My first trip report - Foxwoods (low content until the end.)

[otnemem]

So I decide to take the trip to Foxwoods for the NEPC 500+65 NL HE tourney on Sunday. I book a night at the lovely Econolodge in the equally enchanting Groton, Connecticut, about 15-20 miles from Foxwoods. I just don't have the scratch to stay at a hotel closer to Foxwoods. So anyway, I decide I'll get up Saturday morning bright and early for the two and a half hour trek from Hoboken, New Jersey to Mashantucket. I want to get there before the lines, get on a 5-10 HE table and try to make some easy money off the fishies to cover part of my tourney buy-in. Unfortunately, about 70 miles from Foxwoods I realize that my Outback's hardly staying on the road in the light rain. At first I brush it off, but my car's skidding and losing traction on every puddle - not good when you're travelling 80 mph on a busy highway. So I pull over, get out, and my tire's smoking. That's not good. I pull into a Jiffy Lube and ask about my tire and the guy there says I probably shouldn't travel another 100 miles, and that there's a tire place around the corner. One hour, four new tires, and just under $400 later I'm back on the road, and desperately hoping I can still beat the lines. I don't. But it just so happens they're calling about thirty names off the 4-8 list, and knowing how that list works, I steal somone's spot (I'm an [censored]). I decide I'm ED in case I'm asked, which would have indeed proven to be a bad pick seeing as I was sitting next to Ed, and we struck up some conversation and it would have just been awkward. I make $250 playing 4-8, bleed it all back, and leave +$10. I go down to the satellite area and sign up for a $75 satellite for the $500. All of a sudden I start to get lightheaded. I realize I haven't eaten since morning (it's 7 PM now), and my bloodsugar is probably ridiculously depleted. I go up to the food court, shaking a bit, and get in line at the Nathan's hot dog stand. I'm not a really big guy - 5'10" 180 - but I ate two foot long hotdogs and four reese's pb cups (the poker's coming, I promise). Then I felt sick to my stomach and so devised a new plan - go to the hotel, sleep til 4 AM, come back to the poker room, try to profit on drunks who've been playing all night, and then sign up for the event. SUCCESS! So on to the tournament -

Horrible structure - 1500 in chips, blinds start at 25-50. A little too steep for me. I would have appreciated a 25-25 level. Anyway, 780 starters, and about 200 alernates. I'm alternate #3. I sit down in the 7 seat. First hand I get 8-8 in the CO. I raise to 125 (because I thought the blinds were 25-25. SB calls. Flop comes K-x-x. He bets out $250, I fold.

I get chipped down to around $900. I call in MP with KJ spades. My left raises to $150. A previous limper calls as do I. The flop comes Q-10-10, two spades, giving me the oe straight flush draw. Checks to the raiser who bets $600 into the $525 pot. I think with the current structure, the only way to get ahead is to take chances near the beginning, so I push my remaining $150 on top, he shows A-Q, and I get my spade on the turn. Good, a double up.

Later, blinds at 50-100, folded to me and I raise with 6-6 from CO-1. The BB calls. Flop comes 2-4-8, two clubs. BB, fishy, bets out $700 very nervously. I raise to $2000, he thinks for a while, and folds.

My stacks around 6000 when the table breaks. The chip leader, who is just absolutely horrible but terribly lucky (trust me, this is true), is at the table, which is bad. At one point I get all my chips in with A-Q versus Q-J from his UTG raise. I'm now over 10,000, well above average. Two hands that began my ruination:

77 v KQ I lose $1500 when my pair doesn't hold up
QQ v AK I lose $1800 when my pair doesn't hold up

I lost a bunch of little pots, and few medium-sized ones... Things just aren't working out. My demise -

Q-10 in BB, blinds 150-300, I have T3450 after my blind. 3 limpers, me and the SB. T2000 in pot. Flop is 10 high, two clubs. I throw my 3450 in, but alas, I can't push 8-J clubs off his draw. The dreaded King of clubs on the river sends me packing... Oh well...

Now tell me how badly my trip report sucked. I dare you.

[Mike Gallo]

Great trip report. I did not play in the tournament myself because of the chip structure.

[chesspain]

Let's see:

1) $400 for new tires.
2) Down another $75 for the satellite.
3) Got sick eating nasty food.
4) Thirty miles roundtrip to a hotel that cost you at least another $50.

That sounds like a fair return for someone who would steal a seat. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[otnemem]

Yeah, pretty much... BUT I got sick before the satellite and had to go home. So ha.

[toots]

If I ever caught someone trying to steal the seat I'd been waiting for over an hour for, I think I'd bobbit him on the spot.

[otnemem]

First of all, it was still early in the morning, and even after calling all those names, they couldn't fill the two tables. Secondly, if someone came over and said there name was on there, and they started asking around, I'd have to say I THOUGHT I heard my name, but indeed had not. Then I'd wait.

[mrkilla]

I have to add this was TERRBILE. My table was brutal, quad 10's got beat by a royal , another house got beat by Quads.
25/50 is way to much. By the time you hit round 3 if you didn't make any move your crushed.
Not to mention the lack of dealers for the sattalites and the hideous line to even get on a table after. After I busted out sunday i just took off. I almost left Saturday after the stud8 it was so bad.

[Bulldog]

[ QUOTE ]
if someone came over and said there name was on there, and they started asking around, I'd have to say I THOUGHT I heard my name, but indeed had not. Then I'd wait.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, in that case...

[otnemem]

Were you at my first table? I came in as an alternate in seat 7 after quad tens were busted by a rivered straight flush from the eight seat. And when I was there, kings full were killed by quad threes...Table 64, in the poker room.

[mrkilla]

HAHA yea I was, I think you busted me actually with you a/j suited against my kings.