I should have been asleep about an hour ago, but I figured I'd get a quick blog out there because I had a blast at my first trip back to Borgata (aka "home") since moving to Vegas in February.

Jason Young and I had been toying around with ideas for a couple of prop bets, one of which was a bet on who would cash for more money during the series at Borgata.

Since I'm skipping several events to play online we decided to do most gross winnings across five tournaments: today's $400 NL, the two $1k NL non-HU events, the $3.5k WPT main, and we each get to pick one other tournament.

We added this to the bet because I'll be playing the $1650 NL, which he can't make. He's going to pick one other event that I'll be playing online during to compensate for this.

The bet is $10k, but there is an interesting "pity rule." If one if us wins six figures and the other doesn't, the person who cashed for more will instead owe the "loser" $10k.

The combination of this bet and being on my home court had me pretty fired up for the opening event today, a $350+50 that drew a relatively small field of ~850.

I say relatively small because this tournament usually has over 1,000 entrants and pays six figures to first. But the $87k for first is definitely not going to disappoint me if I take it down. Nor is it bad for the prop bet!

I had a really fun first table. Tom Balla (yea, really his name, plays as "CrystalBalla" online) was on my left and wanted to keep himself entertained with some prop bets.

We started out with the normal red/black bets on flops for $5-10 at a time, and played a fun new game. As players busted off the table, we'd pick a line and bet over/under on how old the next player in the seat would be, and bet $20 each time.

We kept bumping the line until it got to 40, and still somehow we almost always got a player that was over. Amazingly, two of the ten players who sat down caused a push by being exactly the age we had set the line at.

Unfortunately, I was unable to chip up a lot early despite the fact that I was actually paying attention and playing my best game amidst all the fun. I grinded my way through and managed to get my 10k starting stack up to 28k just before dinner break and the 500/1000 level.

Jason Young decided to join us from the press box after dinner, and was none too pleased to see my continued presence in the tournament...at least from a prop bet standpoint. His heckling from the rail just reminded me to keep my eye on the prize though...

After I started the 1500/3000 with just 42k, I finally went on a heater and chipped up pretty significantly just in time for the bubble. That, in turn, helped me chip up some more since a lot of players in Borgata tournaments are more than willing to give up expected value over tournament life anywhere near the bubble of a tournament.

I ended day one with 234k going into the 4k/8k level. There are 70 players remaining and the average stack should be about 120k right now according to my half asleep, top of my head calculations. Hopefully I can make an appearance at my first Borgata final table in quite some time tomorrow...

Matt Stout