You Better Know When to Hold 'Em

On the weekend, I went to the casino. I played blackjack and won $25. Feeling that blackjack had become a bit too easy, I wanted another challenge.

I wanted to try my luck at poker, having seen it on TV all the time. Looked easy enough. Bet some money. Either win or lose. So I put my name on a waiting list to play poker. Half an hour later, my name was called, and I sat down to play $1-2 blind no-limit Texas Hold 'Em.

As someone in Rounders said, "If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker." Good thing I spotted the sucker in a second.

Problem was, I was the sucker.

I was in way over my head. There was the typical greasy-haired dude, shuffling hundreds of dollars of chips while looking all beady-eyed, scrutinizing all the players. Other people bet $50 or $100 without a second thought. Immediately realizing that I was fresh meat, the old lady next to me gave me advice, though I was too fresh to put it to any good use. The one thing that stuck out was that I was playing at the wrong table for someone with no experience.

Everything went really quickly, and I didn't have time to process anything happening at the table, except my fear of screwing up. I folded most of my hands without a bet. Every time I put money into the pot, I folded whenever another player raised.

In the end, feeling like raw meat in a sea of starving sharks, I got up and left the table.

I lost a humbling $10 in an hour of poker. I still ended up winning $12 overall at the casino, although I felt like I had lost.