No Limit Hold Em: A Whole new game

I try to stay away from using my blog as a "Dear Diary" type of thing. I know that you're not interested in how my day at work was... or what woman currently has a tight hold of my heart, and possibly my testicles (that's a relationship joke, not a sex joke). But at times I like to share. And this is one of those days.

As all my readers know, I make monthly trips to Atlantic City to play poker. While I've been playing since I was young, I've only been doing it competitively for about a year now. There's a certain thrill about sitting down at a table with a lot of money. The cards you're dealt are at the mercy of Lady Luck. What separates the winners from the losers is how you play those cards. When you have good cards, can you maximize your winnings? When you have bad cards, can you minimize your losses? There's a lot more to it than that, of course. But you get the idea.

So let's get to why I'm writing about my adventure. I sat down at a "No Limit" table for the first time last night. Usually, I play $2-$4 Limit games. For those non-players, that means that in the first 2 rounds of betting, you can bet $2, and make raises of $2, with 3 raises per round. So in each of the first 2 rounds, you could have someone bet $2, then the next person raise to $4, then $6, then $8. At most, each player will have to put $8 in the pot. In the 3rd and 4th rounds of betting, the increments are $4, with 3 raises per round. So at most, each player puts in $16 per round.

But in a "No Limit" game, you can bet however much you want. Usually, before the flop, the raises would come up to $10 or $20... but I saw them go as high as $60. Over the course of the night, I saw one man win an $800 pot. My biggest pot was maybe $200. MY biggest loss in one round was $180.

I just wanted to give some perspective on how the games are very different. You have to learn to play the people, not the cards. It's a lot more fun... more exciting... more nerve racking. I loved it.

After all was said and done, I think I won $7 (I was up a lot at one point). That's not bad for 7 hours of playing, with a lot of drinks and dealer tips. Plus I don't drive or pay for gas/tolls. So on nights when I break even, I still feel like I won because I had so much fun.

I can't wait to go back. Who's goin with me?