Foxwoods, den of thieves

So I make my return to Foxwoods, (or "F**kwoods" as I always liked to call it) tomorrow morning. I really need to get some experience playing live tournaments prior to htting the WSOP in late July. Sure, I have played a zilion hands and seen just about every scenario imaginable online, but live poker is just, well... different.

I need to see if I can pull the trigger when I need to, even if I am looking at two cards that add up to jack-squat.

Of course, my one live tournament experience was a rich one, sitting at the televised table 3 seats down from reigning world champion Joe Hachem, amongst several other pros and sharks. I wish I had had a few more playable hands, but the experience was a good one, and I would do a few things differently given the opportunity.

Namely, I would ask for the timekeeper every time Hachem dragged a hand out. He had this shtick when someone caught a hand on him and he knew he had to fold. He would take like 5 minutes to fold and sigh, grind his teeth, and shake his head in disbelief. Apparently, it was real important to him that everyone at the table realize he had been done wrong by the poker gods and really had been dealt a bad break, no pun intended. He wanted it known that he was playing big hands, but he played a zillion hands, so he obviously wasn;t just playing big hands.

Anyway, the lesson there is that I am going to stick up for myself regardless of who is at the table. No single player should be able to hold an entire table hostage regardless of who he is. The guy was taking valuable opportunities for hands away from the rest of us, and that is b.s... period.

Anyway, I am looking forward to a live tourney tomorrow and am riding down to Satan's workshop with fellow local comic Marc Basch.

We should have some good experience to share. He has played in the small tourneys there many times, so can probably give me a good heads-up on them. On the contrary, I have qualified for a couple of pro tourneys, namely the WSOP, which he, (and every other card player in the country) would like to get in on, so I can send across a few tips on qualifying.

All in all, it should be interesting, to say the least.