"WINNING!"

So last night was poker league night at Steve “Big Daddy’s” house. What a cool environment he has set up in his game room for us to play. There’s our poker table of course, but beside that, there’s a pool table, old-fashioned video games (PacMan, Space Invaders, etc.) and even a pinball machine! Funny that I haven’t seen one person in this over-fifty crowd (aside from Steve) play on break or after, but it is a fun set up and great environment in which to play. Oh, not to mention the great spread and dinner that’s put out each time we play as well!

The Horse league is a year long, monthly meeting of 9 top-notch old timers, who play for seats into the wsop. At the end of the year the winner with the most points gets 10k in entries, 2^nd gets 5k and 3^rd 2500. The winners play the event(s) for the club and 50% goes to the winner and 50% comes back to the club to split among the other club members. It’s a comp that offers a nice challenge each month, yet still makes for great camaraderie.

We’re a little over half way through the season and with last night’s win I took over 2^nd place alone overall, 4 points behind the leader. The way the structure is, rarely does anyone go out in the first few hours of this thing. You can’t win it in that time, so the only thing you can do is play too many hands early on and do damage to your chip stack. So the proper strategy is to sit still for about 4 hours, until the blinds raise enough where every bet really matters, and then patiently wait for the deck to hit you or pick your spots well and step on the gas. 

At the four hour point last night I only had half my chip stack left, but selected a great spot in 7 Card Stud / 8 to make my move. I got involved in a 3-way pot with a 7 low straight and flush draw on 5^th street. A problem developed on 6^th street when both my opponents improved and I didn’t. One had 3 Kings and the other made a 6 low and it was looking like I was going to get squeezed out of this hand and the tournament. Ouch!  On 7^th street after the action was complete and I was all-in my opponents turned over their hands and I saw that I was going to need a 5 for a straight or an Ace for a better 6 low then my opponent, or face elimination and be out in last (9^th) place. I peaked down and squeezed out an Ace to make a 6-4-3-2-A low and survive!

Survival is one of the keys to tournament poker and I think often missed in today’s game. There’s a lot of reckless play early on by players who lack discipline and patience. This oftentimes leads to an early exit by overexposing themselves in situations in which they are pushing small edges way too often. I mean if you flip a coin often enough, eventually it’s going to come up tails. Wait to take the flips until after you double up, at least you’ll have some insurance and remain in the tournament.

Learn to survive my friends and perhaps I'll see you in the winners circle!

Enjoy the Journey!

Kenna