CT and TO

Nothing too exciting to report about Foxwoods. I went down in time to play the three final prelims, and ended up doing just about the same in all three. I outlasted 80% of the field, but then busted before the money. Bleh. The main event was even uglier as I busted out in the 3rd level.

The casino itself was insanely huge, especially considering it really is in the middle of friggin nowhere. I thought everything was run pretty smoothly, and I never had any problems with dealers, floor people, etc. The cash games and satellites were also nice and busy, and generally well organized. So I guess whatever it is that other people don’t like about Foxwoods, I didn’t run into it.

After my quick bustout I was able to drive up to Toronto to attend the Canadian Poker Expo. I was worried that the place might be pretty dead, since I hadn’t heard much in the way of advertising for it. When I arrived on Saturday morning though, the place was already busy. I was impressed by the amount of people who turned up, considering it was the first time they had tried to run an event like this in Toronto.

The main attractions were the Full Tilt sit an go area, and the heads-up electronic poker area. There were also 20 or so other small booths advertising for a variety of poker related stuff.

I spent most of the time playing in the Full Tilt free roll sit and go’s which took place every 2 hours starting at 11am each day. They allowed 300 people or so to play each time, and the tournament was sold out early almost every time. I was a bounty each time and gave away a Full Tilt jersey I wore to whoever busted me. I had a good time and always tried to talk to each of the players at the table and make the mood pretty light.

I also did a Q&A session with 3 other pros on Saturday and then on Sunday did a presentation on the differences between live and online play with Roy Winston. I think it would have gone a little better if we could have done a presentation on a topic of our choice, but we plowed through it anyway.

I thought the funniest part of the weekend was watching the differences between the pros. Mike McDonald and I are both pretty new to this kind of thing, so we showed up early, and were just happy to be there. On the other hand you had the guys like Gavin Smith who rolls in half way through each day, and Greg Mueller who spent his time bitching about the nice hotel they put us up in because it was right beside the convention center and not downtown.

All in all, I thought the expo went well and I hope they keep doing stuff like this in the future. I’m happy to see anything that helps the spread of poker in Canada.