XMF Relentless: Jeff Hwang's Offical Website
Investment Writer/Analyst and Contributor to The Motley Fool/Fool.com
Semi-Professional Poker Player and Columnist for Card Player Magazine
Author of Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy and
Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play
Jeff Hwang on Investing, Casinos, and Pot-Limit Omaha Poker
Hooters Girl: Is
that a Powerball in your pants, or are you just excited to see me?
So I was in Tunica last week for the Southern Gaming Summit, an industry
conference and expo held at the Tunica Arena & Expo Center this year
(usually it is held in Biloxi). There were some great promotions -- WMS
Industries gave away little Powerballs promoting their slot machine,
Anheuser-Busch had a free beer stand, and the guys at the Pepsi booth loaded me
up with Mountain Dew MDX.
Another group offered free Hooters lunch with Hooters girls up in its skybox.
And then there was Lightning Poker, a group that makes an electronic,
fully-automated poker table with ten touchpad LCDs for the players and a
45" LCD screen in the center for the community cards. Lightning Poker held
a couple of tournaments, giving away two custom iPod Nanos, one on Thursday and
another on Friday.
The format of the tournmaent was a ten-player cash game. The blinds are $2/$4
and everybody starts with $2000. Whoever has the most money at the end of 30
minutes wins the iPod. Basically, the goal is to get half of the money on the
table.
On Thursday, I got off to a late start and ended up in second place. But on
Friday, I came back, armed with my lucky Powerball, a bottle of MDX, and a new
strategy.
Victory!
What I was really looking for was a good hand to gamble with so I could try to
get ahead early. I settled for the As7s.
I limped in with the As7s in middle position after three limpers, and the guy
behind me raised to $55. About seven players took the flop.
The flop came Qs-Jc-5s, giving me the nut flush draw -- perfect. An early
player bet $50, I raised to $300, a guy behind me re-raised to $700 and two
players called. I re-raised all-in and all three players called.
The turn was the 8h. The first guy checked, and I found that I still had $300
left (I misunderstood how to re-raise all-in -- there isn't actually an
"all-in" function in the program yet, so I had underbet). I put it in
and everybody called.
The river was the 2s, giving me the flush and over $8000 in chips.
A round later, I had the AA in the cutoff seat. I announced my hand. A player
limped, the guy in front of me limped, and I raised to $150. The small blind
($3200) called, and the player in front of me called ($900).
The flop came Jc-3s-2c. Both players checked, I bet $1000 and both players
called, the one to my right all-in.
The turn was the Qs. The small blind now bet his last $2000 or so. I wasn't
really sure what that meant. But I called, figuring even if I was behind two
pair I could have as many as eight outs.
The river was the Jd and apparently my hand was good, so whatever.
I had over $12,000 chips (over 60% of the table) with 12 minutes to play. I
ended up getting heads up, but folded every hand (even top two pair) and took
home the iPod Nano.
