Tao of Poker

Last Thursday at Foxwoods

"Poker is about folding hands that don't have a good chance of winning." - The Poker Penguin

I was spending a few days in Naragansett, RI. My buddy Senor took the day off so we could hang out and go play a round of golf. The weather wasn't holding up so we opted for a run to Foxwoods instead. Senor's a busy guy getting his MBA while working full time and with a 11 month old kid at home. The guy never has time for poker so he was super excited to play $4/8 at Foxwoods with me! A lot had changed since he last gambled at the poker room. Management moved the low limit stud tables to the front of the poker room and the entire room was filled with hold'em tables and higher limit stud and Omaha tables. Senor lived less than 40 minutes away and we were seated immediately but at different tables by 10am.

I have to remind you that this was last Thursday... just 10 hours after the Red Sox stormed back to defeat the Yankees. I was behind enemy lines, the lone Yankees fan amid a sea of Red Sox fans. And of course the majority of the table chatter was involved one of two topics; 1. The Red Sox and the World Series or 2. How much the Yankees sucked. Yeah, I never had more fun at a poker table.

$4/8 Hold'em. I bought in for $200. I was the youngest guy at the table. The guy in Seat 9 looked just like Ernest Hemingway. He was gambling like Papa on a belly full of whiskey seeing any flop. The guy next to him reminded me of Ron Jeremy, except he had his clothes on and he was wearing a Red Sox hat. His stack went up and down more than Monica on Bubba Clinton's Presidential member. Hemingway was a rock compared to that clown. The reason I spoke about these guys was obvious. Those fuckers bad beat'd me on the river.


11:00am EST... -24. I played super tight the first hour. I wanted to take it easy and get a read on the players before I went after any pots. Getting shitty cards helped. I played one hand out of the blinds, raising the pot in LP when AsJs and folded when all diamonds hit.

Noon EST... -80. I checked on Senor and he started out hot and fizzled. I saw a few flops with small pairs and I hit a flop with A10o in the LB. The flop: A-10-8. I checked-raised and Hemingway raised me with QJ! I raised back. A rag fell on the turn I fired out, he raised, I reraised and he capped. The river: K. I checked he bet and I just called because I had a feeling he hit a big hand... a Broadway straight. Oh, the other guy who stayed in... had 10-8o!

1pm EST... -122. The friggin Hilton Sisters screwed me at the same time Ron Jeremy was irking the table eating chicken fingers and talking to people on the rail, when he should have been paying attention to the action. I raised in EP with QQ and got five callers. The flop: J-7-4. Turn: 5. River: 4. What did he have? 2-4o.

2pm EST +20... I won my first huge pot of the session to break even. It involved two players... Hemingway and a loose kid who joined the table twenty minutes earlier and quickly blew his $200 buy in. He barely had a short stack. I had the Hilton Sisters again and I were playing them fast. I opened up the betting preflop with a raise, the kid reraised, and Hemingway bumped it up to cap it out... and five players total in the pot. The flop: Q-J-3. I checked thinking that I was going to get a lot of action with whoever had JJ. The kid threw the rest of chips and he was all in. Hemingway bet, everyone else folded, I raised and he called. We were going heads up for a side pot. The turn: K. That was a scary card. I bet, he raised and I reraised. He called which made me feel somewhat safe. I was hoping the board would pair so I could escape with a full boat just in case one of the two hit a straight. The turn: K. I had the nuts and check-raised Hemingway who called with Big Slick. I didn't know why he didn't raise there. But I got lucky on the river. The kid had A-10s and hit a Broadway Straight on the turn. Pissed, he stormed off in Hellmuthian fashion. It felt good to slowly scrape of a pile of yellow chips and organize them into several columns, twenty high. I played a few more orbits and finished down $15. I left when Senor wanted to grab lunch. He had a down session dropping a little over $100.

We grabbed some chicken fingers and fries and discussed the second half of our session. he was going to sit at the lower limit stud tables and relax while I waited for the various satellites for different World Poker Finals events. I finally got called for an Act II satellite. $150 single table (10 person) NL. First place won a seat in the Act II ($1000+), second and third got their money back for a free roll into a second Act II.

The players:
Seat 1: Hipster Sox fan wearing Johnny Damon Jersey
Seat 2:
Seat 3:
Seat 4:
Seat 5:
Seat 6: Pauly
Seat 7: Loud Mouth Table Captain
Seat 8:
Seat 9:
Seat 10: Bald guy who looked like George Costanza

I'm only giving names to those folks because that's who I really played against. Within the first two levels, the game went from a full ten to 6 handed. A few hands later, it was four handed and we played for almost an hour.

Level 1: Starting out with T1000, I limped in EP with JJ and folded when two overcards hit the flop. After a few hands, I got a feel for the table and treated this tourney just like a Party Poker SNG. I was going to wait for a good hand in the early levels and let everyone knock each other out early, while attempting to study the stronger players... picking up on obvious tells and moving on to discovering the more subtle ones. I look at hands and nostrils... how are they breathing? And in what manner do they pick up their chips to bet?

Level 2-3: I didn't see much paint and folded both my weak aces at a very loose table. I let the maniacs knock each other out.

Level 4: I was short stacked and moved all in in EP with 10-10. I won a race with AJ and knocked out my first guy of the day. The game was four handed. And the table captain was raising everyone's blinds. I was hoping for any marginal hand, because I wanted to call. The one time I had a small pair, the hipster on the button moved all in for a re-steal and I folded. He flashed the Hilton Sisters as he picked up the blinds.

Level 5: Shortstacked I moved all in with J10s in EP. Everyone called (roughly 2x the BB). I flopped a flush! And tripled up to over T2100! I moved all in with A9s in EP trying to steal the blinds and George Costanza called with Big Slick. I got up and put on my blazer. The table captain, in his thick Boston accent, "Wear ya going? That 9 is still alive!" I pushed in my seat as the flop was unfurled and there was a 9! To make insult to injury I hit my trips on the river and doubled up.

Level 6: With 66 in the BB and the shortstack, the hipster moved all in the LB. I pushed all in thinking we'd have a race and a coin flip situation. He flipped over 99. I was toast and bubbled out. 4th place. Costanza and the Table Captain were regulars and had been playing several of these 4150 satellites a week and admitted that our game was one of the toughest and longest. I had nothing to compare to aside from 2003 satellites. Oh well.

Senor had been sweating me for a few levels. He won a few bucks playing $1-5 Stud and admitted that he's going to stick to playing Stud. Felicia would be happy to hear that. It was a decent session. Down $15 playing 4/8 and down $165 overall after finishing 4th in the Act II.

Random Odds and Ends

Felicia and Glenn will be at Foxwoods next week! I will stop by on Thursday for sure to sweat her in the $1000 Stud World Poker Finals event starting at 10am EST.

By the way... thanks to Maudie who came up the cool chip idea for the WPBT!


And if you are looking for this week's update for my fantasy pools (College Football, NFL, and Grid Iron) please visit Pauly's Pub for all your fantasy needs.

Happy Halloween to all you pagans out there. And yes, my Halloween costume will be... everyone's favroite hotel heiress... Paris Hilton. My friend Briana (a.k.a. the elevator button heiress) will be dressing up as Nicky Hilton. I even scored a yapping Chihuahua to stuff in a Luis Vuitton hand bag all night long. I'm almost done with the costume except for the shoes. In case you were wondering, last year I was Hunter S. Thompson.



Lastly, thanks for voting in my polls. I'll let you know the final results in an upcoming post on one of my other blogs. Your answers in the second poll are hilarious. I must say that my fellow bloggers have a great sense of politically based poker humor.