Two Plus Two Newer Archives - [Trip Report] A SSNL'er Plays the WPT (Long)

Cliff Notes: I play in the WPT at Foxwoods. I bust out and do tourist things. I play cash games against the worst poker players in the world and loose.

I won a seat to play the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals $10K buy-in event through Holdempoker.com. In a freeroll no less! They run a weekly multi-table tournament league. At the end of the season, the top 100 players play for an expenses-paid tript to the WPT. Weekly tournaments cost a trivial number of frequent player points. I won season 1. Last week-end was week 8 (of 11) of Season 2 so it's a little late to get in on it this season. I have no idea if they'll continue the promotion another season given OnGame's ban on American players.

My wife and I drove down the Friday before the tournament. Round trip total, 20423km (12690 miles).

Foxwoods is a mall. It's just like any mall, except the bigger stores have slot machines and blackjack tables. Otherwise, it's laid out exactly like any mall. Food courts, restaurants, and shops.

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/4467/foxwoods1pr6.jpg

And of course there's hotels. Holdempoker put us up in a King Suite. It was big. Bigger than my first appartment.

And second.

And third.

On Saturday I had to register for the tournament. I just wasn't up for it Friday night after the big drive.

At Foxwoods, you need to have one of their player's cards in order to register for anything, including the WPT. This mean't that Holdempoker could not pre-register me for the tournament. Instead, they had to wire cash to the Foxwoods cashier which I would pick-up and then use to buy into the tournament. I think this raised some concern with the site, as they made a point of underlining what a big opportunity it was to play in the WPT. Once in a lifetime (I should hope not!) and all that. While the utility value of $10K in my pocket would have been very high, I think my wife would have killed me on the spot convinced as she was I was destined for the final table. Besides, ten years down the road an extra $10k is not going to make a lot of difference, but pussing out on the WPT. That sticks with you a long, long time.

So I had to pick $10K cash which Holdempoker wired me at the cage. Saturday morning, I go to the main cashier to pick up the wire. They can't find the wire! At one point, the woman handling this tells me they "Have a wire with no name, but if it's mine there's nothing they can do because the bank's closed." My tournament life flashes before my eyes. What am I going to tell Holdempoker? They're gonna believe I couldn't register because of some cashier screw up? What'm I gonna do with the money if I don't get it until after the tournament's started? What if the money had just disappeared? I had the phone number, in Sweden, for the promotions manager at Holdempoker but it was Sunday and would've been the evening there. Who knows if we'd be able to get a hold of them.

Eventually, after making me sweat for twenty minutes, they tracked it down at another cage. For whatever reason it was sitting at a secondary cashier. The one I was at was the primary that usually handles all wires but mine was elsewhere. Whatever. I was so glad I hadn't done that the night we drove in. After 8 hours in the car, there's no way I would have made it through without blowing my top.

Seriously relieved, I took the cash back to our room. I'd gone by the poker room to see the registration desk and the lineup was huge. I decided to try back later in the hoping it was just rush they'd eventually clear. It wasn't, however, it turned out the lineup was only for sattelites and ballas buying in directly didn't have to wait in line instead there was an exclusive second cashier. Winnah!

Registration was down for the tournament, 609 players this year versus almost 800 last year. Speculation was the online ban and there was VERY little online poker room gear to be seen. However, I think Foxwoods whack registration procedure had something to do with it as well. Any online room who had to deal with registration last year may well have shied away from doing it again this year. Particularly if they had any problems with players pocketing the money and not registering. Given all the options out there for live tournaments, if I'm and online room I'd give serious consideration to just avoiding dealing with it all together. Certainly there was enough time before the ban for online sattelites - There was enough time for Holdempoker...

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A $10,000 piece of paper - My registration receipt.

With only about 600 players, payout was only top-60 players. As opposed to last year where almost 120 got paid. So I knew it was going to be a long-shot to get in.

My table featured Victor Ramdin, Vinny Vinh and Ben Armstrong (finished 12th).

It's was a tough table, an action table. We didn't see a hand without a flop until at least the fourth level. Pre-flop raises were common and would routinely see four or five callers with everyone looking for big implied odds from the deep stacks. Victor and Vinny were both to my left (well, Vinny was accross from me, I was seat 5, he was 10). Both of them played super-LAG from the get go. Victor changed gears a few levels in, however Vinny kept at it. Both were out early (by the dinner break, or so).

I started the tournament with a lot of promise. I flopped top-two pair on the third hand. I then flopped two sets in the next hour. However, it was early, the blinds were low and no big second-best hands so they weren't big pots. I then went on an extended run of junk hands.

I don't remember how Victor went out.

Both Vinny and Victor built up big stacks early, but pissed them all away.

I think I may have helped tilt Vinny.

I was in the CO or button. A couple limpers to me and I raise. Vinny's the only caller. Flop is K-high. Checked to me. I bet, Vinny folds.

Guy a couple seats to the left of me says, "What did you have? We have a side bet over here..."

"What's it worth to you?", I reply. The table laughs. Guy doesn't have a witty responce.

I think about it for a second. I never, ever show. However, I'd been playing tight and more importantly card-dead. I thought my image was too tight, as witnessed by the fact my raise only got the one call.

So I flipped over my AQo.

The table went, "Oooooooooohh!" Which surprised me because that's a totally standard play.

The very next hand, Vinny got into a huge argument with the dealer over antes. The dealer was a dick, but Vinny went completely over the top and wound up calling the floor.

Vinny started bleeding chips, making a couple "big laydowns" before pushing a pretty healthy stack in with A-rag preflop into QQ. A hand the table would later come to call "The Gift". The recepient of his largess went on to become tournament chip-leader for a while but in the end I do not think he cashed.

This may have paid off for me. Not too long after, I doubled up. LAG big stack raises UTG, TAG big stack calls in MP. I'm on the button. I have about $18K, blinds were $300/$600 with $75 antes. The raise was $2K. I think about what kind of reraise I can make here. Raising half my stack seems silly and I decide I'm prolly more likely to get called by one of the big stacks if I just push and make it look like I'm stealing or desperate.

UTG big stack folds but the other player thinks about it a while and says, "Well I hope we're racing" and calls with 99. My Kings hold up and I'm at $38K which gives me an above average stack.

Vinny Vinh was replace by...

Doyle Brunson.

Doyle was shortstacked. He nursed and nursed that stack forever until busting out on an absolutely sick hand against the same player who busted Vinny. Folded to Doyle in the CO. Doyle pushes. The big stacked BB calls. Doyle has AA. The BB has AKo. The flop is monotone and the BB makes his flush on the river. Brutal.

I played exactly one hand of any note against Doyle. I raise from the button after a couple limpers. Doyle is the only caller. Checks to me and I bet it. Doyle folds. FWIW, I had KK.

I went out in level 8 late Sunday, around 10:30pm. They only played to level 9 the first day and I was pretty disappointed to come so close to making it through to the second day.

After a blind-steal gone bad an hour or so ago that put me down around $10 or $12K, I'm back up to a bit under $20K. Blinds are $600/$1200 with $200 antes. Player to my right who has me outchipped maybe 2-1, raises. I look at AQs. While I've been able to chip-up, the big stacks have really been running over the table the last couple hours and I decide I need to win a race to get back in this and I think raiser is capable of folding something like 88 or 99. So I push. Unfortunately, the BB, who has us both covered, pushes too. Raiser folds JJ. BB has AKo and I don't improve.

Best line of the tournament:

Vinny Vinh, "Do you know who I am?"
Guy beside me, "Yeah, I know who you are. You're Vinny Vinh. I've seen you on TV. You play better on TV."

Second best:

Vinny Vinh, to dealer, "Wassamatter? Don't you like Asians?" (Dealer is Asian).

After the tournament, I took some time off poker and we did tourist things:

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9...xwoods6pw1.jpg
Mystic Aquarium - This guy likes fish too!

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That great American tradition... Disco Turkeys!

Then I headed down to the poker room to play some $1/$2 ring.

Wow.

Just wow.

Foxwoods has the reputation for the world's worst players. I've played live. I've played at many online sites. And I would say this is a fair assessment.

Seriously, anyone reading this, if you can beat ANY online NL game, all the way down to the lowest micros, you can kill this game. Just kill it.

In the long term. In the short-term, variance is HUGE. You will need a bankroll.

See the flop percentage was somewhere around 70%. Pre-flop raises would routinely see 5 or 6 callers.

I swear, I nearly cried tears of joy.

I saw one guy limp AA in late position after about 7 callers, then spend the next twenty minutes whining after he stacked off to a flopped set. He only stopped whining after he (wait for it) limped KK and won a small pot.

There was a lady to my right who saw the flop every. single. hand for an hour. Didn't matter if it was raised preflop or not. One hand she raised from the BB after about 17 limpers, got 13 or 14 callers. She showed down T7o. She must have reloaded 5 or 6 times at $100 a pop.

I was so, so sad when she left!

Fortunately, there was still a table full of her peers.

One of my favorite hands... It gets to the river heads up (doesn't matter how). Super-Laggy big stack bets. Other player in the hand calls a string raise on him so LAG doesn't get to overbet pot. Second player just calls this 3/4 pot bet or whatever it was. LAG has two random cards that bear no resemblance to the flop. Other player takes the pot. LAG was in the middle of leaving and now he leaves. After he's gone, other player says "I knew he was bluffing when he tried to make the string raise". I think "If you knew he was bluffing, why the hell did you stop him from making the string raise? You hate money?"

Unfortunately, as bad as these players are, I run worse - AA<AJ, FH<QUADS. This isn't BBV and I'm not going to turn this into a huge whine about my cooler hands.

Like I said, it's a high variance game. You're going to find yourself calling $15 raises with suited connectors and pocket pairs an awful lot because there are already three callers in front of you and if you hit, you will get paid off. But if you're not hitting it's going to be a long, long night. And value-bet like crazy because half the table are calling stations who will happily call you all the way with bottom pair.

If only there was some way to multi-table!

I'd really like to thank Holdempoker.com for a great trip! They were really excellent and extremely accomidating including being flexible enough to allow me to rent a car to drive down instead of flying. Thanks guys!