The Dogg Pound (5/17/06) - Viva Las Vegas!

Dr. Giganto

So, last weekend I made my first ever trip to Las Vegas. I spent a considerable amount of time playing poker, so I thought this would be a good place to tell the story of my first casino poker tournament (they show poker on ESPN, so it's a sport for the purposes of this article).

I arrived in Vegas Friday night, and didnt really have the time to do any gambling. So, Saturday morning, me and one of my friends walked about a half mile down the strip to the Luxor (the casino that's shaped like a pyramid) to play in a tournament. The buy-in was $30 for 250 chips, and $3 for an additional 50 chips. So, after throwing in our $33 each, my friend and I were given 300 chips and our seat assignment (we were sitting at different tables), and we waited for the tournament to begin.

The game was Texas Hold 'Em. It started out as a limit game, converting to No-Limit at the 1 hour mark. For those that are unfamiliar with the game, I'll give a quick lesson. Before the cards are dealt, two players must put chips into the pot before they see their cards. These are called "blinds". One blind is usually bigger than the other. This is done to ensure that there is at least some money in every pot. After everyone looks at their two cards, it goes around the table and people decide if they want to call the bet, raise the bet, or fold. In a limit game, you can only bet or raise as much as the big blind. In a no-limit game, you can bet or raise as little as the big blind, or as much as your entire chip stack. Hence the term "no limit". Once the bets are settled, three cards are placed down on the table. These are called the "flop". Then there is a round of betting. Then, a fourth card comes out. This is called the "turn". In a limit game, the bet or raise now becomes twice the big blind, and you can still bet as much as you want in a no-limit game. Then, a fifth card comes, called the "river". You have to use the two cards in your hand, plus three of the five cards on the table, to make the best possible hand. Best hand wins the pot.

There were 80 players at the start, with the top 7 finishing in the money. The blinds began at 10 and 15, and they rose every 15 minutes. I'm not going to go through my experience hand-by-hand (mostly because I barely remember any of the hands I played), but I'll just go through some of the highlights.

At the beginning of the tournament, I was very nervous. My heart was pounding, and I was afraid that I would be giving away my bets. But, thankfully, once the cards got dealt I was fine. I realized that my best bet would be to play my usual, tight style. Keep folding until I get a really good hand, and then try to win a big pot. To my surprise, the action at my first table was very tight. There were rarely more than 2 or 3 people calling before the flop, and it seemed to be only with premium hands. This also surprised the dealer, who said to us "You guys should all make the final table playing tight like this. That's the way to go. Just hold on to your chips until you have something."

While the game was still in its limit format, I won a few pots here and there, then caught a bad beat and lost a significant amount of my stack. Considering we started with only 300 chips, by the time level 3 came around (half an hour into the tournament), the blinds were 25-50, which meant that one bet before the flop and a bet after each of the flop, turn, and river would total my original starting stack (50 each before and after flop, 100 each on the turn and river). I was down to 200 chips at level 4 (blinds 50-100), so I went all-in with QJ off-suit. The blinds folded, and I got one caller, who had K10 off-suit. Fortunately, I flopped a pair of jacks, and he didnt improve his hand, so I basically tripled up, and I was back in business. At this point I looked over to where my friend had originally been seated, and saw he was no longer in the tournament. Unfortunately, he took an early exit.

Shortly thereafter, we reached level 5, which is when the game became No-Limit, and the blinds were a monsterous 100-200. We were down to about 30 players, and I got moved to another table. I was assigned to seat 1 (first seat on the dealer's left). There was somebody sitting in my seat and he said, "I have a broken ankle, it's much easier if I sit here, do you mind if we just switch seats?" I said ok, and we began.

Now that it was no-limit and the blinds were so high, the action was fast and furious. The majority of the people at my table had less than $600 chips, so there were all-in moves basically every hand. Before I knew it, we were down to two tables. I didnt play a single hand at this table before the blinds rose again, and when I was big blind, I looked down at my cards to see Big Slick (AK). One woman went all-in for 500 chips. The guy next to me with the broken ankle went all-in with 700 chips. I called with my remaining 700 chips. The total pot was about 1900 chips. The guy with the broken ankle turned over AJ, and the woman turned over K10. The community cards were all low cards, so my AK won, and I knocked two players out.

Fortunately for me, the guy with the broken ankle had asked me to switch seats with him, otherwise he would have gotten the AK and knocked me out of the tournament. So, that's what he gets for not getting out of my seat.

Anyway, the two people I knocked out were the 10th and 11th place finishers, so I was now on to the final table. There were 9 players remaining, and the first two to get knocked out did not win any money. On the bright side, there were 3 players with less than 600 chips remaining, so at blinds of 200-400, they had to win a hand within the next few hands just to stay alive. On the negative side, the other 5 players all had a few thousand chips, and would be able to bully me and the other short stacks around. I just kept folding my hands around until eventually I was down to just 300 chips. The blinds at this point reached 400-800, so I would have needed to quadruple up just to have enough chips for my blinds. I was one spot out of the money, and unless somebody went out, I was toast.

Fortunately, somebody went out, and the final 7 were at the table.Now, we could all breath a little easy. Next hand, two more players went out, and we were down to 5. After that, the person who would have been the small blind just got eliminated, so there was no small blind, and I went in with Q7 for my last 300 chips. Nobody called, but the big blind already had me covered. So, he turned over 42 off suit, and I thought I was in pretty good shape. But, he paired his 4 and neither a Q nor a 7 came out, and I was eliminated in 5th place.

My pay-out was $89, on an original investment of $33. It was a little bit lower than I was expecting, but I was still very pleased with my performance. I stayed patient, and it paid off in the end. It was a little nerve-wracking, but all in all, it was an exhilirating experience for my first Vegas poker tournament.

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

sounds good. i've thought about trying otu poker online but have yet to be bothered to do so yet. that sucks about the payout though, i figured it would have been more than that. once i finally go to a casino round here ill probably try playing some poker and lose my money.