Charlestown and My First Live Game

Lance took me to my first live poker game a week or two in. I've played online for 7 or 8 years, so it came as a complete shock to me that, when I sat down at my first table and finally was ready to play my first hand (10-10), my hands were visibly shaking.

Keep in mind that I'm the same lady who has been known to jump out of moving vehicles, talk grown men into drinks at strip clubs, and who makes her own swords. I don't scare easily. That moment at the table though was one of the more scary moments of my life.

It was the moment where I had my first poker realization: I wasn't anywhere near as good as I thought I was. Here's how the hand went.

I knew enough to play tight early on and had already folded a number of hands. I also knew to watch my table position and to not play weaker hands under the gun. Pocket 10s have always been my favorite hand, so I put my shaky hands in and raised pre-flop. I don't remember the amount since, at this point, I knew absolutely nothing about bet sizing. I got a call or two. The flop came down: 3 -4 - Q, or something along those lines. I bet into the pot way to much, expecting an easy pot steal. But, I hadn't been watching the caller enough to know that he wasn't the type to fold, particularly to a poorly-sized bet. He called.

The turn was an 8 or 9. At this point, since I hadn't been re-raised, I had the caller on a pair at best, and since there wasn't a re-raise, I didn't expect a Queen. I checked. I don't know why other than that I was scared and didn't want to have to count out any more chips.

The River was an Ace. I decided to bet into the Ace for no reason other than that I had no idea what I was doing but had too many chips in the pot. The caller flipped over an Ace, taking the pot with the higher pair.

My chip count went from $250 down to $70 or so.

That day I learned a couple of important lessons.

• I had no idea how to properly bet.





• I hadn't even begun to learn how to mentally track other players at the table and their playing history.





• Lance was too new to me to not be a distraction. I spent more time making goo-goo eyes at him than I did watching the table.





• I had a lot to learn.
  

After busting out and re-buying, I managed to hunker down enough to walk out with only a couple hundred dollars in losses which, for my first time playing live, could have gone much worse.

I felt like I'd just had the best poker lesson of my life and I was hooked.