You never forget your first. I love Foxwoods. It's home to a lot of poker firsts for me. It's where I played my first live tournament, my first live cash game, my first live HORSE game... It's where I learned to play (way before I met the MD degenerates). It's where I first turned $100 into $1000. It's the first room where I knew floor people and room management by name. It's where I first fell in love with poker. All of this, combined with the fact that I'm only ever there alone makes it feel like my little (big?) corner of the poker universe. I walk from the Rainmaker garage straight to the poker room (back way, down the escalators, and through the stud and limit section) and I smile every time. I'm home.
There's a lot of things about the place that people love to hate, and it's true...there are some things that suck. Last call (at a casino!!!) at 1:30am. Dealers don't keep their own tips (they pool with the entire poker and pit). It's frequently crowded cause it's such a big room. Their comps used to really suck. They have those ridiculous buttons. But a lot of the bad about Foxwoods has changed over the past two years (buyins, rake, etc.) and there is a lot of good (cappuccinos! LOL).
Original plan was to show up on Saturday for the NL and play the Sunday HORSE because I was backed to play the O8 tourney on Friday at the Borgata Poker Open. However, I ran into some room issues and had a hold on my credit card which prevented me from booking a room anywhere for Thursday. Gave backers back their money. :( Frustrated, I figured I might as well head up to Foxwoods early since their dinner was on Thursday night. On top of that, for all the times I've been to Foxwoods, I've never once stayed in their hotel(s) because my parents live 15 minutes away. FREE room and board with people who will cook for you trumps all.
So I headed up to the dinner at Custy's thinking that this was a good time for me to get over some of my long standing social phobia. I was going to show up to the dinner by myself dammit. It would be fine.
I was expecting it to be like the smoker's dinner at ATLARGE. I showed up, met Tracy (FARGO organizer, who I'd emailed a few times), and walked into a restaurant with no bar to sit at, filled with people and their families. After some attempted conversation with a guy, his wife, and their son (who I think thought I was nuts), and 10 minutes of sitting alone thinking showing up to FARGO all by myself was a really BAD idea, I turned around and found some people I knew from ATLARGE. Goldie, Chic, Bob Lauria, and Todd (spidurman) were playing Chinese poker...for the glory. Chic (as usual) had attracted quite a crowd as people watched him set his hands. Breathing a sigh of relief, I walked over and attached myself to Chic et al, informing them that I had come to FARGO on my own. Great guys that they are, they took me into the fold and we had a great dinner where I met some new people, and was riddled with Omaha8 puzzles by Bob Lauria (what are the three boards that you will have the nuts on if your hand is 9992?).
After dinner most people stayed to play the heads up match, but I hadn't registered for it, so I just went to my parents' house.
Friday I spent mostly with my mom. We went to see Bodies: Revealed. I showed her around the giantness that is Foxwoods. After dinner at home, I went and played some cash (8/16 HORSE, 1/2 PLO).
Saturday, I got up bright and early to get to the NLHE tourney. As I was registering at the cage, one of the floor people I know came over and told the cashier to give me the lucky seat because I was his landlady and he needed a break on rent. Sadly, it wasn't the lucky seat, but I didn't do badly considering I had really awful hands (best was TT which I had to fold pf) and the structure and starting chips were kinda bad. I'm too lazy to look back at twitter to see exactly when I busted, but it was when we were down to three tables. They paid 11 (save for the bubble) and I think I busted out somewhere around 18th. Ho hum. I did have a great time though, and made some new friends based on my seat assignment (Steve and Chris, hi!).
After making it pretty deep, I stayed around to play cash. I was at 4/8 HORSE for a long time, made a bunch of money, went to 1/2 PLO, made a bunch more money, ate free comped dinner and beer, and then headed back to the poker room.
First thing I see coming through the limit side is Chris sitting at a very short 4/8 HORSE table. I sit down, we start splashing around, and in no time Tracy and some others had joined us again. We got a full table going and a full must-move (which eventually became HOREO!!! LOL). Chris and Tracy and I played drunken poker (a lot of fun!!!!) until about 2am when we all decided it was time to sleep.
Up again early Sunday for the 11am HORSE tournament. I feel that I played really well. Again, the structure was not the best, but I played a really solid game and busted out in 11th after an awful 3 hands in a row at razz. I got it in on my final hand with (24)67 against (J9)46. J946 somehow went runners perfect A, 3, 2 to make a smooth 6 (I could NOT believe it!!!) and busted me out on the bubble. Boo-hoo. If I won that hand I would have moneyed cause antes and blinds were so high at that point we were dropping like flies. *sigh*
I did not get to say goodbye to many people because they left when they busted out of the tournament and I made it to the final 2 tables, which was sad, but hopefully I'll see people again at ATLARGE. I really had a great time at FARGO and was only by myself for the first few minutes of dinner. Everyone was very welcoming!
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