Foxwoods Trip Report

Note: long post, I mention some good cash games in the later portion of it.

I’ve been working a lot here recently and decided to take a day off and head down to Foxwoods with a friend to play a few tournaments. I initially planned to play the 11AM aggressively and buy into the 1PM tournament as well, then later that night playing the 7PM.

I ended up oversleeping and not getting to Foxoods till 1:30 which was just enough time to buy in as the final alternate. I got a seat shortly into level 2 and did not recognize anyone from the days when I used to play these often. The only player I knew in that tournament was my friend who was at another table and Spiro who was a third table.

About 7 hands from the time I sat down I got pocket fours and limped from early mid position. I watched the button look down at his cards and saw his eyes light up as he was obviously staring at aces. I knew this well in advanced. At this point the blinds were 50/100 w/ no ante yet. I had most of my 10K starting chips still and this player was well stacked with over 20K chips, maybe 24Kish. He raised the pot to 400, a player I later leanred to be a total fish called from the BB and I made the call as well. The flop came 9-7-4, the SB checked, I checked as well knowing he’d bet Aces against two players. He bet 1200.. BB folded and I made it 5400 total, leaving 4000 behind. He agonized forever stood and said you must have a set. I chose not to make any eye contact with him and just sat still as a rock leaned forward in my chair as if to show fear of a call. After a while he said you have to have flopped a set.. at this point I decided to sit back in my chair as if to show that I was confident while now looking right at him. He knew too for sure I had a set and he decided “oh well I have to see it” in his mind of coarse and moved all in.

Things went well for the next couple hours, I won a lot of pots 3 betting and continuation betting and had built my stack up to around 27K.

We were then down a a player or two at each of 3 tables left when this hand occurred.

The blinds are 300/600 with a $75 ante and a short stack pushes all in for 2775 from UTG. The button who is a total fish.. he limps every time he can and folds when its raiser or calls when raise is cheap etc.. half the hands he’s turned over are Q8 , K2 suited etc while only a few of them are much of anything. He also made a bit bet on a board of AQK23 and was called by 35. which beat him.. almost everyone at the table recognized he was in with any two no matter what. Anyways he calls in this hand.

I look down and see pocket tens now from the BB and I need to decide what to do. I’m pretty sure at this point if I push the fish on the button is going to fold unless he has a premium hand and I can end up having my TT go against the short stack with me risking 2175 more to win the 6700 already in the pot if the BB does in fact fold. I decide to go for this option and push all in.

The BB takes literally 5 minutes to call and turns over AA. It was a total slow roll, but it was not international, the guy just sucked at poker and though he needed to put his chips in the middle at the same time he said call. Obviously the proper way is to say call, everyone turn up there hands then square up. He asks how much is it, I count out my chips nice and slowly and responded with 27,275 total. He asks more or total and I say total. He then asks the dealer wait how much did the other guy bet.. all while he is getting a count. Then he takes an eternity to count out his chips messing up the first time. This entire time he had every intention of calling, but I did not know this.. all his action lead me to believe he was contemplating a call. Anyways no suck out for me and I hit the rail. My friend final tabled this even and pretty sure he pushed in with AK on final table and this guy called him with A8 off for a ton of chips and made trip 8’s. Based on how bad a player the button was and the fact that his range in that spot was truly any two, I don’t think if I replayed that hand anyways I wouldn’t have busted. The flop was 9 high.

7PM Tournament:

It’s not to often I bust out of a tournament during level one. In fact at Full Tilt Poker I am a small loser for my career despite on official poker rankings it shows I finish in the top 10% over 42% of the time.. Busting Level one always involves a hand it takes me 20 min or more to digest and I always have to wonder if I made a mistake. I always conclude that I did although I’m not to sure.

Anyways the 7PM Tournament is starting and OMG wow. Earlier I did not recognize anyone at my table in the 1PM but at this table I recognize everyone. One guy looked around and said “wow there are some players at this table” then someone else commented, “do you read the WSOP reports on cardplayer? When they mention the table of death.. this is about as much of a table of death you’ll see in a foxwoods under $500 buy-in tournament. My strength has always been to make soul like reads, and this is why I faired so well in these events back when I played a lot of them.. so knowing everyone at the table might bother some but to me I was extremely confident and was already looking forward to the payout sheet. Unfortunately I got a tough hand..

I had started in the SB and by the time on full rotation had passed I was in the BB when this hand occurred. UTG+1 limps. He plays a lot of pots with anything average but will not slow play anything big so he’s got some mid connector, small pair, QT KJ something like that, weak suited ace his range is all that and then some. My friend Martin limps from the cut off.. he plays more pots than anyone early in tournaments, the button is like wow family pot here, looks at his cards and say’s Sorry guys can’t let it happen and raises to 300. He is a solid technical player.. he is capable of a steal they because he knows the two players who limped both see tons of flops. I look down and see Ad Jd.. based on the filed I am facing its worth the call. UTG +1 Folds, Martin thinks for a while and calls. The flop comes KJ5 rainbow.. on diamond giving me backdoor flush possibility too. I decide very quickly to bet, and if I get raised fold. My initial thought was 700 but as I’m reaching for chips 800 all of a sudden feels right. Martins cards hit the muck right away where Button respond with why so much? He thinks for a while and he say “you know I would of gladly bet this flop for you.. He’s legitimately concerned now that I am leading with something strong because if I were to call or raise his bet he would immediately know I was strong.. I’m not strong. My bet is just a probe bet designed to look strong. He thinks for a while and then calls. This is what really through me off because had he raised my cards hit the much before his bet even reaches the pot. The turn is an Ace and I check, he best 1500. Now we only started with 5K chips in this tournament and the blinds are every 25 minutes which are kind of fast, though the do use auto shufflers which help. Anyways I can fold her and have 3875 chips. I start thinking for a bit. A lot of my reason for betting was to see what he had, and he had as I felt AQ, QQ, 88-TT AK, and MAYBE KQ were all possibilities initially and while I was ready to fold before now all of a sudden I hit an Ace and there are a ton of cards I can beat. I completely ruled out straight here, there is no way this player raises with QT he’d play that against these guys with no raise. If I had more time to think I probably would have mucked here figuring he had AK, I just felt there were way to many possibilities I could beat and if I call her we’re all in on the river most likely anyways so I push all in, he says call right away and at that point I know its AK before he even flips the cards and I’m out.

$4/$8 OMAHA HI/LO W/ HALF KILL and $8/$16 O.E = BEST GAMES AT FOXWOODS.

I had sat at the $4/8 with half kill limit Omaha Hi/Lo for about 90 minutes between tournaments and left up around $70. After busting out of the 7PM tournament I quickly made a couple hundred at this game and then grinded another $50 on top of that over a few more hours. I love this game.. any decent Omaha player can beat it. Seriously it’s the same crew playing this game as the $5/$10 Omaha Hi/Lo Full Crew back in the day.. These guys pretty much just voted to have the sakes lowered. The average player will not beat this game, these guys are complete rocks.. except.. all but three of them see every flop and they have so many tells its amazing. Even holding their cards to high so there viewable without anyone noticing your looking at them… Why I don’t wish poker life upon anyone any player looking to make an easy $8-$12 per hour playing poker – this is the game. All that you need to do to beat this game is only play the top 40% of your starting hands from early position and the top 60% from late and the top 80% when completing from the SB.. and then pay attention from there.

To illustrated what I mean by paying attention. I love the players at this table.. These guys taught me how to play poker when I was a kid. They were always friendly would come talk to me if I was in a tournament or a cash game, would discuss hands with me etc. They would tell me why they didn’t agree with plays or what the liked that I did etc all in a friendly way.. like just were a bunch of old men that I learned more about poker from than any book I read. What’s funny now though is that these guys are like what happened to you? They look at me now like a lucky player.. it was funny. This one old lady clair about snapped when I had bet every street with a wrap low and a nut flush draw. When I blanked any only had the low I checked first to act, she bet, 2 others called and I raised. She was like “you checked NOW you RAISE, all snooty lol”. I had no intention of check raising but this is where the paying attention comes in.. There is no way Clair is betting the low in that spot against the other two players. She has a high hand obviously, the next player to act looked at the pot and for a minute first before making the call. If he had a lock low it is an insta call even if he’s getting ¼. The last player to act looked annoyed like he had missed something but this is now a huge pot and he has to call.. Doing this got me an extra $8 on this hand because I recognized just by paying attention no one had the lock low.. OMG my head got torn off there. You check raised the LOW! Even the winner of the pot Clair was throwing a fit and Charlie said, he made you more money. Anyways this is not the only thing I noticed. These players wear their tells on their sleeves and if you just pay attention and play only the top % of the hands I motioned this is an $10-$12 per hour game for any decent player and $20ish per hour game for other.

Side note: You know your on the right track when A) you win often. and B) player who've played full time for 15 years start to think you're nothing but a lucky fish trust me those are good signs.

$8/$16 OE. In the late hours of the night I took this game for $450 over about 2h and 45 minutes time. Foxwoods does not deal much Stud/8, and when they do the stakes are always MUCH higher. This is kind of like a want to be game and also a game where $75/$150 players come to while waiting for their seats. These guys fail to understand that the same aggression that wins them pots at the $150 game does not work so well at the $16 game. This game is easy money. Can play it totally mechanically no fancy stuff needed and the typical online player can crush this game for $45+ per hour I’m sure of it, and probably more.

nice trip report... clearly you need to suck out on his AA wiht your TT and go on to win the tournament. That's the only way to roll.

Finally got a chance to read your trip report. It was a good one. You'll have to make it to Foxwoods more often to hit up that 4-8 game.

We have a very similar game here, 4-8 Dealers Choice with kill (Omaha hi, Hold'em, Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple, and some times Omaha hi/lo.) The game is ridiculous, 7 player preflop average, with average pots of 150-225. The game is super fun, but a ton of variance with 3 players going to show down every hand lol.