Texas Hold Em

I played two days of Texas Hold Em when in Vegas. This is a game that I'd played for fun at home. I didn't expect to join up but there is a tournament where you pay $40 to enter and get to play until you win or the chips are gone. It seems like a good approach for me - protection on the down side being of utmost importance.

I played Friday Jan. 1 New Years Day at 10:00 am. You go to the stand and pay $40 and show ID. Then they give you a card to take. When you look at it, there is your position: Table 4 seat 7. This keeps you from sitting next to someone. Everything done to minimize cheating (more later).

So I sat down. The player to my left had come in from LA and had no hotel room for the night. He had stayed up all night!

The game was a mixed group of men, women, young, old, white, brown, yellow. You get 2 cards down and then a round of bets, then 3 cards up (the river), round of bets, 1 card up (the turn)and round of bets and 1 card up (the flop) and final bets. Bets get progressively higher. If you have a strong hand or just want to bluff you can go "All In".

I played for about an hour, winning 2 or 3 hands. You can also fold and minimize losses (seeing a pattern here?) It was like learning to ride a bike, both exciting and out of control (what am I doing?) I liked it though.

So I went back Saturday Jan. 2. This time it was $50 to play (weekend rate). After 15 minutes, I was done. So you can buy back in for another $50 which I did. That lasted another 45 minutes. I tried to "raise" but didn't put in enough. When they said I need to bet more I tried to fold. Bad move! That raised all sorts of negative attention. They must have thought I was trying to cheat! I bet the other chips and went All In. Gave it a shot - Lost!

I did have fun at it. It was a good game for me. I'll play again. But I'm not planning to put in the 10,000 hours to get good. Its Just for fun