Poker Calculations From Abacus

The first time I played this game was August of last year, mere weeks after having returned from my year-long study abroad in Japan. In my earlier years, my family had often traveled to Vegas on vacation, with the children being delegated to the arcade of the MGM or the Gameworks on the strip. After one such vacation, I got my mother to promise me to take me back to Vegas after I turned 21 on my birthday, and having turned 21 while I was in Japan, August became the most practical compromise. I played all the traditional table games: Blackjack, Craps, Roulette...I even wasted $3 on a MegaMillions slot machine, and none of these games were as nearly as exciting as what was to come.

The night before we were to return, I realized that I had yet to play poker while I was there. I have a strong competitive spirit, and I was greatly intrigued by a game where one was playing against the other players, not the house. At around midnight, I meandered over to the Tropicana and sat down at a 1/2 table with the $200 I had won at craps. There were ups, downs, sets, rivered full houses, flush draws, people who tried to push me off hands when I had the nuts, me betting $20 on the river with a K-A-2-3-4 straight and bluffing my opponents off the hand(although I thought I was good!), and I had no idea what I was doing. I finished at 6:00AM with me stuck $200, but of all the time I spent in Vegas I had the most fun and adrenaline-pumping, heart-pounding moments at the poker table, and I fell in love with the game.

Since returning to Fort Worth I've played poker every chance I could, not the least insane and educational of which being Friday nights at Pettigrew Poker. Every time Scott calls my 4x big blind raise with Q-3 offsuit and flops 2 pair, or Jake reads me and folds to my value bet on the river, or Chuck bets me off a hand with 6 high, I realize I have so much more to learn about this game, and so many things I can improve upon. But every dog has his day, and the one time I got Jake to call $15 on the turn with the nuts is plenty incentive to keep on rollin'. I'll catch up someday!

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em!
-Eric