Sting Jersey Has Been Ordered!
I said I would order a Sting jersey if I won enough money at poker.
Saturday afternoon, I played in a Hold 'Em tourney. The buy in was $100 and we only had 10 players. There's usually close to 20 but it's a lot of guys who work at the same place and they had a project due that weekend so a bunch had to bail. I was the only woman playing and I was a tad nervous at the beginning but played it tight until I felt comfortable.
We were at two tables of five and the guys all know each other pretty well and know how they all play. I was definitely the wild card. There were a couple of hands that I wish I could replay. I just wasn't smart on them. I got lucky when I was shortstacked and tripled up on one hand so I had a ton of chips when we were on the last hand of a round. I had pocket Jacks and the guy on my left called my raise. I tried to bet enough to get him out of the hand but he wouldn't budge. We ended up betting it up a lot and he caught a bigger pair on the river. I asked him what I could have done to get him out and he pretty much said nothing because he had so many outs. Pocket Jacks taken out by Ace-King. Grrr.
We lost a couple players and merged into one table. It was an interesting dynamic. We'd been playing with our own little group for a while and felt pretty comfortable. The three of us that were left moved to the other table where they still had four of their original five. I really felt like we were the outsiders. One of our three went out quickly so it was down to me and Zabo - the lucky son of a gun who busted my Jacks. Suddenly, I felt like he was best bud in the world.
I think I was the big stack at that point and I started getting incredible cards. Pocket pairs and lots of paint. The blinds were at $1000/$2000 and I started raising on almost every hand. $8000, $5000 a couple of times. The other guys thought I was just buying the blinds and bullying the table but I really had the cards.
Pretty soon, we were down to four and only the top three got paid. Zabo went out in fourth. I put another guy all in and he called thinking that I was bluffing. He was wrong and finished third. It was down to head to head action and the guy I was going against had been one who had really bullied me the first time I played with this gang but I'm a lot more confident now and I had a huge chip stack.
He offered to call it and split the money. I declined. I told him that it wasn't about the money for me, it was about winning. On our first hand in heads up play, he went all in. I looked down to see pocket Kings and said, "I call and I'm sorry." He had Ace-Jack. Very quickly, it was all over and I was the winner!
Yay!
Winnings: $550.
Nice.
Afterwards, some of guys were going to the Casino to hit the Poker Room. I was planning on heading home to my couch but they said, "Aren't you coming?" It wasn't a hard sell by any means but I went for it.
I've never played in a poker room so I was all, "What does this mean? How does that work?" We all got seated at the same table and I bought $200 of chips for the $4/$8 Hold 'Em game.
I started out gangbuster with pocket bullets. Sweet! I won a few pots here and there, learned about kill pots and leaned on the dealers to tell me what to do. One of them was really nice to me and explained a lot. I called a lot to see the flops and that turned out to not be a good strategy since it whittled away my chip stack. I had Aces and Tens lose to straights twice so I need to keep that in mind going forward. I also lost a lot of chips when there was a flush draw on the board with the Ace and I was holding the Queen. Wouldn't you know it, the other guy had the King.
I ended up losing the $200 and headed off to blackjack. That was up and down but I didn't do too badly there.
When we finally called it a night, I thanked the guys for taking me and showing me the ropes. Granted, I wish I'd won but it was a great experience and demystified the poker room for me. I would feel completely comfortable now sitting down to play in that format now.
And, I still had enough money to get my Sting Jersey - with Dawson's name and number on it, of course.
Saturday afternoon, I played in a Hold 'Em tourney. The buy in was $100 and we only had 10 players. There's usually close to 20 but it's a lot of guys who work at the same place and they had a project due that weekend so a bunch had to bail. I was the only woman playing and I was a tad nervous at the beginning but played it tight until I felt comfortable.
We were at two tables of five and the guys all know each other pretty well and know how they all play. I was definitely the wild card. There were a couple of hands that I wish I could replay. I just wasn't smart on them. I got lucky when I was shortstacked and tripled up on one hand so I had a ton of chips when we were on the last hand of a round. I had pocket Jacks and the guy on my left called my raise. I tried to bet enough to get him out of the hand but he wouldn't budge. We ended up betting it up a lot and he caught a bigger pair on the river. I asked him what I could have done to get him out and he pretty much said nothing because he had so many outs. Pocket Jacks taken out by Ace-King. Grrr.
We lost a couple players and merged into one table. It was an interesting dynamic. We'd been playing with our own little group for a while and felt pretty comfortable. The three of us that were left moved to the other table where they still had four of their original five. I really felt like we were the outsiders. One of our three went out quickly so it was down to me and Zabo - the lucky son of a gun who busted my Jacks. Suddenly, I felt like he was best bud in the world.
I think I was the big stack at that point and I started getting incredible cards. Pocket pairs and lots of paint. The blinds were at $1000/$2000 and I started raising on almost every hand. $8000, $5000 a couple of times. The other guys thought I was just buying the blinds and bullying the table but I really had the cards.
Pretty soon, we were down to four and only the top three got paid. Zabo went out in fourth. I put another guy all in and he called thinking that I was bluffing. He was wrong and finished third. It was down to head to head action and the guy I was going against had been one who had really bullied me the first time I played with this gang but I'm a lot more confident now and I had a huge chip stack.
He offered to call it and split the money. I declined. I told him that it wasn't about the money for me, it was about winning. On our first hand in heads up play, he went all in. I looked down to see pocket Kings and said, "I call and I'm sorry." He had Ace-Jack. Very quickly, it was all over and I was the winner!
Yay!
Winnings: $550.
Nice.
Afterwards, some of guys were going to the Casino to hit the Poker Room. I was planning on heading home to my couch but they said, "Aren't you coming?" It wasn't a hard sell by any means but I went for it.
I've never played in a poker room so I was all, "What does this mean? How does that work?" We all got seated at the same table and I bought $200 of chips for the $4/$8 Hold 'Em game.
I started out gangbuster with pocket bullets. Sweet! I won a few pots here and there, learned about kill pots and leaned on the dealers to tell me what to do. One of them was really nice to me and explained a lot. I called a lot to see the flops and that turned out to not be a good strategy since it whittled away my chip stack. I had Aces and Tens lose to straights twice so I need to keep that in mind going forward. I also lost a lot of chips when there was a flush draw on the board with the Ace and I was holding the Queen. Wouldn't you know it, the other guy had the King.
I ended up losing the $200 and headed off to blackjack. That was up and down but I didn't do too badly there.
When we finally called it a night, I thanked the guys for taking me and showing me the ropes. Granted, I wish I'd won but it was a great experience and demystified the poker room for me. I would feel completely comfortable now sitting down to play in that format now.
And, I still had enough money to get my Sting Jersey - with Dawson's name and number on it, of course.
