Flopping the Nuts

Posted by Cynical Sarah on May 18, 2007

When not busy being a cynical citizen of the word, my day job is in the poker industry writing poker news and editing poker content for a Web site. I’ve played poker socially for years – it’s practically a staple at family get-togethers – but I never imagined how big a business it has become.

It’s definitely hard not to get caught up in the hype that goes along with the industry. There are millions of people around the world who play poker online, and you know that just about every single one of them has delusions of grandeur of winning big online or winning their way into a live tournament where they’ll win big and gain fame.

I still don’t play online, but lately I’ve been hearing that siren song that tries to lure players in. As part of my job, I’ll be taking part in a poker camp with a renowned pro and suddenly I’m nervous about not having enough knowledge or practice going into it. Even though I’m going to report on it as well as participate, I don’t want to be completely embarrassed by my skills while surrounded by very serious players.

Instead of signing up online and perhaps opening myself up to a serious poker hobby at home, I decided to give live poker at a local casino a shot. One of them had sent out a newsletter announcing a ladies night and my coworker and I jumped at the chance to go try it out.

So we braved a 50 minute bus ride to get out to the casino and then found our way to the $25 buy-in ladies only single-table tournament.

I’m not sure what I was expecting. We walked into a fairly large poker room filled with mostly men. What little women were there were almost all exclusively there for the ladies night – and that was just barely enough to fill the one, single-table tournament.

I didn’t think there would be a ton of women there, but definitely thought there would be enough to fill more than one table. But it is another affirmation of the fact that poker is still heavily a man’s sport, though women are slowly proving their talents in the game.

These ladies were certainly proof that women have what it takes. I felt a bit like an impostor sitting at the table with these women when I had never had casino poker experience before. Most of them were older ladies that you’d expect to be sitting home alone playing Solitaire, or if they were more social, perhaps Bridge. Looks were definitely deceiving though as they worked the table and raked in chips like pros. The lady to my right was even throwing out the lingo – game terms that I knew as well but didn’t have the confidence to use myself.

She was challenging players she thought were just “playing their position” and managed to take out the table bully who was using her chip stack to take whatever pot she wanted for a while even when we all knew she was chasing mediocre hands. She was even making comments about pot odds and trying to getting her cards in while they were good.

These ladies were serious players, and I don’t think there should be any doubt that women can be just as aggressive and wily when it comes to playing poker.

I felt a bit like an amateur in their midst as I tried to take into consideration all the poker knowledge I’ve accumulated through my job. It’s incredibly hard to put it all into practice though. I played my cards well when I had them. I only had one hand, a big slick – ace-king for those of you not in the loop – that I felt I played badly. I chased that sucker right down to the end even though I knew I should have laid it down after seeing the flop.

Other than that, I was playing tight and did alright. I wasn’t the first one out, managing to outlast three other players to go out in seventh. My coworker was the one to take me out when I decided to get the last of what I had in with ace-queen. I was short-stacked and pushed all-in with the best hand I possibly could before being blinded out.

Unfortunately I didn’t catch anything on the flop and ended up out. (See, I can throw the lingo around with the best of them.)

At least my coworker used my chips wisely and ended up lasting until fourth place, just outside the money since it only paid first through third places.

All-in-all though, we had a lot of fun and felt a lot more confident about playing after our night at the casino. I may not have flopped “the nuts” at the poker table, but I gained a new respect for those who intelligently play the game and have been able to practice enough to put all the elements into play as if it were second nature to them.

- Sarah L. Polson

Filed Under: Blog - Comments: Be the First to Comment

Tags: humor, poker

top