You know, they call this hand “bitches” for a reason…

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411: Home again, home again

I played in my first poker tournament tonight. It was a no limit hold’em game that cost, after re-buys and add-on buys, about $30. In case you watch a little bit of poker on tv, the difference between no-limit and limit poker is this. In limit poker, you can only lose (or win) money at a fixed rate. In a $3/$6 game, you can’t raise more than $6 at a time in later rounds of betting, even if you’ve got the best hand ever.

In no limit you can put all your chips in and anyone who wants to play with you has to match that amount. Your fortunes can turn quickly up or down.

Out of 24 players who started, I made it to the final table, and survived until I was one of the last 5. Given that this is my first tournament, I thought that was a huge accomplishment. Time was running out for me though, and because I had a short stack of chips, I would soon be pecked to death by the ante and the mandatory blind bets.

I was dealt a pair of queens and everyone except the player to my right folded. Having the only other player in the game be to my right, and be a purportedly inexperienced poker player, I decided it was time I had all her chips.

Pocket queens is a really good starting hand in game with 5 players, so I set myself all in. While she was pondering the decision, I needled her. “How much money you got there, anyway?” A player across the table looked at me with a smirk and said, “You’re such a jackass” and then stated that he saw a pro try to rattle their opponent with this exact trick on the World Poker Tour on the Travel channel.

She shrugged her shoulders with “what the hell” and pushed all her chips in. We turned over our cards and she showed a king and a 10. At this point I was favored to win almost 2 to 1. However as we dealt out the remaining 5 common cards for the hand, she got a king to give her a higher pair, and I failed to get another queen.

I stayed for a few more minutes, and when she lost a big hand and said, “There goes my money” to the winner as he raked her chips in, I corrected her. No, that’s MY money.

And I’m outta here….