Player's Stories

The Long Run Will Be My Friend...
(FARGO Trip report)
By Nicolas Fradet

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11:
As I awakened on Thursday, October 11, I said to myself: I have been waiting anxiously for this trip for a while now, I am not ready to let the past month's events get the best of me. This is how I fight back. This Canadian stands tall. I will not let anyone tell me how to live because of my religion or because of our way of life; I will get the best of it.

I was going to do well at FARGO. FARGO stands for Foxwoods Annual Recreational Gambling Outing, an annual gathering of RGP players at the Foxwoods casino. I attended last year, as a rookie. I met several players last year and was looking forward to seeing them again as well as meeting new players.

We headed out from Montreal to Foxwoods at 9 o'clock in the morning. FARGO was beginning on Friday, but we wanted more. We needed more. My buddy Pierre and I had made this trip a couple of times now, we knew the drill. Six hours of driving to play in this big poker room, where everything is possible and where "Bienvenue" is the word of order.

I had the opportunity of being invited to Fossilman's FIHUPT2, an invitational heads-up tournament, which was taking place on Thursday night, at his place. There were twenty of us, divided into four groups, with the best of each group getting to the final four. We each would play the other four opponent in our group. Four matches made for great practice in heads-up play, a situation which we don't get often enough. And these were all FARGO players, part of the rec.gambling.poker community and by definition students of the game and somewhat experienced players.

This was not to be a walk in the park; not today, not tomorrow not for any event of the week-end. I played like I wanted to play, I felt as my post-flop edge was not going to be good, so I opted to raise more pre-flop and to be real aggressive on the flop. I butchered a couple of hands and played a couple more pretty well. I was 2 and 1 when I sat down to play my last match. My opponent had a record of 2 to 1 himself and the winner of this match would move to the finals and the money. I gave it my best shot but I hit a streak of cold cards preventing me from being as aggressive as I had planned. I made a couple of steals and re-steals but you can't always get away with it with hands like 5 3 offsuit. In one notable hand, I was down to T26 chips out of a total of T200 with blinds of 5 and 10. I had the BB and my opponent put me all-in. I had to call T16 to get T36. I knew my opponent could have a wide range of hands and since I was getting about 2.3:1 on my call, it was an easy call, even with 8s3s. It was even better when I rivered a straight against his As5s! My opponent could not believe it. (Sorry Bruce, it was a good call.) I survived a little longer but was eliminated later on. My opponent played well and he would eventually win the event.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12:
Friday morning was the first official event of FARGO. Mike Ward, Foxwoods's Tournament Director, greeted us and thanked us for being there. I always like the tournaments at Foxwoods, they are always well managed and you get plenty of playing time. The event was a pair tournament in which one of the partner would play Limit Omaha 8 or Better and the other one played Limit Hold'em. We would play the same stack and exchange places every 30 minutes. 22 teams entered the event. I played the Omaha hands since I had played more Omaha than my partner. It was one of my first Omaha 8 tournaments and it really was a short one. When I got low cards the flop would come high and vice versa. When I did get a showdown I would split the pot and get my money back with only a small profit. I found that against good opposition, Omaha 8 is a very tough game to play. My partner could not find any hand either and we were the second team eliminated. Enough said.

I headed to the ring games, played a bit of 5-10 Hold'em with a kill, a bit of 2-10 Stud 8 or better. But the thing is I am a tournament player. I love tournaments. I find them much more stimulating than the ring games. Winning a tournament is such an adrenaline rush. I would rather win a tournament and $100 than grind it out in the ring games and win $300. Tournaments are it for me. So, since Foxwoods does not spread a tournament on Friday evenings, I headed out to another casino that had a Limit Omaha 8 or better tournament that night. Talk about night and day! This was the softest crowd I had ever seen. The players were plain awful and I was hitting. I was betting, raising and check-raising like I wanted. I controlled my table and built my stack. At the end of the first break I had a better than average stack. At the end of the second break, I was second chip leader. 38 players remained and I was on top of my game, with a good chip position.

Then, suddenly, the game became a crapshoot within the next 3 levels. I had T3600 out of a total of T65000 in play. The limits were 200-400. I raised AsQcAh2s, no help on the flop, raise Ah2s3c8h, no help on the flop. Limits raised to 400-800. Limped in twice, no help. Limits were 600-1200. I had T1900. Now I had to find a hand and go with it. I busted on a questionable play a couple of hands later after surviving an all-in. In retrospect, I butchered the end of the tournaments, yes it was a crapshoot and yes you had to pick up hands but I now feel that I should have been a little more patient. Lesson learned, enough said.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13:
This was the "D" day for me, it was No-Limit Hold'em time. This is my favorite game by far, full of traps that must be avoided and full of moves that have to be made -- man, I love poker! But how was I suppose to battle this tough crowd? I'm just a 2 year old player. Most of these RGPers have already been there and done that. I'm not even there yet!

We started with 73 players, T1000 in chips, blinds at 5-10. Nothing special to mention in the first hours of the tournament. I did not play many hands, I turned a straight once and was freerolling another player since I had a flush draw also, the flush did not come, ah well...I did not receive many playable hands, I was playing well preflop, folding questionable hands that can get you into trouble quick, hands like AJs, AQo and 99 to a raise. But my stack was disappearing rapidly. I was down to T475 with blinds 100 and 200 three hours into the tournament. I had to find a hand before my big blind hit me, 52o, nope, 62o nope, 32o -- arrgh. And then it was my big blind. The cut-off put me in and I called without looking at my cards. "Queen high" my opponent said when the river card fell.

It was the moment of truth, I turned my first card: a King! I was still alive. I then shifted into high gears. A6s "I'm all-in", no call. QQ "I move in", this time I want a call, no call. I raise KTo, no call. I get a read that the BB is not interested. I raise with Q5s, no call. By then I had T2150. I was feeling good, I had a stack that could put pressure on the others and that's exactly what I was doing. The button raised my big blind for the 5-6th time. I had A7o, I read him as weak, I moved in. He couldn't call. He didn't. I was up to T4300 and about 20 players. I was on top of the world and one of the chip leaders at my table. Then players got eliminated, new faces sat down at our table, the table was playing very tight. We did not see the flop very often, usually when an opponent was already all-in. Blinds steals and resteals was the name of the game.

We were down to 11 players and we were six handed at my table. I picked up J9s and raised. No one had ever dared to look me up, I felt this raise was justified and that it would have given me the blinds often enough to be worth it. The small blind thought about it and moved in on me. The pot had T4300 in it, I had to call T2300 and would have been left with T500 if I had called and lost. What was my purpose here? Sure, I could have folded and still have ammo to grind into the money. Nah...What was the point of working hard for 5 hours and then just getting my money back? I wanted the win, or at least the top three spots, where the bigger money was. I put my opponent on a variety of hands, many of them justified a call considering the pot odds. I called...and lost to KJo. Next hand I picked up AKo and tossed my last T500, I flopped nothing and out I was against a pair of sixes. Ah well...I played to win, I know I can pull my own against solid players, lesson learned, enough said.

I played ring games for a while, went to eat dinner and relax. I came back for Midnight Madness (at 10 O'clock) which was a No-Limit freeze-out with usually 2-3 tables. The play was fast as blinds went up quickly. This is normally played until a single player has all the chips or a deal is made. I busted out 11th out of 27. Nothing special worth saying.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14:
Sunday was the day of the Limit Stud event at FARGO. I am still starting in this Stud thing, and with the time restraints of having to drive another 6 hours back to Canada, I chose to sit out the event. If I was to do well (not likely) it would have meant leaving much later than what was planned, so I passed. Instead, I played some 4-8 Hold'em for a couple of hours. The game was great, much easier to beat than the 5-10 with a kill but like any loose game, variance is higher. I played pretty well, got a good number of starting but the flop really was not helping me. I picked up KK for the first time of the trip, I had not seen KK or AA yet. Unfortunately, an ace flopped and I had to release the hand. The game was good, I played well, variance is key here, enough said.

IN THE LONG RUN...
I learned a lot over these few days. I learned that my game is getting better and that I can rival very good players. It was my pleasure to boost the American economy by donating my cash here and there. It's just sad we can't do this more often. (FARGO, I mean. The donating part -- I'll try to avoid that next time). Once a year is just not enough for me.

Au revoir!