Llew's FARGO Epic Part 1

On 23 Oct 1998 13:44:06 GMT, in rec.gambling.poker llew213@aol.com
(Llew213) wrote:

Llew's FARGO Epic, the Unabridged Version. Part 1

OK, it is time to put my FARGO experience on paper. WARNING #1: I did not
keep notes. I decided that it might be better to actually concentrate on
the games. Also, I experienced half of the weekend in a stupor brought on
by severe sleep deprivation, from which, incidentally, I have not yet fully
recovered, having not slept at all last Friday, Sunday and Tuesday nights.
On Friday and Sunday at FARGO, the games in which I found myself were
just too juicy to leave. And Tuesday, well, what can I say? It was my
regular home game and I was ahead by a whole $40 (2-4 dealers choice),
certainly worth further ruining my health for.

WARNING #2: This report, unlike my past tomes, may actually contain
some poker content!!! But as little as possible, so as to not risk my
well-deserved reputation of trivia czar. I will try to remember to
clearly mark these parts so that those of you who are interested only in
poker content can skip to the chase.

So, you have been warned! If you choose to read on, any bitching about
the contents will be summarily ignored.

(Insert big smileys here)

Left my home in Poker Hell (south-central PA) about 9:00 A.M. on Thursday,
Oct. 8. A quick stop in York for travelers checks and over-the-counter
cold medicine and we were on the road to CT. We had been looking forward
to this trip for months. My reasons were obvious. As for my husband
(Robb "Mr. Llew" Green), he grew up in Westchester county, NY and lived in
CT for several years. So this was a chance for him to visit family and old friends.
I was happy because I would not have to feel guilty for spending most of my time
at the tables, knowing he would have much to occupy his time. And, of
course, having a "chauffeur" allowed me to sleep on the way home ;-).

Unfortunately, the weather gods must have been majorly pissed off at
something that weekend and our drive became a difficult marathon through
*very* heavy rain (can you spell "arc"?). We also had pretty heavy fog along
most of I-78 until we got to NJ.

We did dodge one bullet, however. My husband chose to take Merritt
Parkway rather than I-95. About 10 minutes after we got onto the Parkway,
we heard a traffic report that said that there was a BIG accident on I-95
north near Bridgeport and traffic was backed waaayyy up. WTG, Robb!

Got off I-95 (which we accessed north of the accident) at the exit for
Foxwoods (Rt. 7?). About 10 miles down the road, Robb said, "There it
is". I opened my eyes to see this huge, palatial- looking structure which
appeared to sit right in the middle of the road!

Found our way to Two Trees and checked in (about 6:00). I was
disappointed that they did not have a non-smoking room for us, as I had
requested when I made the reservations. One of Robb's many allergies is
to smoke. But the room we got was fine, not smoky at all. It was,
however, about a mile-and-a-half from the elevator! Oh, well.

Dumped our stuff in the room and headed right to the casino. Ran into Al
Frampton at the shuttle stop. I know Al from ATLARGE. He, Alan Richter
and I were the final three at the ATLARGE stud tournament. This was the
very first stud tournament I had ever played (I entered to get some cheap
stud experience). I had a pretty nice chip lead, so we made a deal. Then
Al cracked my full house, which I made on sixth street, with quad A's.
Hurt me bad! :-) I ended up third (Alan Richter won).

On the way to the poker room, Alan showed us where to get our "Wampum"
cards (i.e. comp cards). I really like Foxwoods' system for using the
cards for comps. In the poker room, when you order food, you just give
your card to the waitperson. When s/he brings your order, s/he brings you
a printed receipt, which you sign. That's all there is to it. On the
casino floor or in the restaurants, they just swip your card through a
slot on the register, which print a receipt for you to sign. A very
efficient system. LV casinos could use an arrangement like this.

We proceeded to the poker room, where we thought we would meet folks who
had expressed an interest in a "non-smoker" (dinner). Well, no one showed
up at the designated meeting place, but we found Jim Hill and the three of
us proceeded to the Han Garden. This is a very nice Chinese restaurant.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I was not very hungry, so I just had
the appetizer sampler, which was very good. Jim is a very nice guy and we
enjoyed getting to know him.

Incidentally, several of the nicer restaurants were a lllooonnnngggg way
from the poker room. Between the casino and Two Trees, I did not have to
worry about not having my treadmill to use during our stay.

After dinner, Robb went back to our room to get a good night's sleep, as
he was going to visit his father in Yonkers on Friday. I knew that I was
too tired to play poker well, so I explored the casinos and checked out
the video poker. The thing I discovered about Foxwoods VP is......IT
SUCKS!!! I did not think it was possible for VP to be worse than it is in
AC, but at Foxwoods it is! Most of the Jacks-or-better machines are 6/5,
the absolute worst payoff scale possible. And the deuces are not
full-pay. I finally found some 8/5 Jacks (not a great pay scale, but at
least acceptable) downstairs in the non-smoking slot area on the Game
Maker machines. I actually did pretty well on them over the weekend, but
overall, I would certainly not return to FW to play VP. Ugh! Finally
turned in about 1:00.

Published with the permission of the author.
Reproduction without the author's permission prohibited.