WPT

Community: K 10 9 8 2 (No more than 2 cards are the same suit)
Me: 7 3 suited
Victim... er, friend: 6 5 suited
Pot Size: Both all in (both hoping for the straight and/or flush I guess)

Wow. That was fun. Too bad the next three or four hands in a row involved me getting stuff like 2 7 not suited, but it was fun to win an all in on what was so close to being a split pot. It's been a few months now that the world poker tour has been the big lunchtime talk at work. There was a while that the noon hour card players were playing "screw your neighbor", and whenever we got to the 2 card round, you'd hear a chorus of either "fold", "check", or "all in".

I mean they even have official WPT kits that include chips, cards, and a handy carrying case. It even has a special chip marked "Dealer" so you know who the dealer is. Unless you have more money than you can possibly spend, I can't justify buying this kit. The chips and cards can be bought inexpensively just about anywhere, so as long as you can deal with your cards not having the words "World Poker Tour" on the back, you'll save a heck of a lot of money. The carry case is not exactly exciting, and I'm sure there are many other ways to keep track of who the dealer is without requiring one person to hold on to the "Dealer" chip.

It's definitely an interesting show to watch on Sunday afternoons, but I find I can only watch for so long before apathy kicks in. The most infuriating part is watching someone completely fool his/her opponent into commiting a lot of chips with a weak hand, then losing to the sucker because of sheer fluke. I saw one hand that came out like:
Community: 2 8 8 J
Player 1: A A
Player 2: 4 4

P1 suckers P2 into going all in, and the river is a 4. The worst part is that one of the other players had a 4 and nobody else had an ace. P2 had less than a 5% chance of winning and got insanely lucky. I felt bad for P1 because he lost shortly after, but felt a sense of vindication when P2 got knocked out next. But then again, I guess if you had a sure thing, it wouldn't be called gambling.

So far, the only problem I have with 1 on 1 is that if you have a great hand and your opponent has crap, you often can't take advantage of it. Goading the opponent into commiting more chips only works if they have a good hand and you have an even better hand and you play it just right. When they have crap and they fold at any sign of you not also having crap, it's tough. When you have lots of opponents and you get a great hand, there's a better chance that at least one of them will play you. Also, when you have lots of opponents, you get to fold for free a bunch of times. In 1 on 1, you're either the small blind or the big blind, so you're out chips every hand unless you win the pot.

All in all, I'm not much of a poker player. I think I ended up going bankrupt 4 times to my opponent's 2. I find the game fun to play in moderation, but strangely entertaining on television. Maybe I'll just watch the pros and see what happens.