Last Night's Game

Last night, I played in my fourth live tournament. I found it through a guy I met at my last tournament who I met only because of the guy that I met in Atlantic City. This is how underground poker games work. Word of mouth. Referrals. Gamblers vouching for one another on down the line. The buy in was $150. My bankroll was only at $500 but I took a chance and took out the $150 to play with. About 50 people entered the tournament, which put first place at around $2000 and second $1000. It was a bounty tournament which meant that we each had a $20 chip over our heads. Getting knocked out meant losing it, knocking someone else out meant gaining it. I liked the structure of this tournament because it seemed like my odds were better to at least get my money back, what with the bounty chips involved. The play at this place was insane. Set up in the basement of a bar, 4 or 5 fold-up tables covered up with felt. Most of the guys were just crazy gamblers, hell bent on bluffing and raising with 6 3 off-suit and the like. Honestly, they freaked me out. I played a fairly tight game which kept me out of trouble but also meant that I got a lot of respect and didn't make much money on my big hands. After about 4 hours, I was close to blinding out and knew I'd have to make a move soon. I should have pushed with my Ace Queen but instead I just raised and got called by a guy with a pair of 8s. He checked to me after he hit his set on the board, I bluffed almost half my stack (at this point, I was committed), so when he raised me, I went all in. I figured it was a better play than leaving myself with like 4 big blinds. I didn't know he had the set... but when he raised me, I should have assumed. The turn and river blanked, (I didn't hit runner runner set of queens BOO) and I was all out in 30 seconds. I feel like the biggest mistake I made in that hand was not pushing all in pre-flop. He seemed like a tighter player and I don't think he would have called me with his 8s. After I was out of the tournament there was a cash game (1-2) going and I figured I'd try to get my money back..... I went to the ATM and pulled out another $150 (leaving my bankroll at just $200) and sat down at the table. The first (seriously) hand I got was Ace Queen! I didn't win the hand. The very next hand (seriously) was Ace Queen again. Lost again. I feel like the Ace Queen is haunting me. Eerily, early in the tournament a guy sitting next to me said "I always get in trouble with Ace Queen..." Maybe I should have taken that as an omen. The guy sitting next to me at the cash table, Chris or "Cooch" also got busted out of the tournament and was pretty drunk. I watched him lose about $200 very quickly to a girl named Tanya. He didn't seem to care. "I'M A GAMBLER, BABY!"$200 must not be much to him. A few hands later, he pushed all his money into the pot in the dark (before he saw his cards) and didn't get a caller. I almost called with my King 4 but thought better of it. Glad I did, cause he showed me Aces. Lucky crazy bastard. I ended up losing most of my money and when I was down to about $40, I pushed all in with my Ace Queen again, figuring it would be a good way to go out and somehow, miraculously, I rivered a straight with the damn hand. I built my stack back up to $150 but when I turned a boat in one hand, I went all-in after I got raised on a '9 9 44' board and was called by a bigger boat. I had the 4. If I had taken the time to really think about it, I would have probably figured he had the 9, but I was kind of drunk and NOT taking time to think about anything.

Morals of the story:

1) Don't drink and play poker, people. As soon as I started to drink beer in the tournament, I was out in 30 minutes. 

2) When your tournament life is on the line or you're considering putting all your money in on a hand, take at least a minute to think about it. What could your opponent have that he is putting you to this decision? If you've been playing tight, he probably has something good. 

I think that sums it up pretty well.... Don't drink and take your TIME.

Like I said, my bankroll is down to about $200 now. I'm considering entering a WSOP satellite with the rest of the money because I'm a sucker for a good story. If I won the satellite and the second satellite final table I'd win a $10,000 ticket to the WSOP and $2,000 for expenses. If I cashed in the world series I could win tens of thousands of hundreds of dollars. I'd write a fucking book about it. I think that's already been done, but I'll write a better one.