Foxwoods Trip Report (It's a Tome, but at least 1 interesting hand)

[Barry]

It had not been a very good week. 1st of all my 16 year old had been having some problems at school and I wound up having a conference with his teachers. He couldn’t quite understand why I wasn’t happy with him. Then on Friday. I had a horrible day online suffering my 1st 100BB losing session. MaxPower (MP) got to see the end of the bad day that ended badly. On top of that, AF’s car was in the shop, so we were down to one car.

Reading that a few 2+2’ers were heading off to Foxwoods (FW), some that I haven’t seen in a while and some that I had never met before, and the fact that I just needed to play live again got me thinking about going. Whenever I have a bad run online, I tell Angel_Fish (AF), “I need FW’s." So I did on Friday; she nods knowingly and tells me that she’ll watch after my son and she’ll drive me down on Saturday morning. I’ve got to have found nearly the best wife on the planet.

Saturday AM we're off and we get to FW's around 11:30 and I put my name on the 20/40, 10/20, 5/10 Omaha and 15/30 HOE lists. The attendant tells me that my name won’t show up on the 1st page of the list and she has no idea what my position is. So I give CrackerZack (CZ) a call and get him and his beloved on the lists We also find out when MP is showing up so we get him on the list too.

I headed up to the lounge and see Q (a FW's regular) sitting there. I haven’t been to FW's since December, so we get to catch up for a while, and he tells me that he went back home to Vietnam for a month to visit family and friends. After a while, he gets called for a seat in a stud game, so I continue to sit, then wander around to check on the games and see some other of the FW”s crowd. There are 3 20 games going. So I’m watching the 20 must move and there is a kid in the game with about 3K of chips in front of him and he’s playing nearly every hand and hitting nearly everything. He calls a raise with K5o and makes 2 pair on the river to take down AK. A few hands later after calling a raise with J4s makes a runner runner flush. I can’t wait to get in the game.

A few hours, yes hours, I get called for the 5/10 Omaha game. I see that one lady is playing every hand and scooping pots with some god awful hands. So I post behind the button and get something like 3456 rainbow. I get a free play and the flop comes 33x. The lady bets out, I raise, 1 cold caller, she calls. Turn is a 5, I bet, they both call. I can’t remember the river, but there is a low on the board. I bet, fold. Lady calls. I’m in the 7 seat and the lady is in the 4 seat. So I show my hand and she says, I have a low. I can’t really see her cards, but then I think I hear the dealer say “Your live 6 is good for the low” so I scoop my 1st hand. We play a few more hands and I muck a decent, (top 2) but not great high hand to the lady’s checkraise. It turns out that my high would have been good. The guy sitting in the 6 seat looks at me and says “she only checkraises her lows, she bet out her highs”. Later I get JJA3 in the CO and limp along with the rest of the table and the flop comes J6T with two [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]’s. UTG bets out, 2 or the callers, including the lady, I raise, UTG makes it 3 bets at least the lady calls, I cap it. Turn brings another 6, I bet, 2 callers including the lady. River brings a 9 and the lady fires out, huh?. I raise, UTG flashes his drawing dead nut diamond draw and mucks. Lady calls. I show my J’s full and her cards get turbo mucked.

I look down at my chips which have grown by 2 ½ stacks in about 40 minutes and I get called to the 15/30 HOE game. I actually wonder why the heck I would leave that game, but I do anyway. I sit down, the guy to my left asks me if I want a hand and I tell him that I’ll wait, he looks at me kind of strange and they start dealing a stud hand. I look at the table sign and it says stud 8 or better on top. Just at that moment I realize what an idiot I am. I had thought that it was H (hold’em) and OE (Omaha 8 or better) and not O (Omaha 8) and E (Stud 8). I’m bad enough at stud, but stud 8, I’m clueless. So anyway I ante and fold, ante and fold. One guy is continually raising on 3rd getting it heads up and just about every hand gets chopped.

I finally call the bring in with (24) 3. I catch a 6 on 4th and call a bet, then the fellow checkraises, original better folds, I call. I catch a 4 on 5th and call, a 2 on 6th. Check, check. My last card is a J so my low draw has fallen apart, but I have 4’s up. Check, check. He has a pair of A’s for high and actually has a low. So we chop the pot, but for the opposite reasons that we had planned. By that time CZ and MP have made it and got into the HOE game and we change over to Hold’em. At this point there are 5 new folks that have sat down during the last down, so the play is shorthanded until each new player enter the game on their blind or by posting behind. I fold a few hands, steal the blinds, and just as I get my hand in the BB I get called for the 20/40 game. I fold some piece of cheese to a raise get up and head up to the must move game.

I get to the must move as the kid gets moved to the main game. The current lineup has a few real soft spots and a few decent players. Over the next few downs, all the soft spots, being on the top of the list, get moved to the main game. As they leave they are replaced one by one by better playes. One new guy is wearing a print shirt. After a couple of minutes, he looks at me and asks if I’m Barry. I nod, look at his shirt a little closer and see that the print is of flowers so I realize that it’s lil’ sitting across the table from me. CZ arrives, as does MP. Also one of the better FW’s regulars (Mark) sits at the table. Another younger guy sits next to me and immediately asks me if I’m Barry (I guess that I did a good job with the description). Sorry I have forgotten your name. So there we are in the must move game 5 2+2’ers, 1 super solid player and I’m nowhere near the 2 remaining known fish. This is now the worst 20/40 FW’s table that I’ve ever sat at. I’m contemplating getting up and wandering around when thankfully I get called to one of the main games. While we are there, Kurn comes over to visit. He is a great guy that I wish I could get to see more of. But he’s become more of a NL tourney guy and doesn’t hang around the cash games much anymore.

Thankfully the open seat is the table where the kid (I now learn his name is Joe) is sitting. He still has all of his chips. I get the 4 seat 2 to his left. Good start. An Asian fellow to my right is playing nearly every hand too, and he has a stack of about $3K. In one hand he makes it 3 bets on the button and bets the whole way. The flop is 442, turn an 8, river a J. After he is called on the river, he announces “full house” and I expect him to turn over JJ, instead he turns over 42s. A little while later, the guy to my right gets up and Mr. 42s decides to take that seat. So I now have both Joe and he to my right. There are a few decent players at the table (Italian Nick and Josh), but they are across from me. I have gone from poker hell to poker heaven. CZ sits down to my left to add to the joy as I realize that I can get the button 2 times every orbit.

Joe and 42s are still playing every hand, raising light, etc. I go on a tear, picking up good hands, getting to isolate them, flopping good and they both pay off every time. I a little over an hour, I’m up 2 racks. I one hand Nick open raises, both fellows cold call, I’m on the button and look down to see 2 black A’s, I make it 3 bets. Nick, Joe and 42s call. I bet a J high flop, they all call, I bet a turn brick, and wonder if Nick is going to checkraise me holding JJ, Nick thankfully folds, the other 2 call. River is a K, I bet, Joe folds, 42s calls. I show my A’s and he nods and mucks. Nick later tells me that he folded QQ. It kept going that way, they would both call me down, I’d show, they would nod and muck. My stack continued to grow as their’s dwindled. A9s became my signature hand at the table. I showed it down 3 times for winners early in the session. The first time making the nut flush on the turn, the 2nd the 9 kicker beat someone else’s A3o, the 3rd time when I flopped A’s up. It was one of those magical days, when my draws got there a lot, others against me didn’t, and I only took a few beats, one where Joe hit a gutshot wheel. Later Mr. 42s moved back to my left. A few limpers, “play every hand Tony” was now in the game and raised a couple of limpers and I called on the button with KQd. Flop was K67, Tony bet, I raised, 42s called 40 cold, only Tony called, I bet a turn brick and they both called. River was a 9, checked to me, I bet, 42s checkraised, Tony folded and I called. He showed T8o for the rivered gutshot. At some point both Joe and 42s got down to the felt and thankfully reloaded a few times.

By this time I had almost completed the 5th story of my pyramid. The game continued to be very good and was getting wilder as the evening wore on. You just knew that there was going to be one crazy hand. He it goes:

42s limps UTG, next fellow raises, 1 cold caller, it then gets 3 bet, Tony calls 60 cold, button announces “best hand caps”, Joe whose now to my immediate right in the SB calls 70 cold, I look down and see 84o, gladly muck ready to watch the proceedings. 7 to a capped flop.

Flop is J86.

Check, bet, fold, call, fold, raise, Joe calls 40 cold, 42s calls 40, original bettor, calls, PF 3 bettor now makes it 3 bets, button calls, Joe now caps. Everybody calls. 5 to the turn of a 9.

Joe bets, call, call, PF and flop 3 bettor agonizes and then calls, button calls.

River is some brick and the river brings the same action.

And here comes the showdown:

Joe turns over 77, everybody looks at the board, nope no set, they look back at the board, nope no straight. The dealer announces that Joe has a pair of sevens. UTG then turns over his A8o for a pair of 8’s. Next fellow shows AJ for TPTK. The 3 bettor, who almost mucked on the turn and again on the river shows his red A’s. The button holds up his 2 K’s and tosses them into the muck and the dealer pushes the 275 red plus 1 white chip over to a very surprised fellow.

It’s getting late probably around 4:30 AM and I decide it’s my last orbit and I’m UTG+1 look down and see AQo and I raise. I get 4 cold callers including Tony in the SB.

Flop is Q7x high, two tone, another nice flop, I bet and get 3 callers, turn is a brick, I bet and get 2 callers. River is a Q not completing the flush, Tony fires out a bet, I raise, the fellow on the flush draw folds. One of the guys now sweating the game, calls out “7’s full” and as I roll my AQ, he says,” ok , that’s just as good”. Tony stares at his cards for a while and say’s ”yep, that beats me” and mucks. After having bought in for 2 racks, I look at my pyramid which is now 3 chips short of 8 racks and decide that I might even muck AA in the next hand. I normally never look at my cards until it’s time for me to act, but I decided to check out the cards as they were pitched to me. The 1st one was the 3h, I think, good no temptation here. The next is the 3d. Hmmm… should I…, nah I muck, it’s almost immediately raised and 3 bet and 5 see a flop that doesn’t have a 3 in it. I smile, finish racking up, say good night to everyone and roll my chips over to the cage.

I slept in and got up early afternoon. MP called to tell me that he put me on the list around 3 or so. I’m having dinner around 7 when he calls me and tells me that he just got his seat and I’m next on the list. I get over to the poker room, hear a name that’s not mine being called. I see MP and he tells me that I had just gotten called within the last 60 seconds and he had my name rolled. I wandered over to the board, begged with the lady and she put me back on the top of the list. I get called a few minutes later and sit down at the table just to the left of MP. Sunday night there were 2 main games going. Bad seat, I look around and decide that it’s not a very good game. I look at the other table and decide that is where I want to be. I get my name on the table change list; MP trusts my judgment and gets on the list too. So, I tread water at this table until I get called a little while later.

I get moved into the 6 seat. I’m in heaven again. 2 known LAG’s are in the 4 and 5 seats. It’s “cabby” in the 5 seat. I don’t know the rest of the folks to my left. The only other decent player at the table is Q across from me in the 1 seat. He looks at me and winks. I wonder why he didn’t sit in this seat.

I post behind the button, look down and see JJ and raise a few limpers, button cold calls, BB calls. I flop a set and on the river the lady sitting immediately to my left, says I want to see it and calls. Next orbit, cabby open raises, I look down and see JJ again and make it 3 bets. Lady to my left calls 60 cold as does the 9 and 10 seat. I’m not very used to being cold called in 3 spots when I 3 bet. In any event I flop another set, get paid off and I’m off and running again. For those of you that don’t know cabby, he’s a LAG and fancies himself a fine poker player. He also talks constantly, asks for deck changes from every dealer. I tell someone about my seat and he asks me, how can I stand sitting next to cabby, doesn’t he drive you nuts. I say yeah, but I get paid for it. So cabby tells me that, I’m the only person at the table (Q included, I guess) that he has any respect for. A seat opens up at the other table and he says to me “I guess that both of us would be happy if the other moved to the other table.” I just smiled at him in return. Anyway this game continues to be great, but I don’t think that I was ever successful in isolating the players to my right. Usually the lady and another older fellow, that was in the process of losing 4 racks called either my raise or 3-bet. The older fellow didn’t talk much, but of the words that he uttered, at least 75% was the word “call”. He played about 75-80% of his hands; it didn’t matter whether he needed to pay 1 bet or 4. I don’t remember him ever folding on the flop and he called the turn quite a bit as well.

Very rarely would any of the folks to the left of me raise PF. So I was able to see a lot of flops cheaply if the 2 folks to my right folded or limped. As such, suited A’s pairs, etc were playable from most anywhere. Eventually MP moved over to the game and got to enjoy it as well. He and I hooked up a few times. I’ll only relay 2 here:

I limp with A6 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], MP raises out of the BB. We’re heads up, an unusual situation.

I call his bet on an A7x flop, and call his turn bet when another A hits. What the heck do you have Barry? The river is a 7 and I’m ready to raise the river when he checks. I bet, he thinks and calls. I show my hand and his K’s are no good.

Later in another hand after cabby has racked up for the night, he sits down to my right. He open raises in the CO, I 3-bet him on the button with AT [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. Lady in the SB again calls.

Flop is ATx all of 1 suit. He bets, I raise, lady folds, he calls. He check/calls the turn blank, and bets the river when the 4th of the suit shows up. I think about raising, but just call. He had AJ or AQ with none of the relevant suit and my A’s up were good.

I was great seeing CZ, whose job and studies keep him away from the tables and the forum way too much as well as MP who now seems very comfortable in the 20 game, even though I owned him Sunday night. I also finally got to meet lil’, more good people.

So the trip was great on several fronts, renewing and firming up old acquaintances, making some new ones, and just enjoying the camaraderie of it all. Plus I RAN GOOT, so now again, I don’t think that I totally suck at this game.

Let's do it again soon!

[Buckshot]

[ QUOTE ]
I’m not very used to being cold called in 3 spots when I 3 bet.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought you said you played on Party alot...

Nice report, Barry.

~stephen

[MaxPower]

Yes, Barry owned me, but he pretty much owned everyone at Foxwoods this weekend. I was glad to see it, because I was playing with him on Party on Friday night and he was getting hammered like you wouldn't believe. There were two hands I played horrendously against you. Thanks for not posting the other one.

The game with Joe and Mr. 42s was possibly the greatest game ever. Legends were spreading in the poker room about it. To give you an idea of how good it was, I won 27BB and I felt that I had a bad session.

In one hand Joe was to my left, there were 4 limpers (including Joe) and I checked my option in the BB with Q4o. The flop was a Queen with 2 low clubs (I had no club). I bet and got 4 callers. The turn was a third club. I bet, Joe raised, everyone folded to me and I called. The river was the Queen of clubs, putting 4 clubs on board. I checked, Joe Bet, I said, "I can't believe I'm calling you" and called. I showed my hand and he mucked. He said, "I can't believe you called me with no club, this is Amateur hour"

This game was so great that nobody wanted to leave. I finally left around 5AM because I could no longer make out the symbols on the cards.

Barry, you left out the best hand from Sunday's game. Remember the hand where the 4 seat straddled?

On Sunday, I actually put both of our names on the list at 2PM. It took 3 hours just to get onto the first page of the list. I finally got called for the game at 7PM. It was such a zoo that when I went to put Mark's name on the list, it took me 20 minutes just to do that. Luckily after only 2 1/2 hours of waiting I was able to get into a stud game, so I wasn't waiting for the full 5 hours.

Also, the screen name of the other 2+2er we met was DankHank. He only has about 50 posts, but hopefully he will continue to contribute. It was nice to finaly meet lil' as well.

[Barry]

[ QUOTE ]
Barry, you left out the best hand from Sunday's game. Remember the hand where the 4 seat straddled?

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh yeah, that one.

LAG in the 4 seat straddles, I look down and see AA and 3 bet, I can't remember, but a few called the 3 bets cold and the LAG capped it blind.

The flop was 345, LAG bet, I raised, he 3-bet. I don't know if I capped the flop or what. But anyway, at the showdown he shows 62o for the flopped 2nd nuts. I was drawing stone cold dead after the turn.

[jar]

Thanks for the report, I really enjoyed reading this. Now I just need to build the bankroll for 20/40.

[lil']

You had one helluva pyramid built when I was leaving. Nice work. Aothough the table that was saturated with 2+2ers was awful, I had my best luck of the night there. The losers at the other table were killing me. Ah well.

Hopefully I'll run into you guys again and can spend some more time hanging out. When I get stuck I get a little shellshocked, and spend my time and energy trying to dig myself out (which I almost did).

Edit - Almost forgot to mention this...Barry, do you realize the other FW regulars respect you a lot? I mean, they'll still cold call your raises with K-10o sometimes, but they all know you are da man.

[sublime]

I mean, they'll still cold call your raises with K-10o sometimes, but they all know you are da man.

whats wrong with KTo?

[JoeU]

Great report Barry, sorry I missed out on the fun.

MP called me Sunday, and i could barely hear him over the noise from the casino. Apparently, it has been VERY busy there lately.

Hopefully, we'll all get together soon.....maybe another gathering like the one at the Borg last year???

Joe

[Diplomat]

Nice report. Unfortunately I missed you and all the 2+2'ers since I was there on Monday night, and because we decided to go pretty much right out of the blue...

Insane games though. Both the 20-40 stud and hold'em were great, and the 5-5 nl was sickly good. I managed to get stacked twice in the 5-5 game, but luckily had my ass saved by craps. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

-Diplomat

[CrackerZack]

It was a great trip. I somehow managed to lose in the game barry described, but its probably because i'm bad at poker. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I would've liked to stay over but grad school is kicking my ass and I couldn't take sunday off from school work. It was good seeing everyone and meeting lil, Kurn and Matt (whose S/N I don't recall) and getting to congratulate Kurn on his KotZ final the night before. We have to get another outing together before too long and it was great to see everyone, even max who lives real close but I haven't seen him months. We definitely have to have another of these get togethers, maybe a big AC weekend. Man, i need the vacation.

CZ