Shuffle Up and Deal

Still a bit tired this morning, or maybe the better word is weary - Jenny and I were in a small (22 people) poker tournament last night out in Washington County that lasted until 3 am. We came back to my parents' place and didn't get to bed until 4. Yes, I was in the game until the very end, and ended up tying for 2nd and winning $60. If one was inclined to look at it from a money perspective, we ended up breaking even collectively, when you consider both our entry fees of $20 each and the $19 in beer, girlie beer, and Doritos from the Jefferson Market that we brought to the game.

I played quite unlike I usually play, which is very conservatively. I won several big hands with absolute bluffs, and wasn't really caught bluffing all evening. There were plenty of tight players there who could be scared out of a pot relatively easily, and I just decided to take advantage - that strategy ended up working well. There was a guy there who was getting kind of annoying at the final table, who kept ridiculing people for not playing more hands, but in the end he ended up playing too many hands and finished in fourth. He was a good player and seemed like a nice enough guy otherwise, but definitely not good enough to be telling other people how they should be playing. It's very possible that he was doing it on purpose to try to take people out of their games, and to a certain extent it did work, for a little while at least. Anyway, by 3 am (after about 8 hours of poker), the last three players just wanted it to be over, so we started playing hands we wouldn't normally play. Eventually this led to me being down far enough where I had to go all-in to cover the big blind - $8 by the end of the night. The other guy, Terry, who was a very smart player and hell of a nice guy, went all in the same hand, so when we both lost to Mackey we split 2nd place.

Congrats to Mackey for winning the whole thing, he played very well and was appropriately rewarded for his efforts. Also, many thanks to the Corson family for the kind hospitality; Brian ran a good tournament, and I'm still amazed that he was able to come up with all those chairs. Certainly a fun evening, and somewhat of a turning point for me in terms of playing style. After that game, I don't think I'll ever go back to consistently playing tight; it's just not as much fun to play that way (and yes, poker is about fun for me - I don't view it as an investment vehicle). I need to adapt my play to who's sitting at the table, and I did a good job of doing that last night. IMO, there are lots of players who think about the money they could lose in a hand, but poker is still just a game and money is simply a way to keep score.

One last item - download Google Earth: it's super-cool.