Foxwoods Act I&II

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Anyone play through the ACT satellites at Foxwoods? I'm going to be in the area later this week and am going to stop in. What are your thoughts on the play?

[Fletch101]

I have played the ACT I eleven times and the ACT II six times, and will play my first ACT III later tonight.

The play at the ACT I level is definitely beatable, especially considering that you only have to finish in the top three to advance. Generally there will be 2-3 people who exit the game rather quickly by losing all in bets, so I avoid big risks early unless I am very confident that I have the best of it.

Raises are typical 3-4x BB, with post flop betting varying a bit but in general are nothing out of the ordinary in terms of NL, and plenty of due respect for raises and re-raises in terms of people laying down their marginal hands pre-flop. You will see the occasional non-raised pot going into the flop, so speculative hands are sometimes worth a look.

You can expect to see quite a range of variance in terms of the skill level of the different players at the table, so be sure to give yourself enough time to recognize the easier targets. Between the early all in losers and the "easier targets", a solid style mixed with picking my spots for an occasional steal and a few good cards usually do the trick. Consider this when deciding when to play your ACTs: The level of play in the ACT I is noticably improved when the games are coming off one of the weekly $100/$150 tournaments. These games will quickly fill up with decently skilled and properly warmed players and will be tougher than playing during the day, or on Fri/Sat/Sun(no non-ACT tournaments during these days). If your schedule allows, I find the best time to play and advance is the weekend.

All ACT I's I have played in, save one, were completed in less than one hour.

Players will start with $1000 in chips, with 4 green 25s and 9 grey 100s.

On to ACT II- here you will be up against noticeably tougher opponents, generally speaking. It's hard to put it into words without just saying that "it's tougher than ACT I by a factor of 2"... shrug.

The ACT tables are in what they refer to as the "foyer" of the poker room; just look up for the high ceiling with the decorative glass flowers(really big), a giant skylight, and the tables using grey($100) and green($25) tournament chips, and you're in the right area. It is separeted from the main poker room by some lesser table games and a few craps tables. Generally there is a clipboard list for Act II which can be found somewhere in the area, and sometimes also for Act I(although mostly Act I is FCFServe with no list). Near the foyer you will see the "Tournament Registration" counter which is generally unmanned and unused unless they are setting up for one of the aforementioned weekly tournaments; this counter is NOT used for ACTs. However, on this counter you will see that they have several booklets available on the WPT WPF, Foxwoods tournament rules, etc.

You will NEED a Wampum card(Foxwood's player's club card/comp card) which takes about two minutes to get once you make it through the line. Also, hold onto the receipt you are given once they take your money, as sometimes they will want proof you were in the game you claim you were in to get your advancement coupon, should you win.

I can't speak to ACT III as tonight will be my first.

Hope this will be of some help, if you have any more specific questions I will keep an eye on this thread.

[Rasputin]

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I can't speak to ACT III as tonight will be my first.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm going down at the end of the month once they start doing the Act IIIs on Saturdays and playing Act IIs (two tickets in my wallet) to get into that night's Act III so if you're inclined to post your thoughts and comments after your experience, I'd appreciate it.

[cooter7]

The Act I isn't to difficult to move on in. I would recommend playing a tight game and wait for your opportunity as the players in the Act I's will usually provide it. The Act II is obviously a tougher game because now you have to finish first to move on coupled with the fact that the players do seem to play better. I would consider myself a better than average player and I moved on in my first Act I and finished 2nd, 3rd and 1st in my three Act II appearances. I can't comment on the Act III as my first one is scheduled for the 14th. Although I am interested in any info from anyone who has competed in one.

[TheTurk]

I agree. ACT I's are very beatable. I've only played twice. I finished top 3 the first time and finished 5th when I couldn't get any cards. The first one I did actually took over 2 hours (very surprised) and was nocked out 5th after and hour an fifteen.

When I did my Act II I expected the level of play to jump dramatically as the ones I watched seem to have some very decent players. I must have been at one of the tables with the least amount of skilled players, but needless to say one of the gotl ucky and I took a very tough beat. I plan to play some more ACTs 10/30 and 10/31 Goodluck.

[Fletch101]

Hey guys,

Here's my ACT III report from last night:

Overall I am still not skilled enough at medium-large MTTs to understand how to properly accumulate chips when I don't have the cards to do so "straight up". I think I need to work on my steal timing/weakness recognition so I can pickup survival chips/accumulate when the opportunity presents. Any general comments here are appreciated.

Anyway, here's how it went:

There were about 130 registrants on 13 tables.

Paul Darden was two seats to my left, and I must admit I let that affect my play more than I would like to at my first table, so I was less aggressive than I normally might have been. For example, I mucked a KJ [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] to a raise when I was in decent position and would have flopped a full house. Anyway, there was player at my table who doubled up on the second hand(from 3000 to 6000) on a pair of 9s vs. a smaller pair, and he immediately went hyper-aggresive and somewhat dictated the tempo of play for the rest of my table during the first hour until the inital break.

I picked up a nice KQ [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and flopped top pair with flush draw which allowed me to make a small bit of change.

Later, I had pocket 6s in position and ended up heads up on the flop vs a player who I was confident had overcards. He bet the flop at 500 and I raised to 1000 and he mucked(I flopped trip 6s).

Other than that I did not see much in the way of cards and the early double upper was dictating much of the action by leaning on us(he was two seats to my right).

As for Paul Darden, he was splashing around a bit, was up and down, and ended up with about 1500(I estimate) at the first break.... this would change later, you will want to read to the end for the Darden update. As a player/person, he was very mellow and chill for the most part, as well of complimentary of players who would raise him out of hands. I was impressed with his sportsmanship.

After the break I won a few small pots before our table broke, and at that point I was at 4100/+1100. I played two hands at my next table before being moved again(I did manage to lose 1000 before moving though when I THOUGHT my pocket 3s in mid-late position were going to be good, but I caved when re-raised all in from the button... even though I thought he had two overcards, I probably should have sacked up here).

At my next and last table, I survived another hour and a half, which included the second break. I had no action on normal raises with my JJ and KK.

The antes here were taking a toll on me and I wanted to play more hands to survive and maybe grow some, but I was getting leaned on a LOT by a large stack two seats ahead of me, who was definitely bullying often and raising me out regularly. I was getting blinded/ante'd off and was not happy about it.

I ended up in a do or die mode. I noticed a medium stack four spots ahead of me giving me a tell by eyeing my stack hard, more than once, when it was folded to him. His actions led me to put him on two high cards who wanted to bet me off my blind. He went all-in, and was quickly followed all-in by another small stack to my immediate right. I looked down and was greeted by a pleasant surprise; 66. It was a no brainer for me to also go all in with here with a chance to triple up. The raiser did have a indeed have KQo and the second all-iner to my right had an overpair with TT. Luckily I picked up my Number of the Beast on the Flop and did triple up, and TT was eliminated and the original raiser was now low. This was my second 666 of the night, by far most my most profitable hands of the night.

After that I didn't see dick for cards and became too passive to survive the 75/100$ antes and increasing blinds, which were at 400/800 when I went out.

My chances at steals and such were minimized by the player who replaced the guy who went out with TT. He hit a SERIOUS rush when he sat down with a relatively short stack... he went on a nice rush and picked up JJ QQ AKs in succession, along with at least one smaller pocket pair thrown in there for good measure, and more than quintupled his money in a short period of time. Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow, though, great guy and good player.

That guy to my right, coupled with a big stack two seats to my right who has overbetting regularly to take down antes and blinds, quickly put me back in do or die. I finally picked up something to go with when I was down to 800 with the blinds about two hands away. My KT did not hold up against Ax, he paired his ace on the flop... I had a 4 outer to a straight but the jack did not show up on the river, so that was the end of me.

I ended up 29 of 140 or so, 11 off the $800ish leftover prize, 12 off the Act III repeat coupons, and 17 off the $10,000 seat. All this with never playing a hand past the flop(please feel feel to comment and criticize here).

I didn't stick around to see who won, but I would be willing to bet who did: Remember that Paul Darden was two seats to my left at table one and was splashing around and generally chilling out... and ended up with about 1500 at the first break? I took a look at him when I went out, he had grown to four stacks of $100 chips up to his nipples, along with a nice tall stack of $500 chips as well. He was clearly the tournament chip leader. I almost wish I would have gone out early enough to see how he accumulated his chip fortress, as this is my weakness- accumulation.

Overall, expect big stacks to push and steal, so take your shots to push back when you have it. The antes will kill you in a hurry so you will need to recognize when the survival time is over and you need to start making moves. Compared to Act II, I would classify the level of play as ACT*1.25, not too bad. I was too conservative, although I was between a rock and a hard place many times I wanted to steal or re-raise to build/survive. Aggressive and well-timed play seemed to be the successful mode of the day, which is probably not a surprise to anyone here.

Good luck guys.

[cooter7]

Great review Fletch. I only have 2 comments. I would have slow played your first set of 6's, the other guy might have lead out again if you had called his initial bet and secondly I don't know if I would have had the cahonas to call when you did with your second pocket 6's and two all-ins before you, but it looks like it worked out for you. I'll be there next Thursday night and with a bit of luck on my side I'll have one of those $10,000 tickets. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Fletch101]

I did indeed consider the slowplay on the first set, but there was a flush draw onboard and I had the player on a possible semi(I thought perhaps by the strength of his bets that his overcards were suited and he had hit the flop and had gone four to his flush), and I didn't feel too comfortable continuing the hand.