Monday, November 14, 2005

I Love Poker!


I've been noticing lately just how much I really enjoy playing poker. It is so much fun. Reading people, trying to bluff, having your heart race trying to figure out whether or not to make a call and the highs and lows of winning and losing big pots.

This last weekend I went out to a poker tournament in Waldheim. There was a total of 12 people so it was an ok size group. The top three places paid out $40, $15, and $5 (I know, the payouts are a little out of whack. It should have been $30, $20, $10 or something, but whatever). Myself and 2 other friends I regularly play with drove the 30-40 minutes out there and the ironic part was that when we randomly drew cards for positions we all ended up at the same table right beside everyone. Oh well, no big deal.

The tournament went really well. I had a couple big hands that helped me along. The first one was when I played King and 2 offsuit in the small blind. The flop came out King, Jack, 2 so I had flopped 2 pair. I bet around 300 (we started with about 2000 chip value) and my friend to my left called. It ws just the two of us and I kept making fairly large bets as I figured I had him with 2 pair. He kept calling me and the turn and river cards were just rags. He made a large final bet and I debated for a while whether to call. I did and when I showed my two pair he just about died. He didn't last much longer after that since I had taken a large chunk of his chip stack.

At the final table I had two big hands. The first was up against my landlord who happened to be there too. I was holding Queen 8 and the flop came out 2 Queens and a low card. I checked and my landlord made a bet after debating for quite a while. The turn card was a King. My landlord quickly called all in and I sat there debating for a while. I figured he may have a King, but probably not a full house since he hesitated on the first bet. I finally called him (he had more chips then me so if I lost I was out). He flipped over Ace and something else and I won with my trip Queens. Needless to say my rent will probably go up now! LOL

Anyways, I ended up getting second place and my other friend got first. I felt like a ringer as we left with everyones money, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. I can't wait to play again!

If anyone out there wants to join our poker game (we usually play no limit hold em tournament with just a $5 buy in) let me know in the comments section and I'll invite you out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'd be there if I could but it is a bit of a drive. Maybe if the payout was say $80, then I would come ;). Anyhow, I can't wait to play you some day!

Chris

Sheldon said...

Hey Chris,

I'd love to play you sometime. I'm also starting to play online...for very little money. So if you happen to venture online ever at Paradise Poker my username is joe_king. I usually play the $2.00 max buy in no limit hold 'em or else the $0.02 - $0.04 limit hold 'em. But we could also play for play money if you want. Look for me there sometime. So far I started with $5.00 and have worked it up to $30.00. Yep, I'll be able to retire in no time LOL!