Outer Monologue

Finally Foxwoods

For all of you who have been waiting so patiently...

Here lies the session report of my inaugural trip to Foxwoods.

May it rest in peace...

As I reported in this post, I recently made my first foray into live casino poker at the wonderful Foxwoods Resort and Casino.

I'll start off with the answer to the first question after hearing of such a trip:

No, I did not come out ahead. Actually, I came out quite a bit behind (I was down noticeably more than I would buy into a 2/4 table with) after 13 hours of play.

However, I came out of the experience on a pretty positive note, so I consider it a good trip.

Anyway...

Several members of my semi-regular poker game (which Mr & Mrs. CheapThrillsJD were until recently members of) and I made the arduous trek to Foxwoods.

Making the trip were: Adam, Myself, Rich, Kyle, Rob, Joe and Terry.

We aimed to make it there by about 11am, in order to obtain seating before the tables started backing up (which is apparently around noon or so).

Adam and I beat that time by a good 45 minutes, so were playing poker by 10:30 or so, with the rest straggling in about 45 minutes later.

We had a mutually agreed-upon break for dinner at around 6pm, after which we sat down for some more play, with most people leaving at around 9pm, while Adam and I stayed until sometime past 11.

I also took a personal head-break for lunch at around 2pm.

So I ended-up playing at three different tables over the course of the day.

Of the entire group, I was the only one who ended up cashing out significantly down. I believe Joe cashed out minorly down, while Terry and Rich cashed out moderately up, Adam a bit up from there and Rob and Kyle significantly up from there.

However, it should be noted that Rob and Kyle were both playing the 5/10 Hold'Em tables, while the rest of us played the 2/4 tables.

As to my own odyssey...

The morning started out well enough. When I first sat down, I was fairly nervous. Mainly I was afraid of violating casino poker etiquette (which in my head ranged from talking or betting out of turn to screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs while setting the table on fire).

After an orbit or so, I began to settle-in, having gotten comfortable with the conventions of making change for the blinds and toking (tipping) the dealers.

I do not, by the way, like Foxwoods system for toking the dealers. All tokes are placed in a common pool which the dealers split evenly at some later time. This is bad, in my opinion, as the quality of the dealers varied hugely.

I had some dealers that were great: lively and talkative, polite, intelligent, helpful and informative and capable of moving the game along without seeming to.

I also had some dealers that were abysmal: barely capable of speaking english (even mixing-up the stock poker phrases which are all I ask that they know, like "blinds", "winner" and the like); there were a few that would call the pot for the wrong hand (requiring us players to correct the winner, which is a great way to piss-off people) or allow mis-sized bets and raises (which I would only correct if I was involved in the hand).

In the latter cases, I have a hard time toking much, if at all, but that is unfair to the good dealers who are also impacted under this system. To salve my conscience, I would tend to toke the good dealers slightly more (with the reverse problem of inadvertently rewarding the bad dealers).

But enough on that.

After a few orbits of the first table, I began to find several stock player-types that I saw over and over as the day progressed:

1) The Patient Pensioner - They were especially prevalent earlier in the day, and slowly vanished by the dinner break. These are older folk who are, frankly, my ideal opponent: loose-passive calling stations that will pay-off almost any hand. They're operating on the theory that any two cards can win, but don't seem to really grasp the concept of the raise. They are also the perfect argument in support of Lee Jones' concept that you can never bluff a casino low-limit Hold'Em table. There will always be someone willing to call you down. There were generally a few of these at each of my two pre-dinner tables, and when one busted-out (as they inevitably, though slowly did), they were generally replaced by another. These folk were the source of about half the fun at the pre-dinner tables, with their chit-chat and gossip.

2) The Young Shark - This was the category I was hoping I would be in, but failed to achieve until after dinner. There was generally 1-2 of these at the table at any given time. They sat there quietly playing their model tight-aggressive game and generally left the table with at least twice as many chips as they came in with.

3) The Friendly Novice - This is, unfortunately, the category I fell into for most of the day. This group is comprised of players of varying low to medium skill levels who, for whatever reason, can't quite play the game right. They slowly leak their stack away to the sharks, but generally don't seem to mind it, as the experience itself is worth the cost. Some of these guys could figure out the ranks of hands, while others just didn't seem to know when to fold em and when to hold em. (I was the latter). They were friendly and nice, but only occasionally entertaining (being a generally quiet group).

4) The Rowdy Drunk - This group was virtually non-existant before lunch and still thin on the ground before dinner, but dominated the tables after dinner. This is my absolute favourite group to play with (partly because it reminds me of my home game, but minus the skill). These guys probably know how to play the game well (or maybe not, it's fairly moot), but are at least fairly tipsy. Generally-speaking, they are rowdy in a friendly, socially-acceptable kind of way, and a few of them at a table will make everyone at the table more open and fun, making it a more enjoyable experience. They tend to be calling stations with occasional random spurts of wild raising.

As to my play itself, as I noted above, I slowly bled money as the day went on. This was partly due to horrible starting hands (I would go multiple orbits without a playable hand) but also had a lot to do with my play.

I was, quite frankly, WAY too loose and a touch too passive. I was seeing far too many flops and calling down with hands that I knew were beat.

Some of this was due to frustration (as the day wore on, this only got worse), but much of it was just a problem with my game.

And it was a problem I didn't even realize was there, which was making it all the worse. I mean, the tables I saw at Foxwoods were classic low-limit hold'em tables, as described in Lee Jones' book (I heartily suggest it to anyone interested in limit poker). I know, based on multiple reads of Jones' book, exactly how to play those tables. What hands to play from what position, when to fold post-flop, etc.

I know all this. It's deeply-ingrained in my head.

And I wasn't doing it. At all.

But the worst part was, I somehow had no clue this was happening.

In my head, I was playing perfectly sane poker. I was playing the right hands (or close enough, as I believe I thought several times).

But I was way, way, WAY off.

During the dinner break, I talked about my experiences in a very general way with the other guys, and for some reason, their comments about tight play, folding often, etc, just suddenly "clicked".

I suddenly looked back and went "Jesus! What the hell have I been doing?!"

And of course what made it worse was that the daytime tables weren't even that FUN! There was only a small amount of table talk (my home game is a very social one, which I love) and not much back and forth.

So after dinner, I took my realization with me to my table and mentally forced myself to review each play as it was happening. Pausing before making a decision on a hand. If I had even the vaguest doubt as to whether to play or not, I let the hand go.

And I walked away from the table up about 25 bucks. And I would have been up significantly more (about 45-50 bucks), except that a guy made a 3-outer on the river to suck a pot away from me. I don't begrudge him that though, as I had a few suck-outs of my own as the day progressed.

And not only did I do well at the evening table, but it was DAMN FUN!

There was one Young Shark (besides myself) and two Friendly Novices, and the rest were all Rowdy Drunks (one guy was a cross between a Rowdy Drunk and a Patient Pensioner; he was funny). The one shark was a woman who's play actually reminded me significantly of Mrs. CheapThrills (her husband was a novice though). She was, however, easier to read than B generally is, once I figured out her game.

I had a great time with the table talk, subtly encouraging people to wilder play but mostly just having fun with the jokes and back and forth.

So at the end of the evening, I walked away a good-sized chunk of change down, but with positive momentum and a good attitude.

And most importantly, I finally felt confidence in my game again. Something I haven't had in many, many months.

I'll likely still have a few mis-steps (as I did for part of our last home game; but more on that in a later post), but for the most part, I'm BACK baby!

Posted by Campbell at August 8, 2005 03:58 PM