My 2001 Texas Hold 'Em debut was in a Native American casino in the middle of Iowa. It was a miserable experience but strangely memorable at the same time.
I was always a gambler but usually played high-risk games such as craps and roulette. My standard casino trip consisted of $200 in gambling money, with hopes that I could parlay that into four hours of fun and hopefully walk out even.
The poker room was a bustling pace. Texas Hold 'Em, was in the infant stages of its recent popularity, but there were at least 10 full tables going strong.
I walked over to the poker room manager and told him that I wanted to play Texas Hold 'Em.
"Sure," he said. "Why don't you take that open seat over there on table seven?"
He then asked how much I wanted in chips. I told him $100, and he handed me a rack of white, $1 chips.
The seat on table seven was on the corner (later poker education labels it as No. 8), and I immediately found it odd that everybody at the table had a minimum of triple the chips I had in front of me.
At first I thought, "Wow, these guys must have been winning big."
Prelude to a lesson learned.
The dealer asked if I wanted to post on the next hand. I had no idea what that meant, so I agreed.
I threw $1 into the pot to start the hand, figuring that was the required ante. The dealer then instructed me to put in $3 more. Two other players were putting money on the table, so I discovered there were no antes and the money being put on the table was referred to as "blinds."
Lesson learned.
I was dealt A-Q on my opening hand, a pretty good holding. There were two raises in front of me, and the dealer told me it was $8 to call. I said I wanted to raise it up, and I slid out $25 in chips.
"You can't do that," the dealer said. "You can only go to $16."
I was in a $4-$8 limit game. It wasn't no-limit.
Lesson learned.
The two raisers called my $16, and the flop didn't pair my ace or queen. "I'm playing poker," I thought, "so let's run a bluff."
There was a bet into me, I raised it to $8, and I believe both players called.
I don't remember the turn card, but I tried to bet out $4 and again was told by the dealer I needed $4 more. I had no idea the betting stakes on the turn and river doubled.
Lesson learned.
Additional betting and calling continued on the river, and I sat there with nothing more than ace-high, a loser. I was left with about $15 and had to signal the floor man for another $100 in chips.
Those lasted me about 30 additional minutes, and Day1 of my live poker career had me down $200 with a single dragged pot in my favor — a continuation bet on a rag flop with A-K.
It was an embarrassing Hold 'Em debut but one that I will never forget.
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