Dark Day for Dew at Foxwood

An old friend of mine, his 89 year old mother, his brother and wife, and another friend and wife all made the drive to Foxwoods yesterday for a day of gambling. No one came home with any money.

My poker day created my the worst loss since November of 2005. I ended up down $310 playing $4-$8 limit

And I did everything I could to win, even took along Louisiana Mudgriff Dan's 3 Musketeer lucky coin. Everyone touched the coin for luck. Everyone lost money. All eight of us. I' have written Dan for directions. We must have gotten some part of the coin ritual wrong. Perhaps he'll send over the correct page from the Aligator Brotherhood Lodge so my play in Tampa this week won't be so sour. Yep, I'm takin' the coin to Florida. It has no where to go but up.

Still, I loved the the game. There was the right mix of players at each of my sessions ( I cashed out to go to lunch) They might have sucked me out on a few hands except I was never in long enough to have that experience. Other players did get rivered with gut shot draws. I was generally beat long before the river. Also I had the habitual raise4r just two to my left. I hate when that happens unless I manage to get great cars and use him to squeeze the table, but I could never get a seat change.

Because there was enough of that loose play at the table, there was very little bluffing. Often hands would be over bet. One fellow holding Q-6 bet when I checked my pair of queens (Q-K) on a river that created a pair of 4's.
Once I got pushed off a pot. Three of us had held aces and called an A-J-J flop to the river. One ace bet and the second raised, so I folded mine. I lost my third of the pot. I'd do that again. But I would not have played like those guys. I would never have bet the ace after getting called to the river and certainly not raised with two guys in, one of them a tight player like me.

One woman took nearly half of my losses in two hands. I flopped a king high club flush and with 4 clubs by the flop, she raised my bet. I called. The dealer said, "Show me the ace" and she said she did not have it, but turned over pocket sevens for 4OAK.

On another hand her pocket 3's flopped a full house. I had trip tens. She never raised my bets, even on the river.

What was unnerving was she often called other players to the river with second and third best hands. But when I had cards, she had better cards.

There was no other great drama.

My son played a 30 home game tournament last night planned by an Albany Pokerpal meetup group. I'd have gone with him had I not gone to Foxwoods. He won $30 in third place.

It was a fine day. The almost 3 hour ride went very quickly with plenty of stories. It was not as slow as the bus by myself. One fellow bought lunch with his points for everyone. Waiting in line they met a small woman who spoke Italian and had a little exchange of thoughts in Italian. That was fun to hear.
I picked up a voucher on my points for a free bus ride within three months. And I learned that there is a poker rate of $59 at the Two Trees Inn, their cheapest motel like rooms. So I could take the bus up and back, getting both bonuses, and stay a couple nights. Sounds very good.
The new MGM was interesting to see. The machines were all very new and it felt pleasant enough. I am not a great fan of the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun expansions. They seem to be less interesting, more like huge lobbies in expensive hotels than casinos. And waling from MGM to Foxwoods (15 minute walk) was like walking through a mall with fewer shops. But the days of there being real themes seem over now even in Vegas where Wynn and Palazzo have that same dull feel to me.

I wonder what the Trump in AC will look like as a Margaritaville themed casino or what some of the newer building may look like in Vegas. The renovations I like best in Vegas are the old style neon added to the the East Freemont renovation. Downtown as a town of old neon seems delightful. I am bored with flat screen videos. I want to see more things like the Bellagio Conservatory, or the statues at Caesars, the fountain in front of Paris, Excalibur at night or the canals at the Venitian or the Stratosphere Tower. We have malls and 5 star hotel lobbies at home.

Tomorrow is Gregg's home game and then we go to Florida for 8 days. I'll play at Derby Lane dog track. Have to get my money back.