallway and there was a door kiddie corner. So I assume that was augie's room where him and his gf were. So I start knocking on the door once I hear the bed stop squeaking. No answer. I keep banging yelling "augie it's shaun open up, I know you are in there." They don't come to the door I say forget it and go find jc and brendon to go grab some food before the cocktail party, but first we head to the beach as we were told the lifeguards were the hookup for weed on the island. Before we even touch the beach we find a guy who has some stuff. He didn't have much on him so he went to his car and grabed us an oz. And we were ready to start our trip. Goto the room try out the stuff it was very good. We head to atlas to eat and have a good first meal, It was odd for the first time I was able to order a drink and have an id that worked if carded. Next stop was the liquor store on paradise island. We loaded up on a lot of booze for the first few days. Head down to the cocktail party where I see a lot of people I have met at tstone before and finally meet a few other 2+2ers who I have talked to a lot online. Party was alright the free sky and sprite made the party muh more enjoyable. I had yet to see any of my roommates though; tongni or augie. Finally I run into augie at the party and we decide to head back to the room. He was quite happy when he entered the room and was putting clothes away and found what we already purchased. It was this time that he told me that I put my stuff on his bed in the room. Than it clicked the room I was banging on was not augie and gf but some random couple who were on vaca or something. Oops. Day2I didn't drink too much on day 1 because I wanted to play the tourney on day 1a and had to still go down to the room and register for the tourney. Every time I went to the poker room/conference room I was told to come back at some later time to register. Finally at like 11:45 I get in the room pay my entry fee and register. Table was alright a few awful players a few ok ones. No one I felt like would be a big bother to me. Since we were so deep I really didn't play many big pots no one did. But, I was able to chip up to 25k in the first 2 levels. By level 4 I played my first big pot of the tourney blinds were 200/400/50. I open KQo UTG to 1100, MP1 cold calls, SB calls everyone else is out. Reads on players MP1 loved to bet when checked to with any pair to find out where he was at overall a decent player with a few leaks. SB was really bad saw a lot of flops and than loved to fold.Flop was Qx5s4s SB checks, I check, MP fires 3000 into the pot, SB folds, I call after like 30seconds. Turn was 6x I check MP fires 7k. I had like 20k behind after his bet and was put to a tough dec based on how underrepresented my hand was. I decided to call after a few minutes of thinking that he never folds a better hand and if he is bluffing as I expect he would do with a lot of his range on this board to let him go. River was the 3s obv worst card in the deck everything gets there. I check and after 30seconds guy checks behind with 77. I laughed out loud after I showed my KQ and he showed his 77. I was short now and had one pot where I was c/r on the flop when I had AQ on an Ad8d4x board and called the flop c/r and shoved over the turn bet and was called by another AQ. Doubled up my 15kish stack an orbit later when it's folded to my SB and I open with AA and sb flat calls. I had him barely covered. Flop was 8d4d2x I bet out he shoves I called. He had KJdd and turned a king but the river blanked. Back to 30k. I chip up a few more small pots and get to like 60k just winning each pot I am involved in. Pete the beat moves to my right and we started chatting it was like 30min before the day and you know people are tightening up as the end of the day approaches. So I start to open up my game a lot during this time as the blinds and antes were very significant at 400/800/100. Important hand UTG shoves for like 9600 he had gotten short and been pushbotting last hour or so. UTG+2 takes a while to act and after a minute or two I look at my hand and see KK so obv I am more interested in the action of this guy now. But during this time pete turns to me and whispers if he folds I'm calling. So I find it hard not to laugh in his face how screwed he is going to be soon. Guy finally folds and pete calls the 9600 with like 20kish behind. I instashove behind him and everyone else folds. He tanks for 2 minutes and finally calls with JJ, UTG had 77. Too bad the flop brought a 7 and I lost the 30k main pot but still did alright with the side pot and had 70k going into day 2 of the tourney.Day 3 Today was quite uneventful, I made a weak attempt for weekly TLB wasn't too far behind but had taken off last 3 days. I failed pretty badly and wasted a good afternoon in the Bahamas, but I had to play day 2 the next day and was going to be very important to me as I knew I had a good stack and day 2 was the day to setup a deep run no more small pots and no confirmations. I beat tony in air hockey betting at the arcade in the Atlantis. Later on a few people come over to smoke and they were all sober except nlsoldier who was really out of it and made it clear to us within the first few minutes how much he loves his gf and how hot she is. It was an early night for me since I didn't drink because hangovers and early morning poker suck.Day 4Too bad for me I had the toughest table during day 2 by the 2nd or 3rd level. The lineup looked like this(keep in mind at this time the avg stack was close to 60k. ; seat 1 2+2er david ross who had over 100k , seats 2 and 3 good lags who had 150k+, Stevejpa who had over 300k, very tough tag who had 100k and climbing throughout the day. 2 solid but passive players with avg stacks. Me sitting with 90k and than WSOP ME 5th place finisher who was actually the weakest player at the table imo and in seat 10 a guy whose name who john recognized and told me he had over 2mil in career winnings from live tourneys. needless to say it was really tough for me to get chips when it's usually 3bet before it even gets to me. Also, I was quite card dead for the day and my stack dwindled. Most important hand during the first few levels was at the end of level 3. I open QJs to 4k (800/1600/300) Button flat calls he has been quiet most of the time, blinds fold so it's HU. Flop is QcJx8x I bet 7k he raises to 15k. Effective stacks were 90k so shoving was quite an over bet, so I decided to check shove any blank turn. The turn rolls off and it's the 9c I'm not angry that I didn't 3bet the flop to setup a turn shove. I check he fires 25k in blues, I know theres a few minutes left in the level and think to myself he may be making a move on me with the concept that people fold a lot before breaks etc because they want to survive one more level. So after 3minutes I decide to call having like 45k behind and not much of a river plan. The ugly Ac rolls off and now I am thinking to myself I beat like nothing, so I check after a minute with intention to check fold to any serious bet, as I expected him to shove or check behind the river sine pot was huge and effective stacks so much smaller. He checks behind and I show my QJ and say damn I played that bad should have gottin more, he than shows me the two other queens in the deck. I am like wow I should be out of this tourney. I lost over half my stack but was never happier that the board got so [censored] before, saved me my stack. I was now under 1/2 avg stack but still had like 20-25bbs, but with such a tough and aggro table any pot I put money in I should expect to be playing for my stack. I had been grinded down to 35k with monster antes and finally get a hand. I see I had QQ and was finally happy to be ready to double or be out. UTG+1 raised steve cold called in MP1 as hes done a lot taking pots away from the lags to his right, than something I didn't expect one fold and the next guy shoves his 30k stack and right behind him guy shoves his 80k stack. I am sooo angry now, and after a few seconds know I am crushed so I muck and everyone else gets away and first shover had JJ 2nd had KK and no Q ever showed either. An orbit later we are down to like 183 left 180 pay I had like 11bb stack kid who replaces jj guy opens for 11k blinds were 1.5k/3k/500 I shove with 10s for my 35kish total and he tanks and finally calls with 36o. Flop has a 3 but I fade the next 2 streets and finally double up to a workable stack. Short stack busts to my right next orbit and a guy with 25k stack sits down. a few hands later it folded to him in the SB and he shoves his 9bbs with Q9o I call with A8o board comes 97310K and I lose the 60/40 and am crippled. Was down to like 32kish after my SB got raised and RR. I go look at the clock and we just hit 130 players which mean pay jump to 12k and than the next jump is like 40 people later. With 10min left in the day I decided I didn't want to have to sweat all night and not have fun because I had to play day3 with prob the shortest stack left. Following hand UTG raised to 9k 2 cold callers in MP and I look down and see k10s. I expected 1 of the 3 or even maybe a blind to iso me and I was content with taking the gamble as I would triple up if I was able to win. UTG obliged and shoves his AQo and I get a nice 2 to 1 price on my stack for a 40/60, I flop a 10 but he also hit his Q so I was out 124th for 12kish but very happy with my play.I than meet up with gobbo who had a good stack and decide to get some dinner. Pete, (primetime), Joe (locutus), and Mr. Timcaum tag alone too and we goto the deli and have a great meal. Little did I know at the time that meal's convo would become important later on in the week. Pete lost credit card roulette and thinks it's the greatest game ever and was actually happy to win so he could fit in with the kids more. But, he played very well from the hands we chatted about and about really has a good life going for him. I head back to my room and decide to go celebrate and enjoy my vacation now that the business site was done. I find jurollo, twistedecho, coxquinn, badgerpro, and others in the lobby and they say they are going out so I decide to tag along. We head to 2 bars/clubds charlies and senor frogs which didn't look appealing for the darkness as well as senor frogs being closed. So we end up at liquid lounge which had $15 all you can drink. The others had been drinking for a while so I had to catchup and started doing a lot of shots with twisted. The ratio there was awful but free drinks was fun. Badger was quite drunk at the time because he was doing another prop bet with coxquinn with drink for drink and after puking in the bathroom there quinn won and we headed back to Atlantis. But, before he yakked he made sure to dance with every guy he could, the only girl he danced with happened to be also his cousin. Funniest moment was watching him lift his shirt over his head and start grinding against jurollo who was pinned against a half wall. We all goto my room and smoke a little and wakeup tony who was passed out on the couch than I pass out for the night. Day 5We attempt to make this a productive day enjoying the weather which was awesome. Ray, John, and a 4th who I can't remember who right now. We hop in the lazy river expecting to bask in the sun for a bit in it but the lifeguards are yelling at us. We can't understand what they are saying at first but eventually we realize they are saying get out of the water. So we go talk to them and they say the lazy river is closed because they put chemicals in it or something. We find a bar get some fruity drinks and head to the beach. Endup running into jurollo and clan who were hanging out on the beach, stay there for an hour than go walk around the place looking for something to do but there isn't much going on. So like all other days we end up in the room smoking. Later on in the night we find out hiv is playing gildwolf HU and decide to go and watch him play. We also were out of weed and he had some in his room so we headed there to smoke and watch hiv win 10k. The match took forever other people ended up stopping by meet mcsketch and bk but they left pretty quickly with tony. Like 10minutes later mike, john, grim, and me head out to drink a little. I see action jeff with a crowd of people as always and think nothing of it. We head to the poker room and just happen to get there was genuis28 is trying to get a 50k red or black against phil laak. Than we hear about how he lost 2 of 3 flips vs AJ after getting stuck in the pit. So it clicks why everyones celebrating with him cuz he just won 50k. Genius ends up winning when the flop brings 3 red cards and he wins. Nothing else really went down Day 6This ends up to be the sloppy drunk day for who we were with. We decide to go on the booze cruise tony and I planning on meting mike, jc, brendon, josh, whitelime, and others on the boat. Finally meet the legendary bruiser on this day and we all get really drunk. During this time like 60% of the people on the cruise went snorkeling for like 45min. We were given food and saw this large fish swimming around very close to the people. Of course we start yelling shark get out of the water etc. Trying to scare the people, the host/announcer/dj of the cruise starts yelling at us that we can't say that. He also explains that it's a barracuda which to this point I didn't know existed just thought they were a figment of the legend of the hidden temples imagination when he needed another team. He stars tossing bones from the leftover food we were eating into the water. And we watched the barracuda eat it, so us drunk kids start throwing our bones near the snorkelers so that the barracuda would swim at them and eat the bone scaring them. We had some fun with that but quickly ran out of food to throw. Than when we are about to reach and island to go hangout josh gets made fun of by the islander for how badly he broke up a dutch. We try to find a semi secluded area away from the families there and attempt to roll something up. Dutch fails but luckily some random tourist walking by had papers on him and gave us one. The joint was so awful looking but it smoked well considering. So we head back to the boat for more drinking. Make our way upto the top deck and theres maybe 40 guys, 3 girls under 16, 2 girls 16-21 with bfs, and some older ladies dancing. We prop bet whitelime's friend to dance with this 50 year old fat lady dancing around all drunk and he obliges and starts to grind on her from the front and tony makes a move and starts grinding on her back she doesn't know what to do but I think she was enjoying it. Tony starts to dance with this girl who is really young we find out her age shes 14 lolll. She's there with her 10yearold sis 15 year old sis and mother. Don't know why a mom would ever take her young daughters on a booze cruise but it's the bahamas. They weren't drinking though too bad for tony, he also was making moves on the mother at the same time. The girls stole a 20 from JC and had tony sign it since we told them what a big name poker player he is etc, and how hes only 17. We get off the cruise all wasted and decide to head to nobu the sushi place in the casino. We had some time to kill before our meal so john, josh, nlsoldier, JC and me go play craps. nlsoldier was too drunk to play so he passed out on the floor in between me and john as I was rolling and looked like naths pic at tstone. Too bad we didn't have a camera at the time to take the pic, there are some good pics from the cruise whitelime who was the only one who had a camera on the cruise. Anyways, first few rollers for craps do awful we get nothing and the dice quickly get to me, JC blows on the dice in his drunken state and the pit guys get all angry and force me to put the diece back in and change them. I bet a little heavier because I have faith in myself the others don't and bet lite and I start hitting numbers like crazy. But it was taking 5min to do just 1 roll as an older gent on the other side was taking 5minutes to make sure he was betting everything and was slowing down the game. So I keep rolling and hitting a few pts and all of a sudden we all have like 1k-2k in bets on the board and like 2k profit, I finally crap out but thanks to the old slow guy it was time for our dinner reservations. So we all color up and head to nobu.Once we get there jc and someone else gets turned down at the hostess because they are in swim attire. So a few of us sit down whitelime had rejoined us after putting his friend to bed who was dancing with the older chick and later passed out on the cruise while we were all upstairs hitting on underage girls. Finally 7 of us sit for dinner and it's alright sushi we all enjoy it. I try saki for the first time and didn't like it much. Surprising as I was still drunk from the cruise a few hours earlier. We play credit card roulette and john losses after he was the one who proposed it haha free meal and 2k in the pit while still being drunk what an awesome day. Head back to the room tony is passed out from the cruise he didn't even make it to dinner neither did mike he just left atlantis and went back to his hotel since he was gone too. HIV stops by the room we head to the lobby and that's when the drama bomb that's timcaum happened. HIV lied to him about what he wanted naths cellphone and ended up flipping out at the 3 of us in the lobby we had back and I end up in rays room with them and we enjoy the train wrecking that happens from the threads about that night. Little did I know the discussion I had at the dinner 2 days prior about an idea john had to make tony money turns out to get me involved in a hilarious scandal, that amused me for the rest of the week I was on vacation. Day 7 wakeup pretty early and en dup going to eat with augie, his gf, and tony and me and tony end up at the arcade with a few other people and we play some more air hockey I win a few and lose a few, lost to mike who is only person on the trip who made money off me on air hockey. That bastard did this redic shot that messed up my goal keeping abilities soo badly. Still was a good time. We tried to make an attempt to head to senor frogs for the last night but I got way too high to bother going out and drank a little in the room and than tried to sleep but ray was passed out on my couch/bed for 6 hours from earlier. Wake him up tell him to goto his room he finally does and I goto bed, after a quick online session where I did pretty badly bubbling the bigger tourneys I played and running bad at everything else. Still was up on the trip with what I lost online the 2 days I played. My computer was being used by my roommates and others a lot since they didn't bring their laptop on the vaca or they were in our room and left their laptop at their own room. Ohh yah, I wish I had a camera as my room had the sickest view ever. Perfect view of the beach and ocean couldn't have been a better thing to wakeup to each day than that view and tony with just boxers on. Overall a quiet final night as we were all very tired from a lot of drinking and smoking for the week long trip.Day 8This was pack up and leave day really uneventful. Augie got sick in the AM and he didn't even drink the night before. His gf had a virus earlier in the week guessing he got it from her later on. Finish up packing and me and tony go try to eat at the atlas but it was close. Than we try to head to the deli, but that was closed too, so we settle for pizza. Find JC, brendon, and robbie a live pro on the way back and share a taxi with them to the airport, since JC and brendon were going to be on same flight as me again. But JC is too much of a baller to take 2 flights so he pays for a jetblue ticket which is direct flight for himself and brendon and they head to their flight. Tony had like a 4hour wait till his flight so he moved his up as well. We all go through customs I obv get stopped at the last 2 security check points for about 30min each. Thankfully I cleaned my hookah really well the night before because they were checking for resin and I got most of it out of it. At the final stop they had me pulled to the middle for another 30min going through every piece of my hookah looking for drugs. End up seeing a lot of people in the waiting area and talk to stow for a bit and say congrats to him for his 70k score a few nights prior. Get one last miami vice before I head to my plane. Got a [censored] setup for flights since I had a 3 and a half hour layover in Detroit but it was good because I was able to write up this trip report and make a few phone calls since I hadn't called anyone in a week or received any of my calls. Also, I lucked out as for both of my flights I was able to change my seat assignment to the exit row which has like 2-3 times more legroom which is nice for a bigger guy like myself. This trip was a lot of fun I met a lot more 2+2ers sorry for not mentioning all of you as there were wayy too many all of whom I got along with shockingly. Also, I am missing a lot of key details for each day as a lot went down and this is all from my recollection which is hard considering how messed up I was for most of the days. If I remember anything really good I'll be sure to add it after or I'm sure one of the other people involved will mention it. I think this is my only big tourney time before WSOP so I can regain some stamina and be ready for it all again in vegas in a few months when I am finally 21 when there will be even more nightly insanity. So totals for tourney PCA +4k 2k after backers got their cutAir hockey +500Pit +2kFood -500 thanks to never winning CC rouletteweed+alc -1k def worth itSo I made close to 3k besides what I lost online which is awesome. I spent a week in the bahamas with some people I've talked to for a while now and never was able to meet. And also got to meet up with the guys from the FW monopoly game as well as all the players I've meet at countless trips to tstone. Next time I def need to bring a camera because some of the mental pictures I have from this trip can not be expressed properly with words. As a side note there are more older 2+2ers than I expected and they were all soo much like us kids but just have families etc. They also get away with a lot more because us kids respect older unknowns when they raise.