$10 lesson

Some companies know how to have fun. For example, DemandTech

Charles and John asked me if I wanted to play Poker. I said why not. So, Totof and I went to DemandTech after work. The company looked nice. We were brought to a conference room. Apparently, this Poker night is business as usual. How nice.

Unlike my previous Poker experience, this game was play-for-money. You needed to pay 10 to buy in. We had 7 people in the game. Most people were Charles and John's coworkers. They seemed nice and friendly. People were not aggressive. I liked it.

Small blind was 25 cents and big blind was 50 cents. People apparently were quite familiar with Poker. The girl on my left (Karen) and the girl on my right (Tara) played professionally. I was frightened. In the first round I got a King and a Jack. Not bad. People raised and I followed. I thought I had a good hand. Before the last was revealed, we saw the table had a Ten, a Queen, a Three, and a Six. Karen raised a lot. I called because I thought I would have the chance to have a straight. I did not win. I lost 2+ dollars in my first game.

After few rounds, my stack got low. I needed to be more careful. I got a pair of 10s. I was confident. Karen again. She raised 1 dollar at each turn. I called at each turn. The table so far had a Queen, a Nine, and 2 crappy cards. Karen raised 2 dollars. I was hesitant. Did she have a Queen? What if she had? She looked like she had something good. Should I put 2 dollars in the pot? Should I quit or should I stay? I quit. I was chickened out.

My stack got so low. Only 3 dollars left. Looked around. People except for John had high stack. I was losing. I clearly realized that my strategies were wrong. I used the same strategies I learned from play-for-fun Poker. Apparently, not every strategy worked at play-for-money Poker.

I did not revive myself. I wanted to observe people. It was fun to watch people and know their styles.

Siz (?) was quite calm. At some point Totof had a Spade flush but he did not realize that. Because he only paid attention on Jack (he had a pair of Jacks). He turned his hand face down when John claimed his victory. Siz asked Totof bluntly "don't you have a Spade?" He turned his hand face up and realized he WON. If Siz did not remind him of Spade, he would lose at least 4 dollars. Technically, he would not win that game. But, people were nice to him. So he got around 15 dollars back in this game.

Charles and John were funny. Totof and I did not know if Charles was bluffing. Charles liked to raise a lot at early turns then reduced or checked at later turns. This kind of raise would scare me away. But apparently not many people were scared away. Maybe because they were all familiar with Charles' style.

Charles and John had some bloody games. You could sense the atmosphere was violent. We sometimes were afraid if Charles went a bit over. But apparently this interaction was common between them two. We did not know how John felt exactly. But to us, the way he irritated John was amazing and entertaining.

In the end, beyond my expectation, Totof won. He got 35 dollars. We left and went to a Japanese place for dinner.

It was a nice Poker night. I used $10 in exchange of some strategies. A good $10 lesson.