Another 2nd Place

Another poker 'tournament', another 2nd-place finish. A month after the 22-person affair in Western MD, I was down in DC on Saturday night for a smaller 12-person tourney hosted by a co-worker. I played a little tighter than I had during the last tournament, but still found opportunity to go all-in six times before losing on the seventh occurrence. It was heads-up at the end, and we traded the chip lead back and forth quite a few times over an hour or so. I definitely had some good luck on my side for most of the evening, but I also didn't make any mistakes and had a few very good plays that knocked some players out.

I'm getting better at recognizing players who I should be playing against versus those that I shouldn't. For example, not a great idea to play too many hands against the guy at the table who plays at least every other hand. Even if he has the chip lead and looks dangerous, let him knock himself out playing too many hands (that's exactly what happened). Personally, I need to work on winning more bad hands and playing a bit smarter in end-game situations (1-on-1, 3 players). Maybe then I can move up from 2nd to 1st sometime soon.

One thing I did like about this tournament were that the chips weren't real-money valued. It was a $@0 buy-in, but you received 1500 in chips. Not $1500 in chips, just 1500. If you're playing a friendly game where there isn't necessarily a winner, it's appropriate to tie chips to actual monetary value. But in a tournament I think it just adds to the fun, to be playing at the end up the game and being able to raise 5000. Again, the chips are just a way of keeping score in poker; I have more fun playing when I think that way - I can always concern myself with the money after the game is over.

Update: General Mills now makes Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp - check it out, it's super-tasty.