Poker at the Palais

Hadn't been down to the Palais for poker night in weeks, perhaps months, so when the invite came from Muzz and Ando to go last night, how could I say no? The fact that Corey would be there for the first time only sweetened the deal.

We were planning on getting there early for dinner before the game, but some unfortunate tardiness from Ando and Devs meant it was after 7pm by the time we ended up registering. So we ordered our meals, but the waitress says "If we do them now, you'll probably get them before the game starts but you'll have to rush them down - do you want to wait till the first break?" Everyone agreed that this sounded like a good idea, and so I didn't really have a choice, even though I was crazy hungry.

So come 7.30 the game starts, and Murray, Ando, Cors and I all sit in a row on the same table. It's tempting to spread out so you don't knock each other out, but then that kind of takes the fun out of it. For the first fifteen minutes of so I mainly got rubbish cards, so focussed on catching up with Corey. I started to get hands a bit then, and cleaned up a few times without having to show my cards after getting Ace-rubbish.

I spent most of the first session dreaming of my chicken schnitzel in dianne gravy. I've never been so hungry playing cards before, or as relieved when the first break finally came.

During the second session we got split up and I ended up on a table alone. The blinds were starting to knock me out, so down to 1,200 chips I went all in and doubled up. As the final break approached I realised that the rest of the guys were all out of the comp, so decided that I was either going to go out in a blaze of glory on that hand, or come back from the break with a whole lot of chips. I went all in with King - Six, and had a few people call. Despite hitting a six on the flop I was still down until a third six came up on the river, and I cleaned up.

During the break I tried not to get too far ahead of myself. Murray told me there was $500 prize money for first place tonight, and I tried to resist fantasizing about what I'd spend the money on. I was getting advice all over the place - generally the consensus seemed to be play your game, play smart hands, don't try and get too agressive.

When we came back from the break I had about 11,000 chips, which probably put me up in the top 10 of remaining players, maybe higher. As the blinds climbed though, I started to lose . . . I saw two all ins against pocket pairs where I had two overcards and lost the race both times. Down to 2,200, I finally went all in with Jack - Queen suited. Was still in it till the river with an open ended straight draw, but didn't come off. Think I finished about 16th out of 70-odd players in the end, and avoided making any really boneheaded decisions all night, so I can't complain.

A few final thoughts:

It was great to spend the night just hanging with Corey, Murray and Ando. I realised then how infrequently we do that, just the guys.
Some of the players at my table were recounting the game they played in last night, which is held at an Adelaide strip club. I've never been to a strip club, but I would imagine it is not the kind of environment that is condusive to playing cards . . . or concentrating in general.
Some of the guys at my table needed to spend a little less time playing poker, a little more time showering.
There was an older guy there who Murray reckoned looked like Alan Kloot (an older South African guy who goes to our church). Murray explained to the guy who Alan was, and then called him Alan Kloot all night (using both names). Amazingly, the guy didn't seem to really care.