I played mostly online at first, cashing out at Bodog.com during my freshman year of college with a whopping $350.00 check (after a initial deposit of 20 dollars). I was a driven tourney player, grinding lower stake sit n' go's for hours at a time. After the initial cashout, I went on to play at Full Tilt poker and Pokerstars to participate in more action, hopefully with more donkeys eager to give me their money.
It was a little after this time I also decided to play some live games, playing outside of my broken down college bankroll. I would save up some 100 dollars and then go to the local game in Newton with my fellow poker playing pal Anthony. I ran terrible at Newton, so I decided to hang up the boots for a while and focus my interests elsewhere - hopefully somewhere I wouldn't lose large sums of money.
Well, on Sunday I got a call from Anthony, who also hadn't played poker in sometime, saying there was a $100 + 10 buyin tournament located in a sick apartment in Medford. I was initially reluctant, a $110.00 tourney after not practicing in a year? The odds weren't in my favor at all.
However, I was kind of bored and I can actually afford it so against my better judgement I took Anthony up on his offer and decided that while I could light a hundred dollars on fire, let me make somebody else happy and give it to them instead. I packed up my sweatshirt, blackberry, and hopefully my best poker game to head over to the area of interest.
The poker scene in Boston is surprisingly great for being underground and illegal. Although our main area of action in Newton was shut down, they essentially packed up and moved to Brighton, where games run every night of the week. The same people hosting that game also hosted this tournament, which is where our tale begins.
We found the apartment complex after a brief search. Initially, we wondered if we were in the right place, but we quickly spotted a riced out Honda being parked and its driver emerging with full poker uniform: flat brimmed hat adorning the Celtics logo, ipod headphones, trendy hoodie sweatshirt, latest Nike shoes sporting a rainbow of colors. Yeah, we were in the right place.
A pleasant asian man with a lisp met us at the door, we all shook hands and he introduced himself as Tsang, one of the dealers for tonight. He guided us up to the 8th floor and through the apartment doors, revealing one hell of a poker suite.
Our eyes were met with a apartment full of poker degens, waiting around for the tournament to start. Waiting around for poker players usually means starting prop bets over ridiculous things, laying money on the college basketball game that night, or even involve themselves with intense chessmatches (played on the biggest chess table I've seen). We walked up to the money taker and paid our entrance fee, resulting in a baggie full of chips, myriad in color. Now we just have to wait.
There were three tables set up, all filled to capacity: 10 players to a table. I looked around my table and I can already spot the gamblers: One enormous, sun-glasses clad guy they called Harry, a Jewish looking man with glasses similar to mine and a drink in one hand, and a skinny version of the enormous Harry also adorning sunglasses. Sitting to my right I had the pleasure/displeasure of Justin.
Justin is probably one of the more solid poker players I know. I first met him through Anthony back in Newton and out of everyone in this tournament I probably give him the most respect in poker playing ability. However, he's a great guy, hence the duality of having a great guy/great poker playing sitting directly to my left.
Anyways, the first few rounds of the tournament were underway and I was practically card dead for a couple hands. I intended on playing tight aggressive for the most part of the tourney and seeing how the cards came, so it didn't really bother me. The first hand I was involved in I had A - Q in early position. I raised it up and got one caller, the jewish looking fellow mentioned before. Ace on the flop, rest blanks. I checked it over to him to try and play it slow and he bet out. Fair enough, I called and saw the turn. The turn was also a blank and I decided to bet out to see how he would respond. He ended up calling and we saw the river. At this point, I was content on keeping the pot small, especially after having Ace Queen out of position. However, if I checked, he could make all kinds of move behind me which would give me such a headache. I decided to check and surprisingly he checked behind, flipping over A- K for the pot. I tapped the table and there went half my stack in half an hour.
Thankfully, I won it all back a few hands later. I had KingQueen of hearts in early position and got one caller after a preflop raise. The flop came down with two hearts and I was happy with that. I checked and he bet behind me. I decided to play this slow so I just called and saw the turn. Fantastic, another heart. I had the nut flush right now and I checked the turn to keep it slow. He checked behind and the river came a blank. Knowing I was good, I put out a value bet and he called. Ship it to me.
At the first break I was about at the starting stack, so in decent position. However, now came the big pots.
My descriptions of the hands are now going to be more brief because of a couple of reasons:
1.) Only people who truly like poker will follow my hand descriptions anyways and
2.) I started drinking alot of beer
With that said, a few hands back from the break I saw a glorious hand. On the button, I peaked down at aces. Awesome. What made it even better though, was seeing enormous Harry, opening up with a raise. Ok, awesome again. But wait, oh no somebody in the next seat pushes all in over the top. What do I do here, I fake asked myself. I shove all in over the top and Harry waits a few minutes to think over what to do. He eventually throws his last chips in and flips over 88 and the other fellow QQ.
So, right now I'm ahead and thank god it holds up, I'm now chip leader.
One more orbital around the table and I'm back on the button. I peak down at KK. Wow, I'm a card rack tonight. "Yeah, but I bet you didn't get any action this time, Dan" you're saying. Well, I did and boom, next thing I know I win another all in. I hate this game.
So as the beers are being drank my luck apparently improves (thank you foxy waitress Nicole). I ended up getting value out of a couple other flushes and I'm doing great on chips. Next thing I know, I'm sitting center stage at the final table.
This is where the old jewish lady comes in. For the sake of naming her (even though her name is Mary), I start calling her Barbara Streisand. She bears more than just a resemblance to her, if she all of a sudden stood up and started singing "The Way We Were" I would have just shook my head and say I told you so. Anyways, her poker playing is not as good as her singing. And by "not as good", I mean god awful.
She comes over as short stack, just begging to be knocked out. She gets involved in a couple hands and she's eventually down to one black 500 chip. The blinds at this moment were 500/1000, so she had literally a chip and a chair. Well, god damnit if she didn't but she got four double ups and was soon in great position, with just one more person out before the money pays. Well, this sharp dressed man in a Gucci suit ends up bitting the bullet and taking bubble boy, sorry man. This means there were only 5 left (with 5 payouts).
Well, congrats Barbara you did it, you made money in poker. Now, please sit down and stop running around and yelling at the top of your lungs.
One more person is knocked out, and its down to four: me, barbara streisand, mr. Ukraine, and a cool guy whom I don't have any nicknames for just yet (how about Fonzi? Yeah, that will work). So, we're playing and they all bring up the idea of a four way chop (split all of the remaining prize money four ways). I'm not really a fan of the idea, but the three of them are talking rather excitedly because after doing the math, everyone would get roughly 700$ each for a equal chop. I don't feel that's fair because of my presence in chips at the moment, so I say I'll chop only if I get 800$. Mr. Ukraine throws a fit saying he doesn't think its fair so I tell him by all means, lets play it out.
Well, Fonzi said he's too cool for a little bit of extra money so he'll be glad to throw some money my way if we chop. Good enough for me, so we call the tournament and I now have 800$ from my first big live tournament. I am now up overrall in live playing, which is a great feeling.
I received my money (wow thats a lot of hundos) and we shook hands with everybody and left. Me, Anthony, and Mike decide to drink more so we ended up heading into Boston to have a small party at Anthony's girlfriends' place. More beer was drank and memory deteriorated so that's where I'll conclude the (lengthy) story for now.
TL;DR I actually won at poker.
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