Keep Goin'

(I did the ol' copy-and-paste from 'teh' MySpace blog. I'll have fresh material sometime around the bend.)

As I've mentioned before, I'm always trying to test my limits. I want to know what I am good at, and what I should leave alone. So, there's nothing like a Texas Hold 'Em Tournament to start with.

I play through PartyPoker.net. No money involved, all fake chips and what-not. When you first register, you start off with $1000 in chips. You get to choose from Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha, 7-card stud, and hi-lo variations of the mentioned games. I hate the hi-lo games. A person with a terrible hand should never win anything. Competition produces two things: winners and losers.

Either way, I registered for a tournament at 6PM my time. Nothing on TV, so I could just waste away on my laptop. 4000 people is the maximum allowed in each tournament, and that's exactly how many showed up.

I always go with the flow. If people are hesitant, I just sit back and relax. I'm not going to sweat over hands with little impact. If I'm at a table with idiots going all-in pre-flop, I just let them fight it out until they're gone. If I know I can take them out, I do it.

An hour went by, and I really couldn't believe how many people went out. I think around 2000 had been knocked out. You don't win anything unless you make 400th or better, so there was still plenty left. I always hovered around the chip average. If I fell behind, I would just bluff hard and they would crumble. Gotta pick your spots carefully. Another hour went by, and I think we were down to 700 people left. 2 hours so far!

I played my game perfectly. People tried to bluff me out, but I would pick up on their tells easy. Maybe they checked after the flop, knowing that they didn't have a hand. I just took their money then. Knocked a few more guys out, and soon I was ranked.

Kept choosing my spots. Kept watching the rankings. Every few seconds, another short stack was being knocked out. I just had to pass the time until there were 30 or so people left.

That happened after the 3rd hour passed. 30 people, 3 tables. I was a bit below the average, but I was far from being the short stack. I watched them drop like flies, and I watched my pile of chips grow. After a 5 minute break, there were 12 people left. Once 10 people had made it, the final table was set up.

I felt content with this. (Before I started, I told peoples that all I wanted for tonight was to get to the final table. True story. I have witnesses.) It took 3-1/2 hours to get to the final table. A few hands went by, and I started to just get tired. I had already planned a trip to Wal-Mart (that was a whole different story that I won't discuss here.) I went all-in with pocket 4's when I probably shouldn't have. Didn't care. We both had 2 pairs, (Q's and 7's came out on the board,) but he had the better kicker, so I was out. Finished in 10th place. The buy-in to the tournament was 520 chips.10th place earned 13000 chips. 10th out of 4000 people. Not bad.

I still want to try this stuff for real. Playing online is fun and easy, but I'll have all of my tools available when I'm playing in the real world. For right now, I just need to focus on graduating, finding my dream job, and saving money for the World Series of Poker. Ideally, I'll get a job where I can set aside enough for the buy-in each year. Or at least enough to get the smaller tournaments under my belt to earn an automatic seat. Something like Harrah's in New Orleans in May. Yea...