RECAP OF TUESDAY'S CHARITY POKER TOURNAMENT

Time to recap on the charity poker tournament I played in on Tuesday.  It was my first face to face poker game.  I was eliminated somewhere in the middle, so I didn't go out early, but neither did I end up winning any of the good prizes.  I did have a good time and I learned a few things as well.

Some of the tables did not have an actual full time dealer.  Ours was one of those.  So I got to learn how to deal and shuffle decks in rotation to keep the game going.  I figure this will come in handy if we ever get a poker night going with our friends.  Also it was the first time I really had to mess with chips and counting out chips.  Online, all that's done for you.  I think I like handling the chips, though.  Especially raking them towards me when I win a big pot.  ::smiles::

The downsides I saw Tuesday was that they had all the tables covered with regular tableclothes that tend to move and bunch up, which could make it possible for someone to peek at a card.  I didn't like that.  Also they didn't use any cut cards at all.  And the way they raised the blinds was strange to me.  I'll go into that in a moment.

At my table there were 5 females and 3 males.  The two guys on either side of me were the 'serious' players and had their sunglasses with them.  The women were harder to tell.  One girl in particular never really showed any emotion and so she did quite well because she just had that 'clueless' look about her the whole time.  The third guy I don't remember much about because he was the first one out.  They were allowing rebuys but it would count against you in the end.  I had already determined I wasn't going to rebuy and no one else at my table did, either.  Another thing I noticed was that play was very loose.  Everyone just about would call every hand or call any raise.  I tried to raise a good bit and see if I could make anyone fold and only one person folded.  So this wasn't the type of game I could do that.  I also didn't get any good cards the whole night.  The best 2 hands I got were pocket 9's and pocket 6's.  So that should tell you what kind of crap I was getting most of the night.

The blinds started at 50/100 and stayed that way for a while.  Then they jumped to 500/1000.  It was about at this point that I got the pocket 9's and entered the pot with a raise.  The flop showed a Q, but everyone checked around to me, so I raised again. I finally got 1 or 2 to fold but everyone else called.  I forgot what the turn card was, but it wasn't anything that helped me or looked like it would help someone else.  The river was another Q though.  Everyone checked to me and I checked, but the guy to the left of me (who was chip leader most of the night) raised.  His raise wasn't anywhere close to the amount that was in the pot, and then one of the girls who didn't have many chips left went all in.  I called her all in, which wouldn't have taken all of my chips and the guy to my left raised again, but once more it was a small raise.  I called him, so now we had the main pot and a side pot.  This was the biggest pot of the game so far.  I flipped over my nines, so I had 2 pair.  The guy to my left flipped over a pair of 3's and the girl who went all in had nothing.  So I won the whole thing and of course they made the remark that I had been waiting for a hand to play so I could win a big pot.  That was because I was folding a lot of hands in the beginning.

Eventually it was only 4 of us left.  The guy to my left is chip leader again.  I wasn't the shortest stack but I wasn't next to the chip leader either.  The blinds went up from 500/1000 to 5000/10000, which was a HUGE jump.  And I was first on the BB when they jumped.  I got 5/2 off suit and everyone folded up to the SB and he raised it to 30000.  I knew he was probably just stealing my blind but I wasn't going to call with 5/2 off.  So I folded.  5/2, 4/2 those were the types of hands I got all night.  Finally I got pocket 6's.  That's an iffy hand, but there were four of us left, the blinds were huge and I was in danger of getting blinded out.  I don't like to go out by getting blinded out, so I'd rather take my chances and go all in.  So I went all in on a pair of sixes.  One guy calls (the chip leader sitting to my left).  We turn over our cards.  He has 6/9 off suit.  So there goes one of my sixes.  Sure enough, he gets a 9 on the flop and I don't get any more sixes.  So I'm out.  It happens.

Eventually it's down to the 2 guys I knew were 'serious' players, the one on my left and the one on my right.  They decide to balance tables out and 2 little old ladies descend upon our table with their wine glasses.  And their bags full of chips.  The guy on my left announces he's out.  He takes his chips and leaves the table.  The other guy stayed.  These ladies look like they don't know how to play.  They pick up their 2 hole cards and hold them right in front of their nose.  Make no mistake, though, they had BAGS of chips.  I think the guy who left our table knew better than to stick around and play with these women.  They act like it's their little social hour to play a bit of cards, but they are ruthless and they spend a lot of their spare time in the Poker Room at the local Dog Track.  They KNOW how to play despite how they look and how they act.  You could tell they had smoked cigarettes pretty much their entire life when you looked at their faces and they always have a drink in their hand and wear way too much lipstick. 

Oh yeah, and one guy lost his pants.  Literally.  I think he and his girlfriend or wife had some side bet going and she was at another table.  The next thing I hear is that someone lost their pants and I look over and sure enough, he has his khakis off and some woman is proudly holding them up for the crowd to see.  I heard many cries of "put them up on the flagpole" from the crowd.  He had boxers on, of course.  It was quite amusing.  All I have to wonder is what bet he lost to have to do something that embarrassing in front of over 100 people.  And I wonder if SHE had lost if it would have been even more interesting?  Guess I'll never know.

So that was pretty much my first poker tournament.  Quite an interesting evening, I believe...