Foxwoods WPT World Poker Finals Trip Report (long with pictures)

[grandgnu]

Sorry it took so long to get my Foxwoods trip, was fighting a bit of depression over how it all turned out. Here it is for your enjoyment! (pics at the end)

Jenn and I headed down on Tues, Oct 31st and had a jr. suite in the Grand Pequot Tower locked up for three nights. I go to check-in where I normally do, and I’m told I have a suite and have to check-in at the VIP section. So I go in there and they were very friendly and helpful, made me feel important.

We get in the room and it’s really nice, much better than their standard rooms (since it has an awesome master bathroom and it also has a second bathroom so I can have some privacy and get my reading done without Jenn doing her makeup or whatever.

There was also a stereo system with tape and cd players, all a bit dated, but whatever. The TV’s were also dated, they should have some flat screens and DVD players up in there by now, but whatever.

Anyway, Day 1 I get myself into a 10/20 HORSE cash game. During the Hold Em portion I’m in the BB with A/9 and there’s one limper and the SB calls with 4/6. I check and the flop is A/2/5 and the SB comes out betting his gutshot straight draw. I raise and he [censored] calls me. And of course, the turn is a [censored] 3, and the river brings another 3, are you kidding me????? I lose $150 for that session.

On Day 2 I have my tournament at 10am. It’s the $600 Omaha hi/lo event and with almost 300 entrants first place is over 50K. I’m at Table 10, seat 3. In seat 2 (on my right) is the #4 Player of the Year (based on Cardplayer stats) John Hoang. He plays pretty awful and I can only assume he’s a Hold Em monkey. He sports a 2005 Tunica World Poker Open bracelet.

In seat 1 is a disheveled fat curly haired man that looks like he just crawled out of the dumpster to play this event. His play is even worse than Johns, as I catch him limping a hand like 5/6/7/8 from the button.

On my left in seat 4 is a chain smoker who takes frequent jaunts out into the hallway to light up (and then spread his stink all over me when he returns). He’s fairly talkative, but also seems annoyed at a variety of things (kinda nittish).

Over an hour into the event and who shows up late in seat 10? The #1 POY from Cardplayer, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. He looks uninterested (since you can’t make outrageous all-in bluffs in Omaha) and pretty much tells us he just wants to bust out (which he does fairly quickly)

Paul “The Truth” Darden arrives at our table but doesn’t seem overly friendly. The player who replaces Mizrachi is a card counter who gets into a discussion with the #4 seat guy and corrects him frequently about his flawed thinking on the game of Blackjack.

Anyway, nothing really interesting happens. I’m unable to build my stack, and wind up paying off the disheveled homeless looking guy in Seat 1 when I make Queens full of 2’s and he has Queens full of 10’s. That takes a big chunk out of my stack (although I lost the minimum I could by not raising him)

About four hours into the event blinds have hit 100/200 and the betting is 200/400. We only started with 3K in chips, and I’m down to about 1500 or so.

John Hoang limps UTG with 2/3/5/9 offsuit????? He has a fairly large stack (he has shown down a [censored]-ton of awful hands, but he’s also gotten paid off on his monster holdings. He plays a lot of trashy cards pre-flop, but seems to play well post-flop)

Anyway, I’m next to act with A/A/3/10 double suited and I decide it’s stand-making time, so I raise. I’m happy when another shorter stacked player three-bets (he holds A/2/4/6 suited and should just be calling and hoping to get action on his hand, heads-up is not how he should play that hand, but whatever)

Anyway, even as I’m telegraphing my four-bet, John is calling?? Uh, hello, Mcfly? Your aces are [censored] gone son, fold that [censored]!

So anyway, he calls the two raises, I cap the [censored] and the shorter stacked guy is all-in and I have very few chips left. John has 15% equity preflop while I have 49%. After the flop comes 2/9/K with two of my suit, he is ahead in that he now has two pair. But mathematically he’s still a dog to my holding because he has bottom two, and I have an overpair, flush draw and backdoor low draw. He bets, and I get it all-in.

He’s moved up to 38% equity in the hand, but I’m at 53% at this point. The turn is a 3, the river a Jack, no clubs. He scoops us both with his weak two pair (winning this pot would get me to 4.5K or so in chips, enough to get back into the thick of it and have a shot)

So, my dreams of winning the 51K are dashed by this NL Hold Em monkey. He goes on to finish in 10th place overall (top 20 paid from what I recall) It pisses me off when someone with close to 2 million in tournament winnings gets lucky as [censored] against me like that with a [censored] hand. The 50K for first place meant a hell of a lot more to me than it did to him.

He was a friendly guy though, and he was actually staying on my floor. I saw him later in a 100/200 Omaha hi/lo cash game and he whipped out this ridiculously thick wad of hundred dollar bills that had me salivating. I didn’t ask him to stake me though.

Anyway, if he wants to call off 25% of his chips with 2/3/5/9 against two raisers pretty much telling him all his Aces are out, well, so be it. He gave me a shot at getting back into it, and variance bit me in the ass. So, that’s -$600 for the tourney (not to mention close to -$700 for the three nights in the suite)

I play some more cash games on 10/20. I live straddle with 2/3/K/K suited and the flop comes 7/8/9 with two of my suit. The BB bets, I raise, a hold em dork with A/3/5/10 calls two cold, the BB with A/A/2/5 suited three-bets. Turn is a 2, river a 10 of hearts and I pay off with the 2nd nut flush.

I raise A/A/2/7 double suited UTG and get FOUR [censored] CALLERS, including the idiot blind who has 3/7/9/10 (these games are [censored] gold mines people!). The flop is 3/10/3, arrrrgggghhhhh!

Oh yeah, on our first night there I had to call their engineering people since my toilet got stopped up. They came and fixed it. Well, on the second night, it gets clogged up again and floods the bathroom. I call them again and it’s the same guys who come up. They bring the snake and figure out that someone must have dropped a bar of soap down the toilet, which was causing all the clogs. I get $50 taken off my room rate.

I play another poker session and make a profit of $77. I waited an hour and a half to play, and didn’t even play more than an hour. I had to rush out of the poker room and meet Jenn for dinner reservations at the Cedar Steak House.

I love my wife very much, but had I known just how juicy the cash games would be (and how long the wait lists would be) I would have chosen another time to get a suite and spend time with her doing things. The dinner was delicious, she had some steak and I chose their semi-boneless chicken. Service was excellent, we actually had two servers and also an always-there guy to refill waters and such.

Jenn and I also hit the Atrium Lounge where they had a band called “The Usual Suspects” playing as free entertainment. We had some drinks and chilled out, although a few smokers ruined it for us for a bit, as their stench wafted towards where we were sitting, [censored]!

The waitress Michelle was decent looking, but she had one of those tramp stamps on her lower back and probably was the mother of a few children easily. Lots of guys kept looking at my wifes cleavage. It was pretty funny how obvious they were, yet they’d try to be subtle about it by doing the quick glance out of the corner of their eyes.

Jenn and I got enough alcohol into us that we loosened up, so I started calling some guys on it as they walked by. I’d be like “hey, it’s cool if you stare at my wife’s [censored]!” Or I’d look them right in the eye as I started to pull the front of her shirt down.

They’d just turn red and become mute and not know what to say. I was also egging Jenn on with various offers. There was some fat lady on a crutch and I told Jenn I’d give her $100 if she ran over and yanked the crutch out from under her.

There was some middle aged woman dancing like, well, a middle-aged woman out on the floor. I told Jenn I’d give her $50 if she ran over there and started dancing exactly like her. Jenn hadn’t drank enough unfortunately, and didn’t bite.

I even tried to offer Jenn money to offer our waitress Michelle money for the two of them to make out, but no dice, darnit!

So anyway, I get into a 20/40 O.E. game and it’s friggin awesome. I scoop some pots early and I’m up between 500-600 in profit, it was sick. Then I get screwed on some [censored] monsters:

In the O8 rotation a new player (who turned out to be a 2+2er) raises in LP when it’s folded to him, he has A/6/6/9 suited. A new player who just bought in and already has $10 invested calls the raise. I three-bet from the blind with A/A/3/4 double suited all black and they both call. Flop is Q/2/Q with two hearts and I lead out. The guy with A/6/6/9 doesn’t have the heart flush draw and he actually only has two [censored] outs, and he calls me and it’s heads-up. The turn is……..yup, you guessed it, a [censored] 6! I bet, he raises, I just call (I now have the nut low draw with counterfeit protection, an Ace would give me the scoop of the pot, and any [censored] low card guarantees me half against his made full house)

River is………ta-[censored]-daaaaaaa! His fourth 6, are you kidding me? So he scoops a nice pot.

In the 7-stud hi/lo round I pickup A/2/3 all diamonds and then catch a Jack and a King offsuit and have to fold to a guy with a 4/7/8 board.

In another stud 8 round by fourth street I have 2/5 showing and A/3 in the hole. A 7/8 suited guy is leading into the field. There’s a 10/J calling, and behind me is the guy who checked with A/6. I want the A/6 out to strengthen my own low draw, so I raise, he calls the two cold and the 7/8 guy re-raises it and we build a big pot.

The turn brings the 7/8 guy an offsuit 3, the 10/J guy picks up a 7 and I pair up with another 2. The A/6 catches bad with a Jack. The 3/7/8 leads, the 7/10/J calls, I raise it and finally get the A/6 to fold, only to be three-bet by the 3/7/8. This unfortunately forces out the 7/10/J and I’m heads-up and brick on my next two cards, completely missing my low and he scoops a monster pot with his made flush and 8 low, ugh.

So where I mathematically should have shown a 700-800 profit for that session, I get away with $150 in profit. It really sucks to go from 500-600 up down to 150, especially when you’ve already got so much invested.

Variance can be a real bitch sometimes, but dem’s the breaks. Jenn and I couldn’t sleep our last night there, so early in the morning she follows me down to the casino. The only mixed game going is a 4/8 HORSE table, so I sit down and run into the A/6/6/9 guy from before. In addition, there’s a Toughman Competition taking place and one of those guys is on my left.

The table is short-handed, and at the far end of the table is a guy that looks just like Joey Fatone from N’Sync (from the front, side view, not as much)

Anyway, the A/6/6/9 guy has his Asian girlfriend with him, and she is friggin’ hilarious. I bring up the Joey Fatone thing and then me and that guy keep her going. She’s completely confused whether it’s really him or not, and he’s playing along, as are others at the table.

We had some grump of a dealer (it was 4am) sit down, big obese black dude. He got all upset that we were laughing and having a good time and told us to knock off the Joey Fatone business, it was giving him a headache (this is why tips shouldn’t be pooled people, dickwads like this guy get the same as the good dealers)

It just blew my mind that this [censored] is upset that we’re having a good time and enjoying ourselves. Would he rather we say “c’mon dealer, gimme Aces!” or “geesh, YOU just had to give him his flush, didn’t YOU?” and start blaming him for the luck of the draw?

Or we could all just argue with one another over the low hands in the O8 rotation. We also had a bunch of dealers who didn’t understand that we were playing a mixed game or how Razz worked (i.e. they didn’t realize that the high card brought in and then the best low bet out afterwards)

Anyway, it was a fun trip, but a money drain because of the tournament and hotel room, and my inability to play marathon sessions in the cash games.

There were a bunch of 100/200, 150/300 and 200/400 O8 games that sprang up, and plenty of people with more money than sense in those games. If I was bankrolled for them (or had a backer) I’d be all over them and be rich in no time flat. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

I’m heading down Wednesday morning very early (prior to 9am) and have a room at the Two Trees to crash in after a marathon 18 hour poker binge. I need to rape these games now while they’re in town for as much as I can.


I've seen all the ballers posting pics of their alcohol filled rooms and fridges. Well....top this boys! That's right, that IS Goofy Grape drinks from Stop n' Shop in my fridge, REPRESENT EAST COAST MOTHER [censored]!!!!!!




Some pics of the room:









Me chilling in the jacuzzi tub of the suite



My Jr. Balla bankroll for cash games. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[otnemem]

It's not that I don't appreciate the picture of you relaxing in a bubble bath, but pics of wife's cleavage, please!!???

[magoo]

Enjoyed your report. Nice pics. "Super System" and you! What kind of camera?

[jar]

[ QUOTE ]
It's not that I don't appreciate the picture of you relaxing in a bubble bath, but pics of wife's cleavage, please!!???

[/ QUOTE ]

[27offsuit]

I hope your wife was at least naked whilst taking that disturbing photo of you in a bubblebath...

[Photoc]

MFER!!! PLease lable this as NSFW!! GD I almost got in trouble with half nekked pics of you on my bosses computer screen!

As for what I'm doing on my bosses computer...playing poker of course [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
It's not that I don't appreciate the picture of you relaxing in a bubble bath, but pics of wife's cleavage, please!!???

[/ QUOTE ]

Everytime I post pics of my wife there's controversy.

[ QUOTE ]
Enjoyed your report. Nice pics. "Super System" and you! What kind of camera?


[/ QUOTE ]

Canon 3.2 megapixel from a few years ago, nothing special.

[ QUOTE ]
I hope your wife was at least naked whilst taking that disturbing photo of you in a bubblebath...

[/ QUOTE ]

You damn right mofo!

[ QUOTE ]
MFER!!! PLease lable this as NSFW!! GD I almost got in trouble with half nekked pics of you on my bosses computer screen!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it was the woody you had under the desk that gave you away.....

[magoo]

[ QUOTE ]
Enjoyed your report. Nice pics. "Super System" and you! What kind of camera?


[/ QUOTE ]
Canon 3.2 megapixel from a few years ago, nothing special.


Good enough to post here. Good job.