Qualifying for the Big Boys Toy Show poker tournament is easy. Winning it is not.

To qualify all I had to do was outlast 65 out of 80 poker players in one session of poker. Playing tight, folding almost every hand and only playing premium cards will generally do the trick. That’s how I got in.

There were only about 200 poker players in the tournament. I figured my odds were pretty good. I am a decent poker player. On a good day I can outlast all of these people.

I have played in a bigger poker tournament before. Recall the Park City Poker Round Up when I finished 25th out of 1600 players to qualify for the main event. That was a feat and I did it. I felt sure I could manage to beat out 200 people.

Confidence only goes so far. I got knocked out after three long hours of play. I’m glad I don’t make a living as a psychic or fortune teller because I suck at it. I would have hundreds of pissed off customers.

What happened? Break happened. I was short-stacked at my table before break but I managed to survive a couple of all ins and double up. On the last hand I was involved in before break, I totally lucked out. Two spades on the board, I’m first to act, we check around to the fourth and last guy. He bets $1000. I’ve only got $1100 left. I calculate my odds:

I have two spades in the hole. I could either fold or I might as well be all in. I figured if I was going to get knocked out, it might as well be now so I don’t have to come back after break.

I raise all in (which isn’t really that intimidating considering he only needs to put in $100 more). The two guys after me fold. The raiser puts in another $100 and we roll up our cards. I laughed because of how ridiculous I was. I was all in fishing. Spade came on the turn to give me the flush and the win. Another spade came on the river but I only needed one. The other guy had no spades. So that doubled me up and extended my tournament life some.

At this point I had managed to outlast Jonathan’s dad (I think he was the first one out), Jonathan, Becca and Dill. During break I decided to hang out with Brian, Becca and Dill. We enjoy funnel cakes and sodas. I was actually late returning to the poker tournament. I guess I didn’t hear them call us back in.

I was a little flustered when I returned. They’d only dealt a couple of hands so I’d only been mucked twice but I hate being late to anything. My first hand back I get dealt Ad Qd. I’m first to act right after the big blind.

This is where I make a fatal mistake. I didn’t have to get involved. I could have folded and waited another hand but I figured I would be big blind next hand. I wanted to play this one. With me, however, it’s either raise or fold. At this stage, I did not want to fuck around.

So I go all in for $7000. Everyone else folds. Star, who is in the small blind position, thinks about it for a moment and also folds. Big blind only has $1000 more so he is all in for $3000. I take $4000 back and roll my cards up. He doesn’t roll up his because he never looked. He is all in blind — a bad sign for me because when people go in blind luck is usually on their side.

Flop comes K, Q, crap. I figured I hit my Q so I’m in good shape. The rest of the cards were crap. The big blind rolls up his first card. It’s an ace. So far so good. He rolls up his second card which is a king. Arrrggh! It was not what I wanted to see. The guy was on life support and I just doubled him up! Now I’m on life support! How quickly the tables turn.

Incidentally, Star was really fuming on this hand because she folded K Q and would have taken both me and the big blind out had she called. She had my $7000 covered at the time. She didn’t call though, luckily for me.

Anyway, the next hand comes. I’m big blind now. Everyone folds. Bully across from me raises to $5000 total which would put me all in. The rest of the folks fold including the small blind. I had crap and could not call. So there goes $2000.

Now I am small blind. I get crap once again and have to fold. So now I’m down to my last chip. But I know that now that the blinds have passed me I can just keep folding. I just need to stick around a little bit longer. As they say, a chip and a chair is all you need right? It works for someone people. Not for me, though. Usually when I’m down to my last chip it’s not too long before I’m completely knocked out of the game. I’m not a comeback kid.

So I fold a couple of hands and let the others duke it out. Brian and the Dills show up to cheer me on and I hold up my last chip. They are surprised because only a couple of minutes before I had $7000. I save the story telling for later because I know that I will be out there with them soon enough.

As the dealer begins dealing the cards Dill yells, “Go all in! Don’t even look.” I yell back, “It’s going to be a while before I’m in the blinds again. I can just keep folding.” He persists. I look at my cards J J, as he shakes his head to tell me it’s not going to work if I look. I laughed and yelled to Dill, “You’re right! This is it!” I laugh as I put my last chip in the pot.

Only one person goes in with me, the guy to my right who I had doubled up earlier. We roll up our cards: my J J against his A Q. I was doing great after the flop but a Q came on the turn to knock me out. How ironic is that? I double him up and then he knocks me out shortly after?

But what was I to do? I got my most favorite hand. I had to go all in. I didn’t know he had over cards! =P

So that was the Big Boys Toy Show poker tournament experience for me in a nutshell. I’m just glad I got to play in it this year because I didn’t participate in it last year. There’s always next year. And I’ll be more prepared next time.