Taking a Shot

16 MAY 06

Damn peer-pressure.

Seattle John has been telling me to take a shot at the higher limit. Lady Falcon just stepped up with great success.

Why not me?

I washed out of the Monday night tournament early. It was a $135 buy-in bounty tournament. I got pocket 10’s and Kings early and nearly tripled up. Unfortunately, my attempt to bully the table ran into several better hands, and I was out early.

The list for 10/20 was huge, but there was an open seat at 20/40. I walked over and there were several faces I recognized from the 10/20 game. They were 6-handed and even slid out the chair for me. I told them I didn’t bring a big enough stake to sit in that game.

Hello, Mr. ATM.

I post $20 behind the button. I’ll raise with almost any two cards here if I see no aggression early. Sure enough, it’s folded to me. I raise and the big blind three bets. We are heads up and I see a flop of A 6 5. I’ve paired my 6. Big blind bets. I raise. He re-raises and I call. The turn is a Queen. He checks. I bet and he check-raises me. I let it go.

I was my first hand at the table and I’m already down $160. It’s gonna be a short experiment.

I made two HUGE mistakes. Both times I capped the turn with the second nut straight. I didn’t give credit for the nuts because both times my gut shot also completed their gut shot. Once was against a drunk who preflop raised my big blind with QJ. I had A 8 and called. A nine on the turn gave me the 10-high straight, but gave him the nuts. I bet the flop because it paired my ace and he raised me with nothing and caught. I can’t put him on the hand, but I wasted a bet by capping.

The same dude also went runner-runner quads on me when I flopped the nut flush. Now THAT was expensive.

I finally settled down, caught some cards, made some big laydowns, and left up over $1000 for the night.

Jesse May wrote a great book called “Shut Up and Deal.” Mickey, his main character, is asked, "What’s the difference between the lower stakes and higher stakes?" His reply:

“Different color chips.”

There were other differences, too, but I have to do some critical thinking before I’m willing to say I’m a regular in that game.

For now, I’m just calling this a successful short-term experiment.