Congrats to all the BBT Deucers & Belated Foxwoods Trip Report

Congrats to Fuel55 and Julius Goat for writing their way in. Clearly they were my two favorites. Fuel visualized a winning performance and his nice score live in Vancouver showed that if you think it, feel it, believe it, things come to fruition. To Astin congrats on your win last night. Officially, you are off the schneid. No one can call you a bridesmaid now and I think you played pretty darn consistent throughout the entire BBT. You may have a horseshoe up your butt but winning one of these is alot more then getting good cards as you well know. Congrats to Chad for his seat too. Chad has helped me alot with my game since I've come to know him. Unfortunately, neither he nor Don have been able to help me avoid the riverbeats.

And what about little ole IG? I missed the first couple events as I had to reload back onto Full Tilt after my two plus month self-imposed exile. I performed way better in BBT II then I did overall in I but I still fell short of the ultimate prize a TOC seat. On at least 5 occasions I got my money in with the best hand and lost to 2 and three outers on either the turn or river. Had any of those hands held up I would have been a dominating chip leader and hopefully could have ridden a wave to a seat. Chad, Julius Goat, AlCantHang, Astin, MiamiDon, LJ, Mookie, Snake all witnessed the unbelievable drubbings I took. Chad coined my the Queen of the riverbeatings.

I mentioned to Don last nite in chat that in perspective, I dont play half as many games as alot of you folks. If I played five to eight tourneys a day instead of maybe 4-5 a week Id probably see myself at a lot more final tables and it wouldnt seem like Im always going down to the felt with the best hand and getting the shit kicked out of me. As it is the big scores are spaced further apart since I just dont play as much. My primary goal in life is to make sure all my bills are paid and I put away money for my retirement (positive EV). I dont have as much expendable income as I used too since overtime dried up.

Back at the end of October interspersed with concerts and taking my dad in for his hernia surgery Snake and I traipsed off to Foxwoods during the World Poker Finals. Both of us had high expectations for ourselves. Originally he was going to partially stake me. Then we decided to just swap action in each other. I went to bat first on Saturday AM. We had played our live league Friday nite. Rather then drive to Foxwoods after our game from up his way which would have been a four hour drive in rain we opted to stay at Casa IG and get up at 4:50 AM and make the trek in the morning. We made it to Foxwoods in about three hours flat even with the rain and fog on the Mass Pike. We dropped our bags off at the Two Trees Inn as we couldnt check in till later and then took the shuttle over to the Poker Room to register.

I went to bat at 10AM after not sleeping much the night before. 214 woman ponied up $600 each. Originally this was supposed to be a Ladies Professional Poker Assn ranking event and Im not sure if it was as it was never mentioned. That was the reason for the bigger buy-in. Numbers were way down compared to the Spring event which was a $300 buyin and had over 600 Ladies. I opted to go with my sunglasses which are prescription bifocals rather then my contacts since I wasn't sure my eyes would or could stay open. Snake said he'd stay and rail me until I took down my first pot. I took down my first pot on the second hand when I called a min raise and a call with KQs and Cbetted the flop with nothing after it was checked to me. Snake headed off to the WPT poker room and I got down to business. I soon had worked my way up to a nice healthy stack. My table was largely passive and when I reraised on the flop turn or river in position it was largely folded to me. I probably played a few too many hands trying to see cheap flops with connectors and of course when I open raised to $550 with AKos and got three callers I wound up giving back a little of my stack.

Snake came and checked in on me from time to time. I was cellphone less at the time so he had to make the trek from the WPT poker room to the Great Cedars ballroom where the WPF events were being held. He is a true Sherpa. I was more then holding my own and when the antes kicked in I was able to move with them (what I failed to do at the spring event) but was below average stack most of the time and just couldnt get the calls I needed on my strong hands. I would open push with AJ fold, then Id limp and try the check raise and it would be fold fold fold. I did get lucky on one hand before the dinner break when I doubled up on an all in and that kept me alive. There was a three hour wait for $1/$2 tables in the poker room so Snake opted for some SNGs. He was down two buyins when we reconnected at dinner. I couldnt find him in the sea of humanity of the WPT pokerroom which was busier then Grand Central station on a Saturday night after two passes. Turns out he was up in Skylight where I was seated in the Spring. I grabbed a sandwich and hunkered down outside the Ballroom as they locked it off for the dinner break. He found me shortly after and was not at all surprised I was still alive. We went to dinner with about 45left. Twenty were to pay.

Snake said goodbye again a few hands in, off to play another SNG. It seemed like it took an eternity for us to lose players as we started getting closer to the money spots. My table broke and I got moved to a table with some big stacks. I failed to get action on my AA when I just did a standard 3X raise. I took down a huge pot when I called a minraise with three others in the hand out of the BB with 45c when i was pretty short. The flop came two fours but the flop was suited so I had to bet it. Fold FOld Fold FOld. UGh. I knocked out two people from the BB when the other ladies couldnt even post the antes and blinds in full and it folded around to me. This got me my blinds back, the antes and their scraps. That is how passive this game was. Finally I could wait no longer. I forgot my exit hand but I think I ran KJ on a jam into a bigger hand like AK or something. Out 33rd.

No walk of shame I played as best as I could without real premium cards. I just never got that one key double up hand I needed late in the game. When I raised with AA one gal who had been chip leader and had taken a drubbing folded AK or AQ face up with a "I cant play this now," she was playing scared. I headed back to the WPT room. Snake looked up and saw me coming down the stairs he was for sure I had hit pay dirt by now. He told me later he kept looking for me to appear and when I didnt show he would breathe a sigh of relief. He had just chopped a SNG for first.

Both of us were starved so we headed back to the hotel and got ready for a late dinner. It was Breeders Cup weekend and Snake is a horseplayer plus it was World Series Weekend and Football would be on tomorrow. He had his exotic wagers picked but he had decided not to hit the Racebook. Had he done so two of his exactas would have paid off handsomely. We wound up just having dinner in the Two Trees Inn restaurant. They were getting ready to close so literally we had most of the dining room to ourselves and it was a belated birthday dinner for me. On our way to dinner we both started cracking up because someone was doing major bong hits and the hallway reeked of weed. When we rounded the corner the hotel security who already had smelled it looked at us and teased us about being the cause of the smoke since we were laughing.

Back in the room we watched the Red Sox dominate but we fell asleep before the end of the game. Neither of us bothered to set the alarm. His tourney the $600 shoot-out started at 10AM the next day. When we both woke up at about 8:30 we both scrambled to get ready. I threw my contacts into my bag and we raced over to get him seated. Breakfast would have to wait. All Snake had to do was finish top three at his table of ten (or 9) and he moved on to the finals at 4 PM. Depending on how well he did we were either staying another nite or heading home. It was dicey at times but Snake made a major reraise steal to secure enough chips 4 handed that his place in the finals was assured. We went and had lunch at Hard Rock it was my treat this time since it was his day. We hung out at Hard Rock and watched the games, listened to tunes and chatted. We then headed back over and the Ladies event final table was underway. A local gal from the card club I play tourneys at wound up taking it down to the tune of just about $36k.

As Snake and I are walking to his table for the finals Im walking along side another dude who looks really familiar but whom I cant place. I read the back of his jacket which strikes me as music related (not a band name though). Damn I cant place him. Im seated right behind Snake who is in the one or two seat. The dude who I cant place is seated at the next table in the 8. Snake looks back at me and says IG......Points..... SULLY ERNA..Of course Im pissed I couldnt figure it out and Snake pwned me on that one.. Now we all know I am not a metal person. Im a jam bander but I do know Sully is the lead of GodSmack, but I recognized him from his appearance and cash in this years Main Event. We also saw Bernard Lee, Raj Patel etc etc. The big dawgs were heading into town.

A pair of misplayed Kings sealed an early exit for Snake about level III of the final. He placed well in the field about 113th or so out of 600 plus with 40 some paying but was disappointed in himself. We drove back to Clifton Park, checked the Breeders Cup results on my computer, the football scores for my picks and watched the Red Sox win the World Series in a sweep. I immediately wanted to head back for another tourney fix. It was also pretty amazing that an Alpha Male and Alpha Female who compete with each other at everything (mostly in fun) could get along without getting annoyed with each other at some point during the weekend. It was a great belated birthday weekend.

That was my long awaited trip report. I learned alot watching the Ladies final table on what not to do if you want to win a major tourney. Like overplay pocket dueces (all-in) multiway (should have been folded). Leslie the gal from my local tourney room, who won the Ladies event played pretty patient poker and was rewarded. She had actually just been out to Vegas during the Casaer's Poker Classic and had been involved in a 4 way chop to the tune of $5k or so there. She plays 4 times a week in the local tourneys that are run and has been playing a lot longer then I.

So that is my belated Foxwoods trip report. In a few months the Spring Event will be held (like 3) and we are less then 6 months away from the start of the 2008 WSOP.

And with that I bid you Goodnite