Atlantic City Trip Report

On 25 Nov 1998 13:55:16 GMT, in rec.gambling.poker loukrieger@aol.com (LouKrieger) wrote:

Authors Note: This is a long, nearly 4,000 word trip report, dealing with my recent trip to Atlantic City, and incorporating a primer on a new game just introduced there: Mambo Stud Poker.

It was an inauspicious beginning to a long-awaited trip as I pulled into my garage only to find that the building's carpet-installers had taken over my parking spot, where they were busily trimming carpet prior to hauling it upstairs to renovate a vacant apartment.

"Hey," I said, "that's my spot. You can't work there." One of them looked up at me and mumbled, "No habla Ingles."

"Mueva te, por favor," I shouted in Spanish, to which he shrugged his shoulders, gazed my way, and wearily intoned, "No habla Espanol, either." I had no choice. I parked on the street, and waited for them to finish their work and go home, before I could claim my spot. The clock radio awakened me at 4:00 a.m., and it showed no remorse either. I would have thought that KLON, Long Beach's 24-hour all-Jazz radio station, would be playing some mellow Sonny Rollins or Miles Davis cut at that hour. Instead, I was awakened by Poncho Sanchez, Southern California's primo congero, beating out a long solo on his conga drum, while the brass section of his big band punctuated his rhythmic offerings.

I packed quickly, showered and donned my traveling gear to await my ride to the airport, where I was catching a 6:30 a.m. flight to Salt lake City, where I'd connect with a flight heading into Newark airport.

I was tired, and not quite awake, but I did get lucky. I had the seats to myself on both flights, so I could curl up and snore my way across the continent, eventually arriving at Newark at 4:45 p.m., eastern standard time.

I was headed to the Taj Mahal where they were scheduled to introduce Mambo Stud Poker, a new card game, in their poker room.

The Taj had sent a limo for me and I gratefully sank into the back seat, opened a bottle of mineral water, and relaxed as the driver glided through the rainy night on the way to Atlantic City. Forty minutes later I spied a road sign indicating a gas station and food court up ahead. "Let's stop for a minute," I told the driver, adding "I was brought up in Brooklyn, and the sign says there's a Nathan's there."

When you are born and reared in Brooklyn, a Nathan's hot dog along with an order of their fries transcends fast food - it is a pilgrimage to your soul. A hot dog and fries may be just a gut bomb to outlanders, but when you're Brooklyn born and bred, it is a sacrament.

Full and warm and positively contented, I drifted away to the rhythms of the night and raindrops, until we pulled up to the front of the Taj Mahal. The last time I visited Atlantic City, poker hadn't been legalized yet, and I was eager to give it a go. To top it off, my brother would be driving down tomorrow from New York, and we would be able to hang for a day or so - just like we did in the old days before 3,000 miles, his business, and fatherhood put a crimp in our brotherly romps, road trips, and misadventures.

I was also eager to see people I knew but seldom see, like Tommy Gitto - an avid hockey fan like myself, I hoped he would take some pity on me considering the way his Rangers annihilated my Kings 5-1 the other night - as well as RGP posters, BARGE attendees, and poker chat friends. The first night I played, I found Scott Byron at my table, and ran into Tiger123 the following day. I also met online friends I'd chatted with, but never met before, like Pam Cardinale, Linda Sanders, and William Keck.

Mambo lessons were in full swing when I walked into the Taj Mahal's poker room. No, Tito Puente hadn't set up shop in the corner, and Poker Manager Tom Gitto wasn't spinning his old Perez Prado or La Playa Sextet records either. The Taj was spreading Mambo Stud Poker, created by Mambo Gaming Company LLC of Peekskill, N.Y., and the first entirely new game since casino poker was introduced in Atlantic City.

Bob Pinchbeck and Joe Bochichio, who created the game, believe Mambo will attract players for several reasons. "It's a pretty elementary high-low game, and since it has elements of stud, hold'em, and Omaha, we think it will appeal to a cross-section of players." According to Pinchbeck, "The average pot in a $1 - $5 stud game is $29. In Mambo, it's $70. That," he added, "means the casino's rake, as a percentage of the pot, is much smaller, and because Mambo is much faster than stud, more hands can be dealt each hour."

Mambo Stud Poker contains elements of 7-card stud, eight-or-better high/low split (7-stud/8), and hold'em with the speed of fast-action table games. Make no mistake about it, however, Mambo Stud Poker is not a hybrid table game designed to look like a poker game; it is a poker game. And a good one at that.

[ Click here for Lou Krieger's Mambo Stud Poker Primer ]

Right now Mambo Stud Poker is played only at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and only at low betting limits. But if the game captures the fancy of the players, and lives up to its abundant potential, it might not be too long before it's played everywhere.

While I was in Atlantic City I played almost every free hour. And that was quite a bit of poker, considering I had no more than four hours sleep on any given night. The $20-$40 hold'em games were different than California. I found players at the Taj to be very aggressive before the flop - almost every pot was raised - but the style of play was not quite so aggressive afterwards. Often a bet on the flop, or a check raise on the flop along with a bet on the turn, was sufficient to drive a preflop raiser off the pot, particularly if the flop contained no big cards.

I enjoyed the games, and won at every session. None of them were big wins, however, but a win is a win is a win, and I'm always happy to make some money at the tables. One particular pot - I don't remember all of the details - was capped with seven-way action before the flop and again on the flop. I had a draw for the nut flush. But it never came, and I missed out on a $1,400 pot I could have spent the weekend bragging about had I been fortunate enough to catch my card.

When I wasn't playing $20-$40 hold'em, I was playing $1-$5 Mambo Stud Poker, and found the game as enjoyable as I thought it would be when I read about it on the Mambo Gaming web site, located at http://www.mambogaming.com. When the table was full, Mambo was an exciting game; often eight, nine, and sometimes ten players called on the first round of betting. When the game was shorthanded late in the evening - just before it broke - it became very tight and was not enjoyable. I was winning about $12 per hour playing Mambo. True, I would need a much longer sample to claim any validity for my results, but the pots are quite large considering the limits are so small. Mambo seems to give good players a winning edge, without putting much money at risk.

It would be interesting to see how the game changed if it were played at the $10-$20 or $20-$40 level. I don't suspect you'd find ten players calling on the first betting round, although in the $20-$40 7-stud/8 games I play in Los Angeles, there are frequently more players hanging around until fifth street than there really ought to be.

The flight back was uneventful. It was long, late, and I slept through most of it. Once again, I was fortunate enough to have no seat mates, so I could stretch out. And when you're confined for five or six hours at 33,000 feet and there's nothing to do, my usual practice is to do nothing.

I enjoyed Atlantic City immensely. I didn't post a note to RGP announcing my trip, though I did mention it to some of my poker chat friends. I met a number of people whom I genuinely enjoyed socializing with, and by the second day - in spite of neither publicity nor solicitations surrounding my trip - more than a few folks approached me with well-worn copies of my books in hand, asking me to autograph them. And that, of course, is the fastest way to increase this author's hat size.

May life's cards keep falling your way.

Lou Krieger
Long Beach, CA
November 24, 1998