Gambling Thrills

Tonight after playing a couple forum buy-ins on Absolute I decided to see what tournaments were coming up.  I saw that a HORSE game was just starting and taking late registration.  It was a $20 buy-in and I love me some HORSE, almost as much as Omaha.

It started out with 32 entries.  It started out slow, but patience is the key in HORSE.  I push and play my stronger games like Holdem and Omaha and layback on my weaker game like Razz.  It seemed like I would sit forever before playing my first hand.  Then a nice roll of cards came around and gave me some chips.

About three quarters of the way through the game I was down at the bottom of the barrell.  I was card dead and nothing was hitting when I went in.  Again, patience, patience, patience.  I waited for the right opportunity to push.  Finally it came.  I slowed played a monster hand against a guy that did not like to lay down high pairs.  Sure enough, he paid me off.  Ended up putting me in the lead with about 19 players left in the game.  At that point, I played it tight and only pushing when I had the nuts.  I wanted everyone else to take each other out.  Eventually, they did.

We got down to the final table of 9.  I was chip leader by only 2 or 3 thousand, so it was no big cushion.  At one point I had a strong hand, only to get called by a guy chasing the low in Omaha and he called the entire way.  I didn’t let him call for cheap.  He was calling the pot size bets.  Sure enough, he caught not only his small on the river, but also the flush on the last two cards.  Took all I had not to go off on the guy, but I remained calm.  I still had chips and I had to keep it together if I wanted to attempt to make a come back.

It was down to 5 players and I was at the bottom of the barrell again.  Luck (and maybe a little skill) turned my way and before I knew it, I was back up to chipleader.  Once it got down to the final 3, it seemed to take forever.  I tried to let the other two player duke it out because they were so close in chips.  I knew one would end up taking the other out if I just sat back.  Sure enough, they battled it out.  We were now heads-up.

We had a pretty decent heads-up match.  A heck of a lot of folding on my part.  I wanted to take this guy down at the right moment.  He was aggressive and he was a chaser.  This was information that was very valuable to me.  I ended up using it against him and it worked.  He had hit two pair.  I knew he had at least one pair, possibly trips or two pair.  I was on a flush draw.  I was showing two of the cards face up, but two were hidden.  He shot out a bet and I called.  BOOM! I hit the flush.  Now I had to pray he doesn’t hit the full house or quads.  He just couldn’t let it go and I don’t think he ever saw it coming.  I had won!  Man, did it feel good.

Here it is….

It was a $20 buy-in.  1st place paid $256.  Not a bad ROI.

As a poker player, most of us like to play live.  Some like to play big venues like the local casino, Indian reservation, or race track.  Some like small small gathers like a friendly game with family &/or friends.

I am one of those that like both!  I will be hosting a game at home for the first time in a couple of weeks.  At first I thought “How difficult can it be?” Let me tell you, it is more involved than you think!  There is a lot to think about and make sure you have covered before you have the game, especially if you are doing a large group of twenty or more.

Make sure you have the following items:

Chips (different durations, depending on the starting chip stack and enough for all players)

Dealer button (one for each table there)

Decks of cards (two decks for each table)

Tables & chairs to fit the maximum number you are allowing

Table tops (either a poker table top or table cloth that will allow cards to slid easily when dealt)

Timer (for blinds) or a Poker Tournament software program

Here are things to consider before the tournament begins:

What will the buy-in be

How many chips will you start with

What is each chip worth (if not already marked)

What will the blind structure be

How long will the blinds be

How long will breaks be

Allow for a dinner break if necessary

What the pay-out percentages will be

How will you handle chopping if requested

How to be a good host:

You should make it clear how much money your friends should bring to play, or “buy in” to the game with.  A buy-in of $10 to $100 is standard.  Also take into consideration money players can pitch in for on food & drinks.  It is customary to add $1 or $2 for snacks & soda.  Players should bring their own alcoholic beverages, but remind them to drink responsibly.

You will then decide how many chips to start with.  You can start with anymore from 1,000 to 10,000 chips.  The more chips you start with, the longer the tournament will take.  You will want to make sure you have enough chips for all players.  Also, make sure you have different denominations for the chips (5K chips, 1K chips, 500 chips, 100 chips, 50 chips, 25 chips, etc).  It is much easier to divide these chips out ahead of time and not wait for everyone to arrive.  The players can count their chips when they arrive to make sure they have the right amount of starting chips.

Be sure to know your blind structure before the start of the game.  Also, determine how long the blinds will be.  Blinds are normally 10 to 20 minutes long.  The following is a typical blind structure (based on 20 minute blinds):

25/50 (2:00 pm start time)
50/100
75/150
10 MIN BREAK (3:00)
100/200
150/300
200/400
15 MIN BREAK (chip up) (4:10)
300/600
400/800
500/1000
30 MIN DINNER BREAK (5:25)
600/1200
700/1400
800/1600
10 MIN BREAK (6:55)
1K/2K
1K/2K/100 ante
1.5K/3K/100 ante
10 MIN BREAK (chip up) (8:05)
1.5K/3K/300 ante
2K/4K/400 ante
3K/6K/500 ante
4K/8K/1K ante
5K/10K/1K ante

Determine what your payouts will be.  Payouts are usually determined by the number of players playing.  Typically, 1 - 10 players pays out the top 3 finishers (50%,30%, 20%) and 11 - 25 pays out the top 4 (50%, 25%, 15%, 10%), 26 and over is top 5 (40%, 25%, 20%, 10%, 5%).

One of the challenges in starting your poker tournaments is seating your players. There are two ways to seat your players:

1. Use the Tournament Director software. Tournament Director automatically assigns random seats to players.
2. Assign random seats yourself. Follow the following steps for good results:
   • Get the exact number of players - lets call it x.
   • Get two decks. Take x number of cards out of one and the identical cards from the other deck
   • Set one set at each seats on the tables one by one face up.
   • Set the other set face down on a separate side table and shuffle it.
   • Have each player pick up a random cards and seat at the corresponding table and seat.
   • Collect all the cards and start the tournament.

For larger tournaments use the same procedure but instead of playing cards use paper cards and write table and seat numbers on them (two cards for each number). For example you can write 1-1, 1-2, …, 2-1, 2-2, … (table number-seat number)

In your poker tournament there will be times that players need to be moved from one table to another. Such times arrive when players bust out of the tournament and the tables don’t have the same number of players seating at them. If table A has two, or more players more than table B, a random player has to move from table A to table B.

It is fine for a table to have one player more than another table as you can’t do anything about that.

If you are using the Tournament Director, it will automatically realize if a player from a certain needs to be moved or not, chooses a random player, and gives a warning to move the player.

If you are running the tournament by yourself (without the software) you can do the following: If a player is busted out from a table (therefore making the table shorter than another), find out his position in relation to the dealer at his last hand. Then go to the larger table and move the player with the same position and move him to the smaller table. So if the busted player was sitting two to the right of dealer, find the player at the larger table who seats two to the right of the dealer and move him to the smaller table.

Checklist for Hosintg a Home Poker Game:

The day before

• Buy snacks and drinks
• Print out your poker rules or have your players go over them on your personal website.
• Buy enough playing cards and couple extra ones in case cards are bent or spilled on.
• Make sure you have enough chips for your tournament.
• Download one of the poker tournament softwares, install it on your laptop and learn how to use it.
• Paper towels, paper plates for food

The game day before the players show up

• Clean your place – even though you will have to clean it afterward again.
• Setup your poker room - remove any un-necessary items from your poker room.
• Put the drinks in the fridge, have the snacks ready on the table.
• Have the food out.
• Have a copy of your rules out in case anyone wants to go over it again.
• Count chips for as many players as you expect and maybe couple more for the new playrs.

Right before the game

• Get the money from players.
• Advise everyone to go over the rules if they haven’t yet.
• Give cards and cut cards to each table.
• Announce if there is a rebuy or not, blind periods, etc.
• Wish everyone and yourself good luck. Shuffle up and deal.

I had a league game last night on Aced Poker, which is part of the Merge Network.  I do not play on there much and only downloaded the site because of the league that was going to run there and they were running games on there for the HPC Marathon.  I deposited roughly $20.

After registering for the league game I noticed I was down to $12.00 on the account. SoI figured I would jump into a cash game and try to build up the bankroll a bit.

I jumped into an Omaha .10/.25.  I wasn’t in the mood to play Hi/Lo, so I just played the PL Omaha.  I sat down with my $12.  As I waited for the big blind to hit me, I sat back and watched the table (highly recommended - don’t jump in and play right off the bat, watch the table for a bit first).  I could tell the first round there were a couple aggressive players and when it came down to the showdown, they didn’t have squat to begin with.  I watched them do this for several hands.

I finally posted the BB and the play began.  Sure enough they spotted me as the new player at the table and immediately tried to hone in.  I didn’t let that intimidate or bother me in the least be.  Hopefully their aggression will pay me off.  Well, it did.  Within 15 minutes, I went from $12.00 to $52.00.  I would have stayed and continued to play, but it was dinner time and the clan was getting hungry.

I am glad I made notes on the players, which I highly recommend everyone do.  When I run into them again, I know who my target will be.  The target has not become the hunter!

Yes, this weekend I was able to get into a live game.  It was a small private touranment with a local poker group.  It was a $40 buyin and ended up having 20 people.  There were no rebuys or addons.

I made the final table and ended up being short stack with just on guy with a smaller stack then me (who happened to be my boyfriend).  My dad was also at the table.  We were down to 7  players and my dad was in the hand.  The board showed 2 3 J.  My dad pushes allin and gets a call. My dad shows trip 3’s and the other guy has trip 2’s.  The river brought a one outer for the other guy for quad 2’s.  My dad is knocked out in 7th.

Very next hand.  Blinds are 500/1000.  I am big blind.  I have 5100 left.  I look down and see 7/5 off.  Everyone folds around and the small blind limps in.  Flop is 7 8 7.  I flopped trips.  The small blind checks and I checked in order to attempt a slow play.  Turn is a Q.  He bets out 1000 and I push all in for 5100.  He calls.  He turns over Q 8.  I figured I was golden with my trips.  Could he hit a 4 outer?  Your damn straight he did.  He pops an 8 on the river for a full house.  I don’t blame his call at all, but I swear it was like watching a game on the Merge Network.  It was the same guy that had just hit a miracle one outer on my dad.  I am out in 6th.

My boyfriend, who was the short stack coming into the final table, hung in there and made a great come back.  He ended up taking 4th place and just about doubled his money back.

It was great to get out and play live.  God how I miss that.

This is the last week of school, so I’ll have some free time on my hands for a couple weeks.  Time to hit the local establishments.