On Friday night we went over to a co-worker’s house for a poker game. The host made some fantastic food, supplied some drinks and had invited enough people over that we could put together a 10 person tournament. As you may know, I have a fair bit of experience in running poker tournaments as we had one at our house on a monthly basis for about 4 years. I’m always glad to go to other people’s houses to play poker as it’s nice not to be the host every time. For all the fun, it is a bit of work.
We brought over our poker chip set and my laptop which has my Poker Tournament Manager software installed. We arrived right as the game was supposed to be starting, but luckily we weren’t the last to arrive, so it wasn’t a big deal. We ate some food, had a drink and then set up the game.
Even though I wasn’t hosting, my poker knowledge and the fact that everybody there KNOWS I know how to run a poker tournament automatically puts me in charge. I don’t mind, I actually enjoy running the show. But, there are still some things that the host should be making the decisions on, or at least asking about prior to everybody sitting down at the table. For example, the amount of the buy-in, the amount of chips to start, the length of the blind levels and the rules for rebuying. None of these things had been discussed prior to the game so we made some quick decisions and the game was underway. I should also mention that I offered to deal the entire time as I knew it would take FOREVER to pass the deal around the table.
For the first 20 minutes, no real big hands came up and there was a lot of limping in the pot. Any time somebody would raise, at least one person would say, “they are trying to buy the pot.” During the second round I picked up a few hands. A/K, A/Q, 9/9, 8/8 and one hand that I would love to have back where I folded Q/Q pre-flop face up. All these hands I raised with pre-flop. On the hand with Q/Q, here’s what happened. With the blinds at 50/100 I raised to 400, it folded around to a player across from me who looks at his hand, he sits back a little and got really silent and then throws out 1600 without saying anything. He never showed his hand, but even if he had A/K there, I didn’t really want to race for all my chips, so I decided to fold. I honestly think he had A/A, but we’ll never know, I guess. The reason I say I’d like to have those cards back, is I may as well have just got all my money in with Q/Q and felt unlucky to run in to aces as compared to the way I got knocked out (first of course) a few minutes later. I was really steamed at how I got knocked out and gave myself a time-out away from the table so that I could simmer down.
After 10 minutes away, I calmed down and because the rules on rebuys had not been discussed, both myself and another player bought back in right at the end of the rebuy period. I sat back down and started dealing again. About 15 minutes later, I realized that I was an idiot for being steamed about losing. What I failed to do was properly evaluate the type of poker game we were playing. The home tournament that I ran for 4 years would start out as a friendly game with drinks and laughter and people playing a little loose. But, once the rebuy period was over, the game would get serious as people were interested in winning. However, this particular home game was not like that at all. The majority of the players there could care less if they won. They were there for a good time. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that attitude. It was my attitude that was wrong given the circumstances. Once I realized all of this I switched my way of thinking and the rest of the night was a lot of fun. There was very little “poker” being played, but again, there’s nothing wrong with that.
This morning I went to the Cannnery casino to play in the 10am poker tourament. There were 3 tables and a total of about 25 people. I played fairly loose during the first few rounds knowing that I could rebuy if needed before the end of the first hour. On the last hand prior to the cut-off, I got involved with a hand I should have never been in, but I made 2 pair on the turn and was able to double my stack back to almost it’s original starting size.
Over the next couple hours I played some pretty decent poker. I stole several pots on the turn and river when I felt my opponent wasn’t in a position to call a bet. I also ended up having to show down some hands that I had raised with like 6/8 suited and K/7 suited. As I accumulated chips, that loose play would serve me really well as the tournament went on. I was able to get a guy to move all-in against me after I raised. We turned over the cards and I had Q/Q and he had A/7. He made a flush on that hand. In another hand, against the same guy I made top two pair and he once again made a flush against me. I still had plenty of chips, so even though the second double-up was a decent set-back, I felt it was only a matter of time before I beat this guy because he would never give me credit for a hand. He always thought I was bluffing.
When we were down to 4 players the guy I doubled-up twice had the chip lead. I was dealt A/A on the button. The lady before me folded and with the blinds at 800/1600, I decided to min-raise to see what would happen. The lady in the small blind had only 3400, so I figured it wouldn’t take very much for her to get all her chips in on this hand. And, I was really hoping that if she called or pushed all-in, the buy in the BB might push all-in with a marginal hand in order to get me to fold and play against only the lady. The lady just called leaving only 200 chips in her stack. The guy thought about it for a short time and throws in the additional 1600 as well. The flop came Q/6/2 but had 2 spades. The lady throws in her remaining 200, the guy calls the 200 and I push all-in. He has me covered in chips, but not by much. He decides to call and shows Q/K. The lady had A/7 with only one spade. I was in really good shape here. I just needed to avoid a K or a Q basically. The turn was a 7 and the river was a 10. I knocked out the lady and left the guy with only 800 chips. He went broke on the very next hand. And I know had a HUGE chip lead against the other player. We put all the money in blind on the very next hand and I won the tournament.
Winning a tournament always feels good. But, I think this win felt especially good after how crazy the poker play was on Friday night. I was able to bluff at pots in certain spots today that would have NEVER worked on Friday.
I learned a valuable lesson at Friday night’s game that I will carry with me from now on. Be mindful of the type of game you are playing in. If the majority of the players are just there to have some fun and hang out with friends, do not expect them to make logical poker decisions. Had I realized that earlier in the evening on Friday, I would have saved myself some unnecessary aggravation.
BTW – If you are interested in running a home poker tournament, I wrote a guide that has some helpful information. I hope it helps.
