I went down to Lexington last night with Nathan and Daylan for a nice little $20 buy-in seven-way tournament. Blinds began 1-2 and we only had fifty chips to start, so I expected a jolly quick one. The structure was slow as molasses, however, since the blinds only increased when a player went out, and then only one chip additional for each blind level. In other words, the heads-up action at the end was going to be six from the non-dealer and seven from the dealer, which obviously is a pretty crappy deal for the non-dealer. It was a friend game, and they seemed like a great bunch of guys. Everybody got along fine. I think they were from the WPT generation, meaning they had only been playing for a couple of years, and eventually the money floated toward Nathan and me. Nathan got lucky on the river to make it heads-up between the two of us, and his stroke of luck (really only a 17-5 draw) gave him a commanding chip lead. By that time it was 11:30, and I was in trouble at the homestead for even being in this game, so I offered Nathan a deal, at 5 to 1 payout. I took fifty, ten over my forty that I had sewn up, and he took ninety. The chips were only 7 to 2 or maybe 4 to 1, but Nathan is pretty good heads-up, and I was going to have to invest a lot of time and still get pretty lucky to turn the tables. The big factor was the sleep that I figured to be buying, though a late night trip to Steak and Shake still made it a rough morning. Overall it was a great tournament. If there was a lesson to be learned for me, it was that I need to polish up my road game a little bit. With my home game I like to keep my buddies a little on edge with some mild intimidation. They know I’m fairly good, and I like to keep them a little nervous, so that I can bluff occasionally, and I can semi-bluff a lot. I have to remember to drop that bit in a brand new game, especially one where the host can just forget to invite the new guys that took everyone’s money. It was obvious that I had played a ridiculous amount of poker by the fact that I knew how many chips everyone had all the time, that I shuffled with a flourish, and that I dealt quickly and accurately. These are all things that I could just as easily not do, and make myself seem less of a shark. I also caught myself giving someone advice that I should never give to anyone. I told him, “There is no pre-flop hand good enough to slow-play.” The various implications of that one little thing define a major difference in philosophy, and I really had no business giving anyone any advice at all. Overall, I need to remember to try to seem like I am at the same level of experience as everyone else at the table, assuming I want to get invited back. Speaking of which, in two years or so, we should have a big “Twenty Years of Poker” celebration. Details to follow.