My First Profit

A few days later I joined a couple other private poker groups. I didn't want to be stuck without some options for playing live if company or circumstances didn't work out. So, I looked for groups that were metro accessible.

We ended up going to a different $1/$2 group that night, one that Lance hadn't been to but that was run by someone who'd had a recent tournament win. He passed around his ring and everyone at the table swooned. I wasn't all that impressed but should have been.

This was a particularly weird group of people. There were a number of excellent players and a number of poor players. There were kids there who were still in high school. There were older veterans who reminded me of Sammy Farha. There were some people who I'm reasonably sure were members of the MS-13 gang. There were some drunks.

One man swaggered in, sat down at the table and said, "I'm so drunk I can't even see my cards." I thought this guy might be quite fun to play with. He also said shortly thereafter, "What's two plus two?" which was met with surprise from the other players who filled him in on it being the biggest and best poker forum online.

They pegged him for a donkey and he was. I'd asked that same question, though, just a weak prior, so if I was no longer a donkey, I'd only moved up the evolution ladder very recently.

I played a reasonably tight game but lost some chips early on to "fetus" (a very young player who didn't stay long). But, my bet sizing was very incorrect. It only worked well for me in instances where I really didn't want a call. On those hands where I did want a call, though, my odd betting drove everyone away. I wasn't making any money and busted out after a couple of hours. Lance spotted me a $200 rebuy which I planned on paying back as soon as we left..

I was still betting incorrectly but played much tighter than I had been. I learned which players to avoid (most of them) and focused on getting small pots from the drunks and the gang members. But, because my betting amounts were wrong, I folded out of a lot of pots, got called on a lot of weakish hands, and ultimately thinned my $200 in chips down to about $70.

The only correct thing I did all night was decide, at this point, that I needed to go all in with the next decent hand I had. I was dealt 5-5. Not a great hand, especially in early position with people left to act after me, but it was my best shot given my chip count. Drunky called, as did another player who was usually pretty tight. The tight player correctly put drunky all in. I hit a 5 on the flop, giving me the set. The Sammy Farhaish player (not in the hand), winked at me and knew I'd hit. Drunky had a strong Ace. The tight player had a pocket pair.

My set held up. I counted my chips and had a bit over $500, enough to give Lance back his loan, to cover my initial buy-in, and to give me a $50 or so profit. I had the common sense to leave at that point, which was fine with Lance who had made a killing that night and pointed out that it was 3:30am.

It was my first profit playing live and I was at least smart enough to know that I didn't really deserve it based on my bet sizing. But, I'll take it.

I also started reading the Harrington.