A Few Hours @ Foxwoods

Another unsuccessful month of poker. I'm starting to get a complex, the only plus side is that I know I played well, just got unlucky and bad cards.

Before I get to the recap, just a heads up. I plan on hitting Foxwoods the first week of March with my brother-in-law and hitting one of their daily tournaments. I'll also give the ACT I a whack to try to win my way into the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic.

Foxwoods:
My father-in-law and I headed down to Foxwoods for an afternoon. I sat down at $2-$4 limit table (buy-in for $60) and decided to play tight. Not to just jump in on anything. A few hands in I get pocket 10s and they hold up to bring me up to $95. From there, the cards went cold. I didn't get jump and play anything I shouldn't, I played smart... for the most part. Only other hand I won, was AQ that nailed a Q on the river. I was there for 3 hours and only won those two hands. Towards the end, I did get impatient and play poorly. Twice played mediocre hands, and hit middle pair. But after the turn there were 4 to a straight and both times my opponent had the straight and I knew it. That was the worse part. But I take solice in the fact that for 2 1/2 hours I played smart patient poker, just didn't have the cards.

Monthly Home Game:
January: Honestly, I don't remember much except I was there, played 7 games. Won one, placed 2nd in another won and was only down $5 for the night. Would have been even, but I forgot my Xbox controller, went back inside and got suckered into a $5.00 buy-in.

February: This took place the week after my Foxwoods Trip. Now, for various reasons, I won't get into, I was only playing one game instead of the usual 6 or 7 so I wanted to make this one count. These folks know me as an aggressive player. So I decided to tighten things up. A few hands in I pick up A6 suited. I'm left with someone who doesn't know my style that well as we've only played together once before. However, he is hyper aggressive. So the flop comes, junk, misses me completely. I figure I'll take on shot at a bluff and if he comes back over the top, I'll fold. I lay out a 1/2 pot sized bet. He hesitates, but then calls. At that point I knew I had him. The Turn: nothing that helps me. I put in pot sized bet and he folds. I flip over my bluff to make sure everyone thinks I'm playing my normal aggressive self, and tighten up. For the next hour I'm winning plenty and watch as a few more people get knocked out. There's four left. I look down at Pocket AAs. The guy before me calls, I raise it everyone folds to him and he goes All-In. He's barely finished saying all-in when I call. He groans knowing I have him. He flips over pocket 8s. I have him covered and will have a significant chip lead if I win. The river was 5-6-7 giving him more outs. Turn doesnt help (6). As it turns out he didn't need the extra outs as he hit the 8 on the river. I was crippled and went out a little while later.

Now I've gotten over my need to tell bad beat stories, but I tell this one because it hurt a little more than normal. I played so much better than I normally do and felt like I had this game in the bag. Maybe it's a sign of me turning my game around. It's been on a downward spiral for the last few months.

So that's my story, thank you for sticking around.