Tournament Poker, Sunglasses and More Part I

So far I’m O’fer Harrahs... I love to play Texas Hold'em poker and bink out of three tournaments, have some middling success in the cash games, and basically put a lot of time in for nothing. I feel like a salesman working on straight commission signing up all kinds of customers and then at the end of the month having them all back out for dubious reasons.

The tournaments were a mixed bag. I blame myself for the first one. The second I got a little unlucky, and the third I was a victim of situation and a guy oblivious to it, yes fair warning a poker bad beat likely looms ahead in coming posts. If I were a woman I’d only get interest from self-destructive creeps, because in poker those are the only people that play hands with me.

Let’s start from the top: the first tournament I played I made two really bad mistakes. Egregious even.

One was a matter of seeing the cards. I prefer to play with my contacts in and sunglasses on. I just like to stare at people to read them and I get self-conscious when looking at people for long periods of times. Sometimes you get into that battle of eyes where you lock up for a minute and then you wonder do you go all alpha male and try to get him to turn away first like you do a dog, or does the situation dictate you don’t want to get them riled up and incite a call and you act passive in turning away.

I know some people either just avoid eye contact at all costs or play big dick at the table and seek it out. I think like anything in poker it’s all about your opponent. You might be able to tilt a guy by doing the staredown or you might put a target on your back. Better to just cover your eyes and look where you please as long as you like.

Anyway, I lost my sunglasses, probably left them in Florida during Thanksgiving, where even as cold as it is now, we were able to get to the beach and get some rays. Course, the day after sunning we walked out on to the balcony and it almost felt like snow. Guess we were really lucky to get that great weather so late in the year. I digress…

So, I was playing with just contacts in and actually feeling a little sefl-conscious and not “reading” people as well as I would like. Another thing is, when I wear sunglasses, odd as it sounds I seem to see better. The contacts, which I rarely wear outside of poker anymore, gunk up (maybe from these year long allergies I’ve acquired down here) and I have a hard time seeing. Maybe I rub my eyes less with sunnies on so it doesn’t effect me as much.

I was getting whittled down to about half my stack, when I looked at 53 suited on the button. There were a few limpers and I had established a solid tight image so I thought this was a good hand to try and take down preflop, and one well disguised post-flop. I put in a raise and I don’t even get through the blinds without getting called. Only one of the limpers dropped out. Sweet.

The flop brought me four to a flush with Ace-King on the board. Checked around to me and I fire out a c-bet obviously an Ace is in my range and not in too many of the others. One of the blinds call and the others drop out. I will a club out there to complete my flush but…

To be continued…

btw, dog photo came from http://www.billrini.com/2006/01/28/poker-sunglasses-shootout/