Friday night I played in my first poker tournament. It was a $40 buy in, and it was put on by one of my co-workers. I was a little apprehensive since I had only really played poker once before. But, it was only $40, and I thought I would at least go check it out and see how I do.

I ended up having a lot of fun, and if I am invited again, I will do my best to make it.

We were playing No Limit Hold ’em. Just like I have seen on TV. After verifying a couple rules, we were off and running. We had two tables going, and I won a few hands. One guy at the other table was out in 20 minutes or so.

One hand in the first round that stuck out for me was a hand that came down to me and Craig. Craig was low on chips, and I had a pair of 10’s. I was feeling pretty good, so I was going to stay around. Craig went all in (I think it was after the flop). It was all he could do. I called, and we showed our cards, Craig with a Jack high, me with my pair. The turn card was a Jack! Crap! Then the river card was another Jack. Craig lived to play a little longer. 🙂 It was pretty exciting, even though I lost that hand.

The table I was at was the first to get down to 3, so we waited for the second table to knock another guy out.

At the final table I think I played fairly well, and only got suckered into one bad hand.

Another really fun hand was when it got down to Jason and I. I had a 9, and another lower card. In the community cards were 2 9’s, and 2 10’s. Sweet. I did my best to keep Jason in it, and when it came time to show, I told him full house, 9’s over 10’s. He was not happy and threw his cards down. I didn’t pay attention to them. Another player pointed out that Jason had a 10. That meant he had a full house, 10’s over 9’s. Doh! I lost that one by a hair.

After making it to the final 3, I was feeling pretty happy with myself. Part of the pot went to the person with the highest hand. Jason had 4 of a kind (3’s with a Queen I think). Mike and I got into in one hand. I was dealt a pair of 10’s, and was pretty happy with those. The flop contained 2 more 10’s. Hmm, now that is a hand I wanted to see. I did my best to keep Mike in the hand, but he ended up folding. Being a novice, I tossed my cards in and started collecting the chips. I mentioned that I had 4 10’s and was hoping Mike was going to stay in. Then I was told that if I had thrown them in face up, that would have counted as a played hand! I could have had the highest hand, but I didn’t know to throw them in face up.

Around 12:30 Jason, Mike and I agreed to put a time limit on it. When time rolled by, we called the game, and split the pot 3 ways. I ended up with $110. Sure was fun though.