WSOP fever

With the World Series of Poker underway, poker fever has struck me and my roommate. To us, it's just like the World Cup. Same excitement, same thrill, same hightened cheering for our favorite players.

I recently re-started playing for real money again. I quit after losing a small amount. I never play on the high tables, I usually play on low ones. I think I'll get too nervous thinking if I'm playing for lots of money.

So far today, I'm down. If this continues, I think I'll be going to the play money tables again.

Watching WSOP makes me wonder if I can actually get in there. Theoretically, anyone with the buy in money of $10,000 can get in. In addition to that, there are smaller tournaments, called satellites that award winners seats into this high stakes tournament. Going through that route can be fun, but it's extremely difficult. You need to win maybe two tournaments in a row, besting hundreds of other players each. But it's doable and a number have done it.

You know TV, they'll hype something up like this guy won $50,000 and his total buy-in was $1. It's true. But extremely difficult.

(A few minutes later)

Ok, I'm down even further now. The skills of the players in online play have dramatically improved... Gonna have to continue watching the sidelines I guess.

(A few hours later)

I joined this 45-man tournament, and I finished 3rd! I won 7x the buy-in. I got lucky early on to get some chips come my way.

The blinds start at 10/20 and this guy raised to 100. I called with 5 and 8 of hearts suited. People usually muck this hand, since it's too low, but I was hoping the flop would be low cards and I could hit.

Fortunately, I did get my ideal flop of low cards. I paired my 5s. And I know my opponent had high cards so I knew he didn't hit anything. He bet 100 more and I re-raised all in to 1400, hoping he would think I'm trying to bluff and muscle him out of the pot.

He bit and gave me his chip stack.

When the tournament was down to about 16 people (from 45), I was the chip leader in my table. But I was playing weak and tight. I wasn't as active on the pot. And I folded more than usual. Actually, I was playing scared. I didn't want to lose my chips and that made me play soft on a lot of hands.

I finally reached the final table (final 9 players) and I saw I was like 3rd or 4th in chip stacks (I was the chip leader in my table, but other players from the other remaining table had bigger stacks). Anyway, I just played it tight, the anxiety wasn't as much. I actually reached the final 3.

At that point I was low on chips and the blinds were too high. I knew I had to move sooner or later. I got a K-4 off suite. And wishing that the other two didn't have anything, I went all in for the last $5,000 of my chips (my highest chip stack was $12,000). I got called--by both of them.

"Jeez, talk about piranhas. These guys really want my chips," was the only thing I could think of. LOL

Anyway, I lost and finished 3rd. It was fun and I'm glad I finished as high as I did. So I guess I have more money now to play and hone my skills some more.