Flopped the Nut Straight

If you can't spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table, then you are the sucker.

42 people entered. One emerged victorious. A cash prize plus a designated amount going to the charity of the winner's choice. But most importantly, bragging rights. The thrill of competition and the exhiliration of winning hand after hand after hand, watching everyone else bow out before you.

Last night, I won a poker tournament. I'm as shocked as you are, especially those of you who have seen me play poker. Amanda's USC business school class organized a tournament that I entered, $20 buy-in for $1,000 in chips. Blinds started $10-$20 and increased each round. After the 5th round, you could add-on $2,000 more in chips for another $20 cash. Then it was off to the races.

I was absolutely on fire last night. It was ridiculous. For the first 7 rounds, I was at the same table, with a pretty comfortable chip lead there, but then, as people started busting out, we had to shuffle around a bit to keep the tables balanced, so our table got redistributed among the other tables. I got sent to the table where the reigning champ from the last tournament was sitting (and he was GOOD), as well as one of his best friends, who both had enormous chip stacks in front of them and were very loud about being in each other's faces all night, back and forth on monster pots. I thought I was going to get caught in the crossfire and be done.

I picked up a couple of modest pots there, then something bad happened. Taiki, the champ, sitting to my left (thank God he wasn't sitting to my right), starts making ridiculously large, by-the-book style bets at a seemingly random flop. Everybody else folds, and I think he's bluffing, big time, so I keep calling him, and at one point, I reraised him. I had ace high. He turns over the straight that he hit on the flop (the Nut Straight, incidentally) and takes over 3/4 of my stack. I'm finished. It was a good run, I'm telling myself, and I'm proud of myself for playing well and lasting as long as I did. Two hands later, down to $800, I go all-in and triple-up on king-nine suited. Three hands later, I go all-in again with my $2400 and get three takers, and I quadruple-up to $9,600. All of a sudden I'm back in the game, and in a big way, b/c Victor, the loud archnemesis of Taiki, gets shuffled over to a new table, and I've suddenly got the second highest chip stack at the table. We go back and forth on small pots for awhile, and somehow, in another showdown with Taiki, I take down an absolute monster pot, giving me the chip lead at the table, as well as strike some fear into the hearts of the rest of the folks at my table. When I raise pre-flop on the next hand, Taiki folds and tells me "I can't go against you right now, Ben. I'm scared to death of you."

Now, everybody is just trying to tread water until we get down to the final 7, where we consolidate into one table and everybody gets some cash no matter what. We've got 4 left at our table, 5 at the other table, and we hear a huge roar at the other table, followed by chants of "Final Table, Final Table!!" Evidently, there was a big pot going, and 2 guys busted out on the bubble, leaving the 3 remaining to combine with our four.

Final Table. We do a quick chip count to see who's got the lead. I'm not thrilled to find that my $41,500 is in second place. I don't remember what Matt had, but he was in the lead. They also announce at this point the cash payouts for the top 7 finishers. 7th place gets $80. First place gets $556. Quite a jump there. A few people busted out in 7th - 4th place, and we're left with Matt (the chip-leader), Taiki (the reigning champ), and me.

At this point, I'm in third place with my chip stack. I go all-in with King-Queen off-suit into a monster pot against Taiki, my tournament life on the line, he has an ace in the hole and the flop comes Ace-Ten-Six. I got nothing. The turn comes with a Four. I'm finished. I stand up and start to reach over to shake his hand when the dealer says "Wait, a Jack can save you." I stand there, nervously, waiting for him to flip the river card over. Jack of Spades. My new favorite card in the deck. Monster pot. I'm back in this thing like a madman. Taiki's down to about $12,000 and busts out to Matt in third place. (Incidentally, with this, Matt added an extra $30 cash to his winnings, b/c they have a tradition where there is a $30 bounty on the reigning champ, and whoever busts him out wins it. I'll have to defend myself next time.)

Matt and I go back and forth on the blinds for awhile (which were up to $5,000-$10,000 at this point), until I chopped his legs out from under him on a post-flop reraise, which he quickly folded. Next hand he goes all-in with about $15,000 or so, and I call with King-Six of clubs just to see what he had. I think, he had Eight-Two. I hit a King on the turn and took the pot, the cash, and the title, and got to send $300 to Camp Dream Street. All told, it was an outrageously fun time. I know that next time I'm probably going to bust out obscenely early, but it'll still be worth it.

In the words of Mike McD, f*ck it, let's play some cards.