Foxwoods is aptly named because it is deep in the Connecticut woods with, presumably, all the foxes. Its closest metro areas are New Haven, Hartford, and Providence although it does draw from Boston and Long Island. Getting there is easy, with good highways, ferries, and trains from everywhere. For me it was quite a trip, two and a half hours from Penn Station in NYC, but I used my time wisely by sleeping and watching the scenery. I took the Amtrack train, very comfortable, $108 RT from NY. A quick trip with a friendly cab driver took me from the New London station to the casino which is in Ledyard, CT in about 15 minutes. The place is huge. I mean really big. It’s touted as the biggest casino in the world based on square footage, I think. It’s actually two casinos, with the poker room in the Rainmaker Casino. It’s a bit of a hike from the lobby to the poker room that takes you through a labyrinth of shops, food courts, slot machines, high stakes bingo (there’s such a thing as HIGH STAKES bingo?), and room towers. The food court has a Pollo Loco, by the way. (Side note: the food is really mediocre though reasonable but not cheap.) The room is rather large with big screens showing all the waiting lists for all the games. You can sign up electronically if you have a Wampum Rewards card (I know this is an Indian casino, but isn’t that a bit offensive?). If you left your Wampum Rewards card back at the tepee, then you can sign up at a registration desk. Sign up using your initials or some clever variation. My favorite was LOL. Consequently there is a constant din of initials being called out: “Now seating $5-10 no limit hold em for ABC, DED, AKS, JHK, OMG, DMF, BOB, and KKK!” But after four or five hours this just melts into the background. Thankfully, there are no slot machines near the WPT poker room. I went on a Saturday night, so there was a long waiting list for all the games. I picked $2-$4 limit, which is a grind I know, but I got to sit right away at a table with 9 players, 6 of them clueless. I won about $250 in an hour and then spent eight hours winning another $250. Still, it was entertaining. I find the New England accents on most of the players both quaint and charming. The dealing was erratic. Some dealers were not fully up on rules regarding dead buttons and the like, but were generally friendly. The dealers pool their tips, which kind of takes any incentive away from them to be better as pooled tips do not reward them individually. I’m all for merit pay. There was action everywhere at every level. It seemed like a lot of newbies were there just dumping their money. I spent about 10 hours in the poker room (which is smoke free) soaking in the atmosphere. I could have changed to a NL table after a few hours but I felt comfortable where I was and decided to just enjoy my time there. Definitely worth a trip back. If the hotel’s room rates are too high for you, I would suggest staying in New London about 20 minutes away. There are a number of B&Bs there and the town is kind of interesting.
Some of the best dead money comes from the donks at Foxwoods.
I just played yesterday, and having come out way ahead, playing mediocre cards, and just being patient, I'm pretty high on the place. I was playing in the 1-2 ($100) no limit table and found that no matter how good your hand is pre-flop, you're going to get called by at least one player, possibly two, if you raise anywhere up to $25. Lots of chasers, lots of people playing their medium pocket pairs as if they were a mortal lock. Foxwoods, of course, is enormous - therefore their WPT poker room is also huge. All kinds of games, but a lot of players playing no limit hold 'em. Lots of busting out - that makes turnover high and quick if you are waiting on a list. I noticed coming in that there were a lot of reasonably priced hotels and inns that have sprung up in the area (they advertise their prices on the road), and Foxwoods has a lot to offer (really beautiful surroundings and a lot to do at the casino) so if you have a chance stay over night and allow yourself a lot of time at the table, because patience is a real virtue when swimming amongst these antsy fishes who have been watching too much TV and are looking for the quick score.
Foxwoods has a good poker room. Thats that. But they need the dealers to keep their own tips and then they can have great dealers. that is all.
I visited in late April 2009. The room was huge, it seemed to go on forever with a large tournament(?) room that had only a couple of tables going when I was there, and then the cash games room. I have been told that it was nicer when it was upstairs, but I did appreciate that there was some light coming through the windows on this floor. I had no trouble getting into a 2/5NL game and the floor people helped guide me through the maze of tables. I was put at a "must move" and was moved from there within 15 minutes. After that I stayed on the next table until I left. I found the play to be strong at my table, but there was a lot of action. Most seemed to be regulars and knew each other and the dealers, but they were very helpful filling me in on the Mohegan Sun and tips on where to stay, etc. I made good money and enjoyed my time at the tables, I would definitely return, but I found the room excessively noisy and somewhat cold, not temperature wise, but its atmosphere. I much preferred my next days visit to the Mohegan Sun, which also had softer tables.
I'm from Seattle and visited Foxwoods for the first time in late May 2009. I wish we had a poker room this large at home. I've never been anywhere that spreads such a large variety of games. You can play almost anything that suits your fancy at Foxwoods, including stud at multiple limits and several kinds of combo games, like HORSE. The room seems to be managed fairly well, although I agree with another reviewer's comment that the quality of dealers would be better if they were allowed to keep their own tips. I had some difficulty with unusual policies at this poker room. The tables all have a betline, which is labeled as such in five places, but it isn't actually treated as a betline. I found this out the hard way. I started counting a couple of my chip stacks while I was contemplating a call, only to be told I had already called, because the chips ended up an inch or so in front of my cards. They were still a long way from the betline, but that made no difference in their eyes. After that, I started placing my cards way in front of me on every hand. Another time, I called an opponent's all-in bet when I had a set of aces vs. his pair of tens. He was sitting with a rack of chips on the rail in front of him, but the dealer pushed me only the small stack of chips he had on the table. When I protested, I was told the chips in his rack were not in play. That infuriated me so much, I called the floor for the first time in my poker career. It turned out Foxwoods used to allow players to keep chips out of play like that, but they've recently changed their policy. It didn't help me in this case, because the dealer didn't know the new rule and had agreed to allow the player to exclude the racked chips right before I sat down. Aside from these annoyances, I had a very positive experience and would be happy to return at any time. I was especially pleased that the casino layout results in almost no smoke floating into the poker room. (By comparison, I lasted only 4 hours at Mohegan Sun, because it was too smoky.)
