YESTERDAY: Forum managing editor Matt Kelsey was riding a winning streak in a no-limit Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament sponsored by the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at Northwest Missouri State University. But as some of the 120 players got knocked out, Kelsey was moved to a different table.
Part 2
My wife Jamie is one of only a handful of women in the tournament, but when I sit down at my new table, two of my opponents are female. I had actually thought more women might play, with the growing success of Texas Hold 'Em on television through the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker, Celebrity Poker Showdown and others.
One of the women at my table is your typical sorority girl, no offense to sorority girls intended. She's bright and spunky and really nice, with a slight cutting edge for sarcasm, and everybody at the table likes her even when she's taking their money. I think part of it's an act, though, to make the rest of us underestimate her. It seems to be working. But at the same time she also seems to be pretty darn lucky, and she wins a lot of pots with poor hands that pair up or make small straights on the river.
I only play a few of the first several hands and don't win anything, losing some dough to sorority girl and the chip leader at the table, who is catching strong cards. I'm going downhill fast, and I look over to see Jamie's chip stack dwindling, too.
Finally I get dealt a hand I can play, a cute little pair of jacks, and win some money. Then a few hands later, two more gentlemen look up at me from my cards, this time a pair of kings. I win a nice-sized hand and I'm back in the game.
I lose one hand trying to bluff when I shouldn't have. Everybody checked to the river, so I put in $400 in chips, thinking it was enough to purchase the pot, but two players called and had much better hands.
The next hand is unbelievable. I'm dealt a K-3 of clubs and bet it. I got two more clubs on the flop and another on the river to make a flush. I push all-in and another guy at the table with a smaller stack calls me. He flops down a pair of queens, which matches nicely to another one in the flop, but it's not enough to beat my flush. I knock him out of the tournament and all of a sudden I have the chip lead at my table.
I check Jamie's progress again and she clearly has the short stack at her table, but a minute later I look over and see a big pile of chips in front of her. She must have doubled up a couple times by going all in. At this point, only six tables are still up and running, down from about 15 to start, so we've both made it pretty far and beaten more than half the field.
Throughout the tournament, one player in particular has tormented me. He followed me from the first table to this one, and at both tables he always seemed to have the short stack. Every now and then, he'd push all in "blind," betting all his chips without looking at his cards first, and three times, with monster hands, I called him. But each time he beat me.
He goes all in again, but this time he has a good stack of chips. I had an A-5 suited and thought I might be able to build a flush or at least pair the ace, so I called him. I can't remember what he had, but a two, a three and a four came out, building me a straight, not a flush. Finally, I beat him, putting him out of the tournament and increasing my chip lead.
A little later, I fall into another minor bad streak, losing a lot of chips to the sorority girl. Then the table consolidation starts again, and they break up our group to fill in gaps at other tables. The sorority girl and I get moved to a table across the room.
At this point, I have a pretty good stack of chips, but at my new table so does everyone else. In fact, now I have one of the short stacks. The one fault in the organization of the tournament is the redistribution of players; it seems like all the biggest stacks end up at one table, while at Jamie's table every player has a small stack.
Of course, just as with my last move I develop another losing streak, dropping a bunch of chips to the hard-charging chip leader who seems to be playing and winning every hand.
Then I draw an A-8 and pay to see another ace come up on the flop. I have the last betting position, so I can see everyone else bet first, and I can tell nobody else has an ace.
So I pushed 'em all in.
Then it's up to sorority girl. She counts out her chips and finds she has $50 less than me. After lengthy pondering, she calls. Everyone else gets out of the way. She turns over her cards and doesn't have anything, just offsuited, non-matching number cards!
No help to either one of us on the turn, but BAM, she catches a 10 on Fifth Street to make a straight.
That sure beats my aces.
So I have one single solitary fifty dollar chip left.
I fold away one more hand, but then I'm on the big blind, which is up to $500, so I'm forced to put my chip in. Actually, I get a pretty good hand and quadruple up. I'm on the small blind on the next hand and again have to go all in, and again I catch good cards, a queen and a jack.
Then I get one more of each on the flop to make two pair. Only one other player stays in the pot. Sorority girl.
Since I'm all in, we flip our cards and she again has nothing. She pairs up a six on the turn, and my two pair appear to be good.
Then the dealer flips out another six. Her three-of-a-kind beat my two pair.
I'm out.
-
Three hours after I started, I finished in 15th place (they don't give trophies for that) out of 120 players. I'm awful proud of that. And I'm proud of Sigma Phi Epsilon, who raised a lot of money for a great cause, the fight against Lou Gehrig's Disease. They're going to do it every month, and if you enjoy poker, you should give it a try. In this game, anybody can win, and if you don't, you'll still have a great time. Even though I didn't win a big screen TV, my $10 investment was money well spent. And if you're not a student, don't let the fact that most of the players are scare you off. After spending three hours with them, I can testify that Northwest students are good people, and Maryville should be happy to have them in the community.
When I got knocked out, Jamie was still in. She finished in 11th place, and now has something to hold over my head. But I don't mind; she played wonderfully, and I'm really proud of her, too.
So it was a happy night. But it's never fun to lose. After I saw that third 6 hit the table, I was fairly bitter. I had only been at that table for less than a half hour, so I didn't feel the kinmanship with those players as I did at my earlier tables. They were strangers, and when I went out, I got no handshakes, only a couple people said "Good job," and I was left with the terrible walk through the long room and out the door.
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