Popped my cherry. Foxwoods trip report.

[bosoxfan]

This could also be titled getting your ass handed to you at 2-4 hold em.

Got to Foxwoods about 8 on Sunday and put my name on the board. I was in the 3rd column. Doh! Well off with the wife to kill time playing slots. I lost my Wampum card since the last trip so I had to get a replacement. I forgot all about it when I sat for poker. Can you get points for poker play? Anyway the slots weren't being friendly on Sunday.

After a 3 hour wait it was time to sit in for my first live poker. I was nervous as hell and just prayed I didn't do anything stupid. The table was pretty quiet, not much conversation. I played pretty poorly and didn't get much help from the cards. I was just happy I never bet or folded out of turn. I was pretty calm just going with the flow, played hands I knew I shouldn't but it was pretty loose. Then about an hour in I got AA in the CO and felt my face flush, real subtle. It came to me unraised as I raised my hand was shaking. I'm so ready for next years WSOP. CO 3 bet and 5 cold called the 2 bets. I capped and it was 7 to the flop. I didn't feel so good about my AA anymore. Ended up losing to the guy to my right who made his straight with 9 5.

Played a couple more orbits and decided to call it a night. Played an hour and a half or so. No pots won and down $55. Oh well it was good to get it under my belt. When I go back for a conference with work in Oct. maybe I'll get to drag a pot. Thanks for reading my boring post.

[Toro]

Wow, I feel your pain. Not dragging a pot really sucks. But how did you manage to lose only $55 while playing some pots you shouldn't have. You obviously weren't chasing after the flop. So losing only $55 I suppose is a moral victory of sorts.

Regarding the wampum points for poker. I hope you gave the floor person your wampum card to sign you in at the start of your session. At 2/4 you would get .5 points per hour which is the equivalent of 50 cents per hour. You wouldn't want to miss out on that! You could have used those points to get a pack of gum or something. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[bosoxfan]

No I didn't chase. I really didn't pick up any hands to chase with. Flops totally missed me and most hands you could limp in.

So I give my card to the floor person when my name is called and then when I'm leaving. Is that right?

Not to sound stupid but the floor person is who the guy who calls your name tells you to go see to find your seat?

[Toro]

Yes, the floor person that shows you the seat is the one you give the card to. Then when you're done with your session, go to the board where you put your name in and they will sign you out.

Tip: If your done playing poker but are staying at the casino, don't sign out until you leave the Casino so you'll get credit for more time. I've even forgotten to sign out and got all the way home and picked up the phone and called the toll free number and asked for the poker room. Tell the person you forgot to sign out and can they sign you out. They will ask when you got done playing and you can practice your "bluffing" skills and add a couple of hours on and screw the Casino out of a whole dollar. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[B Dids]

Is a 3 hour wait at a place as big as Foxwood's typical?

[TimM]

My worst wait this weekend was about one hour, and that was on Friday at about 3PM. Every other day I arrived a little before noon and was seated within 10-15 minutes, since they were opening new tables at that time. This was for 10-20.

The low limit area looked like a mad house, with the waiting players forming a huge ring watching around the tables near the sign-up board. They were making players give all three initials since there were too many duplicates.

[midas]

When I was playing at FW a few weeks ago, they kept announcing that you had to sign out in person and not over the phone - that option is now closed.

[Monty Cantsin]

At least by never winning a pot you managed to avoid the classic pokerroom newbie faux pas - forgetting to toke the dealer.

I also hit Foxwoods for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I ended up playing the 5/10 w/ a kill. Very short wait. Definitely the highest stakes I've played, but I felt totally comfortable. It was a great table which was mostly loose passive with a couple of aggro spots. Once the custom bike dude who'd been awake for 3 days showed up we were 10/20 just about every hand.

The thing about live poker is how intensely the players embody "types". Online, everything is usually such a generic blur. Except for when somebody really stands out you have to keep checking your notes to distinguish average player A from average player B. By comparison, playing live is like being in the front row of an IMAX 3D movie. The distinguished older lady in seat 4 would no sooner checkraise you than pee in your tea, and the maniac next to her is a literal maniac.

In fact, it's weird, but this was close to 3 weeks ago and I can close my eyes and see each individual person at the table:

Seat 1: Monty, your hero.
Seat 2: Ex-Sorority Girl, trying hard to play tight because she knows she should. "Tight" means all connectors from all positions only if suited.
Seat 3: Distinguished Older Man. A reasonable man who plays a reasonable game. As predictable as the hero of a Ray Davies song.
Seat 3 (later): Doughy Middle Aged Guy. Plays a lot of poker, has "lucky hand" (K9). Super loose pre-flop, passive but decent post flop. Said he folded AK in the hand where I had pocket Kings on an AKx flop. Liar.
Seat 4: Distinguised Older Lady. (see above)
Seat 5: Custom Bike Dude. Maniac. My one terrible mistake was folding top pair heads up on the river when the 4th suited card fell and he bet out. I think he had it, but it was a mistake.
Seat 6: Sharky McSharkerson. Youngish wannabe TAG, sunglasses, obvious Fwoods regular. When involved in a hand would put on a bizarre overdramatic zombie-like, no-expression game face and make robotic betting motions.
Seat 7: Sad Sack. Personal cloud, the works.
Seat 8: Ex-Frat Guy. Ex-Sorority Girl's nemesis. They were constantly snarking at each other about who was the bigger "chaser". I judged it a tie.
Seat 9: Ex-Frat Guy's sidekick. Like Ex-Frat Guy but looser and dumber.
Seat 10: Decent Black Guy. One of the few less-predictable players at the table. Too loose but consistently aggro but not maniacal. Glad I had position on him.
Dealer: there were many, but the one I remember was a pretty blonde girl who dealt me AA. I'm pretty sure she was trying to tell me something. Also, there was an old guy I forgot to toke.

For an internet player like me the psycho-dynamics of live play are almost too intense but I really, really enjoy it.

/mc

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
The thing about live poker is how intensely the players embody "types". Online, everything is usually such a generic blur. Except for when somebody really stands out you have to keep checking your notes to distinguish average player A from average player B. By comparison, playing live is like being in the front row of an IMAX 3D movie.

[/ QUOTE ]

How true this is. I always like reading trip reports from people who have played online, but never in a B&M cardroom. Personally, the comfort of making a crappy call on a turn or river from my own home is nice, since I don't have 9 pairs of eyes staring me down after my idiocy.

[ QUOTE ]
Seat 6: Sharky McSharkerson.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's probably too many letters, but if I could change my name on Party to Sharky McSharkerson, I would.

[midas]

Monty:

As a fellow FW 5-10 player this was a great post.

Was Sharky a younger, darker skinned guy (maybe middle-east decent) with sunglasses that were more like small prescription types? If so, sounds like a guy I call "Mr. Smooth". His mannerisms crack me up but he's not a bad player.

The Distinguished Old Lady sounds like a bunch of people - but there is one lady who probably was a 9 during WWII who is very sweet until you politely tell here to stop criquing your play - then the F bombs start flying. I think her husband plays 5-10 as well.

I loved poker rooms - you meet all sorts of characters you would never meet in your normal day-to-day life.