August 05, 2005
Eight pokerparty players make the final table with close to equal chips. We deliberate and quickly decide to chop the $15,000. To establish the tournament champion we play a final hand for the trophy and I need to tell you that it looks mighty good in the sports room at my house.
We wound up chopping the $15,000 first place prize and I came away feeling that skill and a little luck had paid off. Funny how things happen, isn't it? It seems like the more I read, the luckier I get! This pokerparty tournament was a blast, but I need to read that darn book again. Now where did I put it? Oh Floorman!
Finally, a word of caution for those who play low limit poker games in Vegas, such as 1 to 5. Experienced players will employ a strategy called "milking" (only a $1 or $2 increase after each subsequent card), that will ultimately entice tourists and recreational poker players to linger in the hand. The novice player, thinking that it's only a buck, says, " what the heck, I've come all this way, I'll just take one more card." By the turn, the bet may reach the maximum and players have invested so many chips they no longer can abandon a marginal hand, and are now committed to the river. Rescues are often quite rare for these thrill seekers and the river eventually claims another victim.
I held my breath, it didn't help. Here come the cards, a three, and I had to spend precious pokerparty chips bringing in a crappy hand. Four straight hands, the bring-in was my pleasure having the low card. My final stand was here and I'd need as much luck as possible. Oh, I forgot to mention my pal was sent back to my table in seat eight, and I'm in seat one. His chip count is huge, and this pisses me off. I'm forced to bring in the next hand with a 3 (low) and everyone folds but seat eight.
Let me first tell you that I never had any cards of note all day. No trips, no two pair, no straights and only one gift flush. I did have pocket aces twice in the entire three hour pokerparty tournament, and that was the highest hand I held, including the one time I went all in during the late stages, when I again held those sometimes dreaded bullets.
Casino favorites
- Mirage
- Bellagio
- Circus Circus
- Stardust
- Dunes
Books? How on earth are they going to help, someone might ask! What I needed was more poker party table time and actual experience, not books. And that's the advice all the losers would give me. I didn't figure I'd learn anything from other players making the same mistakes I'm making, so I sent for the doctor of deals, the collector of chips, the creator of champions, Mr. Roy West. He exhorts true down-to-earth poker wisdom in words that even I can understand. His 42 Lessons book should be called Poker for Dummies, as I found out how creatively stupid I had been at the stud table.
I then slowly begin amassing more chips and seat one and his bride were history in minutes. After a chip limit increase, and several of the 144 pokerparty players were eliminated, a new player was seated in seat one. What do you know? My pal, the greedy sucker I was praying for. We played and he won some big pots and lost a few bigger ones. I was hoping to take him down. His loose play was great for me but the card gods thought different. He did beat me on the river on one hand and I was letting my emotions get stirred too much. Calm down, it'll come, this is not the table for bravery. I settled in and won more chips. The table broke and we went to separate corners, I mean tables.
