For my poker playing friends who are on here and not following me on Facebook, I present the following little story for you to evaluate and tell us all how YOU would have played it. Or you can just commiserate with me. The picture is NOT of me. It just represents how I felt at “the moment”. I plan to defend my 2 year back to back 1st Place (if you don’t count Tom McAvoy since he’s not a member) wins in the CCA Poker Tournament this week. I know I’ve got a target on my back. Come and get me. I know how to rebuy! On with the story. If you don’t like poker, feel free to skip this post.

Well, I went out with a body slam playing in the South Point Casino daily 10am poker tournament today. Blinds were 1500/3000. And I have ~30k in chips (10BB). Avg stack is 48k. Registration is closed. 259 entries. 126 remaining. $23k prize pool. Cash bubble is 45. We’re 9-seated and I’m dealt 99 on the button. My first pair in a long while and not a horrible starting hand. Play folds around to hijack, who raises to 7k. Cutoff folds. I re-raise to 21k. Blinds fold so we’re heads up and he has me WELL covered. I put Mr HiJack on Ax or middle/small pair. Flop comes 338. If he paired the 8, I’m good. If he has a 3, I’m in bad shape. If he bets big, I should probably (and grudgingly) fold. If he bets small, I’ll pay to see another card hoping for a full house or make a continuation bluff bet. He checks. I now put him on 2 overs. I bet a very small 4k and he calls reasonably quickly. I’m now worried about a 3 but presuming he’s more likely to have A8 at this point. Turn comes a 4. He bets 3k. Is he still on a draw? I only have ~6k left so I shove and he snap calls. I flip over my over pair 9s and he turns over pocket 3s, having made QUAD THREES on the flop!! So, I was dead at the flop and with so little behind, he could play patiently and wait for me to make a move or check it all the way down and still end up with more than 2/3 of my stack.

So, to sum up this session, I spent $100 and played around one hundred hands over 4 hours using a strategic application of math, table position, and psychology (along with a lot of good/bad luck/chance, of course) with a chance to make $4,559 (1st place) down to $218 (45th place) or lose my starting $100, which is what happened to me, obviously).

Let’s put this in perspective with arguably the most common and popular table game, blackjack. At most casinos today, $15 is the table minimum for a hand of blackjack, with many going to $25 on busy nights and weekends. Within 4-7 hands, you’ve risked the same amount of money and the best you can expect to make (generally speaking) is double your money, or $100.

Over time, once I learned the basics of playing poker, I’ve decided I’d rather sit with 8 or 9 other intelligent people employing complex strategies to take my money, and vice-verse, than mindlessly playing “by the book” in the hopes of beating a house edge for what I’d call a minimum win.

To those who have asked me when I’ll be offering another intro to poker class, I can’t tell you as I’m pretty busy right now. But you can download any number of online poker apps and play for free right now (don’t play real money or buy play chips for cash). There are tons of free poker lessons online as well. Check YouTube or Google “Basic Poker Strategy” and start learning. Play against other humans (not bots) and only play with fake money. When you feel comfortable enough with your play, jump into a live game with low blinds like 1/2 no-limit. Or play a limit game to keep from going broke in any one hand. Don’t worry about the other players being jerks. They’ll recognize that you’re new and help you with any blunders you’re making (not putting out your blinds, acting out of turn, etc). They won’t help you with strategy, of course.

For those of you in Reno, The GSR has daily tournaments with $45-$250 buy-ins and it’s a fun room to play in. Of course, having been a dealer there, I’m biased. The Atlantis offers a daily (morning) $20 buy-in tournament as well. Super cheap, but be prepared to grind as there are a lot of early all-ins resulting in a lot of re-entries. The Peppermill and Silver Legacy also offer poker but Silver Legacy doesn’t offer any tournaments.

Anyway, come join me at the tables sometime. It’s fun and sick and crazy and exhilarating and filled with genius level stupidity. Maybe you’ll take my money. Maybe I’ll take yours. Or maybe someone else will clean us both out. At least the cocktails are free (tip your cocktail staff well, please).