Hold'em Poker in D'moin Aye Owe Eh

-->

Remember your first poker tournament?  Or any sort of tournament?  I do.  I wrote about it. 

July 17, 2007

Des Moines:  DeeMoeen. D'moin.

Iowa:  EyeOA.  Eyeohwah. AyeOweEh.

West Des Moines to be more precise.  I was there on the job…or more precisely three consecutive jobs that would last almost three months. I would make an occasional weekend trip home to Sacramento to show my driver’s license at our door and beg admittance. After a couple of days though, the three beautiful ladies there (wife Julieann, daughter Samantha and Goldy Molly) would tire of my manly habits and wave goodbye sadly(happily) as I headed for the next plane.

West Des Moines is a shining example of modern suburbia. It is a fairly large sized community full of good people that doesn’t seem to have a single building more than twenty years old. It has a huge modern mall and, under construction, one of those live, work, play integrated communities that looks like it is designed for folks to walk everywhere. All in all, a very nice place filled with terrific, hard working folks. It is a great snapshot of America as it seems it should be.

That is not what this story is about though. It’s not about my usual road warrior story either…what I had for dinner (although I know Bob Bunker would prefer I go there).

It’s about gambling. That’s right. It’s the “C’mon dice! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!” kind of gambling. For the past year or so, when home and in hotel rooms I have been cranking up the tube in the evening and dialing in whatever Texas hold’em poker game happened to be on. Then, while that was playing I would fire up my Mac laptop computer, kick in the Internet router connection and play the same game on line for a couple of hours or so. I was learning the ins and outs and through thousands of games with free, play money.  If you have ever checked this out, you know I am one of hundreds of thousands (millions) of folks who are doing the same damn thing.

I had also played a few live cash games of limit hold’em during my Harley travels in Nevada, not really doing well along the way but figuring I was learning something while having fun. Duh. It doesn’t take much to make me happy sometimes.

Then…I found out there was a casino in the Des Moines area that had poker tables. I would hit them once in a while when laying over on weekends that I had to work.  These guys and ladies were all ages, 21 to 81, male, female, all races, everybody fits. My typical plan was to hit a table with a $100 buy-in and a $3-6 or $4-8 dollar limit game. I made the tables a half dozen times or so and the local good old boys didn’t get too far into my knickers I am proud to say. I may have been down a couple of hundred bucks total.  Cheap lessons and cheap thrills…I was a happy camper.

A week ago I headed to Prairie Meadows north of Des Moines on a Thursday night for some reason.  We had shut down the project at a fairly normal hour and I was anxious to do something.  When I walked into the poker room it was pretty full and I discovered they were just a couple of minutes from beginning a $115 buy-in no-limit Texas hold-em tournament. I figured what the hell; that is just a little more than I would plan to lose in one night so I might as well buy in and learn something. Each player started with 2,500 in chips and we were off! There were 90 entries so the last person would win something over $3,000.

When I sat down I was pretty pumped but I felt pretty good too so I just started playing as I ordinarily would…fairly patient, waiting for cards, rarely bluffing, relying on all my earlier practice to know when I had a good hand and when I didn’t.

I wish I could remember what cards I had the first time I ever went all in. Damn that was cool, saying “all in” and shoving my pile of chips toward the center of the table. I would do it three or four times over the course of the evening and sometime in the third hour I was looking down at roughly 30,000 in chips. I had successfully ridden through the periods of slow hands and the periods of good hands. I was having such a good time I even called Julieann during one of the breaks to tell her I was still in it. More cheap thrills right?!

As we approached four hours, the blinds were something like 1,000-3,000 and we were suddenly at the final table! Ten of us and that meant every one of us would finish in the money. With the high blinds it wasn’t long before three guys were gone. I was dealt an Ace-nine unsuited…what they call a “weak Ace”. I called the 3,000 big blind and most of the table folded until this guy across from me raised another 3,000 or so. I figured it was time for another so I said, “All in.” and felt a little adrenalin fueling things. I probably had 20,000 at the time. The other guy called and we flipped the cards.  He had an Ace-eight unsuited against me. I was thinking I had a pretty good chance, maybe 60-40 to win but an eight hit on the flop and nothing helped on the turn or river so I was out in seventh place. $280 bucks in my pocket and I was pumped. I was thinking if my hand had held up I might have finished in the top 3-5. Wow!

The next Sunday they had a $50 buy-in and I was out mid-way in a field of just over a hundred. Not too good and not too bad. I am not done though. I want to try a few more!  So here’s the deal; saying “All in” and shoving a pile of chips toward the center of a poker table is one damn fine experience. I highly recommend it. I will be watching for chances to try this some more.

Your Friendly Road Warrior Correspondent,

 

Luck Of The Draw - Where Poker Begins

Texas Hold'em poker tournaments are like a reflecting pool on life. Take a close look at the features of one and you may see most or all the features of the other.  I mean you don't choose anything about your start in life. Parents, race, location are all the luck of the draw right?  But they are all reflected in you. A poker tournaments begins the same way. You don't choose your seat.  Yet the game unfolds with many similarities to life.  And sometimes....sometimes it is almost to much to take in at once.

You walk up to the registration window, pay your entry fee and are handed a random card or ticket by the person there.  It tells you what table and what seat you are beginning the tournament with.  As the tournament progresses you may be moved around as part of a process the director uses to keep player numbers balanced at the tables.  Typically, this happens as other contestants are knocked out and there are fewer tables needed.

So your seat and table draw is where Lady Luck first enters the scene.  As the tournament progresses with "cards in the air" certain seats end up luckier than others.  Most often, momentum shifts among seats and the luck moves around.  This is most always the case but every once in while, the Lady hovers over one seat for a long, long time.  When this happens, even an average or below average player can run up a big stack of chips just going with the flow of cards.  In poker parlance, this is called a "heater" or a "run" and maybe some other names I am not familiar with.

On a recent Saturday at my local favorite haunt, Sacramento's Capital Casino, I witnessed a rare, extended run on a seat at a table near mine.  In my seven years of getting poker lessons (Yes Vern, each tournament is a lesson) I have seen maybe one other like it.

From what I could tell, the player was hitting everything he went for.  The proof was a huge stack of chips in comparison with the average stack among the rest of us.  I am guessing he had over 200,000 compared to an average of 20,000.  Over the years I had seen some great runs but quite as wild as this one...

But there was one thing I didn't notice as his action was going on behind me - I would just turn and look occasionally when the other players at his table would make a "holy crap he hit again" type noise like "OOOOOoooohhhhh!"  The thing I didn't notice, but heard about some time after, was that the player was so excited about his run of luck, he was ordering himself beers two at a time. (I should probably point out here that 99% or more poker players don't drink at all during a tournament.)

Then, it was fairly late in the tournament, only two tables left out of seven that started, maybe 20 players left out of seventy.  I noticed movement, looked up and saw our tournament director gently sliding the lucky player, who was passed out in his chair, away from our tables and into a corner of the casino.  I swear there was a smile on the player's face as he and his chair slid by.  The director then parked him in a corner where he slumped over his arms on a small table and appeared to be sleeping.

A few minutes later, he barfed all over the table and floor in front of him.  The director and pit boss then slid him and his chair out of the casino to the sidewalk and two security guards were assigned to watch over him.  The casino staff quickly cleaned up the mess and things sort of returned to normal.  What wasn't normal was the large stack of chips the player left in his original seat position.  This meant that he would be dealt hands that would be automatically folded by the dealer and that his chip stack would draw down as his turn for blinds and antes came around.

It wasn't long after that I was knocked out of the tournament and left.  A couple days later I asked the director how it all ended.  He told me the player remained passed out for about two and a half hours then recovered somewhat.  After some discussion, the director determined the player was capable of returning to the game so he did...with chips left of course.  The last three players, including the two-beer man with the lucky seat ended up chopping for a couple thousand dollars each.

There is a moral here somewhere I guess - sometimes Lady Luck will hang around and crown you even when you don't necessarily deserve it.

And yes Vern, the casino was practicing some seriously good customer service that day...

The River

The "River"
Otherwise known as "Fifth Street"

The Pocket

In the game of chance: Texas Hold'em

In Hold'em, each player at the table
Is dealt two cards, face down
This is called the "Pocket"
No other players can see them
If you protect them properly that is

Next comes the "Flop"
Three cards face up on the table
To be shared by each player
In determining the best hand

Next; the "Turn" or "Fourth Street"
Is turned up on the table to join the first three
Finally the "River or "Fifth Street"
A card that has made and destroyed many fortunes.

Wagers are placed
At the completion of each step
The "Pocket", the "Flop", "Fourth" and "Fifth Street"
The player with the best combination of five cards wins

Tournaments typically begin
With many tables of 10 players each
As each players loses all their chips
They are eliminated from the competition

When the last 10 players remain
The "Final Table" is formed
And each is typically "in the money"

From there they play on until the last person remains
Or until the players mutually agree to "chop" or tie
For the remaining cash pay outs

Yesterday, from a beginning field of 80 or so
I made the final table
I was a little "short stacked" or behind the average chip count
But at about 35,000 I had a fair share

In the second hand my pocket was Ace and Ten of Hearts
Blinds and antes were fairly high at that time
So there were over 10 thousand in chips in the pot
Before wagering even began

One player in front of me
Placed a raise to 12,000 chips
To call would have taken almost half my chips
I guessed my opponent had a middle pair

I decided I could out race him
So I shoved my chips in the pot; "All-in"
The remaining players folded to the raiser
Who called my all-in bet and showed pocket queens

The Flop came, a small heart and two Aces
Giving me a huge lead with a Set of Aces
The Turn came, a King of Hearts
Giving me a flush draw on top of my set

The River.... a Queen of Hearts
Giving me a flush as well as a set
But giving my opponent a full house
Queens over Aces

Some amazing cards hit that table
And I got "Rivered"
Knocked out of the tournament in 10th place
With a little cash and a bruise from Lady Luck

I left a huge stack of chips back there
That was mine for the first six cards
If that first heart on the flop would have been a Jack
I would have had a Royal Straight Flush

Damn I love this game!

Poker is...

... a Muthaf___a!

Recently I recently heard a great professional poker player and keen wit, Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu say this about the problem with poker amateurs; "When they are winning they think they are good and when they are losing they think they are bad."

I caught this hand... this week!
Four Aces for my first time ever I think.

The beginning of July, I started tracking my tournament results using notes on my calendar.  Here's how it stacks up. In the past five weeks I have finished in the money 12 times including a couple of "chops" (ties) for first. This translates to 12 top ten finishes among a field averaging 80 or more players. Twelve for 28 and I am money ahead yes, but not enough to quit my day job. Yet, in the past two days I have had my ass kicked and that has happened many times before. Whenever it does happen, I leave the casino like most players in that situation; head low, muttering; "School let out early today and my grade wasn't good." and second guessing my play. 

I will be back in school on Sunday though. I'll be hoping to cleverly use just the right combination of loose, aggressive and tight play to befuddle my opponents and make them call when they shouldn't and fold when they shouldn't. I will be shuffling chips, sipping coffee, checking my iPhone, studying player faces (I hardly ever get anything out of this), and looking for "tells" (I know a few but am not sure what to do when I see them). When I am winning I will think I am good and when I am losing I will think I am bad just as Daniel says but I love it just the same. That's why poker is a Muthaf___a.

For additional amateur insight, see Pocket Aces - "Dat Metaphor" and  "Poker - more on "Dat Metaphor".

For info and a preview about how we got to this point click here: "Travel On"  

Update: 7/23/2018 - Seven years later and nothing, I mean nothing has changed. I continue to catch good and bad runs and play as before. Last week was so bad (How bad was it?!)...it was so bad I have to write about it to bleed a little figurative ink. In three successive tournaments this is what happened. In order:

1. Two sets, Jacks and nines "cracked."  (In poker vernacular that means beat...beat by bigger hands.
2. Pocket Kings, then Tens, then Queens cracked.
3. A set of ducks (deuces), and pockets Aces twice(!) cracked.

That is what is called a "bad run" folks. All players hear stories like this from their fellow players to the point they are tired of it. This is why I hesitated to write about it but I just couldn't help myself. Sorry. Not.