First things first: no, I didn’t place. I love tournaments, but this one was tough.

I’m visiting Las Vegas for four days on a work-related trip to NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), but had a little time for personal leisure on Saturday afternoon & Sunday morning, so I decided to play in a 9am Hold’Em tournament here in the poker room of the Excalibur hotel where I’m staying.

54 players, $35 buy-in with $25 going to the prize pool (not a bad house rake), but an absolutely brutal opening chip stack & blinds structure. Each player got $300 in tourney chips, and the blinds went up every 15 minutes. Get this: 5/10, 10/20, 25/50, 50/100, doubling every blind thereafter. Ouch. I’d rather see a few more hands before I have to go balls-to-the-wall, but that was the way the tourney was built.

I knew going in that I’d need to either get lucky and build my stack or push with some moderate hands to buy some pots or I’d be out early. A dozen or so hands in I pushed with and after some bullying from a loose player post-flop (with on the table), I ended up all-in. He showed and my kicker held up, so I doubled up to $600. Toward the end of the 25/50 level I hadn’t won another hand and was down around $525 and got my favorite hand: , and the flop brought a to leave me open-ended. I decided to be aggressive and push, so I bet $200 and got all but one player out. The turn was a brick and the flop was — I’d missed my open-end and had junk, so I went all-in turning my semi-bluff into a full-on bluff (which was only another $200). My error then was that I didn’t realize the player still in to my left was down to his last $150 and was pot-committed. He called in desperation with his and his lousy jacks took my pot, leaving me with only $150. If he’d had a bigger stack, with my aggression and two over-cards, I’m confident he would have folded.

What did I learn? Pay attention to your competitors’ stacks. Even a good player will call even if he’s convinced he’s beaten if he’s against a wall and pot-committed. Once I got down to heads-up with this other guy, if I’d been paying attention to his stack I would have checked it down and probably gotten little pressure from him with his middle pair.

A few hands later there was lots of action in the pot and I had and decided to give my paltry $150 the best chance of growing, so I went all-in and busted out #22.

All-and-all, and enjoyable hour of play, and a valuable lesson that will serve me well in the future.

I’m leaving tomorrow morning on a flight to Las Vegas on a work-related trip. It’s the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention I’ll be attending on behalf of the television station I work for.

It’s two good full days of work on the convention floor, meeting with vendors, learning all I can about new television products & technologies, and establishing/reinforcing relationships with representatives from companies I deal with in the course of my work.

But in the evenings, I’ll still be in Las Vegas, after all.

I’ve been invited to take part in the second annual Texas Hold’em tournament held by one of our vendors, DecisionMark. It’s a 100-player tournament, and all 100 seats are pre-paid ($100) by the host of the tournament. So the players really have nothing to lose.

I played in the tournament last year and finished 13th overall (the top 10 were paid out), and I’m looking forward to getting a second shot at it this year. I’ve got another year’s play & experience under my belt, have fine-tuned my play quite a bit, and am cautiously optimistic about my chances to make it to the final table this year.

The game is this coming Tuesday, April 25th at 8:30pm, so I’ll be sure to post the results after the last hand is played.

It’s a strange inaugural post to my poker stuff section, but last night was an aggravating night.

Played at my friend RJ’s house last night (standard $20+$1 game), and having come off of a pretty good streak of decent luck and smart play, I felt pretty good going in.

But smart play just doesn’t cut it when your reads are off and every good hand you get is trumped by an even better made hand (not even a draw).

I was first out, having been crippled by two hands, and then blown out on a third.

I was down to about half stack when I got on the button and raised pre-flop. Two callers, and an ace on the flop. I checked, one player bet, second folded, and I re-raised all-in. He thought a good long time, finally called and turned over . No hope for any flushes, so we split up the small blind and the one other caller’s bet. Waste of a good hand with good play.

Then a few hands later I had in mid-position and just called. Flop came and after folds I had inherited the button and last position. Only two in by now, and the pre-flop raiser put in a medium bet, which I called. The turn was a brick and he went all-in. I thought for a good long time. Could he have the other five? He wouldn’t have raised pre-flop with 5-junk, but maybe with , which was my biggest fear. I had two pair with kicker, and I felt like my hand was best, so I called. Turned out he had and the river didn’t help. Now I’m down to about 1/4 stack.

Two hands later, I get under the gun. I triple the BB and get one caller, flop has an ace and my opponent checks, so I bet into it to represent an ace. Quick call. Turn is a jack & he bets, I call hoping he hit the jack. River is junk and he bets about 1/2 the pot, I go all in (which was a call plus a remaining 500 or so), and I run into that damn — the very hand I lost on, but it gave him top two pair.

Maybe I was just on tilt, but my read was way off. That took me out first and sent me home. Luckily I got on Full Tilt and won back my losses later in the evening, but that only helps my bankroll, not my pride. I can’t remember the last time I was first out in a live game — maybe never.

And don’t plan on doing it again.