Gettin' My Live Poker On

Yes, that's right...I'm actually going to be playing some poker this weekend!

No, it won't be in Las Vegas. As most of you have probably surmised following my earlier post and then lack of mention of a trip to the desert this summer, I have decided not to head out to Las Vegas. It's a decision that pains me greatly on the one hand, but then on the other hand it's also one about which I have zero doubt about being the right answer, even less so today than a couple of weeks ago. Without rehashing all the reasons here, suffice it to say that playing nlh poker tournaments -- especially ones for a reasonably high buyin and against people who generally have at least some modicum of experience playing as well -- is just such a game of "feel" for me, and there are just so many nuances, in particular in late-stage play, of when to push, when to go for the stop-and-go, when you can raise the limpers and blast everyone out of a big pot or when you need to just lay 'em down and wait for a better spot. And I just know I am nowhere near my best on any of those areas anymore. Period. End of discussion. While I think most truly good tournament poker players could probably still walk into a room like the Amazon room and perform at a level better than 50-75% of the participants in that day's tournament, 25th to 50th percentile is just not sufficient for me, in particular in a game like no-limit holdem where any one mistake can, and -- again, in particular in late-stage tournament play -- probably will be the undoing of your entire tournament. The odds of me being able to play well enough over a few days at the WSOP this year after not sniffing a single hand of poker in any form with anyone older than seven years old for a good three full months preceding the tournament, is just naive and silly. So, after much consternation and a good deal of effort trying to drum up a way that I think makes sense for me to play in the Series this year, it's going to be no Las Vegas for me this summer.

All that said, that does not mean that I won't be able to play any poker tournaments this summer. Quite the contrary -- Hammer Wife is down with me taking the time I would have spent in Las Vegas this summer and instead trying my hand at a couple of smaller tournaments -- yet hopefully still big enough to be worth my while and get my juices flowing a little bit. This week is not likely to work for me to make it down for the Borgata Summer Poker Open which is still going for another few days this week down in Atlantic City, but then, enter Foxwoods and their "Spring Into Summer Mega Madness" series running from June 25 through July 4. Even though I recently moved a lot further away from Foxwoods than I lived for the past couple of years, I am willing to make the trek out to the middle of nowheresville to play in Event #1 of the summer Mega Madness series at Foxwoods, which is this Saturday, June 25 at 11am ET. It is a $600 buyin no-limit holdem tournament, with "mega stacks" whatever exactly that means, and the other thing I love about this event is that it carries a $125k guaranteed prize pool. This makes Event #1 the largest event of the entire tournament series at Foxwoods other than the Main Event, which for only 25k more guaranteed in the prize pool, costs twice as much at $1200 to enter, so I like Event #1 a heck of a lot more than that.

So that'll be me, heading down to Foxwoods very early on Saturday morning for Event #1 of the Spring Into Summer Mega Madness tournament series. If anyone is in the area and wants to check me out, let me know and I can get you my cell phone number. Otherwise, it should be interesting to see how exactly the layoff affects me -- I know for certain that my play will be off and worse than my best, but I am specifically curious as to exactly how my lack of recent play affects my game. Will I play too tight or too lose with starting hands to compensate? Will I fail to c-bet the flop as much as usual? Or will I flame out a nice stack with an ill-timed bluff against a guy I should have read for more strength than I do based on the complete lack of recent practice to draw upon? Only time will tell.