Foxwoods 2+2'ers Trip Report (Very Long)

[Barry]

Disclaimer: This is to the best of my recollection. If anyone remembers anything a little different, I'm pleading early senility!

After work Friday night, my beloved Angel Fish (AF from here on) and I packed up the car and headed off for the 1 ½ hour drive to Foxwoods looking forward to the weekend and meeting up with the other 2+2’ers.

On the ride down, we called ahead and put AF, on the 4/8 list and me on the 10/20 list.

When we arrived, I called Homer’s cell phone and got his voice mail. OK now what? There are over 300 folks in the poker room; how am I going to pick out the 2+2’ers? After deciding that there was no easy way, I asked the floor to page Homer Jay and then give him a message telling him the table and seat that I was in. Instead they paged “Homer Jay, Barry is at table x seat x. 2 tables down at a 5/10 table 2 guys stood up, looked in my direction and waved. So that was how I wound up meeting Homer and JTG51. I had seen JTG in the room before, but we had never spoken. We talked for a few minutes and then went back to our games.

I made about $650 that night from about 8PM until 2AM. The game had a few guys that “used to play 20/40” and a few guys with more cash than poker skills. There were 3 particularly memorable hands that night.

In the 1st hand I open raised from LP with AJ [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] , cut off 3-bets, folded to me and I call. Flop is J,J, rag, I check, CO bets, I call. Turn is a T, I check, CO bets, I raise, CO re-raises, I think, then 4-bet it, CO calls. Turn is another blank; I bet out, CO calls. I show; CO shows me KK and mucks. He said that he 3-bet “just to make sure that I wasn’t putting a move on him”. Me? Put a move on someone. I’m insulted.

The second hand I have KT [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] in the big blind and get a free play after 2 limpers (L1, L2). Flop is J high with 2 [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img]s , I bet, L1 calls, L2 raises and announces that “I’m on hearts” turn is a blank, I check, telling him “I’ll give you your free card”, L1 checks, L2 checks. River is the perfect A [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] . I bet out, L2 asks “Are you on hearts too? Well let’s find out, raise”. He calls my 3-bet; I show him the nuts and he mucks his smaller flush. This guy was a really nice, friendly fellow. Every time, when he said what he had, he was telling the truth. Unfortunately for him (and me too), he busted out quickly. So, that was two hands that people “raised for information” and wound up getting the answer that they were afraid of.

The 3rd hand was really weird. I was in MP with AK [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] , EP immediately to my right raises, I 3-bet, folded to MP who calls. Flop has 2 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img]s with a J. Check, bet, call. Turn is an A; check, bet, raise, I 3-bet, he 4-bets. Deciding that he might just have JJ, I call. River is T [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] . MP checks???, after looking at him for a while, I bet, he folds! I have never had that happen to me before, but I wouldn’t mind it happening to me more often.

JTG left to drive home, I said goodnight to Homer, and dragged AF away from her 4/8 game and we headed up to the room.

In the morning, while AF was still doing what women take so long to do while they are getting ready, I went down and registered us both for the tournament. Great, she and I are sitting next to each other. I walked into the poker room and saw a gaggle of guys in the middle, one very tall guy, and another wearing a hockey shirt. So I walked up and met LarryJoe and Rock Lobster. A few minutes later Kurn, Jeff and Homer arrived. (OK, OK, I don’t remember exactly who arrived when, but this is my story and I’m sticking to it) We chatted for a while and wished each other good luck. There was an empty seat at the 10/20 so I sat down so I could get on the reseating list. I won a quick $100 and then sat down to play in the tournament.

I started off well winning some good size pots early on and had built up a good stack. On the other hand AF, was not. During the 1st break, Kurn told me he was down to 1BB. After the 1st break, AF went all in a few times with KK, AQ and then started to build her stack back up. A little while later, our table broke; AF and I wished each other luck and went off to our separate tables. I won a good size pot soon after and had $14,500 in chips at the second break. (With the rebuy you start with $2,000 in chips.) If I wasn’t the chip leader, I wasn’t far behind. At that point I learned that I was the last 2+2’er left in. (Perhaps someone can post our relative finishing positions)

After the break the limits were $500/1000 blinds, $1,000/2000. After 1 round of blinds, I was down to $13,000 when I picked up AK [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] . I open raise from MP, only the button calls. Flop has a black A and 2 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] ’s. I bet, button calls. Turn is K [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] . Talk about good news, bad news. I check/ call the turn and river. Button shows AT [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] for the flush. That dropped me down to $6,000 and I didn’t see another decent hand in the tournament. There were about 27 left when I busted out. I open raised all-in with J8 [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] , was called by a QT, 2 T’s came on the board and I was history. AF was still hanging in there and I watched her play as others were dropping like flies. 20 left, she’s in the money, 19, 18…, 11. Hang in there, one more person busts out and you’re at the final table. That happens the next hand. They take a short break and ten folks, including AF sit down at the final table. She definitely has the shortest stack, though. Just enough for one all-in raise. Shortly before the blinds come, she raises all-in with KTo, only the SB calls with Q9s. Flop has a Q, turn is a T, river is a 9 and AF places 10th and gets a nice round of applause. Great job darling! You sure showed up all of us hotshot 2+2’ers.

Meanwhile, Homer and JTG went back to 5/10, LarryJoe to 2/4, Rock, hmm… 4/8(?), and Kurn to 10/20. AF and I got on the 4/8 and 10/20 lists, respectively. As I was waiting to get in the game, I watched Kurn play for a while. Suffice it to say that he wasn’t having a great day. And then there was “The Captain”. He had over $2,000 of red $5 chips in front of him. Hopefully, Kurn can tell us more, but in the few minutes that I watched, “The Captain” raised about 4 of 6 pots, preflop, bet or raised about every chance he could and dragged some humongous pots that exceeded my normal buy-in amount.

After declining several offers by the sharks to take an empty seat at their 20/40 game, a new 10/20 must move game started and I sat down at it. 3 ½ hours later, I’m up another $250. I never got moved, so I didn’t have to face “The Captain”. My eyes were starting to droop, so about 5 PM, I pick up, and then head upstairs to nap for a couple of hours. About 7:30 we came back downstairs, met up with LarryJoe, Homer, and JTG and went off to to dinner. (Rock had already eaten and was going to be leaving soon and Kurn had gone off to rescue his girlfriend from the slot machines.) The line to the buffet was outrageously long, so we walked to the other side of the casino and ate at the Veranda. The food was fine, but the service was pretty slow. We had a great chat, JTG paid for the meal with his points (Thanks again), and we went back upstairs to play some more. The 5/10 and 10/20 were full but there were 3 seats at the 4/8. After taking way too long to decide, Homer, JTG, AF and I wandered over to the 4/8. We were unable to persuade LarryJoe to join us and he went to the 2/4 game. By the time we got to the 4/8, there were 4 seats open, so we all sat down. I know that this was going to be crazy, when JTG comes into the game by posting a live straddle. A little while later, 2 friends come in and sit side by side, just to my right. Let’s call them F1 and F2 for fish 1 and fish 2. F1, immediately to my right, must have played some hold’em once or twice and was teaching F2, just to his right, how to play. These guys played every hand; F2 flopped a set of 5’s in one hand and never raised. We were 8 handed at one point, so first JTG, then I went over to shame LarryJoe into joining us. As he was up enough at his table, he finally relented and joined us. A little while later came “The hand”

If I remember right, we were seated at the table something like this LarryJoe - 2, F2 - 4, F1 - 5, me - 6, AF – 7, JTG – 9 and Homer – 10. Seat 3 was the button. With all of us at the table, we were getting a little carried away and loose aggressive would not be a poor description of our table.

I look down and see QQ UTG and raise, AF cold calls, JTG and Homer fold, there’s another cold caller, LarryJoe 3-bets, F2 in the BB calls 2 cold, I stare at LarryJoe, pick up enough chips to cap, but just call, AF calls

Flop is 234, with 2 [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] , checked to me, I bet, AF calls, LarryJoe raises, BB cold calls, I 3-bet, AF calls 2 cold, LarryJoe and BB call.

Turn is 7 [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] , check, bet, all call.

River is a red 5. BB, checks, I start to cry and check, AF bets, LarryJoe folds, all of a sudden BB checkraises, AF calls. She shows her AK [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] for the wheel and the nut flush draw, and BB shows 86 [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] for the runner, runner nuts and scoops a huge pot. Let’s see, I was ahead on the turn, and forgetting about the actual cards out, AF had 13 outs, LarryJoe had 2 and F2 had 3. I got up and went for one of my walks. By the time I got back, F1 and 2 had picked up and left with a lot more of our chips than then we had of theirs. Hopefully they think that this is an easy game and I’ll be around the next time they come back.

JTG and LarryJoe finally decide that they need to drive home and AF decides to go to sleep. So we say our goodbyes and everybody goes on their way. It was really enjoyable meeting up with my fellow 2+2’ers. Although, as you can imagine there was far too much post-hand analysis going on at the table. The only thing that we agreed on was that we were all playing badly. I wound up losing $350 at that session.

I went back to the 10/20 game and won another $450. During that session the strangest hand I ever played in came up. I had AKs in EP, UTG limps, I raise and get 7 callers.

Flop is T high, checked to MP who bets, next guy raises, with one exception, everybody calls. I think for a long time, I almost folded, but decided to call. Turn is a J, checked to flop raiser who bets, we lose another one. Picking up 4 more outs, I call. River is a rag, and it’s unbelievably checked around. Everybody is shaking their heads, flop raiser says he has Ace high and shows A9, I announce that I have the “nut nothing” and everybody mucks. A huge pot and I win with an unimproved AK, unbelievable. So how many AQ’s and KQ’s can we have?

I went to sleep around 6AM and got up around 11, I checked out of the hotel and headed back up to play some more 10/20 and AF to play 4/8. Most of the day, I was up a little, down a little, then a bad streak occurred which took me from up $150 to down $250. It culminated with me losing, holding KK, when an A fell on the river. A very loose older man, held on to the end with an A9o. I went for another long walk around the casino. When I got back, I went on a tear and won a bunch of hands. In the first hand back, I posted behind the button and got 74o. I get a free play and the flop comes 477. In another hand I had the black K’s, the flop came all [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] , including the A [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] , and the river was another club. (I beat a guy who had flopped a Q high flush) I went from down $250 to up $500 in a very short time.

Meanwhile AF was having a rough day at the 4/8. There were 3 older ladies that played every hand to the end and were making all sorts of single card straights and 2 pairs playing things like Q5o. Two of them had more than 3 racks of yellows ($2 chips) in front of them. She was down about $150 and wanted to quit. I told her that I would play another two orbits and then pick up. I also talked to one of the regulars, who I’ll call “A” and encouraged him to sit in AF’s game and liven it up a little. On my last hand at the 10/20 table, I pick up AKo UTG. I raised, there were 2 callers and then the SB reraised. Flop has an A, BB checks, I bet, all fold to BB, who calls. Turn is a rag, check, bet, checkraise. Ruh Roh! Of course, he has AA and puts a dent in my winnings which wound up at $420.

After I pick up, I go over to AF’s table and tell her that I’m ready. She’s sitting next to A, who has built up a nice stack; hers is looking better and the older ladies stacks were substantially diminished. She said that she wanted to stay “just a little longer”. Well as that stretched out to about 45 minutes, I decided to sit down in her game too. By the time I got in I had taken seat 6, formerly occupied by one of the older ladies that wound up leaving with only a handful of chips, no doubt cursing her luck. There was a very loose Texan with only one good eye in seat 7, A was in seat 8 and AF was in seat 9. The other seats changed over from time to time with a variety of other players.

There were 2 interesting hands of note in that session. In the 1st seat 10 was the button. I’m dealt A5 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] . A few limpers, I limp, Texan limps (what else), A limps and AF limps. Flop has 2 5’s, checked to me, I say “If no one else is going to bet this flop, I will”, Texan calls, A raises, AF cold calls (she later told me that she called thinking that both of us were trying to steal the pot. If she really believed that, she should have re-raised!). Turn is a K, checked to A, who bets, AF raises, I re-raise (I can’t believe that I just did that), Texan and A give up, AF calls. (By this time we had maxed out the rake) AF and I are heads up. River is another K, I bet, she raises (I can’t believe that she did that), I re-raise (I did it again), she 4-bets. By then it dawns on me that she has a K. I call. She shows AK and starts laughing and scoops the pot. Nice runner, runner!

In the other hand, I’m the BB and the Texan posts his live straddle for the 2nd time. I almost got up from the table so he couldn’t do it, but someone who was watching the game, reminded me that he was a good contributor, and I shouldn’t do anything to make him get up and leave. So I stayed. A 3-bets; I think that he would 3-bet here with almost any playable hand against a straddler. Folded to me; looking down I see KK (for the 5th time today), I cap, Texan and A come along. Flop is all rags, I bet, Texan calls, A raises, I 3-bet, Texan calls 2 cold, A caps it, both of us call. Turn is another rag, I bet, Texan finally folds, A smiles at me with that “you can’t beat me look” and raises, I call. River is another blank, before I can act, he tells me “I’m going to save you some money” and shows me, of course AA.

I was dealt KK 5 times that day and I only won with it one time. Even after those 2 hands, I was even at that table, AF got back almost even, and A made $300. AF’s mood was much better, especially after trouncing me in that one hand. With that we got up, went to the sundry shop to get some sugar and drove home.

We had a great time and we are looking forward to both our trip to Vegas next week as well as our next 2+2’ers east coast get together. Now if I can only start getting AF to start posting at the site, she too will become a 2+2’er herself; her game is certainly getting there; well… so long as she starts raising and re-raising when she gets AK!

[JTG51]

Wow, you've got quite a memory. I think you got everything right.

Perhaps someone can post our relative finishing positions

If I remember correctly, Kurn went out first, followed quickly by me. LarryJoe and Homer lasted a while longer and were next out, followed by Rock, then you.

I know that this was going to be crazy, when JTG comes into the game by posting a live straddle.

I always thought that would be great way to enter a game, this seemed like as good a time as any. I think my idiot image was cemented 2 hands later when I completed my SB with 83o then won a big pot after check raising my 2 pair on the turn.

With all of us at the table, we were getting a little carried away and loose aggressive would not be a poor description of our table.

Gee, was it Homer raising 95o followed by T5o or my repeated limp raising that makes you say that? [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

The only thing that we agreed on was that we were all playing badly.

All of us except for Angel Fish. She played really well, especially for someone with as little experience as her. I'm still impressed by her bet the flop, check raise the turn move with the set of jacks.

It sounds like everyone had a great time, we'll have to do it again.

[Joe Tall]

Perfect report. One question where do you have the time to such a report, shoot, I type 50+ WPM and I still can't sit and ram such a report out - GREAT JOB!!

...I stare at LarryJoe, pick up enough chips to cap, but just call...

AF's set of Jacks was a great, what I call, card-play. This, Barry, was a great poker play, especially on me.

My thoughts, 'PREFLOP: I'll 3-bet and see if he caps w/a higher pair...ok, he almost did, looked at me...hmmm...he's got big-slick cause he called, thank God the Red Sox won, but wait he looked at me first, I can't believe I smoked a pack of cigarettes today, what's AF doing in this mess, and the other two, this is ugly, back to Barry's call, he's f'n with me and has me beat...I'll rasie him on the flop if it's rags to find out...[FLOP 2,3,4]...hmmm, he comes out betting, I test it, raise! cold-caller?, oh no Barry 3 bet, should I start off with Kenny Burrell or Coltrane on the way home, Kenny, yeah Kenny's Midnight Blue mmmmmm Midnight Blue, Wake up, it's your action, fold-Joe! fold!...wait more cold-callers...big pot, son of bitch it's mother's day already and I got get a card, ahh screw it, I'll suck out, CALL!'

Too much coffee, beer, water, nicotine, almost gave CPR, and I played terribly on that hand, should have folded to your 3 bet on the flop.

Great hand, tough result! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Homer]

Gee, was it Homer raising 95o followed by T5o or my repeated limp raising that makes you say that?

Shhhhhhh, you're the only one who knew I did that since I took down both those pots with turn bets (I had second pair each time). [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

-- Homer

[Barry]

Ok, so you stole that one; but remember the time I bet the river with A high and two of you folded pairs.

[ACPlayer]

I am away for a few weeks and you turn into a complete maniac!!!!!!!!

[JTG51]

I think your head would have exploded watching me play in that game.

[CrackerZack]

Sorry I missed and sorry for the late reply. How did the request go for a 4-8 HOSE game or something like that? Did you guys try to get it going? Good report also.

[RockLobster]

Great post, Barry.

I think JTG got the relative finishing order for the tourney correct. I finished 2nd, but with the exception of you (way ahead) and Kurn (bad start) everyone was really close.

Meanwhile, Homer and JTG went back to 5/10, LarryJoe to 2/4, Rock, hmm… 4/8(?),

Yes, I played 4-8 after the tourney until quitting time, with a break for the lunch buffet thrown in. I played with Angel Fish for a while (I seem to recall you threatening me if I c/r'd her [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]), she played solid. She also handled herself very well through a mixup with a guy who appeared to act, but hadn't(?). She's a cool customer (I would have handled it differently, mostly because I think he acted like a jerk during this situation... I later played with him and he seemed like a nice guy).

Anyway, the 4-8 games were just my speed. I need to learn how to post live hands (which means I need to either take notes or bother to commit a few pertinent details to memory... oh man, this is sounding more like work).

I look forward to meeting up with you guys again. Without exception, you guys were fantastic to hang out with. Maybe next time I'll get to actually play some hands with you all.

Side question: What would you guys say is the BR requirement for the 5-10 kill? I'd like to give this a shot next time around...

[Barry]

I would like to buy into that game for at least $250, more if possible.

In general most people talk about having 200-300 BB bankroll, if it's not replenishable. So at least 2K, but preferably more.