grandgnu
03-03-2005, 06:15 PM
I. FOXWOODS TRIP REPORT
TABLE ONE: I arrive at 7:45 am with a start-time for the tourney at 8am. A small line presents no problems as I hear them announce that they're currently at 163 players (I had calculated on 150, so I expect we'll hit the 175+ players for the next level of payouts)
I get seated at Table 11, Seat 10, right next to the dealer. Not exactly the seat position I was looking for (you can't view all of your opponents) but I prepare to play. To my left past the dealer sit two jock-type college kids, with their spikey hair and muscular builds (I need to work out!). Seat # 3 is a guy with a 3-Stooges Moe haircut and dark glasses. An old lady in seat # 4 proves to be quite the novice, constantly asking "what can I bet?" "what can I do?" every hand she plays. Next to her in Seat # 5 is a non-descript character, although he's chip-shuffling, so I give him a little credit.
In seat # 6 is a stoner-looking kid with his pokerstars.com beanie. Seat # 7 is a guy who's fairly tall with the traiditional Chris Moneymaker facial appearance. We're going to call him "Hellmuth Hater", and you'll see why later. Seat # 8 holds an older heavyset fellow, we'll call him Biker Jim, cause he looks like a biker, and his name might be Jim. To my right in seat # 9 is a mildly attractive asian woman, name is Susie something or other, we'll call her Susie Kim Phan Tran Jim Lee, or just Suzie for short. Suzie is also chip-shuffling, and I'm always observant of the asians at the table, they tend to be quite strong players.
The very first hand the Hellmuth Hater raises pre-flop with A/J offsuit from mid-position. To his right Biker Jim re-raises with pocket Kings. As it folds around the table, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but for some reason the Hellmuth Hater flipped his cards face up, as did Biker Jim. Then their hands wound up getting mucked by the dealer, and the sweet old lady who was clueless took down the sizable pot and became chip leader.
Surprisingly the guy with the Kings shrugged it all off (personally I'd be pretty ticked at missing out on this opportunity, especially in the first hand). The Moe character commented about not turning your cards up when other players still have to act. The Hellmuth-Hater went off on him, swearing up a storm. He was pissed because he felt he knew the rules and didn't need someone telling him how to play. He was commenting about how he wanted to go over and hit the guy! Geesh, it was going to be a fun first table! After talking with Hater, Biker and Suzie (my powerhouse side of the table) I learned that the Hater didn't like Hellmuth and wanted to play in an event against him. And then if Hellmuth chastised his play he'd pick a fight with him. He then proceeded to tell me that he's one of the nicest guys, but that he's just been in a bad mood lately and is spoiling for a rumble. I sharpened my teeth in case I needed to do any ankle-biting.
Suzie saw her starting 1500 chips dwindle to 600. She complained about having been up for two days, and constantly reminded us how she was going home. I didn't buy her image one-bit. I knew she was a strong player and I made sure to avoid too many confrontations with her. She eventually picked up a sizable chip stack at the table.
I held 10/10 and pre-flop raised from 50 to 150 in mid-position. Late position re-raised to 300 by Moe. I called and the flop came down 10/6/Q and I pushed all-in and he called me with J/J after he said "well, if you've got it...." and I eliminated him and made a nice profit. Helmuth Hater was excstatic that I eliminated the guy who told him not to show his cards.
First table I was able to build my stack from 1500 to 4000
TABLE TWO:
This table featured an interesting cast of characters. Two to my left was a kid that reminded me of someone I nicknamed "Captain Insano" when I played in a home game out in Worcester. He just looked like a total douchebag who thought he was cool (but likely wasn't getting much action off the felt). My observations were further made evident by his Yankees baseball cap.
A fellow pizan at the table (he was 3/4th Italian to my 1/4th) with the last name of Pasquale (and younger than my 28 years) held a pretty strong chip lead. I looked over at his chips salivating, hoping to make them mine. He turned out to be a Yankees fan too, but there were some Boston fans at the table, so all was good.
My pre-flop raise from middle-position with K/Q of diamonds is met by his all-in from the button. He holds K/K and there’s so much money in the pot and I figured he was making a move on me so I called. Flop came down Ad 6d 10c then a 3c on the turn and a Js on the river for the straight and I more than double through. I had great outs after the flop, with the flush and straight draw, but I got very lucky. Pre-flop he had me dominated and I just outdrew him and doubled through. Otherwise I would've been out.
At this table I tried to eliminate two short-stacks. From the small blind with no callers I raise with A/K and the short-stack on the Big Blind calls with Q/10 and the kid catches a Q. Then later, a player I recognized from a few months back (his K/J against my J/3 that took me out almost on the bubble in the tourney, I was pot-commited) calls my mid-position pre-flop raise with his 5/6 in the blind against my A/10 of spades and the flop is 3/4/7. Geesh!
Luckily I was able to build my stack at table 2 from 4000 to about 8000.
TABLE THREE:
Table three and I find Suzy there again. A new player had also arrived, the white Mr. T. This guy had more gold than Fort Knox! He had three huge gold rings on one hand, gold chains, gold watches, it was ridonkulous! He was obviously trying to flash his wealth and put fear into others, but it was his chip count that really worried me, he was in good shape. He lost a lot of them at the table and I was hoping I wouldn’t run into him again.
My A/Q pre-flop raise is met with Suzies all-in from the blind (I’m mid-position or early position) and it’s 1500 more to go. I call and she flips over J/J and I catch two Queens and bust her out. I'm very relieved when I take her down, I didn't want to run into her at the final table.
When I had originally sat down, there was an elderly gentleman who claimed he had been getting very lucky (he had a pretty strong stack) and he sat to my left. In one crucial hand a young asian kid called pre-flop from early position. No other callers and I find J/9 in the Small Blind. I call the additional 400 (400/800 blinds) and the old guy checks.
Flop is 7/8/10 with two hearts. I push and got called by the old dude and he flipped over top pair. A 7 on the turn worried me, but I doubled through when the river was a 3.
I build my 8000 chips into 13,000
TABLE FOUR:
Table 4 and I find Mr. T on my left, not good, and he’s picked up some more chips now.
To my right a short-stacked player pushes all-in for his remaining 5K in chips (I'm sitting on over 22K at this point). I hold 10/10 and call. He flips 9/9 and catches running spades to pull out a flush and double through me.
Later on I pre-flop raise from 2K to 6K on the button holding K/9 offsuit. The chip leader (Mr T) pushes all-in. I fold my K/9 offsuit and he shows me the A/A.
A nervous larger chip stack raised pre-flop a spot out from the button and I looked down at my SB to find A/Q. Looking at his body language I could tell he just wanted to steal the blinds and antes. Pre-flop this late in the tourney there can be a good 2-4K chips, making stealing with semi-decent holdings worthwhile. I pushed for another 10K chips and he called with 7/5 offsuit. I guess he thought he had the right pot-odds (but he didn't have THAT many chips to make it worth risking in my opinion). I doubled up.
I had gotten my stack up to over 30K at one point, but made the final table with only 12K left.
FINAL TABLE:
I get dealt the Small Blind seat, which I'm not too enthused about. There's a good 250-300K chips in play, of which I hold a measly 12K (the smallest stack at the table is only 200 chips behind me). I snag the button and then the next hand (after the first short-stack goes out in 10th) proves to be my final stand.
I’m down to only about 9K in chips with 400 antes and 1500/3000 blinds. I have one move, and it’s all-in. I catch A/3 of clubs one out from the button and push, but a blind player has J/J and takes me down. I snag $208 for my efforts and a $60 investment. I'm happy I made the final table, but I was really shooting for one of the top 3 spots, I wanted to rake in a grand or more.
TABLE ONE: I arrive at 7:45 am with a start-time for the tourney at 8am. A small line presents no problems as I hear them announce that they're currently at 163 players (I had calculated on 150, so I expect we'll hit the 175+ players for the next level of payouts)
I get seated at Table 11, Seat 10, right next to the dealer. Not exactly the seat position I was looking for (you can't view all of your opponents) but I prepare to play. To my left past the dealer sit two jock-type college kids, with their spikey hair and muscular builds (I need to work out!). Seat # 3 is a guy with a 3-Stooges Moe haircut and dark glasses. An old lady in seat # 4 proves to be quite the novice, constantly asking "what can I bet?" "what can I do?" every hand she plays. Next to her in Seat # 5 is a non-descript character, although he's chip-shuffling, so I give him a little credit.
In seat # 6 is a stoner-looking kid with his pokerstars.com beanie. Seat # 7 is a guy who's fairly tall with the traiditional Chris Moneymaker facial appearance. We're going to call him "Hellmuth Hater", and you'll see why later. Seat # 8 holds an older heavyset fellow, we'll call him Biker Jim, cause he looks like a biker, and his name might be Jim. To my right in seat # 9 is a mildly attractive asian woman, name is Susie something or other, we'll call her Susie Kim Phan Tran Jim Lee, or just Suzie for short. Suzie is also chip-shuffling, and I'm always observant of the asians at the table, they tend to be quite strong players.
The very first hand the Hellmuth Hater raises pre-flop with A/J offsuit from mid-position. To his right Biker Jim re-raises with pocket Kings. As it folds around the table, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but for some reason the Hellmuth Hater flipped his cards face up, as did Biker Jim. Then their hands wound up getting mucked by the dealer, and the sweet old lady who was clueless took down the sizable pot and became chip leader.
Surprisingly the guy with the Kings shrugged it all off (personally I'd be pretty ticked at missing out on this opportunity, especially in the first hand). The Moe character commented about not turning your cards up when other players still have to act. The Hellmuth-Hater went off on him, swearing up a storm. He was pissed because he felt he knew the rules and didn't need someone telling him how to play. He was commenting about how he wanted to go over and hit the guy! Geesh, it was going to be a fun first table! After talking with Hater, Biker and Suzie (my powerhouse side of the table) I learned that the Hater didn't like Hellmuth and wanted to play in an event against him. And then if Hellmuth chastised his play he'd pick a fight with him. He then proceeded to tell me that he's one of the nicest guys, but that he's just been in a bad mood lately and is spoiling for a rumble. I sharpened my teeth in case I needed to do any ankle-biting.
Suzie saw her starting 1500 chips dwindle to 600. She complained about having been up for two days, and constantly reminded us how she was going home. I didn't buy her image one-bit. I knew she was a strong player and I made sure to avoid too many confrontations with her. She eventually picked up a sizable chip stack at the table.
I held 10/10 and pre-flop raised from 50 to 150 in mid-position. Late position re-raised to 300 by Moe. I called and the flop came down 10/6/Q and I pushed all-in and he called me with J/J after he said "well, if you've got it...." and I eliminated him and made a nice profit. Helmuth Hater was excstatic that I eliminated the guy who told him not to show his cards.
First table I was able to build my stack from 1500 to 4000
TABLE TWO:
This table featured an interesting cast of characters. Two to my left was a kid that reminded me of someone I nicknamed "Captain Insano" when I played in a home game out in Worcester. He just looked like a total douchebag who thought he was cool (but likely wasn't getting much action off the felt). My observations were further made evident by his Yankees baseball cap.
A fellow pizan at the table (he was 3/4th Italian to my 1/4th) with the last name of Pasquale (and younger than my 28 years) held a pretty strong chip lead. I looked over at his chips salivating, hoping to make them mine. He turned out to be a Yankees fan too, but there were some Boston fans at the table, so all was good.
My pre-flop raise from middle-position with K/Q of diamonds is met by his all-in from the button. He holds K/K and there’s so much money in the pot and I figured he was making a move on me so I called. Flop came down Ad 6d 10c then a 3c on the turn and a Js on the river for the straight and I more than double through. I had great outs after the flop, with the flush and straight draw, but I got very lucky. Pre-flop he had me dominated and I just outdrew him and doubled through. Otherwise I would've been out.
At this table I tried to eliminate two short-stacks. From the small blind with no callers I raise with A/K and the short-stack on the Big Blind calls with Q/10 and the kid catches a Q. Then later, a player I recognized from a few months back (his K/J against my J/3 that took me out almost on the bubble in the tourney, I was pot-commited) calls my mid-position pre-flop raise with his 5/6 in the blind against my A/10 of spades and the flop is 3/4/7. Geesh!
Luckily I was able to build my stack at table 2 from 4000 to about 8000.
TABLE THREE:
Table three and I find Suzy there again. A new player had also arrived, the white Mr. T. This guy had more gold than Fort Knox! He had three huge gold rings on one hand, gold chains, gold watches, it was ridonkulous! He was obviously trying to flash his wealth and put fear into others, but it was his chip count that really worried me, he was in good shape. He lost a lot of them at the table and I was hoping I wouldn’t run into him again.
My A/Q pre-flop raise is met with Suzies all-in from the blind (I’m mid-position or early position) and it’s 1500 more to go. I call and she flips over J/J and I catch two Queens and bust her out. I'm very relieved when I take her down, I didn't want to run into her at the final table.
When I had originally sat down, there was an elderly gentleman who claimed he had been getting very lucky (he had a pretty strong stack) and he sat to my left. In one crucial hand a young asian kid called pre-flop from early position. No other callers and I find J/9 in the Small Blind. I call the additional 400 (400/800 blinds) and the old guy checks.
Flop is 7/8/10 with two hearts. I push and got called by the old dude and he flipped over top pair. A 7 on the turn worried me, but I doubled through when the river was a 3.
I build my 8000 chips into 13,000
TABLE FOUR:
Table 4 and I find Mr. T on my left, not good, and he’s picked up some more chips now.
To my right a short-stacked player pushes all-in for his remaining 5K in chips (I'm sitting on over 22K at this point). I hold 10/10 and call. He flips 9/9 and catches running spades to pull out a flush and double through me.
Later on I pre-flop raise from 2K to 6K on the button holding K/9 offsuit. The chip leader (Mr T) pushes all-in. I fold my K/9 offsuit and he shows me the A/A.
A nervous larger chip stack raised pre-flop a spot out from the button and I looked down at my SB to find A/Q. Looking at his body language I could tell he just wanted to steal the blinds and antes. Pre-flop this late in the tourney there can be a good 2-4K chips, making stealing with semi-decent holdings worthwhile. I pushed for another 10K chips and he called with 7/5 offsuit. I guess he thought he had the right pot-odds (but he didn't have THAT many chips to make it worth risking in my opinion). I doubled up.
I had gotten my stack up to over 30K at one point, but made the final table with only 12K left.
FINAL TABLE:
I get dealt the Small Blind seat, which I'm not too enthused about. There's a good 250-300K chips in play, of which I hold a measly 12K (the smallest stack at the table is only 200 chips behind me). I snag the button and then the next hand (after the first short-stack goes out in 10th) proves to be my final stand.
I’m down to only about 9K in chips with 400 antes and 1500/3000 blinds. I have one move, and it’s all-in. I catch A/3 of clubs one out from the button and push, but a blind player has J/J and takes me down. I snag $208 for my efforts and a $60 investment. I'm happy I made the final table, but I was really shooting for one of the top 3 spots, I wanted to rake in a grand or more.