Looping the Hen

In the Cards?

I have always wondered whether I could make a living at gaming. Once upon a time I used to think it would be by playing Magic the Gathering. Lately I wonder whether I could play poker. Usually I drop my $50 a month into my online poker account and rapidly lose it. This time it lasted the whole month (if I can go 3 more days!) and then some. I'm sitting at $227 due to my first good finish in a money (cheap money, but still money) tourney (2nd out of 188). As of this moment, counting all the times I have put in and cashed out, I am +$77 (yesterday I was around -$50).

Believe me, I understand that luck has much to do with poker, but I think being able to last long enough in a big tourney for it to work for you can make all the difference. I had 2 hands that made the tourney (well, it was over 300 hands long or more, but 2 that put me into a position to play and not get blinded out.) It was about 6 blind levels in (200/400) and my stack was sitting at around 2300 chips (everyone starts at 800), and I was about 5th stack and starting to get worried that the bigger stacks were going to start pushing me. A pair of kings let me push all in, and everyone folded but one (Ac Qs) and let me double up (to around 5600, as I got some blind money and early callers also). Unbelievably the next hand I was dealt Bullets (AA) and I got another all-in caller and ended up at over 13,000.

From there it was one of the more interesting experiences I've had playing poker. I've never been big stack in a large tourney, and I found that I could sit and wait for my hands or if I sensed weakness could buy the blinds (though I did that rarely, need to work on that part of my game). During one hand I called 3 or 4 all in callers one before the little blind with AQ offsuit. My archnemesis of the tourney (who I ended up losing to) triples the bet, and thinking he is just trying to push me out, I call. The flop comes AQ7 rainbow and when he pushes again I try to put him all in and he backs off. My two pair sticks and I am the overall chip leader for the next 20 minutes with over twice the chips as the next player (35,000).

At the intermission (play for 55 mins then 5 off), I found I had actually got into the money of my first big tourney. (19 players remained, money goes to top 20) I could have lost then and still been thrilled! I tightened up my game and grew my stack slowly by re-raising people trying to steal my blind. When we got to the final table I was alternating between 1st and 2nd stack against more than a few folks still holding on for dear life. We let them blind out and at 5 players left the table stabilized with me in 2nd. A few good plays later by the chip lead (the only player at the table playing tighter than me) and there were 3.

We played almost 100 hands between the 3 of us, trading blinds and pushing all in to steal them on occasion. To be honest, this is the weakest part of my game and always has been. I don't know what to do when there's just a couple players left; I kept hoping the big stack would take out the 3rd stack so I can make more money, but that is not to be. Luckily, we both hit a hand (finally!). It was pretty anti-climactic as I called his all-in queens with my pocket aces, and that put me back in the lead (temporarily).

I duked it out with the other guy for a good while, but he was just better than I was. When it became clear I was losing ground I called all in for $45000 with my 82 offsuit (trying to steal his blind). He calls with pocket 3's. An 8 fell on the flop and I thought I might actually take it, but he whacked me with a 3 on the river.

In the scheme of the universe $94 is not a lot to win, but it only cost me $2.50 to play, and after more than a few tourney losses gave me some hope I may have the instinct in me. I became comfortable enough with odds and playing fast that I started playing two tables last night also: one tourney table and one limit .50/1.00 table. Over 4 hours today I took $12 to 51 and yesterday went $12 to $43. (Those had been covering the bigger tourneys I was losing)

It may end up just being another one of my hobbies, but I've decided to put some effort into learning as best I can to play the game. I've bought a couple of books (Brusnon's Super System and Phil Gordon's Little Green Book) and Gordon's book so far has helped me be a little more aggressive, with some more unusual pot selection (easier in the limit game because you can't go 'all-in')

At worst I end up playing poker and making $20/day (Which is my 2006 goal for 'non-work' income) online. I am fairly certain I can do now if I just played Limit .50/1.00, and if I place in a tourney once in a while like tonight, more power to me!

Update: Not too bad, did another tourney, 220 peeps, and ended up in the money again (lol, that means I made 50c more than I paid in) at 22nd. Whee!