OK so it’s always good to have a plan, but as usual for me, plans never go the way they’re supposed to. I had mapped out my Foxwoods trip well, but couldn’t quite follow through the way I hoped, and decided to cut the trip short and head back home to Texas. Foxwoods is always fun though! It’s a huge poker room, with tons of action and bad players. Plus its my original home casino and I’ve always done well there in the past. I’ve had multiple deep runs but I came up just short of big scores every time! Thiis lifestyle would be a lot more fun if I can just get a win finally!?! Lol. Another great reason I go back to Foxwoods is because that’s where I’m originally from, good ol’ Rhode Island! It’s always nice to see family and old friends with the excuse of playing poker! Or is that vice versa!?! Lol Having a place to stay for free also helps a little bit LOL. I went for the 300K guarantee, $500 buyin tournament and a World Series of Poker Ring! Unfortunately I got in late Thursday due to plane delay and missed the first round of satellites, but bought directly into the day 1A flight on Friday morning. I thought I had a good chance at this flight played well all day, made some good calls and felt like I was in the zone! But after a long day I busted out about 2 hours before bagging up for day two. Luckily for me it was another round of satellites just as I busted out so I hopped right into that and won my seat to the last flight on Saturday morning! So got a little victory and discount at least! But my luck didn’t change, as a bad run of cards and some terrible players, cut my day short, sending me to the rail and downstairs to the cash game to try to win some of my money back.
There is still one more monster stack event left to play. So I took Sunday off to grind online on Intertops, then went back to Foxwoods for one last shot before heading back to Texas. The monster stack starts with 20K in starting chips, but it still only 30 minutes behind schedule, so you still have to try to double up early to stay alive. Which surprisingly, I did when I rivered the nuts with 74 off suit and the older gentleman on my immediate right turned the second Nuts. We got it all in somehow, when we were only in the second level of play. It was a limped pot to me in the big blind with 4 players and no one bet the flop! When I turned some equity I decided that I would I semi bluff when it was checked to me for a second time. The older gentleman on my right snap called, to my surprise and then checked to me on the river when I Binked my gutter ball straight! I went for a small value hoping he had maybe a two pair hand or just didn’t believe me and would hero call w ace high. Again he surprised me when he reraised me about a 3 1/2 times! We were still very deep but I knew he’s never folding anything he’s really check raising me with there, so after a few seconds I decided to go all in and try and get max value on what I thought was probably a turned straight or a set. He snapped called again with the smaller straight, and I doubled early!
Somehow though that was the end of my luck for the day and even after that very early full double I bled off half chips. I still am not even sure how lol I had several small pocket pairs in multiway pots and a few Broadway hands that all just missed completely. Before I knew it I was back down to my original starting stack which was unfortunately only about 15 big blinds. After opening up getting three bet with Ace Ten about four times I had enough and I had about 12 big blinds decided I need to take a stand. With queen king of spades in the cut off I opened 2.5 x and was called by the small blind. He was a wild calling station with the big stack. Then the big blind shipped his last 12 big blinds! I decided after about a minute to call off with King Queen. Not shockingly the small blind, who had heaps of chips and was playing every single hand, tanked?! He finally called off with pocket threes setting up a three-way all In with two of us at risk to be eliminated!. There original squeezer turns up pocket eights and we were off to the races. My KQ of spades whiffed the flop, turn and river, not even providing a sweat for the table. The squeezers pocket eights held up shipping him a very good size pot and sending me to the rail. I think I would normally fold that hand in that spot, especially with my stack was deeper, but seeing as how it was about the fourth time he had three bet I decided I needed to take the flip, take a chance and try to accumulate some chips. I ran the hand through Equilab after the game was over and saw that I was a tiny favorite at about 41 1/2% to his 40%, so I was happy with the play, even though I did not get lucky and hit my hand.
I thought that was going to be the end of Foxwoods, but seeing as how I still haven’t bought a plane ticket back in Texas yet, I decided to take one more shot at a $300 buy-in turbo event, before rushing back to the airport. Lol Sometimes last-minute decision work out well as I had my deepest run for the weekend coming in 18th place and just making the money. While there is a little less skill involved in Turno events, I’ll still take finishing 18th out of 180+ players and coming that close to a World Series of poker ring, I can’t complain too much about the expensive plane ticket home lol. I needed some luck when I was on the money bubble. I shoved Queen Jack suited for about 6 1/2 big blinds from the small blind but was unlucky when the big blind woke up with ace king suited and snap called me! My day and my dream of World Series of poker ring was over. I don’t regret the shove though, as he has to wake up with the big hand there even on only having 6 1/2 big blinds, it was a significant portion of the stack and we are on the bubble. Luckily for me someone had gone out just before I busted, giving me a chop for the 18th place money and essentially a free roll for the day. While it’s a disappointing finish, it was nice to finally make another Deeprun and give me a chance at some serious money.
So not the best outcome but overall I was happy with my play, I don’t know if I could have done much differently. And it was nice to see friends and family back home, so can’t complain too much. I backed up my bags and headed out to the airport finally to fly back to Texas, just to hop in my car the next day and drive to Oklahoma to hit Winstar casino! The River Series had officially kicked off and seeing as this is the event that I final tabled last year, I am hoping to make at least one place higher! Lol It’s a great series and all the OK poker rooms always crush their guarantees, so I’m excited about this for sure. I’ll be posting live updates on my Facebook,Instagram and Twitter as well as some fun videos on my Snapchat @timok311, so stay tuned! Till then run good and hope the cards fall your way!
Tim
“Always be happy, never be contents”
-Bruce Lee
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