Last night I played in a Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament with some friends. We played two tournaments and had a cash table going.
The first tourney was a $20.00 buy-in, and I played a little looser than I normally like to play. It had been a while since I had played in an actual tournament (I normally play a couple hundred hands a week online) – so I reasoned myself into a looser style of play not knowing the style of play of my opponents (dumb on my part). As you would expect, I did not make it to the final table and was all-in after an hour finishing in 7th place (out of 11). I finished out of the money, as the payout was $160/$40/$20. Net loss $20.00.
After bowing out of the tournament, I got into the cash game for a while. Here I played a bit tighter and did not have much better luck. The buy-in was $0.25 per chip. I started with a respectable $10 buy-in and quickly lost that on some crappy rivers. Therefore, I moved another $5 into the game. This actually lasted for quite a while. I finished the cash game down $12.00 – a net overall loss of $32.00.
We decided we would play another tournament. This tourney was a $10.00 buy-in. I was matched with some new players I had not played with before. As a result, I played my normal tight strategy – playing very few non-suited connectors and very few non-face cards. Our table’s play proved to be a bit more conservative; the final table consisted of four of the six from our initial table. In fact, the final four players were all from our initial table. My overly tight play eventually moved me to head-up play. At this point, we were to 20/40 blinds which moved the game along quickly considering there were only 550 total chips in the tournament. Head-up only lasted three hands. I ended up going all in on two-pair (Kings and 10s) and winning. As the payout was $80/$20/$10, my total net winnings on the night were $48.00.
During the second tournament, I was witness to one of the crazier rivers between two players. One was holding a nut flush on 4th-street (spades) and pushed all-in. The other needed a five of spades to complete a straight flush and called. When the players flipped their hands going into the river, the nut flush was happy. That is until the five of spades came up on the river for a straight flush. The swing in emotions was fun to watch. I am just glad that I was not involved in the hand – although I am not sure I would have gone all-in holding an inside straight flush draw when the other player just went all-in.
Although it can get a bit tiring as the fatigue factor of playing a tight-aggressive style and continually folding tends to wear me down, it is always fun to get together with some friends and play poker. Overall, it was a fun night – not to mention the awesome snacks and cold beer (always a plus).