Last night I went over to the Loafing Leprechaun to play in a free Texas Hold ’em tournament. This was my first time playing with humans who weren’t related to me, so I was quite excited. I’ve only been playing for a few months, mostly online, and I think I did pretty well.

The first table I was at was quite friendly. I won two pots at that table, totaling around $400 (play-money). After a while, the host broke our table and redistributed us to other tables that had vacancies. This new table was not as friendly. Everyone there seemed to know each other, and they mostly just talked among themselves. I’m not complaining about it, but it did make the table feel less inviting. And they all had sailors’ mouths, dropping F-bomb’s right and left. There was one girl there who was the worst. And three of them smoked, which was just disgusting. The first table was in a protected area, so there was very little smoke. At this table, I couldn’t get away from it. Nasty, vile, blech.

Anyway, at this table I kept getting garbage hands, so I wasn’t seeing much action. I did play one or two, losing them, but for the most part I kept folding. Finally, with the blinds at $200/$400, me the Big Blind and down to my last $400, I had to play what I was dealt: Queen-Four. Not good. Everyone folded except the small blind and since I was already all-in, we showed our hands. She had Ace-Jack; not good for me. The flop showed another Jack, which was worse for me. I don’t remember what came on the turn but it didn’t help either of us. On to Fifth Street and what should drop, but a Queen, giving me top pair. I was very excited, because I was still alive. I folded the next couple of hands, and then bet it pocket 9’s. The one guy who called went all-in, and I had to call. He beat me with trip Jacks.

I lasted for 2.5 hours, which was actually better than I expected. It was great fun, and I will be back.