FARGO 2016 - Trip Report - Jhiym
It's finally arrived, October and time for FARGO!
Thursday:
Two belt incidents in one day...
I woke up and got ready to go I already had everything printed out that I needed, already programmed all the addresses into Verizon Navigator for the trip. Got packed and headed for the door. I dressed casually, wearing sweatpants and a long sleeve Tee so I would be comfortable for the long drive. Just needed to stop and get gas on the way out and the perfect getaway is underway! Nothing can go wrong this weekend!
I got 2 miles from my driveway, still on my road towards Edgewater, and I see blue lights flashing behind me so I move out of the lane to let the Policeman go by. Go on, go by, go. I am yielding the road to you sir. Oh, you are pulling me over, I see? Seems I wasn't wearing my seatbelt since the gas station is only three miles from my house. He takes my license and registration and asks me if that's Joel I am listening to. Huh? Oh yes, Joel Osteen Radio channel 128 on XM radio. He goes back to his car and a few minutes later he comes back and tells me I have no prior incidents on my driving record and thus lets me go with a warning and I drive away. Woo-Hoo! Thank you Jesus and Joel!
I stop and get gas and then continue on to Uncasville Connecticut, with my seatbelt securely fastened, where I am staying at the Hyatt with cheaper room rates than the Mohegan Sun, which is just 2 miles down the same road. Hardly any traffic on the way up, and I made it through New Jersey without any run-ins with the infamous Jersey Devil. I make a few stops to stretch, lunch etc. and arrive at the Hyatt around 3:30. I get checked in and unpack, then change into other clothes to wear to the Mohegan Sun. And since I wore sweats I didn't think to pack a belt in my suitcase as usually I'd be wearing it, so my pants are really loose with no belt. I Google Target and there is one but 20 miles away, but the heads-up starts soon. I go to the front desk and the receptionist tells me there's a Walmart less than a mile away. So off I go and get a new belt, then off to the Mohegan Sun.
It's the 20th anniversary month at the Mohegan Sun so there are lots of things going on and all the convention center rooms are booked so we are holding the Fossilman Head's-up Tournament at the Jimmy Buffet's MargaritaVille Restaurant near the poker room. It actually works out better as they reserved the whole second floor for us and we can order food and drinks while we play.
Only 12 people are registered this year and all 12 show up so we are randomly put into 4 groups with 3 players in each group, with the winner of each group advancing to the final four. My group has Mary (Howard's wife), Chris, and me. Mary and Chris play heads up first and Mary wins. Then I play Mary and we go back and forth for over an hour and she beats me too. So she advances and Chris and I decide not to bother playing our heads-up match since we can't advance anyway. I go on to play slots for a while then go back to my room for the night. I won a little on slots playing Duck Dynasty as soon as I arrived, but gave it back after poker.
Friday:
The Pairs Tournament...
This year my Pairs partner is Mike Fujita, a very good Omaha player, as opposed to my partner last year Cactus Kev, who is also a very good Omaha player. We start with 3000 chips and Mike goes first with the Omaha8 group and loses a few hands and wins one to put us just under 3000 chips as we switch games and I sit down for Limit Hold'em. I win a few hands and fold the blinds when they come around but we are now up to 3500 chips. We have some tough teams at our table, the Kuznicks, the Klutchman's, Ashley and Ming, I think we may be the soft team, maybe. Mike goes back to Omaha and has some great starting hands that don't quite get there and we are quickly down to 1000 chips. We switched and I build us back to more than are starting stack again to around 4k when my AK catch a King and a pair of 4s becomes a set. Mike takes over again for Omaha and again were are down to about 800 chips when he is done. I hand he was hoping to scoop with second best high and low lose both high and low. I try to get our chips back but my queens lose to a flush and then the same for Jacks and we are out. We busted out 12th which wasn't bad but only top 6 teams cashed like last year. I get some dinner and then drive over to Foxwoods to play slots for a while, I win a bit on a slot called Mega-Meltdown, but end up putting that all back in on other machines so I end up going back to the Mohegan Sun, but all the parking lots are full so I opt to just go back to my room at the Hyatt and call it a night.
Saturday:
No Limit Hold'em, Twice...
We start out having the breakfast buffet as a group. There's an hour between breakfast and poker so I play some slots and win about $400 on a Wheel of Fortune slot machine, then get ready to the NLH event. Free-rolling with the slot win.
I have Rick Becker sitting to my left which is always fun and we have a good time chatting. Ashley Adams is to his left then Howard Jackson (Hojax) to his left. I am playing lots of early hands and not winning any hands at all but not losing much. Then I get AJ suited and AJ8 come out on the flop. I raise, Ashley re-raises and I call. The turn is a random low card I check and Ashley bets and I call, same on the river. I think I am reeling him in, but at the end of the hand he shows a set of 8's to beat my Aces up and I lose a few thousand chips from the starting 10k. A bit later I lose another big hand to Howard and find myself down to 3k in chips and we are only at Level 2. Rick Becker is in the same situation as me so we joke that we'll have the whole day to do other stuff soon. Rick gets moved to another table and. I end up not winning a single hand until the last hand before the first break. I have Presto and shove all-in. No-one calls and I take the pot. Woo-hoo!
After the break, the first hand I get a pair of Queens and go all-in with 3,500 chips. I get a call from Howard who shows AK, but my queens hold and I double up. The next hand I get a pair of fours and call a raise by Ashley. A4J comes out on the flop. He raises, I re-raise, then he says all-in and I call. He asks if I have a set and I say yes and show my 4's he has AJ. The fours hold up and my 7k turns into 14K and I am back to average stack! I work my way up to 18k, then lose a big hand to Howard who gets trips and I am down to 3'5k again. A few hands later Howard knocks me out. His wife knocked me out yesterday and him today. Hmmmmm.
It's only around 3pm and the only other tournament going that day is a World Poker Finals Deepstack Turbo tournament at Foxwoods at 6pm. It's a $250 event, but I can free-roll that with my slot win too. So I drive that way and stop and visit the Mashantucket Pequot Museum near Foxwoods. The big observation tower place you can see from Foxwoods. Turns out to be a really nice museum on all the tribes in the area and lots of history. I stay there for 2 hours then get some dinner and get ready for the Deepstack. We get 40k in chips and the levels are 15 minutes. I guess that's a turbo, but with so many chips there's no feeling of blinds going up too quickly.
I play a lot of hands again and am winning some losing some. My stack is staying right around 40k for a longtime which isn't good as the blinds keep going up. I start winning a few big hands and my stack is staying above the rising blinds. It's cold in the poker area so I get a Hot Chocolate which turns out to be really tasty and has some whip cream. I eventually get all the way to Level 18 and the table is getting loose so I go an all-in with Queens and get called by AJ. He has me covered and gets an Ace so I am out. I head back to my hotel for the night.
Sunday:
Deja-Voo, Triple Stud, and whip cream too!
It's Sunday and I usually fare pretty well in the Sunday events for some reason, 2nd to Katie in the PLO shootout a few years ago and 3rd last year in Big-O and Super Stud rotational at ATLARGE. Last year I had the Buffet at the Borgata prior to the Sunday event where I quickly spilled maple syrup on the front of my shirt. This year I decide to try the Buffet again at the Mohegan Sun for breakfast and get the French toast and an omelet, but try to be more careful. I almost make it through and then it happens, maple syrup all over myself again. Son of a !!!! but hey, it may be good luck again. I put on my hoodie over the syrup shirt and head to the poker room. I forget the guy's name to my left, but he remembers me from ATLARGE and the Sunday event last year and asked if I was ready to be bring-in Ron all day again like the Super Stud last year. I said oh yeah, but I gave up the bring-ins this year. He remembered the syrup too so I told him it happened again so he joked I was going to go deep again too. And look, I get Ashley and Howard at my table again as well.
So we get started with triple Stud, which is Stud8, Razz and Stud Hi, rotating every 8 hands. I get a few hands that start with three to a straight and three to a flush early and they all get there. I am winning lots of Razz hands as well. A few people get eliminated and Dave Kuznick and Tracy Becker get moved to our table and eventually Crunch too. Howard and Crunch have a big hand and Crunch takes most of his chips, then gets moved to the other table to balance them out. I knock Howard out this time a few hands later. Then things settle down a bit and I decide to order a Hot Chocolate since the one I had the night before was so good. The Mohegan Sun must have a surplus of whip cream because there's a lot on the Hot Chocolate. A few hands go by and I am the table banker, having the most chips at our table so I am making change for the dealer, playing hands and I look down and I have whip cream all over the sleeve on my hoodie and on the front of it too. So I get that all cleaned up as best I can and the guy to my left says to me, you are destined to win now if the syrup was good luck whip cream seals the deal. I was feeling lucky too so it was all good.
A while later we are down to 8 players and redraw for the final table. I have the second highest stack after Crunch who is on my left. No-one is really low so we play for a long while and get down to 7 then 6. We get back to Razz and Crunch has been dreading Razz all day and unwillingly plays hands when he has a really good starting three because he'd rather play Stud. He has a 5 showing and the guy to his left is the bring in. everyone folds around to me and I have A28 with the 8 showing so I complete and Crunch calls and the bring-in folds. I bet, crunch raises I call for a few a few cards and eventually I am all in just prior to the river with a 7 high hand. Crunch shows his under cards and he has a 6 low. I don't improve and he knocks me out in 6th. He went on to win the event after that.
It's about 4:45 then and the evening deep stack tournament is about to start at 5pm so I get a quick sandwich for dinner and enter the Deepstack. Starts with 20k in chips and 20 minute levels. I start hot and am getting good cards and winning lots of chips. I am quickly up to almost 50k in chips. And old guy across the table from me has been getting good cards but each time I have just a little better, my Flush bets his two pair, my Queens beat his 9s, My AK beats his AQ, then he has 10's and my Jacks beat him again all in about 10 minutes. I see one of my Jacks has a Mustache so I say, some Jacks have Mustaches like my favorite poker parody. Then he slams his tens down and yells "Why don't you go back to Fargo!" and gets all mad but he's not out (I was wearing a FARGO baseball hat). About 20 minutes later he goes all in and I call. He shows a pair of 4's and asks if I have Aces. I said yes and showed my Aces and he was gone after no help from the board.
About an hour later an older lady goes all-in and I call. She shows AJ and I show a pair of 6s pre-flop. I usually won't go all-in with 6s, but calling her all-in doesn't really dent my stack so what the hell. She sees she is way behand and starts saying Ace, Ace, Ace. The dealer deals the flop 457, then the turn is a 3 and I now have a straight and she can't win. Then she stands up and shakes her finger at me and says. You should be ashamed of yourself for beating me with a straight!. Like the 6's didn't beat her anyway or I am somehow controlling the dealers community cards. Whatever, have nice evening Grandma! Well then the cards dry up and I go into my normal too conservative mode and eventually my stack levels out to the same level as everyone else that's left. But blinds and antes are now taking huge chunks from everyone's stack at level 15 so every hand someone seems to be all-in and getting folded to them or someone calls and someone is eliminated. I get AK and go all-in and am called by A6 suited. He catches a 6 and I am out in 11th place, just short of the final table and two from the bubble. No wait, they think I have him covered, I am back. No after counting the chips he had a few more than me so I am out. :P
Oh well, no cashes but I played in 6 tournaments over the weekend and some slots. It was a great trip!
Monday:
Just woke up, checked out and headed home. Got home around 4pm to my cat, Tessa, who seemed to miss me a lot and didn't leave my side all night. Best win of the weekend! :)