I'm headed to Las Vegas this Monday through Wednesday. I'm going with one of my best friends, it's something we try to do once a year, especially since we don't work together anymore. We'll play a lot of poker, and Eric has told me that his last trip he learned to play craps. So I suspect I'll be learning to play craps this time, apparently it's a ton of fun.

Poker is my favorite thing to do there. Nothing high stakes really, just a little $2/$4 limit Texas Hold 'Em. Keep an eye on my camera blog, I'll be updating it with random pictures from our trip. We fly out Monday morning @ 8:30 AM and come back Wednesday night around 11PM.

I'm looking forward to three days with no kids, is that bad? I'm sure that when I get back I'll be glad to get home.

I ended up placing 11th place in the National Poker Challenge league that I've been playing in. So the 60 highest ranked players get invited to a tournament for the month of June. The really cool part of this tournament is that 1st place is around $1,000 cash for first prize, and the higher up you finished for the month, the more chips you start with.

The 1st place player gets $20,000 in tournament chips, and 11th place gets $17,000 and change. 60th place gets around $10,000. It will be good to start the tournament with a lot more chips than the rest of the field. I hope I have a lot of players with low chip stacks at my table.

Tournament play is difficult. It's very hard to bluff, or get away with much. My strategy will be to play premium starting hands, raising more than calling raises. I'm really going to focus on playing good poker, and concentrate on making the final table. It will be a long day, it's on Sunday July 22nd starting at 2:00 PM. Hopefully, by the time I get home, it will be dark, and I'll be counting my winnings.

I'm proud to say it looks like I'll finish in the top 10 for the month of June. If I can, I'll be awarded a free month pass for August (I already paid for July) and entrance to an invite only tournament for cash/prizes.

The invite only tournament will have sixty or so players, and pay in the thousands to first place. Wish me luck!

The cool thing, is the higher up you finish, the more chips you start out with in the big tournament. So with only three days left, there are only 3 or 4 people within striking distance of me. So, if they do well, I should still finish in the top 10. It's been a lot of fun, and I encourage you all to come check out the National Poker Challenge.

I love the fact that you're judged on the 10 games you play. It puts everyone on a level field. Unlike the other league that I played in, this league sets that limit.

The number in parenthesis (10) is the number of games that a person has played in a month.

For a few years prior to this post, I had played in a poker league called The Northwest Poker League. It was a great league when it first started. People respected the game, generally played well, and were enjoyable to be around. As word spread like wildfire there was this poker league you could play in that was free, the league began to fracture. You'd get the drunk person (as most venues were in pubs or taverns) that would sit down at the table and play terribly, and be belligerent and irritating.

The Northwest Poker League accrued around 6000 players, and decided there name "Northwest Poker League" was too short minded, they needed to be able to expand. So they renamed themselves "The Great American Poker Tour". Kind of a stupid name, but from that point on things just got worse. Their business model relied on bringing players into 'venues' (bars, restaurants, night clubs, etc.) so they would purchase food and drinks. I always would buy a drink, or a meal, or something to support the league, but most people did not. It's a tough business model, they're offering a free service with very high operating costs. Generally each venue had 2 poker tables, 2 dealers, and an investment of 5-6 to pay those dealers.  I know some venues paid upwards of $250 a night to have the league operate from their location.

The Great American Poker Tour (GAPT) began to experience a mass exodus of sponsors. Venues could not justify the expense. And despite the weekly emails from the founders BEGGING people to buy food and drinks, the league went from 12 or so venues to 5 ish. I finally got fed up with seeing the familiar faces of people that would not pay anything to play. I stopped going. Hence no real poker posts on the blog for quite a while.

Well, there's a new league in town and they are doing SEVERAL things I tried to get the GAPT league to do. Here's a breakdown of how the new National Poker Challenge league (NPCPoker) is doing that I think is GREAT for the game, and for the league.

• NPC Poker has rented a physical place and it's a dedicated poker room. (NO GAMBLING is going on here, and it's all legal) This solves the problem of being reliant on a retail establishment to cover the expense of having the league operate out of it.
• NPC Poker is NON SMOKING. This is so huge, most of the venues I played from previously allowed smoking. That was another reason I quit playing. Even with the retail non-smoking bill that's coming up for vote, it's still nice to be able to go home smelling like I did when I arrived.
• NPC Poker limits the amount of games you can play for one of their leagues. Thus a player can only play 10 games per month and are not able to skew their stats by playing more frequently. Unlike the GAPT where players can play every night of the month (almost) just showing up and signing in, these players have an edge on someone who plays a few times per week, no matter how crappy the play.
• NPC Poker has multiple leagues and ways to play.
• NPC Poker has other games than just Hold' Em.
• NPC Poker allows you to schedule your games weeks in advance, and you can show up minutes before the game starts. GAPT required you to show up almost 45 minutes prior to the game starting, (in order to get you to buy food and drinks supposedly). This was time generally sitting in the smoky environment just 'waiting'.
• NPC Poker charges a monthly fee to play. Looking at their fee schedule it may seem expensive, but if you play well, and finish high, there is a lot of money to be won. If people feel like they have something at stake, they're generally going to play tighter, and potentially give off more tells about their game.
• NPC Poker encourages people to respect the game and play well

So I've played two games so far, finishing 3, and 1st respectively. It's been refreshing because I've actually been able to bluff, steal pots, and play good poker. Unlike the GAPT, where people were just looking to suck out on you, the people at NPC have something at stake and something to strive towards.

After talking with the four guys that started this league, I've come to find out they are all ex-airline pilots from Northwest Airlines. They pretty much got dropped from NW after the whole 9/11 thing, and they've been looking for their calling. This seems to be it. NPC Poker started in Nashville, TN. The Bloom brothers (the owners) have bought a franchise right from the NPC parent organization in Nashville. You'll soon see many other cities coming in the future.

I read a book called "Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World's Greatest Game"; on page one it says, "If there is nothing at stake, there is no point." Amen.

Last night I was playing in another poker tournament. I played pretty conservative for quite some time. I finally started to get some playable hands.

Before I knew it, I was heads-up with one other player. We played several hands back and forth, and then the dealer announced, "this is the last hand". The tournaments are timed, and when there's no last man standing a chip count is taken to determine the winner.

I checked out his chip count, he had me covered by about 7k or so. I was under the gun, and looked down to find , a MONSTER hand, heads-up. I decided to act weak, if I could get just 5-6k more of his chips I'd win for the night. And since I don't play as much as some of the others in the league, a win is huge.

I made a really weak raise of 2K from the small blind. The current blind stuctures were 500 and 1000. It was a no brainer for my opponent, he had to call. He did, and the flop came down . Wow, I flopped a set, and along with my set I had the stone cold nuts. There were NO 2 cards my opponent could have that would beat me. I checked to my opponent, and he checked as well. The turn produced the . I bet out 3k, my opponent just called. I still was confident. The river exposed the . Now I had a full house. I checked, hoping my opponent would take a stab at it. He bet out 6K, I said, "I'm all in", and he called! He turned over King high, I turned over my full house for the win. Twas' a good night.

Every aspiring poker player attempts to try and not give off 'tells' while they play. If you don't know what a tell is, it's best described as "giving away the strength of your hand, inadvertently". Tells can be anything, the way the chips are thrown into the pot, the way someone replies to a question, or even how they are postured at the table. A tell is not a sure fire way of knowing that someone is strong, or weak. Often times, players send out 'fake tells' to confuse you.

At the level I'm playing at now, I don't think the majority of people I play cards with are well educated on these things. I've recently started on trying to get a better read on players.  I've been reading books, watching professional player videos, and just trying to improve my game. I recently watched a video by Annie Duke (she used to live right here in Portland, but moved to Las Vegas recently).

The video mentioned something interesting that I had never considered. Annie Duke encouraged poker players to read FBI journals available at most public libraries. Well, I don't have the time to go find, and read these journals, so the information I was able to glean from her video seemed good.

Tonight, I was focused on trying to read players in pots against me. I did not expect to be put to the test on the very first hand of the night.

The blinds were $100 / $ 200 (tournament chips, not a cash game). I was dealt 'under the gun' (the first position after the big blind). I raised the pot to $800. I had one caller, and both blinds folded.

The flop came down, . I had totally missed the flop. I was first to act, and I had a feeling that this flop had completely missed my opponent. So I made a continuation bet of $600.

He instantly called, this worried me. The turn produced the . I had put almost 1/2 of my chips into the pot. I decided to check, I knew he'd probably move his remaining chips in, and I knew I'd have to fold, or risk the rest of my chips to see the last card. Like I expected, he moved all his chips in, and for a second, I considered folding. I decided to wait, draw it out and see if I picked up something.

My opponent was starring me directly in the eye, generally appearing to be strong, means you're weak. From his behavior, I was pretty sure that my ace high was the best hand. I watched him a bit more. I said call, and turned up my cards.

He turned up his, and with a disgusted face, he asked me, "how could you call?" I said, you did something that made me call. The river was a blank, and I doubled up.

Annie Duke's video mentioned that people that are uncomfortable about their situation (i.e. lying or bluffing in this case) tend to unconsciously blink more often than people that are telling the truth. When my opponent moved his chips in, he must have blinked about 20 times in thirty seconds or so.

Everyone at the table gasped, they all wanted to know how I could make the call. I replied I picked up a huge tell on him, they all bugged me to tell what it was... I didn't. :)

My goal for this session in the poker league was to place in the top 100 players, and be invited to play in the quarter end tournament (only open to the top 100). I'm currently 82nd, and they still have a first place, and a third place finish to record.

I have a shot at being the top player at the venue I play out of, but I was REALLY close to another guy, like a few points close, so it will all depend on how he did in the second game the other night.

It's still possible my recent first place, and third place finish won't be enough to keep me in the top 100, so Thursday would be my last shot to 'squeeze' in a last game or so. I really hope it won't come down to that, I don't think it will. But it's good to know I have a contingency plan in place.

It was funny, my first place finish the other night was almost a last place one. I had been getting reallllllllly crappy hands, and got caught bluffing a time or two. I finally got   and I just 'tilted' and said "All In".

I had three callers. Man, why did I do that. I got out of my chair, as when you have three hands to beat, it's almost a no brainer, that you're gonna be out. The flop totally missed me . I jokingly called for "runner runner" clubs.

The turn produced a , and the river , I just quadrupled up! and knocked out two opponents. I got really lucky, but it was the turnaround point of the night, I started getting really good cards, and went on to win.

Man.... here I am whining about bad beats again. Oh well. In the spirit of Even when you do everything right, it can still not work out, this post will tell the little tale of a poker newbie.

She sat down at the table complaining about how she had lost the last tournament.... blah blah blah..... So after about 10 hands or so, it was clear, she really was a noob, didn't really understand the finer aspects of play. (I'm not a pro... but.... I'm trying to improve my game.)

Anyways, under the gun (first player after the big blind) she limped in for the big blind. Everyone folded to me on the button. I had , so I raised the pot to 3x the big blind. Everyone folded but her. She called. I was trying to get a feeling of what she would have to call. I decided "Ace-something".

The flop came down  Top pair for me with the queen kicker, I didn't even really watch the flop, I was concentrating on her. She checked the bet to me, I knew she didn't have a jack. I knew she had completely missed even. So now I bet out again 4x the big blind. Half of my chips are now in this pot. She mulled it over for a bit, and then reluctantly called, know I knew it. Ace King, that what's she had. Why do newbies think that this hand can't be folded?

Well of course, the turn produced the  Again, I was watching her, and she instatntly looked down at her chips and pushed all in.  I folded. I did flip up my hand and made a snide comment about her calling 4x the big blind with nothing, and I said, your Ace King beats me! After I flipped my cards up, she apparently felt obligated to as well, and in fact had Ace King.

She looked scared and said, "How do you know what I have?". I just laughed and kept the irration of playing someone new to myself. The good thing was she went out a few hands later, and me a while after her.  I did not make it to the points either......

Newbies. Grrrr.

Something that constantly aggravates me is a person that bets of a HUGE percentage of their chips into a pot, while leaving 15% or less of their chips behind. If you're going to put that much of your chips into the pot, even if your bluffing, it's just best to move them all in.

Chances are, if you're making this kind of move, you're the short stack. Holding on to an extra 300 in chips when you've bet 2000 or more is pointless. Nobody is going to fold when you move in for your last 300, so why not get all your chips into the pot, preflop?

Even if you can somehow fold your hand if someone puts you all in for your remaining 300 (this would be a really stupid move, you've committed yourself to play the hand by moving that much of your stack into the pot) folding would be the wrong option.

So I guess I jinxed myself. Talking about how good my poker run was going has produced a series of really bad performances. I'm still in the top 100, but if I don't get a few more big finishes, this session could end badly.

Poker players always want to get their chips into the pot with the best hand. It's all a statistics and numbers game really. The higher the percentage, the better chance that you'll come out on top. It's really a series of decisions to make, if you make too many bad decisions, you're done. If you make ALL the right decisions, you usually win.

But there is a factor of 'luck' or the best hand losing. I'm not whining here, I'm merely commenting about how a very strong hand can lose at almost any time. I hate sitting around and listening to people's bad beat stories, in fact, I'll often berate people and tell them to go to therapy. There's one guy in the league that EVERY week I put my ipod on and turn up the music just to avoid his bad beat stories.

Last night, I had some decent hands, but it seemed like I just kept running into a better one. I made some incredible lay downs, because I knew I was beat. Two out of three of these laydowns, the players showed me their down cards, and I did in fact make the correct decision. (I love it when people have to show off their hands, it totally validates my play, and it also gives me valuable information. I can learn how they act, what they do, how they throw their chips into the pot when they have a very strong hand.)

I was down to about 1500 in chips, after starting w/ 3500. The blinds were 200/400, so I was really short stacked. I looked down to find , so no doubt about it, all my chips were going into the pot. This is the best starting hand you can get. So I kind of 'reluctantly' put my chips into the pot, hoping a few others would come along for the ride. Nobody else, but the chip leader did. So he called me and proudly flipped over  I smiled and turned up my aces.

At this point I was an 80% favorite.

The flop was brutal.

In this case any 7 or any 6 makes my opponent's straight. So learning what we did from the last post that is 6 outs. 6 x 4 = 24% roughly, we see that CardPlayer magazine says 23%, but our calculation is pretty close. The turn came a J, so now their percentage is cut in 1/2. But of course the six came on the river. Even when you're a 3:1 favorite, you can (and sometimes will) lose.

I didn't get mad, or feel bad, you shrug your shoulders and say, "That's poker." I was happy to get my money in pre-flop w/ the best hand. My opponent sucked out on me.

So in this post, I'll explain some really basic principles about determining your chance of winning a hand based on the information you have at a specific point in time. Being able to determine if you should make a call, or even raise without the goods, but having a really high potential can really improve how you play. For example:

Your down cards are:  You've limped into a pretty good sized pot with 2 or 3 other players.

The flop looks like this:

   Here's how to figure your precentage of winning the hand. Some of this is kind of subjective, you have to determine if your opponent is on a flush draw, or maybe they have a big King. So the first thing to do is determine which cards will give you a winning hand, in this case a fair assumption is a straight, or a flush to win. (it would be a low flush, but the possibility of 2 people having 2 diamonds is pretty low).

   Count all the cards that would make your hand

            In this case there are 9 other diamonds that would help.
            There are 4 aces in the deck that would make a wheel.
            There are 4 sixes in the deck that would make a straight.

            So you have '17' cards to make a really good hand.

            When the board has three cards, you times your outs by four.

            17 X 4 = 68 - So you have a 68% chance of hitting one of those cards.

So if nobody goes crazy betting, it's a good place to put in a good raise, or just call if you're lower in chips.
Say the next card to come is a 'blank' (a card that does not improve your hand like )

            Now when the board has four cards, you still have the same amount of 'outs' times it by two now.

            17 X 2 = 34% - Your odds are drastically lower, but 3.4 times out of 10 you'll still make your hand!

So the river finally flops, and you've caught the . This is called having the 'nuts'. There is not a single hand that can beat you. You're praying that someone was slow playing the , flush, and you'll be able to get all their chips. Having a powerful hand like this all you need to worry about is extracting the highest amount of chips from your opponents as possible. Sometimes this is a great place to check (fake weakness) and let someone do something stupid like move all in w/ their flush, or high pair.

The other portion of this to consider is pot odds. This gets in to a way more complex discussion, but the base theory of pot odds is putting your money in at the right price. Let's say the pot has 10,000 in chips, and someone makes a $2,000 bet. You only have $4,000 in chips left. If you have the hand mentioned above, w/ a 64% shot at it, you're compelled to call, here's why.

      $10,000 + $2,000 = $12,000 So by you adding your $2,000 to the pot, you could win $12,000 for the mere $2,000 investment 12/2 = 6, your're getting 6 chips for every 1 you put in. That is essentially what pot odds are.

Another scenario: The pot is $4000, you have $20K in chips, the chip leader of the game just moved all $30k of his chips into the pot, you have a pair of fives. Do you call? Probably not, as I understand pot odds, you generally want to be getting 3:1 on your money at least to call with a marginal hand like pocket 5's.

   $4,000 + $20,000 (you only have 20k left, so you can only win what you put in) = $24,000

So you're talking about risking $20,000 to win $24,000, it's your tournament life at stake here, you're getting 1.2 : 1, generally most people would fold almost every hand other than pocket aces (AA) or pocket kings (KK). If you know the person betting is reckless, or bluffs a lot, it may be ok to make the call, but realize you'll be in a race situation, meaning you're lucky if you have a 50% shot before the cards are dealt.

This site offers a GREAT odds calculator. 

So I'm doing pretty well this session in the Poker League I've been playing in. I play about 1/2 as much as most of the participants and I'm in 43rd place (out of 6000+ players). The big goal is to be in the top 100 players by the end of each quarter.

I've typically finished in the top 200, but I never played really serious before, often making poor decisions in the final moments of a game, taking me from 1st place to like 8th place. The league I play in is free, we play for points.

At the quarterly tournament the top 100 players, venue leaders, and highest skill rated players are invited. There you're playing for prizes, typically entries to larger tournaments (that pay out big cash), or visa cash cards.

During normal nights, typically 20 - 30 people play, each starting w/ 3,000 - 3,900 in tournamnet chips. The blinds start at 100 - 200 and about double every 18 or so minutes. Tournament play is one of the few times you can actually just fold a lot, and move up in position. Even though it's free to play it's ultra competitive. The kicker is, that it's a timed game, at the end of 1.5 hours, it's over. Whoever has the highest amount of chips is the winnner. This forces you to play harder, and puts you to a decision more often.

So back to my comment about making bad decisions. There have been plenty of times I've had enough chips to just quit playing with 20 - 30 minutes remaining in the game. But being the nice guy that I am, I've opted to make marginal calls, etc. and I've lost because of it.

This sesssion I decided to play to win. We're more than 1/2 way through the session and I'm doing quite well. The last two matches have not been great, but I've had a 1st place finish, and several 2nd and 3rds. The higher in finishing position the greater payout in points, very similar to a cash payout structure.

I'm 43rd overall, I have the 4th HIGHEST (again out of like 6000+ people) skill rating. Like I said earlier, some guys play every night, I'm lucky if I get 2-3x per week. So guys that have 60 matches in, I have maybe 30. This is good when you have a lot of final table top five appearances, and directly attributes to why my skill rating is so high. I'm also the venue leader at the main place I play out of. I'm about 400 points ahead of the 2nd place person. So any one of these three things will get me into the final tournamnet.

While this is all 'small scale' compared to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and televised tournaments, it's still a hell of a lot of fun. Poker is something I never thought I'd be good at; sure there are runs where I do really well, and times where it seems no matter how good I think I'm playing I get played, but I really enjoy every aspect of the game. Of course winning is more fun than losing, but even when I lose, I have fun.

So on the 5th, me, a buddy from Portland, and two friends from Seattle are headed to Vegas. I'm not expecting to win, in fact, I have a certain amount of dough set aside that is acceptable to lose. Most of it has come from poker games played here in Portland! But it would be fun to win a few hundred bucks. One of the guys here at work always jokes about it as a "Mancation".

One thing you always hear when people talk about Vegas is how much money they won. Yeah right.... you never hear someone come back and say "Man I lost a grand...." I'm honest, last year when I went, I lost about $400. But I had a hell of a good time. Some people don't get it, but for me it's relaxing. Sure, it's a car payment, or something else that may last longer, but this is my thing. This year I feel better taking winnings from several games with me. It's all about odds, the more you play, the more likely you are to do well.

We'll probably play some tourneys ($40 - $60 buy in) and probably some $1/$2 no limit. I'll most likely play some Black Jack too. Our trip was a deal in itself, 2 Nights @ Treasure Island and roundtrip airfare for $255 per person!

Wish me luck.

So Friday night, I played poker with one of my best friends, in his monthly neighborhood game.

The chips were FLYING! I played pretty conservative (imagine that), and I made a couple of really good lay downs. (They showed me their cards, I love it when they do that - validate my play!) But the best hand of the night, didn't win me a ton, but it was so fun to play.

I started off w , I think I was the big blind, everyone folded but one player. So in a spot like this you're really hoping you flop a flush, or at least 4 to the flush. The guy I was playing against was a decent player, but he plays really wild, he loses sometimes, but other times that wild image gets him a lot of chips. So I was cautious to say the least.

The flop came  Cool, I had a pair, but what if he had an ace, he had to have a better kicker (higher card to break a tie). So I casually bet 2x the big blind. He called (initially he had checked). At least I wasn't check raised!

Fourth street produced  Wow, now I had a set. It's pretty unlikely he had an ace now. It's possible, but highley unlikely. I made a really weak bet of just under 2x the big blind, to make it look like I was just trying to steal the pot, he raised me 2x the big blind. I just call, trying to act really weak.

The river put the best card in the deck out there for me  Now I know for a fact he does not have another ace, unless these guys are using some sort of weird korean deck of cards or something (pause for laughter). So now he bets 2x the big blind, and I move in raising it 4x his raise. He had put so much money in at that point, and I could not figure out what he had, he called me with  I was a tad puzzled, I figured he had to have a 3 or a six, but oh well. It was a nice pot to win, and I feel like I played it perfectly.

Had I bet any more, I'm sure he would have folded. I was able to get second place, I made a really bad 'all in' bluff at the end against Big Slick, and lost Big Time!

Monday nights, I play poker in a free poker league. We play for points, and most of the people playing in the league play almost every night (man I wish I could do that!). Anyways, here is a fun hand I had happen.

I was acting in late position, I looked at my cards to find , , everyone had folded to me, just the small and big blind to act. The guy in the big blind is an aggressive player, and I was sure if I went all in he'd call with a marginal hand. So I moved all in. The small blind folded, and big blind guy called.

He had As 8d. So I felt good about the hand, I mean it's really close to 50/50, at least he only had one over card. (Wow, I actually just put the odds into an odds calculator on www.cardplayer.com, and I was 71.97% to 27.68% -- the hands would tie less than 1% of the time.)

Anyhow, the flop came:

   , ,

I think my opponent just saw his ace at first, because he seemed happy until he realized I had flopped quads. Four of a kind! The turn (which was irrelevant, there was no way I could lose at this point) was an , and the river produced the .

So the quads saved me. He had lost his hand a FULL HOUSE, aces full of eights. He muttered to himself, and left the table, a little annoyed I think.

Anyhow, it was one of those really fun hands that will statistically almost never happen.

Friday night was a ton of fun. My wife and daughter were out of town, so I hosted a poker game. We had 12 people show up, and it was one of the weirdest poker nights for me in a long time. I dealt most of the night, we ran two tables, each having six players.

I swear that almost every single hand I dealt either had the makings of a flush, or a straight, and a lot of straight flush possibilities. One of the first hands of the night I started off with:

  ,

A nice little connector I thought, so I limped in to see a flop, which came: , , . Nobody seemed that interested in the pot, so I bluffed at it for 2x the big blind. Two callers. The turn comes . Sweet I've made my straight! So I check. It checks around... damn. The last card . So I bet about five times the big blind. One guy folds, the other raises me the same amount, I call, and loose to a flush. Doh! I didn't even notice it.

Ok, not a big deal, still have plenty of chips. But now I'm gunshy. So a few hands later, I get pocket sevens (, ). I call the bets and the flop comes , , . Crap. I've flopped a set, but man there's a flush possibility, and a straight draw. So I bet big, 6x the big blind.

Two people call. Crap. Now the comes off. Great. I check. Two more huge bets. I think I'm so smart and say, "I'm gonna lay this one down...." The river comes off w/ something innoculous. The two huge betters reveal their hands, a pair of kings, and two pair! Damn... I made the wrong call again.

That's really not like me.

Ok so I figure, time to recompose myself. Let those two hands go.

So here's where the night got interesting, my neighbor Brent, was just TEARING through the competiion, he had knocked three people out (2 of them rebought into the game, to be knocked out minutes later) then it was time to combine the two tables.

We all played for a while, and two or three people got knocked out. Brent was poised to win the tournamnet, no questions, hands down, when he leaned over to me and said "My babysitter has to leave at midnight, do you think I'd win if I stayed?"

I said, "Dude, you'd have to be a moron to lose with the amount of chips that you have."

He was bummed out because 1st place paid $150 on a $20 entry. So out of desperation, or frustration, he started betting all his chips on every hand, no matter what cards he had. Now this may seem cool, for someone that had a good hand, but the thing to remember in a situation like this is, if you lose the race against a chip bully, you're out of the tournament!

So one of the very last hands before he had to go, Brent moves all in with and . Most of everyone folds, but my good friend eric pauses and says "I have a good hand". He's obviously conflicted, but I know the thought, "If I beat this guy, who has to leave, who does not care if he wins this hand, I'd be poised to win this thing".

So Eric pushes all his chips into the pot. Then a few people later, Darren, decides to go all in as well. Amazing. So our seven handed game has the opportunity (for me) to go from 7 players to 4 (if Brent wins since he's leaving). I think I even said aloud, "I don't know why you guys would tangle with Brent, since he's leaving.... he'll probably knock you out of the game."

Well Eric turns over (suit is not important in this hand), Darren turns over , and Brent turns over . Darren is a strong favorite in this situation. The flop came three rags () so Darren is still in front, then the came on the turn. Brent is in the lead. The only way Darren can win, is to get an Ace, and Eric is pretty much out of the game at this point. The river brings a , giving brent two pair, Jacks and sixes. Eric and Darren are out of the game.

Brent plays a few more hands, and keeps pushing all in... he thinks he's trying to give his chips away, but everyone just concedes folding their cards. I laid down an Ace Jack, that would have won, but I did not want to risk my position. After Brent leaves, it's just four of us now. It would have been very tough for me to make 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. But now, I'm way better off.

Long story short, we played for another hour or so, and I was able to win the match. Another point, when playing a tournament format, make sure that you can stay for as long as the tournament will run, seldom do we ever finish before midnight. I was shocked when Brent said he could not stay later.

Oh yeah my new table I'm building is about 60% complete, here is a shot of the LCD monitor embedded into the table to keep track of the blinds, and run our tournament software.