Total Choice

Last night I got out for a great poker game. There was 7 of us in total, and at least two of them were better players than I (not that I am that good at all). The buy-in was a max of $20, and at the end of the night I cashed out with $21.60? All that work for a buck 60. Yikes.

I played alright for the first part of the night, but I started to tire, and my concentration waned. I was down to approx $12 from $20 after playing a few hands I knew I should have folded. My mind was saying fold, but my hands weren’t doing it. I really wasn’t paying attention and my play showed it.

When I did start concentrating, I think my playing picked up. I started winning a few pots, and I started floding at the right times. I stopped chasing things, and hoping the other player was bluffing.

My favorite hand of the night was me getting dealt a JQ. Me and one other saw the flop which was a 8-9-10. Sweet. The other person bet $2 which I called immediately. The turn card was another 10, without hesitation I went all in. The other guy seemed shocked by my play.

He quickly stood up, counted my chips, counted his own, and started thinking out loud. At this point I knew I had made the right move. I was making him think long and hard, and he was a good player. I heard him think out loud my possible hands, and one of the things he wondered about was if I had flopped a better straight than he did. That scared me for a split second until I realized that he couldn’t have flopped a bigger straight than me, and if we had the same cards, we would split the pot. I relaxed and watched him sweat. This was a $16 hand, and our buy in was $20. Wrong choice and you are out.

He made the right choice and folded, which was too bad for me. Exciting though.

The rest of the night I kept clawing back some chips hoping to hit a good hand to play. I am finding that patience is really hard. I want to have fun, and to me playing a hand is more fun than watching. I also want to win money, so I need to work on the patience.

This might turn into a regular game, and I am looking forward to the next one already.