Rounders, Inc.

Last week, I wrote a post saying I was done with poker.

Since then, I have had fellow players, friends, and dealers call and email me asking what the hell is going on.

Perhaps my post jumped the gun a bit. I don’t know.

I have the gift of accurately reading players’ hands blind and making the right decision.

Blessings are curses sometimes.

I took a break from cash after I flopped Queens full of 9s (I had Q-Q) and got called pre-flop and at every street by someone with K-9 off. Well, the dog hand caught the case 9 on the river for quads. So, I went to tournaments for a week.

I played three tournaments a day for a week. During that time, I hit the final table on 90%.

Not a single mistake - every read was correct and every decision to either play a hand or not play a hand was correct.

The hand that hurt the most and drove the decision to quit?

Actually, it was two hands.

The first, I have A-K on the button.

Some donk in middle position pushes all his chips in.

If I call and lose, it is 1/3 my stack.

If I call and win, I am the dominant chip leader.

Action folds to me.

I scan the players behind me and decide they can’t call.

So what does donk have?

I talk to him.

“You must have a big hand.”

Nothing.

“I think you have a hand like A-J or A-Q and don’t know how to play it after the flop.”

He looks up at me.

I call.

He shows A-J.

The flop comes K-8-7 rainbow.

Even though I flop top pair top kicker, I am not thrilled to see the 8-7.

Turn card is 10.

I cringe.

River card is the miracle 9 for a straight.

Two hands later, the donk donked off the double-up.

I grind it all back and find myself at the final table with players that are considered by many to be weak. I agreed. It was soft as butter.

I am under the gun with J-10 hearts.

In retrospect, I should have folded and waited for a better spot.

Maybe I should have raised, but I know any weak Ace still would have called.

Well, 6 players are in this pot.

The flop comes 8d-9h-Qh.

I flopped the nut straight with an open-ended straight flush draw.

I want to push out the flush draws and take down a decent pot.

The blinds check to me.

“All-in”, I declare.

Everyone folds around to the big blind.

He pauses.

“I think I am beat”, he says.

“I am on a draw”, I tell him.

“I don’t think so. Sammy Wynn does not put his chips in on a draw. That much I know. But I don’t know what you have”, he responds.

“Open-ended straight flush draw”, I say.

I don’t think he understood what that meant because he called me.

What it meant was 4 of his theoretical 9 outs were gone: The two hearts I had plus the two hearts to make the straight flush.

Five outs in theory makes him a 5-to-1 dog to the turn and 10-to-1 dog to the river while getting about 2-to-1 on his money. On the bubble.

Why risk it?

As it turns out, another player folded hearts.

There were three hearts left in the deck for this player to win.

He is a 9-to-1 dog on the turn and 20-to-1 on the river.

Cinch hand for me, huh?

Fuck no.

The dealer brought hearts on both the turn and river. Two of the three hearts left in the deck that did not give me the straight flush.

I was out.

As for this player?

He was out during the next round.

I think he used up his luck in the hand with me.

So, you all now have an appreciation for my frustration.

I will be back at the table soon.

Very soon.

Get ready to deal me in.

I have only played a few poker tournaments in my career. One final table and no cashes.

That is, until yesterday.

On the entire drive to the event, I told myself I was going to win this one. Like Little Boy Blue, I needed the money.

From the first hand, I was getting frustrated with the bad play at my table. These guys were over-betting with K-3 off in early position. I just wanted to play competitive poker, not bingo.

So, I walk up to the Tournament Director and ask if there are any unsold stacks at one of the other tables. To my delight, there was.

“Ok, I am going to put it in dark on the next hand. Just get me off this table,” I tell him.

I rarely get tilty, but I was running on a few hours sleep and got frustrated. I just knew that I was going to end up putting my money in good and somebody was going to knock me out with a trash hand because they are there for fun.

I am there to compete and win.

With the Tournament Director standing behind me with my buy-in money and my new seat card, I push the entire stack in.

I lose the hand, but have $75 of the $8000 left.

“Ok, next hand,” I say.

I put it in dark. And win.

This goes on for several hands. Me trying to knock myself out dark.

Several hands later, I have $10,000 or so in chips.

“Guess you don’t need the rebuy,” the Director tells me. “You got what you wanted. I need you to move to a short-handed table.”

Sweet.

The new table had very solid players. I got in the zone.

In my head, I hear “If you want to win, then start playing like a winner.” My conscience was right. I had a fresh start.

And then I went on an incredible run.

With $300,000 chips in play, I went from $75 in chips to over $200,000 making me the dominant chip leader.

I had about 2/3 of the chips in play when the top four cashed at the final table.

To put this in perspective, I went from 0.025% of the chips in play as the short stack to about 67%.

That is a 2680X comeback.

How did I do it?

Simple: I caught cards when I needed them and outplayed my opponents after the flop.

My first cash resulted in a first place.

I was so happy!!

I shared the good news with my friend Barry who also played the tournament. He gave me a big hug and congratulated me. Barry was genuinely happy I won, especially under the short-stack circumstances.

From the moment I changed tables to the end, I simply outplayed the table - some of my best poker play ever.

There was no bracelet, but my 7 year old son is commemorating the victory by wearing his “My Dad is the Man” T-shirt to school today.

My first cash. And my first win.

My table games payout form sums it up nicely. It simply says “1st”.