Poker

16th December 2007

Crown Casino Free-roll.

With great trepidation, I joined Claudie, Rafik, Bridget, and Bart at Crown Casino to attempt my very first poker tournament. I had never played in any form of poker tournament before… In fact, I had never played against strangers, only home games against friends and family. I found Crown very imposing indeed. More so when we saw hundreds of people in line for entry. It turned out that there were 704 players that day. The prizes included a couple of seats at the Aussie Millions Hold ‘em Poker tournament, worth a cool $10,500 each. After a nervous wait, a food-court meal (it wasn’t bad, actually) while we discussed our very primitive strategies, we went down to the Vegas room…

All I wanted was to last till the first break. I didn’t hold much hope for myself as was not going to spend any money today. As I feared, 2 players immediately paid $50 for an add-in for an extra $1000 in chips to put the rest of us at a disadvantage. In the first 20 minutes, there were a further 2 $50 buy-ins. My first playable hand – pocket Qs. Someone bet $200. I called. Looking back, I should have gone all-in, but I didn’t want to finish playing after only 30 minutes. A K came on the flop, and the same player that bet did so again for another $200. And again I called timidly. An Ace on the turn. He went all-in and I folded. It turned out to be a good fold as he showed an Ace, but I felt bad as I lost half my stack. I was way out of my comfort zone.

A few more poor calls and a couple of blinds and I was down to $175 in chips out of $1000. By this time, Claudie had gone out and was standing behind me. We were discussing going home as Rafik, Bridget and Bart were doing well. A9. Oh well. All-in. Four players. The flop helped noone and I was still in the lead. A 7 came up on the turn, pairing another player with A7 and my day was done. I hadn’t made it to the break. All that could help me was a 9 and I had almost stood up when a 9 came on the river. I was still alive! And I had a playable stack. Two hands later, I had Kc 10c and limped in. The flop was a rainbow Q J 9… I had flopped a straight! A player bet $500 so I moved all $850 in for my second all-in in 3 hands and he followed. He had top pair but he groaned as he saw the straight. Poker is an easy game when cards fall your way. I was up and running. I had made it to the break.

Until the break, I didn’t feel comfortable at all. The pace was high, the tables crowded and every so often, a dealer would yell “lost one!” as players fell out. After the break, suddenly, I felt I belonged here. It’s not that I gambled often (I gamble very rarely and I was only here because it was free to play), but that I felt that I could hold my own and wouldn’t embarrass myself. A few hands after the break, I had suited Jd 10d and limped in with several others. The flop was Js 7d 4d. The chip leader immediately went all-in, and I now had a decision for all my chips. I had top pair as well as a flush draw so I thought it was a relatively easy decision to call. He had been bluffing and when a diamond came on the turn, I had it.

Strangely, I don’t remember many of the hands before the second break. It was a bit of a blur as I moved tables twice in rapid succession, won with trip 8s, pocket Ks, and several without a showdown. Going to the second break, I found that I had about $23,000. Wow. How did I do that?

Bridget had also made it to the second break with about the same stack as myself. When we checked the boards, we found that there were only 63 players remaining. We had outlasted more than 90% of the field and boy, were we stoked. After the break, the game changed. The blinds were paralysing – $2000/4000. The hands became incredibly quick as folding was the order of the day. The blinds climbed to $3000/$6000 and time was running out fast. The critical hand for me was K 10 and I was the big blind. Someone went all in for about $12,000 and I had a big decision. I was already pot-commited, I had a picture card and I thought it was time, so I called. And lost. I was down to $8000 and just waiting for the hangman. The blind had just passed and I had eight hands to find a reasonable one to go all-in on. 8 10, 7 5, 8 4, 10 2… Just before I was the big blind, Q 7 suited. Oh well, this was it. Four people followed, two with aces. Ace on the turn just confirmed that my day was over.

I finished about 40th. Less than a minute later, Bridget walked up to us. She had outlasted me by less than a minute! We had been playing poker for 5 hours and we were very happy. Bridget and I made it to the top 6% without either of us buying-in or adding-in, something we were both very proud about. It was quite the experience and my adrenaline didn’t stop for hours after. I was happy just to make it to the first break and didn’t really expect to be still playing 5 hours later. I know that tournament play is bit of a crap-shoot, and considering that I recovered from $175, I’d have to agree. But there must have been some skill involved