A Chip and a Chair
Recently my focus has shifted away from the company and more towards exploring some personal interests (more on that in a later post)… I’ve been exercising, doing some chores around the house, and watching the NBA playoffs like a fiend.
I’ve also started to play poker again and am even planning a three-week trip to Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker to get in on some of the action!
Anyway, a few weeks ago I played in a low buy-in game with some friends and ran into a situation that I thought would make for a good blog post. I won't bore you with the details, but I found myself in a situation where I had **300 chips**, down from the original starting stack of 12,250 chips. We were 5-handed and the blinds were big enough that the *small* blind was enough to put me all-in. I hadn't lost the majority of my chips due to bad play, but rather due to getting unlucky in a pivotal situation. Still, I didn't lose hope, as I've played poker long enough to realize that anything can happen. The first hand I got with my extremely short stack was a very poor hand, something like 6-3 offsuit. It was a tough situation, because the next hand would force me all-in since I would be in the big blind. Eventually, I opted to fold as the odds were in my favor to get a better hand on the next deal. Note that I'm not saying I folded and decided to "leave it to chance" that I would get a *good* hand next; rather, I'm saying that statistically, I'm favored to get a *better* hand than 6-3 offsuit to go all-in with, which made the fold an obvious decision. Just another example that even in decisions as seemingly trivial as this, and with as much of a luck factor as I needed at that point in the tournament, there was still room for skill and application of poker knowledge. As luck would have it, I did get a better hand and was able to triple-up on the next hand. Then, I doubled-up. After that, despite still having one of the shortest stacks, I was able to take advantage of my opponents' preflop tendancies to chip up and get back into the tournament, and eventually to win the whole thing (all **98,000 chips**). The whole experience reminded me of the old saying ["All you need is a Chip and a Chair"] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Straus#1982_WSOP_Main_Event.2C_.22A_Chip_and_a_Chair.22). Just another life lesson simplified in the form of a game: You're not out 'til all the chips are gone :)