WPT Fallsview Weekend Trip Report
When I started playing more poker since June, I have enough interesting experiences to have my own poker blog, but unfortunately, I no longer have time to post about every eventful session. Let's see how far I get with this trip report before I have to drive to the casino.
As part of my psychological strategies, I view the Fallview poker room as a War Zone where for every happy satellite victor, there are up to nine depressed casualties of war. When there were six combatants left in the final $460 satellite on Friday night, a punching war broke out right in front of the poker room. There were over a dozen drunk partyers when the fists started flying. There was one lone security guard who was trying to break up the fight and he was punched in the face.
While there were ten security guards last week who went to the washroom when I saw a drunk guy passed out on the floor in his locked stall (I felt like collapsing beside him after my AA vs. AK bust-out a minute before), there continued to be only one uniformed guard while I could see the warring factions getting ready to fight again. If there were forumers there, they would have pulled up a chair and start eating popcorn!
A satellite player said if he sees a gun pulled out, he was going to duck under our table. More fisticuffs flew by the exit and the guard finally got some help and I heard there were arrests.
After the fighting war was over, the satellite war continued and I ended up winning my second $1,240 voucher that night just before 4 AM. I was fully armed with a surplus of $1,240 vouchers for the Super Saturday battle for $10,300 seats that would start only eight hours later. By the way, a CardPlayer writer/pro was playing at the highest stakes cash game, along with the chip leader of the WSOP November Nine! Another Main Event finalist from Toronto played the $1,240 satellite last week (didn't win).
I tried to find a motel to sleep in, but the manager of the motel that I stayed in the previous week did not answer the door bell when a couple and I were ringing for a room. The Hilton and Holiday Inn were fully booked, so I had no choice but to camp out in my car. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up alert and ready for battle, but maybe it was my poker adrenaline that was kicking in. I put on deodorant and a fresh shirt.
I was able to register just before noon, was called to the first table, and the cards finally flew at 12:40 PM. These were the players who I recognized:
- Female high stakes player who made it to the top twenty at last year's WPT NAPC.
- Probably the richest player in the poker room, who plays at the highest stakes. I heard his name many times before and I finally get to meet and play against him.
- A chatty shark who seems to play in the professional tournament circuits, including next week's Aruba Classic.
- Other decent players whose faces look vaguely familiar.
I proposed adding $50 each so that the third place bubble boy can get up to $500 instead of zero, but not enough people were interested. In an early hand during the first 25/50 level, young player in EP raised. I woke up with my favourite hand that I will never learn how to fold pre-flop despite it being cracked numerous times
:ac :ah
The Weapons of Math Instruction! I initially though of re-raising, but my randomizing subroutine chose to flat-call.
The flop was something like
:ad :qc :9h
Villain checked and I opted to check the nuts. The turn was a brick, villain checked, I bet and he flat-called. The river made a straight possible, and we ended up re-raising all-in. Villain turned up
:qs :qd
and I double up!
A few hands later, the same guy goes all-in for t225. I look at my cards and see
:ad :ah!
I flat-call. Unfortunately, everybody else folds but I eliminate the first player.
At the 50/100 second level, I remember winning with
:qh :10h
and I have t8,600 for a big chip lead, well over the t3325 average.
The multi-millionaire had moved into the second chip lead after bluffing a decent player with A-Q (no pair on a flush-possible turn). When I was in the SB, millionaire limps in MP and I complete with
:ts :2d
Three-handed, the flop was something like
:10c :2d :ah
I opt to check, millionaire bets t300 and I decide to raise to t1200. He calls and the turn is
:jh
I bet something like t1500 and he goes all-in. What do you do?
With the two biggest stacks going to war for the $10,300 prize, whoever won should get the Blue Diamonds Almonds Bold Player of the Day award!
I was afraid that just like he had A-Q before, he might have A-J for a higher two-pair. After tanking, my read was that he was bluffing but instead of "throwing the math out the window" (which should never be done in poker), I calculated that my $EV-maximizing play was to call. He turned up
:kd :10d
and I eliminated the millionaire. I now had over t15,000 for over half of the chips in play!
At only Level 4 with 100/200+25, we were already down to four players. The circuit player said he really had to pee and could not wait for the scheduled break at the end of the level. Other players who have to go do so during a hand, but the circuit player wanted the staff and players to stop the satellite just for him. The dealer informed us that we would all have to leave the table or otherwise, he would have to deal out a hand as the clock never stops. I decided to be nice to the chatty guy so we all went for an early washroom break, which is the very first time I have ever seen an early break in all the satellites.
To be updated while I go for a washroom break....
As part of my psychological strategies, I view the Fallview poker room as a War Zone where for every happy satellite victor, there are up to nine depressed casualties of war. When there were six combatants left in the final $460 satellite on Friday night, a punching war broke out right in front of the poker room. There were over a dozen drunk partyers when the fists started flying. There was one lone security guard who was trying to break up the fight and he was punched in the face.
While there were ten security guards last week who went to the washroom when I saw a drunk guy passed out on the floor in his locked stall (I felt like collapsing beside him after my AA vs. AK bust-out a minute before), there continued to be only one uniformed guard while I could see the warring factions getting ready to fight again. If there were forumers there, they would have pulled up a chair and start eating popcorn!
A satellite player said if he sees a gun pulled out, he was going to duck under our table. More fisticuffs flew by the exit and the guard finally got some help and I heard there were arrests.After the fighting war was over, the satellite war continued and I ended up winning my second $1,240 voucher that night just before 4 AM. I was fully armed with a surplus of $1,240 vouchers for the Super Saturday battle for $10,300 seats that would start only eight hours later. By the way, a CardPlayer writer/pro was playing at the highest stakes cash game, along with the chip leader of the WSOP November Nine! Another Main Event finalist from Toronto played the $1,240 satellite last week (didn't win).
I tried to find a motel to sleep in, but the manager of the motel that I stayed in the previous week did not answer the door bell when a couple and I were ringing for a room. The Hilton and Holiday Inn were fully booked, so I had no choice but to camp out in my car. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up alert and ready for battle, but maybe it was my poker adrenaline that was kicking in. I put on deodorant and a fresh shirt.
I was able to register just before noon, was called to the first table, and the cards finally flew at 12:40 PM. These were the players who I recognized:
- Female high stakes player who made it to the top twenty at last year's WPT NAPC.
- Probably the richest player in the poker room, who plays at the highest stakes. I heard his name many times before and I finally get to meet and play against him.
- A chatty shark who seems to play in the professional tournament circuits, including next week's Aruba Classic.
- Other decent players whose faces look vaguely familiar.
I proposed adding $50 each so that the third place bubble boy can get up to $500 instead of zero, but not enough people were interested. In an early hand during the first 25/50 level, young player in EP raised. I woke up with my favourite hand that I will never learn how to fold pre-flop despite it being cracked numerous times
:ac :ah
The Weapons of Math Instruction! I initially though of re-raising, but my randomizing subroutine chose to flat-call.
The flop was something like
:ad :qc :9h
Villain checked and I opted to check the nuts. The turn was a brick, villain checked, I bet and he flat-called. The river made a straight possible, and we ended up re-raising all-in. Villain turned up
:qs :qd
and I double up!
A few hands later, the same guy goes all-in for t225. I look at my cards and see
:ad :ah!
I flat-call. Unfortunately, everybody else folds but I eliminate the first player.
At the 50/100 second level, I remember winning with
:qh :10h
and I have t8,600 for a big chip lead, well over the t3325 average.
The multi-millionaire had moved into the second chip lead after bluffing a decent player with A-Q (no pair on a flush-possible turn). When I was in the SB, millionaire limps in MP and I complete with
:ts :2d
Three-handed, the flop was something like
:10c :2d :ah
I opt to check, millionaire bets t300 and I decide to raise to t1200. He calls and the turn is
:jh
I bet something like t1500 and he goes all-in. What do you do?
With the two biggest stacks going to war for the $10,300 prize, whoever won should get the Blue Diamonds Almonds Bold Player of the Day award!
I was afraid that just like he had A-Q before, he might have A-J for a higher two-pair. After tanking, my read was that he was bluffing but instead of "throwing the math out the window" (which should never be done in poker), I calculated that my $EV-maximizing play was to call. He turned up:kd :10d
and I eliminated the millionaire. I now had over t15,000 for over half of the chips in play!
At only Level 4 with 100/200+25, we were already down to four players. The circuit player said he really had to pee and could not wait for the scheduled break at the end of the level. Other players who have to go do so during a hand, but the circuit player wanted the staff and players to stop the satellite just for him. The dealer informed us that we would all have to leave the table or otherwise, he would have to deal out a hand as the clock never stops. I decided to be nice to the chatty guy so we all went for an early washroom break, which is the very first time I have ever seen an early break in all the satellites.
To be updated while I go for a washroom break....
Comments
A female forumer was one of the people who had gathered around to rail the satellite, so she gave me our traditional lucky greeting. After the unprecedented pee break, circuit guy is eliminated anyway for a permanent break, I think by me. The three of us remaining agreed to reduce the scheduled break to five minutes. I asked the other two players who really wanted to play the $10,300 event if they're interested in paying me cash to give up the first place voucher, but neither of them brought enough cash.
After the bad loose player to my left tried to bluff me twice on the river and I made the hero calls, I had almost all of the chips. I offered the two micro stacks $1,300 cash each since one of them will almost certainly get eliminated soon and get nothing. Unlike my earlier $1,240 satellite where the two savvy micro stacks quickly agreed to the +EV deal, these two chose to play on. I eliminated the elderly player when he called my all-in re-raise preflop with a lower pair. Instead of getting $500 had he agreed to put in $50 at the beginning of the tournament or getting $1,300 from my offer, he got absolutely nothing.
I now had t27,000 or 90% of the chips. I offered the remaining loose player extra cash using the fair value of his chips to end the satellite. Unfortunately, he didn't know ICM from IBM so he didn't know that I was giving him a fair deal using the Proportional Chip Count Formula. He chose to play on and started going all-in more. I changed gears to Negreanu's Small Ball strategies, and I knew that it was only a matter a time that I would get all the chips in with the best of it.
With the blinds at Level 8 at 400/800+100, I finally got a good hand
:9d :9h
I opted to go for the check-raise play, but he also checked. The flop was
:7c :8s :10d
I likely had the best hand with a good pair and an open-ended straight draw. I bet, he raised, I re-raised all-in and he quickly called. With his insta-call without thinking, I thought he had the straight but all he had was
:6h :8c
The turn was a brick
:2d
The bad player only had four outs (two 8 & two 9) and I was over a 90% favourite to win another $10,300 seat. Over a 90% chance of becoming the #1 winningest player of all the WPT satellite players. The river was
:9s
A hand later, he called with just a bad a hand (7-9) when I raised another t2000 with A-J, but as usual, he outdrew me and IGHN. Despite the dealer dealing him lucky cards to come back from a 9-to-1 deficit including a 4-outer on the river, he didn't give the dealer a single cent tip after he won the $10,300 prize.
I started walking towards the exit to jump down the Falls, but to paraphrase Phil Collins' song,
"Oh, think twice. It's just another day for you in variance paradise!" Just another day in VARIANCE paradise
So I pass up on the -EV jump and instead decide to treat a forumer and friend to the Fallsview buffet to eat my sorrows away.
as a new player and new to wpt events/satellites i really enjoy reading trip reports. i was at fallsview this fri/sat playing 2-5 and had a good weekend on cash. up about $450 over 6 hours on friday night and up just under $300 on sat in 8 hours of play.
I would really like to meet you next sat if u go, or any forumers that are there.
i still have my $460 vouchers and am still debating playing/selling them...we will see so far im up $200 and have 6 $460 satellite vouchers after selling some (3) to recoup my losses all by playing the $70 bingos.
anyways pm me if your around there next sat
and i know it sounds weird but i live in thorold (10 mins from fallsview) and our apartment has 2 empty rooms so if any forumers are serious about needing place to crash, pm me, but of course i would want to meet u first.
ok thanks guys,
jays
Friday i saw the two guys fighting, that's the first time I've seen physical violence in a poker room.
I was in the poker room late Saturday night (7 am) and some of the guys kept mentioning your name about how you are cleaning up on the satellites.
Jays, if you want to meet with me I'm wearing a black leather cowboy hat and Aviator sunglasses, usually playing the 2/5nl on friday and saturday nights, come by and say, "Hi"
Who needs the UFC on the poker TV screens when you can watch it live?
keep up the reports! fresh shirt and deodorant is -ev though.
Just another day in variance paradise....
...it gets 'em every time 8)
But seriously, Congrats!