I have recently played in a few poker tournaments which are hosted by a group of friends, one of which is my neighbor. They have been holding the tourneys once every couple of months, usually changing houses, but generally have the same format every time. I have done well, by placing 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd in the last three tournaments, but have yet to claim the top prize. Last Saturday they held another tourney.

When I arrived at the game, I was let in the front door and ushered into the basement. As I walked through the hallway, I thought I saw a woman I recognized from work. It wasn’t until I was halfway down the stairs that I realized who the woman was, and that she is also the mother of one of my coworkers in the department. At that point the game was getting started, so I did not have a chance to say hello, but I made a note to mention the sighting to my coworker.

The game started with almost 30 players. Halfway through it was announced that the top 5 would be paid. With six players left, and with the 3rd largest chip stack, I found myself in the big blind with a pocket pair of Jacks. Three players called the blind, but there were no raises, so I raised 5x the big blind, which happened to be roughly one fourth of my chips. The first caller, who was easily the biggest guy at this game, more on that later, thought about my raise for a few minutes. He then announced he was all in, with the second largest chipstack, which would of course force me to risk all of my chips to call. After the other three players still in the hand folded it was time to make my decision.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have recently started playing poker at titanpoker.com. I like the software, and I also like the fact that I’ve gotten a $50 deposit from them to start. Very nice. The last 3 nights I have played in a $5 $0.50 freezeout tournament with a $2500 guaranteed payout. Also, very nice, considered I was funded to start and didn’t have to deposit one dime of my own money, not even a nickel.

The problem, however, lies in the tournament structure and one word which I am learning to despise….Rebuy. The tournament offers 99 rebuys, which creates a completely different game than a normal tournament. At the start, everyone, not including yours truly, will raise or call all-in with just about any starting hand, hoping to “get lucky”. If they lose, they’ll just rebuy and try again.

Some might say that it is their own choice if they are willing to spend their own money that way, which I do agree, but it does not make for a decent poker game at all. If you are going to play any hand, even a marginal hand in which you have position, you need to be willing to go all-in, because once you raise, which would usually cull out the terrible hands, someone will surely go all-in hoping that their hand will catch something on the flop.

Example: I had AQ suited on the button. I made a raise 3 times the blind pre-flop and was called by two players. I ended up hitting my Q on the flop with two undercards. The other players check, and I make a nice bet, which is not only called but raised, putting the raiser all-in. I had double his stack, so it was not hard to make the call, especially since there are no straight or flush draws on the table.

We both reveal our cards and he has T2o, matching a 2 on the board. The turn brought a 3 and sure enough the river hits a 2 cutting my chip stack in half. I know that these types of occurences happen in poker, but my point is that without the ability to rebuy, T2o does not raise all-in and probably doesn’t even call. But he had already purchased 3 rebuys and like I said, rebuys completely change the game.

I ended up finishing in the cash, but just barely, whereas before that hand I was on my way to being one of the chip leaders. I pride myself in not using the rebuys, to make myself a stronger poker player, but I compare it to a minor leaguer trying to make the major league roster without the use of steroids, when everyone else is doing it.

Later in the game, when there were no more rebuys available, noone at the table I was at knew how to play. Sure they all had chip stacks larger than mine due to their earlier “lucky hands”, but they did not know how to play with them. Every hand was either fold or all-in to them which in my opinion is not poker. It’s more like “go fish”. Got any 3’s? No, Go fish.

As I mentioned in my about me section, I have recently discovered Texas Hold’em. As of yet, I have not been in big money games, only very small money games. That doesn’t mean that I dislike losing any less, however.

Last night I was in a 45-person $1 sit and go with a $17 top prize. See what I mean, small money. Everything was going smoothly, I was #3 in chip count, when I got dealt Pocket Aces. With 32 people remaining, I played aggressively, but not too much to tip my hand and scare the table away. I ended up scaring off everyone but one player who called.

We went to the flop, which was 3d, 8d, Ac. I hit the set. Not wanting to let the other player call lightly into a possible flush, if he was suited, I made a large opening bet. Not only did he call, but he raised me, pushing me to the point where I would be all in. I called and saw that he had Ad, 3h. A-3 offsuit, as I thought to myself, doesn’t stand a chance against my trip A’s, so I immediately smiled. Then I saw the turn bring 5d.

With no more betting to be done, all I could do was hope the river wouldn’t turn out another diamond. Sure enough, out flopped the Jd. My opponent flopped a nut flush off the board, and beat me with A3 offsuit. Somedays, as I heard once in last year’s WSOP, there is no justice in poker.

If your a blogger, like me, and you love Texas Hold’em, like me, than you’ll definitely want to check this out. I have a chance to play in Vegas at the WSOP just because I’m a blogger. I feel special.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5898616