Foxwoods Dec 27-29 trip report (very very long)

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FW trip report
I just finished up my masters degree in Worcester this semester. My
subletter was moving in on the 2nd, so I planned to go up for New Years
to have one last party with my college friends. I decided that there
was nothing interesting to do at home between Christmas and New Years,
so I planned one last hurrah at Foxwoods.

I've been a semi-regular there since I started playing poker seriously
last summer as it's only an hour from school. I've now moved back to
Pennsylvania, so I'm hoping to make the Borgata my regular casino. I
haven't played there yet; that's a separate post.

27 December
I got a bit of a late start from PA and get to Foxwoods around 4PM. Fortunately
my friend IsaacW, who's also planning a 3 day run is already there. I
called him from the car to get on the lists.

The 5/10 didn't look that good. I've only recently moved up to the 5/10
kill game on a relatively short bankroll, so I try to only play when it
looks really good, which is most of the time. Monday afternoon however,
isn't one of those times.

I'm near the top of the list for 4/8, so I decide to play that for a
while and keep an eye on the 5/10 and keep rolling my name on the list.
The 4/8 game is pretty good as usual, but I'm not really catching much.
I tread water for 7 hours. Isaac's leaving at this point since he got
in at 10AM. I notice that the board shows open seating for just about
everything. I cashed out up $29 and decided to start a "poker olympiad"
and play a bunch of different games.

This idea is somewhat thwarted when I got over to the 2/4 omaha/8 and
discovered that they didn't actually have an open seat. I went over to
the 1-5 stud, and a list appeared as I was walking up to the podium.
Fortunately I only had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get a seat. I'd
never played stud for more than a 0.50 limit in home games before, but I
did start reading 7CSFAP recently, so I think I'll be mostly ok.

My first table, I think I'm younger than everyone by at least half, if
not a third. (I'm 22; there's no way anyone's under 44 and I'm pretty
sure 66 is close.) I played for a while without catching much. The
only hand I went to showdown with, Aces up got beat by hidden trips.
I'm starting to think this stud thing might not be such a good idea.

Then the cards start coming. It seems every broadway draw I have, I
catch. This game is eminently beatable if you know how to play stud,
which I don't really, but the passiveness made it cheap lessons. The
only reraise I saw by anyone other than me in 3 hours was in a boat over
boat hand.

My first table broke around 2AM. The 2nd table was more of the same. I
lose small pots when I lose and win big pots when I win because no one
else raises nearly enough. I decided to quit when I ran out of halves
around 3AM. I cashed out up $108, which was quite nice for my first
session of casino stud.

I really enjoyed playing stud for a while, it was a nice break from
holdem. My one overriding thought is that stud is HARD. Remembering
all of the cards that were folded and watching the boards as they
develop to try and read hands takes a ton more concentration than
holdem. I don't think multitabling stud would be workable like it is
for holdem. I think the loss in winrate would be much much more.

I get back to worcester around 4AM (I'm commuting this trip, as
$100/night for a hotel room is a significant cost). Another advantage
to commuting is, for tuesday and wednesday, I'll be driving/riding with
IsaacW, which allows for some good poker discussion.


28 December
I have an errand to run in the morning, and then pick up IsaacW around
1130. We get back to the room a bit before one, and the room is much
more crowded than the previous day. I get on the lists for 2/4, 4/8,
and 5/10. Isaac and I get called together for a new 2/4 in the foyer
after a while, and since I haven't moved on the 5/10 and can't see my
name on the 4/8, I decide to go with him.

I was planning to play 5/10 kill, so the stakes at 2/4 don't hold my
interest very long. So, I start to loosen my preflop standards a bit.
And by a bit, I mean by a lot. I never enter the pot without raising,
and if it's folded to me, I open with any 2. This isn't that bad when
I'm in LP, but UTG+1, it's not so good. UTG, is, of course, a straddle.

A new guy gets to the table, and sits down to my right just in time for
his natural BB, and, of course, my straddle. This was great, I got to
straddle 2 hands in a row! This hand, he calls the straddle, and I of
course, 3 bet blind, because I know the rules. Some people call,
including the new guy, and some kind of hand was played. The next
orbit, it gets to this guy in the BB, he says "this isn't worth 6" and
mucks. I complement him on being a quick learner as I 3-bet.

Isaac and I had been talking in the car about completing in the SB with
any 2 suited and then checkraising flush draws for value. Isaac limps
UTG(he's 2 to my left), and it gets to me unraised, so, I look at my 2
clubs (96 or something) and complete. The flop comes ATx with 2 spades
and a club. I check, BB checks, Isaac bets, some people call, and I
raise. I'm figuring I can steal this pot if another spade comes. Isaac
3-bets, and for some reason, I forget to cap. The turn is a club. I
think, damn, I can't steal this one now, but I have a real flush draw
now, which I guess is better than an imaginary one coming in. I call
Isaac's bet. The river is a club, I C/R, and Isaac's top 2 are no good.
HAHA.

In the meantime, my attempts to get drunk on free crappy beer are being
thwarted by the terrible waitress service out in the foyer.

Another straddle hand, UTG+1 CCs, Isaac 3-bets from UTG+2, some idiots who
don't know what they're getting into cold call 3, I 4-bet blind,
and UTG convinces the table and dealer that the straddle doesn't count
as a raise, and limp-5bets. All call, and 5 see the flop for 5 bets
each. The flop is Txx, I bet, UTG+1 calls, Isaac raises, some people
call because the pot is huge. Turn is another small card, Isaac bets,
and a bunch call. River yet another small card, Isaac bets, some people
call. Isaac meekly turns over AT for TPTK, and everyone mucks. The pot
was about $80 or so.

Some lady sits down, and I say "welcome to the table, I'm a bit of a
maniac". As I'm talking to her, I look at q5o and throw out a raise. I
can't say I'm a maniac and then fold, now can I? I got to show down a
winner with that hand too.

I was up over $100 at one point, and then I stop catching cards. When
we pick up to go to dinner, I'm down $7. The massive amount of
entertainment I got out of it was way more than worth the 7 bucks.

We grab dinner at the buffet(gotta use up the comp points before I
leave). Some interesting poker conversation was had, and we decided to
get back to playing.

I take the 2/4 reseat because the lists are long and I want to get right
back in. I do go put my name on the 5/10 list though. Isaac and I
conveniently get called to the same 2/4 game, this time back in the 50s.
Playing 9 handed on a stud table isn't my favorite thing, but it beats
being way out in the foyer. Now I have a chance of hearing my name get
called for 5/10.

I'm playing correctly (well, as correctly as I'm able) now. Not much of
interest happens. My girlfriend calls, so I duck out to talk to her for
a bit. When I get back, Isaac informs me that the 2s has decided that
he's been steadily losing while looking at his cards, so he's going to
stop. He starts raising whenever it's his turn, and then when it gets
to showdown, he asks his opponent to flip a card, then he flips one of
his and sees if he's ahead yet or not. If he is, he asks opponent to
flip another card, and then he flips his last one to see if he wins. If
he's still behind, he flips the 2nd card, etc.

I get insanely fortunate and start catching hands. I raise and reraise
preflop with any reasonable holding to try and isolate him. I caught a
nut flush to take down a monstrous pot. Then, I get it heads up with
him with AQs preflop. It took a lot to cap every street with unimproved
AQs, but I figured I was ahead of random cards more than 50% of the
time, and I was up a ton of bets already. I figured if I did lose money
to the maniac, I'd have plenty of chance to get it back. My Ace Queen
high held up, and I dragged a good sized pot.

Isaac and I are exhausted at this point, but I figured if there was ever
the classic "keep your eyes open with toothpicks" situation, this was it.
I tell Isaac that I want to stay until this guy busts out, and he
agrees. After a bit, the following hand comes up.

I don't remember the details completey, but the gist is: I have 98s.
The flop comes TT8 rainbow. I bet and Isaac and some other guy calls.
The turn is a K, I bet and Isaac raises. I and other guy both call.
I'm planning to check/fold the river unimproved at this point, as I
can't put Isaac on anything less than a K here. The river is another 8.
and I check/raise. Isaac calls angrily, I apologize and drag the pot.
Isaac decides he's too tired and to close to tilting to continue, so he
quits for the day, up like $10. I played for another orbit or so, but
the maniac was down to his last $100 and decided to start looking at his
cards. He was still ridiculousy fishy, but there are players like that
at the 2/4 every hour of every day, so we go home, and I get to bed
around 4AM. Up $380 for the day, thanks to the maniac.

We decide to get an early start the next day, to try and avoid the huge
lists. We left worcester around 10AM. We got to the room around 11,
and the lists were already pretty big. I'm all primed to play serious
today, but the 5/10 list is barely moving. I try to get the brush who's
name I can never remember (she's usually at the 1/2NL/mid limit holdem
podium on days) to start a list for 2/4 crazy pineapple. She takes
Isaac's and my initials and says if she can get permission from the
shift supervisor to spread it, she'll put an interest list up. She
called the supervisor over on the radio, but I never saw the list
actually go up.

I put my name on the 1/2 NL list, since it's the fastest moving list in
the room. I'm a pretty bad NL player, but I figure I'll give it a go if
I get called to a new game. I do, and I rather uneventfully drop 2
buyins. The game is quite good, with 6 to the flop for a $10 raise
pretty common. I have proper pot odds for a bunch of draws, but none of
them ever hit. I decide I can't keep dropping hundreds on this table,
so I get up. I can't see my name on the 5/10 list, but I verify that
it's there by trying to get on the list again.

I decide to kill some time playing video poker downstairs. Isaac says
he'll call me when he sees my name getting up there on the 5/10 list. I
come back, up $6.25 and a bunch of comp points, having discovered that
my phone is totally dead. I get back to the room and discover that I
got missed. I put my name on the 5/10 and 10/20 lists, and wander the
room for a while. I get called for the 10 first, and sit with my name
5th on the list for 5/10, planning to move when I get called unless the
10 game is really good. I post in the CO, fold to a raise, and fold 2
or 3 more rag hands before being called to the 5/10. I'm pretty
intimidated by the 10 game, so I decide to move. I'm sure the 10/20 is
quite good, but the 4 hands I was there were all raised preflop. Not
like the passiveness I'm used to, so I decided today was not the day to
take a shot.

I get into the 5/10 kill, and ride an incredible rush of cards. I catch
a bunch of hands, and I'm up a few hundred when the following hand comes
up. I get QQ in a kill pot. It ends up capped preflop. Flop comes Qxx
with 2 clubs. Jackpot! A bunch of bets and raises go in, and the board
ends up paired(8's) with 3 clubs. Guy bets the river, lady raises, I 3-bet
with the top boat, the guy calls 2 more with Q8, and the lady folds her
flush. I'm stacking the pot for the next few hands, which I also win.
I announce to the table "$450, if anyone was wondering".

A new player sits down and posts UTG. I immediately figure him as
clueless. Then he starts to put on the best chip trick performance I
have ever seen other than Esfandiari on TV. I have no idea what to make
of him at this point. He played pretty badly, so I dunno. Do people do
chip tricks at table games? I figure he was either a table player, or a
high limit player steaming from a big loss.

Then, an hour or so later, I put a HORRIBLE beat on a guy. I raise 99
preflop, and he calls and some other people call. The flop comes 755. I
bet, he raises, and I call. Turn is a 5. I forget the turn action, but
2 bets went in. The river is the case 5, and we both check. He
angrily turns over 77 for the flopped boat, and my 55559 beats his
55557. He yelled and screamed for several minutes, and left in disgust.

Then a funny situation came up. When this guy left, some other people
left as well. A new player sits down in the CO. The dealer asks him if
he wants to post, and he says he'll wait. He realizes the error of his
ways after the, and asks to change seats to the BB. He gets mixed up,
and changes to where the BB was. Someone else changes into his old
seat. He takes their seat, UTG, so he can wait one hand and post in the
natural BB. Someone another new player takes the SB seat so he can
wait and post in the CO. The table is full at this point. A previously
uninvolved player, "Can I get a seat change button?" Whole table,
including the dealer, "NO!!!"

I was up just over 900 at this point. I lost some hands, and went back
down to up 700. I realized that this put me just over an even grand for
the trip, and I realized this was gonna affect my play. So, I take a
walk to think. On my walk, I decide that I'm not gonna play my A game,
so it's best to pick up. I tell Isaac this and tell him he can play a
few hours more if he wants, it's not hard to kill time in a casino.

I killed some more time with breakeven video poker. I head back to the
room to check on Isaac. I stop off in the satellite area in the foyer
on the way back. They're running act 1s and 2s for the NEPC $5k event.
I'm leaning against a pillar reading one of the free poker mags floating
about. A dealer walks up and asks me if I want to play an act 1. I
tell him no thanks and finish my article. As I'm walking out of the
area, I see that there are 9 people seated for the act 1 and they're
waiting for one more. I decide, why not; I'll count the $60 as a fun
expense and not part of the normal poker bankroll, so it won't affect my
$1k trip.

The structure of these acts isn't too bad for a live satellite, though
the juice is pretty high. We start with T1000 for 20 minutes levels of
25/25 25/50 50/100 100/200 150/300 200/400, etc. Top 3 finishers get a
seat into an Act 2. Hands of note:

25/50: Guy raises to 200, I reraise to 400 with AKo. He calls. The flop
is rags, he checks, I bet 500, and he folds. He says he folded AK.

50/100: shortish stacked AK guy pushes with 22, and guy to my right
calls with AK, everyone else folds. The dealer counts out the 3 cards
for the flop, and flips them over. The top card is a king, and the AK
guy lets out a quiet YES. Then the dealer spreads out the cards,
showing the 2 in the middle. Turn and river are no help, so now the
caller is pretty short stacked.

He announces that he's steaming, and starts pushing a lot. I have a
pretty solid stack at this point. I mention to him, after folding my
blind to his push for the umpteenth time, that one of these days, I'm
gonna get AA and he's gonna be history.

150/300: I'm in SB, short stacked steamer (SSS),button, is up to about
T950 or so. EP limps, SSS pushes. I look down and see AA, and get very
excited and slam my stack in the middle with authority. (more on this
later). SSS flips AJo, and I take him out. This gives me enough that I
avoid the other big stacks, and coast into the top 3.

I thought about my emphatic push in the car. My conclusion was that
because winning the hand would give me enough to coast into the money,
and all the places payed the same, that getting rid of the BB and limper
was the right move. If getting first is important, perhaps I should
have just called, in case I can bring BB or the limper along.

All in all, even though I'm not much of an NL tourney player, I thought
that the field was very very weak in my act1. I got lucky to catch AA
agaist the steaming guy, but other than that, I think I just outplayed
people. I wasn't afraid to make plays at the pot when I didn't have to
risk too much of my stack to do so, and the players obediently folded.
I think if you're a good agressive tournament player, you should be able
to win act2 seats pretty consistently except when you get really
unlucky.

I finished the 3 day trip up $1k for about 40 hours play, and went and
had a good time for new years. I've got the act2 coupon here, so I'll
have to make it back up sometime before the NEPC. Thank you for reading
if you've gotten this far. Any and all comments appreciated.