Foxwoods has become a joke. Between the rude dealers, nitty degenerates, and comps for certain players, I 'm pretty much done with them. I encourage the limit grinders to come to the Sun. It's a much better room, and the limit games are slowly building. I will be starting the 5/10 interest list on a regular basis.

The may agree with you about the dealers but barely. As for the other things you mentioned there are plenty of nitty degenerates at the Sun as well and comps are worse then FW. As for the limit games there is always a list but they will never go.

Regulator: when I was your age+3 I would come down on Friday and pla until Sat night. Then get a cheaper room in the surrounding area (mine was Redroof inn New London but you might find something closer in Groton/Mystic) then back Sunday morning and play until the next day. Of course I was playing low limit hold'em so thinking wasn't mandatory and often more harm than good. NL is much more dangerous.

Short answer; break up long sessions with real sleep and a shower, it helps your play x1000.

DM what do you consider long sessions ?

You won't be bothered by security, especially in a garage. A bit degen, but also standard. Park in a corner of the parking garage preferably next to a wall so you only have somebody parked on 1 side of you. Make sure your car is in view of a security camera for added safety.

Take your sunglasses and a hat to help block out the lights in the garage. And take a wash cloth or something to give yourself a hooker bath in the bathroom when you wake up.

future pro, that was way to detailed for me...I'm guessing you've done this several times?! lol.....why not just bring a tent and camp outside in the real woods?!

I've only done the sleep-in-car thing when I was either too tired or drunk to make it home (1.5 hr drive). Sometimes I've made the attempt and realized I couldn't do it... I've napped in the lot behind the Mobil on 395 a couple times. It's just a 2-3 hr nap really. Better than driving into a ditch. I've never planned a multi-day trip without a room.

I was down there last night and got some info on some of the new cards.

Gold - Over a 6 month period (calendar 6 months... Jan-Jun, Jul-Dec), earn at least 800 points and average at least 25 pts/day (days you are there... days you don't go don't count).

Platinum - Same, except it's 2000 points and 50 pts/day.

The addition of the daily averages hurts the chances of poker players getting these. But those with Black cards shouldn't have much trouble getting the Gold if your sessions average 6-9 hours, depending on the game... and obviously if you mix in slots/table games as well.

Does anyone know the various benefits for each card? Points, lounge access, free rooms, etc.?
Also, what are the basic points for various games? (1-2 and 2-5NL are 1.5pts/hr.)
Obviously now impossible to get Platinum through only poker; @ 3 pts/hr, 50 pts/day is 17 hours/day....

It's listed on the Foxwoods website. There's too many to list here, and too many differences, but I'll cover a couple of them.

From what I can tell, Gold card doesn't give you the 2 free nts/wk covering the WHOLE week like Platinum does... which is Platinum's biggest perk IMO - free Fridays and Saturdays.

Also it doesn't break down the lounge access, but I know it offhand... Gold gets you Rainmaker lounge (above poker room - the Black card lounge) and Cedar lounge (behind all those shops along the main corridor)... Platinum gets you those plus Foxview (Pequot 21st floor) and Hampton (high stakes slot area). The only one that requires Diamond is the Newport room, though you may get in with Host approval if it's slow. Foxview is the best IMO.

I only know of 1/2 and 2/5 (1.5/hr as you said), that's all I play.

Ya Platinum is pretty much unacheivable for strictly poker players. I have one because I'm also a craps degen. Now that they've kicked in the daily average I never sign in when on a purely poker trip - it'll kill my average.

I just love how they kicked us downstairs because they needed the good old room for slots; and then 18 months later they take out the slots and put in a lounge

does anyone know how to get a better rate then the 169 thursday night 259 friday night?

Yes, call foxwoods and ask them if they have any rooms available at the Bellissimo. It's only about 3 miles up the road, a nice hotel, and they have temperapedic beds, so its an amazing sleep. Their rate through Foxwoods is $79.99, however, I'm not sure what it would be on a Friday or Saturday night, but def cheaper than what you were quoted.

Lol, fortunately I have only done this once. I have just read a few threads about this and offered the standard advice. And people actually have slept in tents in the woods!

did this when i needed a last min room after staying at Mohegan for a couple days -

Went to foxwoods but they were packed- the host got me a nice room at Bellissimo for 50 points

the people there were real welcoming, room was decent and clean - they have a little bistro there and a complimentary cont breakfast - they gave us a coupon for the bistro

they also have 2 limos (reg and suv) that shuttle back and forth to fox i think every hour

def a good option

My advice on WHICH HOTEL to use at Foxwoods, having been taking 2 free ones per week for several months now.

With girlfriend, I prefer MGM. Without her, I waffle between the three, they're all fine with small pros/cons.

At MGM, she can use the (outdoor) pool for free with a room key and her name added onto room. The bed is the best, hotel is new, rooms super nice, the shampoo/etc are very high-end. Downsides are sensored minibar fridge (don't remove stuff to add your own food/drinks!), and a sensored snackbar taking up counterspace on the dresser. No bathtub except in suites (Jacuzzi then), but a nice shower with stone seat. Fair to poor shower water pressure in most rooms (low-flow restrictor mismatched to 61-nozzle Kohler showerhead). Small safe in nightstand drawer has no room for even an SLR camera, just one laptop. Girlfriend less likely to visit poker room as often, it's a 12 minute very brisk walk or 18 minute stroll from hotel elevator to poker room. Free WiFi, no hardwire Ethernet.

Pequot rooms are larger, not as contemporary but still perfectly nice. Larger safe (2 laptops and an SLR would not be a problem), empty fridge for your stuff, deep tub/shower. Don't get the new dark green shampoo in your eyes, you'll be blind for the next hour. Free hardwire Ethernet, no WiFi. They're getting better about having an Ethernet cable already there, but sometimes you need your own or to call the desk for one.

Cedar rooms similar to Pequot, only very slightly less nice. Cedar checkout is an hour later and it's very convenient to poker, food, etc. Nice hardwired Ethernet cable coming out of a retracting reel, no Wifi. Cheaper shampoo but at least it isn't semi-lethal. Same safe/fridge as Pequot. Friendliest and most error-free desk staff of the three.

My advice on sleeping in a car at Foxwoods.

I used to do it occasionally, when a 25-minute driver-safety nap (optimal length for many people) before driving home became a 7-hour oversleep that prompted me to stay another day. With some free weeknight rooms and some adeptness at Priceline hotel bidding, car sleeping is now a rare emergency event for me.

Foxwoods security WILL rap on your window to "make sure you're OK", and tell you it's not allowed, to leave or go into the casino, etc. Their easiest way to notice you is if the engine is running. In winter, the exhaust is visible, and in summer condensed water dripping out of the tailpipe and/or AC drain are visible. So a good plan is to run the engine/heat/AC while you are awake, then turn it off before you nap. Change parking spots if there is a puddle or ice patch caused by your tailpipe, they seem trained to look for that. Turn off the engine, and set an alarm or the weather will be your alarm clock if it's cold or hot out.

Park in a low-traffic area (last floor of garage) but pick a spot where at least some cars are parked. Few gamblers will report you if they are leaving from the spot next to you and you're not running the engine. So I consider having cars parked on both sides, and an exterior garage wall in front an advantage. Someone arriving is more likely to report you when they go into the casino, but still not very likely. Having cars on both sides of you at least delays this, plus helps shield you from being seen by people/security randomly passing by.

For general advice on sleeping in a car (and a lot of other places, for free), the bible was written by a Vegas-based acquaintance of mine and posted at freesleeping.blogspot.com under "car sleeping" in his blog index.

Poker comp rule change frustrations....

Let me start by saying that a year ago, poker players at Foxwoods, even with a Black Card like me, didn't get diddlysquat for comps beyond wampum/dream points. Actually, I lied...we did get the $10 food comp for 35 hours in 7 days. But no rooms, almost no shows, no lounge access, etc. So 2009 has been a great year with a lot of new comp benefits for us. Anytime that I start getting mad over the unpredictable and incomprehensible changes recently, I just remind myself of how much better things are now than they were a year or two ago.

Having said that, IT IS very frustrating to manage your play to achieve certain comp goals, then have the rules changed midstream to make things that used to be considered GOOD (e.g., additional days played, even if short ones, count toward Black Card qualification) be considered BAD (e.g., additional short days of play dragging down your points/day average below the requirement for Gold Dream Card).

Another example is the ever-changing lounge-access criteria. I was told that May was the top 200 point earners in April; June was all players (180 approx) with 300+ points in May; July was the 120 players with the most hours logged in June. So now access is given to low-limit/low-point/high-hour players (not that they don't also deserve lounge access, considering the rake they pay!) and penalizing higher-point people who had begun aiming at high daily-average points by eliminating low-hour days (e.g., not playing a few hours upon arrival, not playing through breakfast on departure day).

In my case, I have over double the Jan-June points criterion for getting a Gold Dream Card for July-Dec, but my points per session (day of play?) was under the required average of 25. A Casino Host is trying to fix that for me, as she has done for a small number of other people in the same boat. It would have been nice if poker management had taken the initiative to print out a list of people in similar situations and fixed it immediately for at least the most extreme situations, without the need for us to wait for revised criteria or become a squeaky wheel with the Casino Hosts. I understand that poker management is trying to get qualification-rule changes which make more sense for poker players, which is good. But it seems that if a lone host can fix the existing problem one person at a time, poker management should set about doing it for the list of all similar people, and make some effort to communicate about it. Time is marching on: July is about 2/3 gone already and not only am I unsure whether I'm getting July-December Gold, but I don't know what criteria will be applied to my July-December play to qualify for perks next year.

Foxwoods Tournament Area gripes

I used to play 1 or 2 daily tournaments per week at Foxwoods. Then I stopped for a year or two, then I started playing a tournament every couple of weeks again this spring/summer.

But I think I'm going to have to stop playing them again, due to some major gripes I have.

TOURNAMENTS HURT MY ABILITY TO EARN POINTS at Foxwoods! I had long played them despite thinking they earned me no points. I now hear that every daily tournament played earns 1.5 points, with no word as to whether Black Card doubles that. Let's say it does. Still, that is equal to playing 1 hour of 1/2NL or 10/20LHE. At those games, I pay about $10-$12/hr of rake to the house. At even just a $120 tournament, I pay $20 to the house. At a $340, it is $40 yet allegedly still just 1.5 points. And making the money typically takes 6-8 hours or so, during which time I could have earned 6-8x as much points playing a cash game. This issue alone is enough to stop me from playing tournaments.

TOURNAMENTS HURT MY DAILY AVERAGE OF POINTS EARNED regarding Gold/Platinum status. If I play a tournament for 6 or 8 hours and thereby have a "1.5 point day", how on Earth am I going to keep up a 25 point/day average for Gold? That is worse than what I had been assuming, that playing a tournament and nothing else that day would count as 0 points but also as 0 days of play. 1.5 points and 1 day is far worse under the new comp scheme. If I could check a box to count it as 0 points, 0 days of play, I would. This issue alone is enough to stop me from playing tournaments.

THE VIG IS BIGGER THAN THEY STATE. In an alleged $300+40 tournament, it's really $291+$49 because they withhold 3% of the prize pool for tournament staff. Now, that is fine if it actually went into the toke box, but it apparently does not, and goes to Foxwoods. It puts players and dealers both in an awkward position. Players think the dealers are already toked, and dealers think either that players are cheapskates or that their employer stole what appears to the player to be their toke.

In my view, the fact that Foxwoods misrepresents vig as a toke, does not compel me to replace the stolen toke with yet another one. So it's not a show stopper like the other two, but this issue makes me uncomfortable enough to stop me from wanting to make tournaments a significant part of my play.

So there are 3 issues which have to be fixed before it makes sense for me to consider playing tournaments at Foxwoods anymore, right at a time when I was starting to do so for the first time in a long time.

They should just post a sign "Come sign up for tonight's tournament if you don't mind giving up all hope of Gold/Platinum Dream status, while watching Foxwoods screw the dealers out of the toke we're taking out of your prize pool".

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I hope I am wrong about some or all of this. I would really like to have the ability to occasionally have a change of pace in a fun tournament. I just can't do it, though, with all these reasons not to. Why in the world do they create reasons that a cash game player can't play an occasional tournament without taking a big hit to their comps?

Has the criteria for getting a black card changed too and if so what is it now?
I was putting in a few short sessions to get the required 75 days and long sessions to get the hours but it seams this is out of date now.
Monty

I just did this last night under the same assumption. ****

The 3% actually goes to the tournament staff. Which is the floor, and I'm pretty much sure since they pool tips at Foxwoods anyways, that if you tip for a MTT cash that it's just going into the tip pool. I've won and cashed deep in a bunch of these and usually give 50-100 depending on the cash.

Don't tourny dealers get extra hourly rate for dealing tournys?
I have had 4 top three cashes lately and have not toked the dealers, very sorry now.
Wrongfully believed foxwoods toked the dealers too,and will tip some from now on.

I was doing the same but was under the impression the ability to get Black Cards are no more. Am I wrong?

I believe that Black cards still exist, and that criteria haven't changed, based on discussion with a host last week. (But who knows? read on.)
Nobody really seems to have the whole thing clear.
I was trying to see whether or not I was qualified for a Gold card, and no one seemed to really understand the rules.
I was repeatedly told (by two different hosts) that the Gold requirement to average 25 daily points actually isn't an average of >25 pts/day, but that each and every day within the six months had to be >25 pts. (In other words, if I had huge points every day for six months, but played for only 5 hours on the last day, I don't make it!) Obviously this makes no sense, but that's what they said. Then I was told that this sort of thing could be fixed on a case-by-case basis, and that they would look into it for me.
I'm waiting to see what happens here.
But FW mgt. could really do a much better job of clarifying and explaining the various rules and benefits of this program (starting with their own personnel). They could take a real lesson from the airlines' frequent flyer programs. After all, it's supposed to be an incentive, I think....