Mary was away this weekend and I found myself bored late saturday night, so I headed down to Foxwoods.
I was sort of down that way anyway, having spent much of the day at Mark Edwards' house playing Advanced Civilization (a story unto itself).
The trip felt like that scene in Swingers where they head to Vegas (hence the post title), complete with late night drive and dawn return. I of course, played the part of Jon Favreau (clearly I'm not cool enough to be Vince Vaughn). The only differences here were that there were no hot waitresses to hit on (or at least, I didn't hit on them), and I won.
Wait, wait, WAIT you're saying! Your humble auteur went to a casino and didn't lose money?!
More on the flip...
I'll start right out and give the good news.
I left the casino up $118 after three and a half hours of play. Doesn't quite cancel out the amount I lost in first trip, but it goes a long way towards it.
Plus, it meant I've now left my last TWO tables at a casino up and confident about my game.
Anyway...
I arrived down in Mashantucket, Connecticut around midnight, and after parking in the least convenient of the available garages (for no other reason than I couldn't recall which was the best one), I made my way onto the casino floor.
My original intention was to head down on sunday morning and get a table before noon, but I figured, what the hell, I'm more than halfway there already, so I may as well just go now.
Plus, I was hoping to hit a good table of Rowdy Drunks, which would make winning MUCH easier.
Sadly, it was not meant to be. But more on that later.
I signed-in at the desk and added my name to the 2/4 list. The wait was reported as "less than an hour", so I turned around and bought $200 in chips, just in case I got bored waiting and decided to risk the 4/8 tables.
Luckily, they were replaying the Sox game in the sports betting lounge, so I was able to pass the time there.
I finally was seated at around 1:05am (wait time about 40 minutes) and found myself at a table much less favourable than I'd hoped for.
There wasn't a single Rowdy Drunk that I could see, and several people that looked, at first glance, like Young Sharks.
My first-glance appraisal of the table (including watching a few hands while I wanted for the big blind to get to me so I could play) put the table at something like this:
About 2-3 Young Sharks (or people trying to be young sharks), 1-2 Patient Pensioners (up late for that crowd, from what I've seen) several Friendly Novices and one guy who I can only call a "Veteran Grinder" (yay, a 5th designation!).
He was an older fellow and quiet, but he clearly knew what he was doing. As the night wore on (until he left), it was clear he was a pretty skilled player who knew what he was doing, though a bit too passive to really be classed as a shark. He generally won hands that he went to showdown in, so I tended to stay out of his way after the first orbit or so. He eventually left when I cracked his pocket kings with suited connectors out of the big blind (there were 5 players total on the flop, when I hit two pair). I can't blame him for it, either. It's a shitty way to lose a hand.
The first hour of play was eerily reminiscent of the beginning of my last trip, wherein I caught virtually no good cards (and never hit the flop). The only difference was my discipline, which held tight (very proud of that fact).
At the half-hour mark I was down about $38, having just lost the first hand I went to showdown with (top pair, I was out-kicked).
By the hour mark, I was down about $2, having made the aforementioned two-pair versus the Veteran Grinder's pocket kings. In that first hour, I played a total 8 hands past the flop where I had to voluntarily put money into the pot (aka, not counting playing from the big blind). I went to showdown on 2 of them, and won one of them.
I was, to put it nicely, not pleased.
And to top it off, the table was, for the first hour, not very interesting. There were no talkers, no fun, not even an "ooohhh" at a particularly pretty flop (saw several trip flops in that hour).
However, my patience was holding, which meant my hand discipline was holding, so I wasn't hurting (witness being even at the hour mark). So I was, oddly enough, pretty happy.
Things turned around after that. The table changed-up a bit at the far end (the Grinder left, the young shark at that end left and one of the friendly novices did too) as other tables were broken up and players moved to ours.
In addition, my end of the table finally got a bit chatty, as I started talking to the definite young shark sitting right across from me.
He was a funny guy, and a scarily dead-on reader (he put me on exact hands far too many times, and did the same to others) and we started having side conversations about hands after they were done... what we would have done (if we weren't involved) or what we had and how we would have reacted if the other guy had made a different play.
He was a no-limit player primarily and apparently in college and found limit pretty boring. However, against expectations for such a player, he had the discipline, patience and tight-aggressive play-style that a good limit player needs to win.
From what I've seen, most no-limit players tend to sit down at a limit table and raise too much and bluff at too many pots. They also tend to take a lot of bad beats, over-valuing top-pairs (top pair can and often does win at limit in my experience, but when you have a lot of callers [which you often do], you have to learn when to recognize when that rag flop just hit someone right in the face).
So he made the game, finally, far more interesting, and our conversation perked up the other players at our end, making our whole end a generally more interesting and friendly place.
And happily, at the same time, I finally got some cards.
Now mind you, when I say "got some cards", I don't mean GREAT cards. I didn't see a pocket pair until almost the two hour mark (and saw three total the whole evening, winning with none of them), but I started pulling more big cards and suited connectors.
And more importantly, I started hitting the flops.
I won several small to medium-sized pots such that I was up about 40 bucks by the one and a half hour mark (yep, 40 bucks in thirty minutes).
Then I hit two flops hard... and I mean HARD.
The first one was a J10s that I called with under the gun (a bit loose, but with the amount of callers this table always got, I was getting my odds). I flopped the nut straight on a rainbow flop and slow-played it, and it checked around (to my chagrin).
The turn was a rag and I checked it again (there were some relatively aggressive players after me that I just KNEW would bet into it). A guy two after me bet out and it called around (I took a second to call, but didn't hollywood it at all).
The river was an ace (inside I cheered), and I checked again. The same guy bet out again, and, amusingly to me, my friend the college student glanced at me and folded (damn, I must have a bad tell). Almost everyone else called around, and then I raised and got two other callers (including the guy who bet out). With restraint I turned over the straight and raked-in over a $60 pot.
The other hand was slightly more than an orbit later (the college guy had left by then, and I also had a new guy to my left).
I was in the small blind with 9-10o and called, mostly because it was going to be a family flop (the guy in the big blind was cheering about it as it was called around, and he was pretty passive, so I didn't think he'd raise).
I avoided the urge to yell out "Everybody Gamboool!" (sorry B, it wasn't quite that kind of table).
The flop came out 10-10-3 rainbow. I'd flopped a set. Again, I opted to slow-play it. It was unlikely that I could have been beat, and there were few cards that could have come that would have made me more likely to be beat.
Sadly, it checked all the way around.
The fun part was that I turned the nut full house. Yep, a 9 came...
At this point, I knew I had the deck pretty much broken, so I checked it again and to my extreme (but totally non-visible) pain, it checked around again.
The table was increasingly skittish as the night went on, such that I don't think I would have had any callers had I bet out on the turn (or maybe one, but I wanted several).
So anyway... the river...
Yeah, the river was a 10. I'd made quads. At this point, the deck was just a small pile of paper shreds I'd broken it so badly. I probably should have bet out at that point, but I still had hopes that someone else would bet first, especially someone with a looser image than I had.
So I checked. And two guys later, out came a bet, and there were several calls (4 or 5, I believe). When it came back to me, I raised smoothly, and got two callers (including the guy who bet out).
I turned over the obvious winner and pulled in the cash...
It wasn't as big a pot as the straight, but it was still a pretty good size.
I had a few more winners as the night wore on, but those were the biggest two.
The most I was up was $124 (I played one more orbit after that and then left).
By 4:30, I was starting to feel just the beginnings of burned out, and knew I had a long drive ahead of me, so I decided that it was time to go. I asked around if anyone had a second chip rack (my chips would no longer fit in the one I came with).
It was funny, people were like "the cash-out is just over there, just carry them", to which I replied "yeah, but I can just see myself spilling them all over the place on the way".
When it became clear there wasn't a second chip rack, I decided to just risk it, and of course, as soon as I got up... chips everywhere...
It gave everyone (myself included) a good laugh, but it's just so par for the course for me ;)
All in all, a good night, and I was mostly very pleased with my play.
I can recall only two hands where I really question my play (both times I laid down before the river, but lost more money than I should have), and a few starting hands I likely shouldn't have played, but not alot of them.
Oh, and as to bluffing... it's virtually impossible at a table like this, but once you have a significant enough table image, you can do it once in awhile.
I won two small pots on bluffs. I had Ace-big both times and raised pre-flop in early position. The flop came out rags and I bet out and people folded to me. Of course, this was after the flopped straight hand and the quads hand, after which people started playing more warily with me.
I can definitely classify myself as a "Young Shark" this time, for which I am quite proud.
I'm also quite proud that I did so well considering that I only ever held three pocket pairs the whole night (Jacks, 9's and 8's) and didn't win with any of them and was able to lay them down (though I held onto the jacks one betting-round too long). I won it all with unmade drawing hands and big cards.
So I made my movie-like exit, cashed-out, hit the bathroom, got lost in the casino looking for the entrance to the parking garage, got lost in the parking garage looking for my car and finally hit the road at around 4:50 in the morning, driving off into the sunrise.
Okay, NOT very movie-like, unless you cut out all the middle stuff ;)
New York is swarming with tourists from around the world. Breakfast at my hotel this morning was like eating at the United Nations, except John Bolton didn't yell at anyone.
Ed Cone
"If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have changed the history of music... and of aviation."
--Tom Stoppard
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!
Mary and I recently (last night) attended a showing of Shakespeare on the Common's performance of "Hamlet".
Gotta say, this is my favourite of the Bard's works, so I was definitely looking forward to it.
To preface, I've never actually seen any of Shakespeare's works on stage by a professional company, so this was, indeed, a first.
I have, in fact, never seen Hamlet on stage at all. My only performance experience with the Bard was a college-company production of... it was either Twelfth Night or As You Like It (it was quite some time ago, and the comedies tend to run a bit in my head, to be honest).
So the entirety of my experience with Hamlet was via the written form (such an elegantly-written play) and the few movie versions I've seen (Mel Gibson's and Sir Olivier's primarily).
It was performed by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, which has been performing the Bard's works on the Common for free for a decade now (why oh why didn't I go see them earlier?!).
We decided to get there "early" and camp out with a picnic dinner, so we hopped the Red Line at around 5:30 (it was an 8pm curtain) and got to the common around 6:15-6:30.
It was already pretty packed and we obviously should have gotten there earlier.
We spread our blanket about 200-300 feet back from the stage in the "high seat" area, figuring the blocking effect of the higher beach chairs would be mitigated by the closer placement (the "low seat" area was twice as full). I'm not sure whether it was a good call or not, as we spent a good deal of time bobbing our heads back and forth as the actors moved around (thank god about 1/4 of the scenes were on the second level of the stage), but I think we would have lost some detail if we were twice as far back.
Anyway, after a quick meal of deli sandwiches and pretzels, we settled to some people watching (Mary's past-time), cloud watching (mine) and several evil games of Gin Rummy.
I say evil because the cards were clearly cursed. I don't know how else to explain Mary's near total domination, as I am clearly far more skilled, intelligent, and let's be honest, dead-sexy than her.
After a brief drizzle (we barely felt it), the lights went down and the show started.
I won't go into plot details (don't want to spoil it for anyone!), but suffice to say that it was truly an amazing show. They'd gone with a semi-modern look to it: rifles and modern uniforms on the soldiers, fashions that danced between the 20's and the 90's on the rest of the characters.
The actors/characters that stood out to me:
Hamlet - But of course. Hard to have a good showing of Hamlet without a good lead. This guy had real range and was emoting very clearly (we could feel it even back where we were). His speech had a good cadence as well, and he made interesting choices of inflection and emphasis that changed the meaning of several of the lines in interesting ways. Of course, that could be due as much or more to the director, but the result remains the same.
The costume choices for the character were even good, as his look changed as his mood (both actual and portrayed for the other characters) did.
The actor has apparently had some small movie and TV roles as well, so I imagine he'll become a pretty well-known quantity someday soon, if this performance was any indicator.
The Ghost/The Player - Same actor for both parts. He was clearly chosen for his powerful and resonant voice, which he used to amazing and fairly unearthly effect.
As an aside, Mary disliked the use of a physically-present actor in the role of the The Ghost (as opposed to an off-stage voice, which they seemed to be leaning towards in Ghost's first appearance in scene 1). She'd apparently seen it done the latter way prior and liked it, making the line between tangible reality and things occurring in Hamlet's mind more blurred. It's an interesting take, and I wouldn't mind seeing it (I like blurred reality in my stories), but I rather like the way they handled it in this performance.
I think you lose something of the impact of a cowering and overwhelmed Hamlet, if he's cowering before nothing, instead of at the feet of a 7-foot-tall, unearthly visage.
Polonius - Another great performance here. The actor had just the right mix of buffoon and learned man, and served as a spot-on foil to Hamlet in their multiple back-and-forth scenes. This is important, I think, as I find the Polonius character to be one of the key characters in the play (after Hamlet himself, obviously).
Horatio - I really liked the actor who played this part. He played it with an understated manner and worked in more trepidation than I recall the character generally having. His voice was also the most fascinating to me, as it had an interesting timbre and character that reminded me of a TV or movie actor I know but cannot place the name of. I keep wanting to say Brad Dourif, but I know that's not it.
Aha! Jeffrey Combs! God I love IMDB... Yeah, the actor who played Horatio had a voice that heavily reminded me of Jeffrey Combs' voice, which I've always found fascinating.
I know I keep going on about voices, but given our seating, it was one of the more salient features of the performance for us.
So yes, a very good performance on his part.
The Queen - The actress here played a good balance between bewildered, honest mother and royal dilettante, with just a dash of conniver thrown in. Her terror in the bedroom scene was so convincing that I am surprised cops didn't rush to the Common to see what all the screaming was about.
As to the other actors/parts, there were no bad performances amongst the lead cast. The King was quite well-done, and his moment of regret in the prayer scene was quite convincing. Ophelia was well-played, and, honestly, made me wish I was sitting far closer (she played her last several scenes in a bra and slip, to denote her madness, including the drowning scene; I approve, for artistic reasons, of course).
As I noted above the director/actors made some very interesting choices when it came to cadence, tone and inflection with the lines, that had a fascinating, and occasionally startling-funny impact on the meaning. I really like where they went with it (even the few add-in lines, often there for purely comedic effect).
In addition, the staging and scenery itself were quite interesting. They went with a two-level stage with quite sparse decoration and abundant use of mood lighting to convey anything from a festive hall to a dreary and haunted balcony.
The other thing we thought was quite cool was that they had a small pool running the entire length of the front of the stage. Due to our angle, we didn't even realize it was there until Hamlet dove in for the first time (based on the reactions of those around us, we were far from alone).
Of course, not knowing about the pool made the diving scene (the first conversation he has with Polonius) all the more amusing and interesting, as Hamlet walked onto stage wearing an old-timey one-piece bathing suit, water wings, goggles and carrying an inflatable raft. Truly, he appeared mad ;)
The show ended to thunderous and well-deserved applause. And was well-worth the cost (free, plus 12 bucks in donations, T fare for two and dinner). I was simply astounded. Quite good.
When we see next year's show (they have not announced which play as yet, that I can tell), we'll make sure to do two things:
1) Get there earlier. If we can arrive by 5-5:30, I think our seats will be far closer, which will only be a bonus. I'm not complaining about our seats this time out, as I still really enjoyed the show, but closer seating can only improve the experience.
2) Bring seating, or rent it from the show. Not having actual seats was a BIG mistake. It was a four hour performance, from start to end (with intermission), and after sitting on the hard ground for that long, we both had backaches and, frankly, rather uncomfortable posteriors. It's a mark of how good the performance was though that I don't think either of us even noticed the discomfort until the third hour.
Anyway, that's about it. Long enough I guess.
If you happened to have seen Hamlet on the Common, or another performance of Hamlet somewhere else, let me know. I'd love to hear your take on it!