Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event, Day 3 -- Saul Crushing

Another airport posting here as I await my flight out of Providence back home. The WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event wrapped up a bit before midnight last night, with Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul emerging as the winner.

After the tourney ended, I saw some of the congratulatory tweets coming through for Saul, including one from Jason Somerville ending with the hashtag “#saulcrushing” which I immediately wished I had thought of at some point when posting his hands over the last couple of days. (So I stole it for the post title above.)

Saul started the final day of play with a below average stack among the final 16, but it had been clear since the middle of Day 2 that he was probably an odds-on favorite to make it deep, if not win the sucker. My blogging partner Chad and I were discussing at night’s end how this often happens in these events, namely, that a particular player tends to emerge even with six or seven tables left as a likely candidate to win, and while it doesn’t always work out that way it often does.

It was a similar story a few weeks ago at the WSOP-C Caesars Atlantic City Main Event, where Joseph McKeehen had already distinguished himself as a tough player on Day 2, then he picked up significant chips late in the day to be a prohibitive favorite going into the last day (when 19 were left). Also happened at that Sands Bethlehem Deepstack event from December with Chris Klodnicki, although in that case he was already a seeming favorite with 100 players left.

Actually everyone at yesterday’s final table distinguished himself, I’d say, with all having good moments in which hands were played well and most getting lucky here or there, too. Saul even experienced some good fortune yesterday in a hand against Bobby Corcione.

In that one Saul and Corcione traded bets after a flop to build a nearly 3 million-chip pot, with Saul ultimately all in and Corcione just barely having Saul covered (by 10,000, it turned out). Corcione had and Saul , which meant it was almost exactly a 50-50 flip -- kind of uncanny, actually, considering they’d begun the hands with nearly even stacks, too. A diamond came on the river and Saul survived.

“That’s not good,” said eventual third-place finisher Cory Waaland to me off to the side, remarking on Saul’s having not only avoided elimination but had built himself a big stack once again. Paul Snead -- who’d end up fourth yesterday -- had said nearly the same thing to me the day before when Saul had won a big pot while eliminating a player, again indicating the respect others had for Saul.

Snead actually was knocked out by Saul in another near coin-flip of a hand in which Snead was all in with ace-king and up against Saul’s two red eights, then the two black eights came out on the flop to give Saul quads.

Saul was on the other end of a number of bad-beat scenarios, too, both yesterday and the day before. But when such hands occurred he always had the chips to sustain himself afterwards, and continued to apply pressure and play smartly to build back up time and again.

There was an even more eye-popping flop than that quads hand yesterday, one that saw Waaland find himself in what I called a “hand-in-the-cookie-jar” moment after shoving from the blinds with and getting called by Ethan Foulkes who held . The flop then came , driving everyone into hysterics. The turn was the , thus giving Foulkes a flush draw, then the river brought the , giving Foulkes the flush but Waaland a better full house.

It was a nutty hand, and while both Waaland and Foulkes played well throughout the tournament, it is funny to think how a hand like that can affect how these things turn out. (Foulkes ended up finishing seventh, Waaland third.)

Saul is probably the best known player to win a WSOP-C Main Event during the 2012-13 season, aside perhaps from Dan Heimiller who won the ME at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana stop last October. Heimiller needs to update his awesome website to reflect that triumph.

Foxwoods was a fun place, although Chad and I didn’t have a heck of a lot of time to explore it much other than to sample a few of the restaurants. We didn’t play any poker either, although we did use our $10 freeplays to try our luck at Caveman Keno, with Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum tutoring us as we did.

Besides being a great blogger and photographer for the WSOP and an expert in all things Star Wars, Newnum also has advanced training in Caveman Keno, and thus advised us regarding optimal play. Alas for your humble scribbler, I couldn’t turn a profit with my Fibonacci-derived numbers (skipping 1 and 2 and using 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55), but Chad did manage to walk away with a small win of $14 or so.

From here it’s back home for a couple of days, then I’ll be trucking it over to Harrah’s Cherokee for the Main Event there (which starts Friday). Am very curious to see the scene, and bracing myself for what will likely be a huge turnout for the Main Event. I expect I’ll see a number of the same folks from this weekend’s tourney at that one, although the difficulty of flying in -- the closest airport is Asheville -- might keep some away from Cherokee.

All in all it was an exciting tourney in Foxwoods with a somewhat satisfying result, confirming once more the curious combination of luck and skill that distinguishes the game.

Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event, Day 2 -- Will Reason Win Out?

Another crazily long day of criss-crossing the tourney floor leaves your humble scribbler in a less than ideal state for chronicling his adventures this morning. We started at noon, didn’t leave until nearly 3 a.m. this morning, and after a few hours of winks I’m up again and eyeing one more day of poker at Foxwoods.

The day went well, all things considered, as the field whittled down from more than 200 to just 16. There were some good story lines emerging along the way, including the fact that among the final group there are two players who coincidentally share the distinction of having both finished 21st in the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Robert “Bobby” Corcione accomplished the feat last summer, the first time I got to know the player. And Paul Snead did so back in 2008. Corcione is a regular player these days, but I know Snead only plays occasionally since his deep ME run, and so it’s kind of intriguing to see both still battling as this tournament has reached the final two tables.

Those who remember Snead probably think first of that incident in which Tiffany Michelle called the clock on Snead in what turned out to be his final hand of the tournament (not against Michelle, but Scott Montgomery). Snead ended up making a great call after his session of contemplation was cut short by Michelle, but sadly suffered Montgomery hitting a three-outer to end his tourney run.

My blogging partner Chad Holloway has been industriously grabbing a few interviews with players here and there during the short 10-minute breaks to use in his future PokerNews pieces, with Snead being one of those with whom he’s spoken (probably for a “Where Are They Now?” column). Snead was very candid with Chad about that 2008 ME bustout and how it really kind of sent him away from poker, at least in a full-time sense. He’s a super amiable guy and a good player, too, one of several personalities left among the final group that help keep things interesting.

Looking at other sidebar stories, not a single woman made the money in this event (out of 63 cashing), the first time I think I have seen that happen in something other than a high buy-in, non-hold’em event at the WSOP. Meanwhile, Ylon Schwartz -- who also made a deep run in that 2008 WSOP ME with Snead, finishing fourth -- was knocked out late yesterday to finish 22nd.

Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul is probably the player left most likely to grab one’s attention as an observer. A good table talker and a great player, Saul might have been in first position to enter today’s final day if not for losing a big race with the excellently-named Ben Reason near night’s end to give the latter the chip lead. We’ve been somewhat restrained with the puns so far with Reason’s last name, although I couldn’t resist doing so above. I also had to break out a literary reference for my introductory post today.

Speaking of excellent names, one player who busted yesterday and with whom I chatted a little bit before his exit was named Z Stein, his legal name actually being just the letter Z. A nice guy who offered some encouraging comments about the reporting, Stein finished 26th.

Would obviously like to see a relatively shorter day play out today, perhaps giving us a chance to explore Foxwoods a bit more and maybe even play down in the very popular poker room where tons of tables are always going. But it’s likely we’ll go late again, thus diminishing the chance of our doing much of anything other than covering poker today.

Like I say, though, there are some characters and stories still in play. As you finish clicking around elsewhere to follow the WSOP Asia Pacific events -- where their day will be ending just as ours begins -- come follow along over at PokerNews to see how the remaining cast of characters play out today's last act in the WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event.

(1900th post here, by the way. Damn lot of scribblin’!)

Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event, Day 1 -- Zen and the Art of Tourney Reporting

I write this morning from my hotel room in Mystic, Connecticut, about a half-hour’s drive from the Foxwoods Resort Casino on the Manshantucket Pequot Indian Reservation where I spent nearly 16 hours yesterday helping cover the sprawling Day 1 of the WSOP Circuit Main Event.

It’s been a somewhat strenuous journey already, as I flew into Providence, Rhode Island, then had to drive close to an hour to get to Mystic. Got off the plane in RI and as I made my way to the rental car counter I spotted a fellow sitting on a bench looking very relaxed and holding a sign. Obviously he was a driver waiting on an arrival, although looking a little too laid back for the part.

Then I read his sign -- Providence Zen Center -- and decided he did look the part after all. And I took a cue from his seemingly serene state going forward, going with flow as it hurtled me down I-95 toward my destination.

I’ve never really visited this part of the country before. In fact, I can’t remember ever having set foot in the country’s smallest state, not that I was there for very long on Friday. I do think I’ve been through Connecticut before, but never to Mystic which seems a friendly, tiny seaport.

I did spot the Mystic Pizza, although rather than think of the film after which it was named the town always makes me think of a random line from a fake news report on The Firesign Theatre’s Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers comedy LP...

“And there’s hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut.”

Got together with my blogging partner Chad on Friday and the two of us reunited with Jay (a.k.a. “WhoJedi”) who’s here covering things for the WSOP. Then yesterday our intrepid trio together reported all day and night on the two Day 1 flights, which as mentioned took up most of our waking hours.

It wasn’t until a few hours into play that Chad and I realized the two flights -- each comprised of a dozen 40-minute levels -- would actually be overlapping rather than there being a break in between. Which of course meant no dinner break for us, although we each managed to get away for a quick bite anyway so we could sustain ourselves adequately until things finally wound down sometime after 1:30 a.m.

There was some interesting poker along the way, probably the most interesting hands watched by your humble scribbler coming between Andy Frankenberger and Danny “Middleboro” Smith near the end of the first Day 1 flight. I won’t rewrite both hands, but you can read about them here and here. The second was actually kind of a standard cooler that saw Smith get eliminated, but the first saw Smith interestingly decide to fold bottom set on the flop.

Was a little distracted a couple of times yesterday as those two NCAA semifinal games -- both nail-biters -- came to their respective conclusions. The players were predictably into those games as well, which briefly made for a sorta giddy atmosphere as everyone “oohed” and “aahed” at the plays on the big teevee screens.

Meanwhile there was a lot of talk during the day about how big the field turned out to be -- 578 entries total, with the possibility of a few more jumping in before play resumes at noon today. And there was a lot of scattered conversation as well about what’s been happening this week down in Cherokee, North Carolina, where the fields have been tremendous for the preliminary events and the Main promises to be huge as well.

Speaking of, Greg Raymer is here, and I spoke with him a little yesterday about whether or not he was planning to attend the Cherokee event. As most know, he lives in North Carolina, and I was glad to hear him tell me he thought he probably would make it to the WSOP-C event week. We obviously didn’t talk about the recent NC-based news about him, nor did anyone else it appeared as he was his usual friendly, chatty self at the tables. (He comes back to an above-average stack today.)

There will be around 200 players back to start things today, and it’ll be another lengthy one as the schedule calls for three more 40-minute levels, then 10 (gulp) more one-hour levels before play will be halted. Of course, we might again find things today turn out a little differently than planned, so we’ll be ready for any change-ups.

You know, trying to continue with the Zen thing going forward. And if somehow I’m unable to, I now know of a place nearby where I can go work on that.