From top to bottom

Aww, maaan! Can ya believe it?

Every Sunday in the park here, there is a flea market. I buy a plastic bread basket and a set of measuring blades (a kit with metal blades of varying thickness, from 0.1 mm to 1.0 mm). After that, I go into my office nearby and surf the net, and I also check into an online poker playing site.

I enter a multitable tournament, No Limit Texas Hold'Em, where the buy-in is $5 and playing fee $1. Not many entrants, only 101. Early on, I get 38 on hand as Big Blind and only have to check it. The flop comes 38K, so I have two pair and can go along with it. Someone raised to 200, I call. The turn is a three, I have full house... Someone bets 240, I raise to 720. On the river, I bet 800, one other player calls and I, who started with 1500 now have 4985. This puts me in the top ten, "in the money" (ten first places paid).

Careful play, I don't think I go any further than the flop for a long while, and with 66 players of 101 left, I'm in fifth place stack-wize. Then it suddenly goes downhill. I get AA as pocket cards but instead of playing aggressively, I only raise the minimum default, thinking I can wheedle more out of the cards. The flop comes 86T. One player goes all-in with his 1610 chips and I call that. Turn is a ten (I now have two pair, aces and tens, and feel moderately safe). River is a nine. But! The player who went all-in had a ten in his pocket, giving him three of a kind tens and I'm suddenly in 32nd place of 43. If I had gone all-in or bet a few thousand with those aces, I probably would have scared off that guy and at least raked in the blinds.

More bad plays, and the level of the blinds suddenly leave me with not much at all, and with 38 as big blind I have to go all-in post-flop (which was K38, giving me two pair threes and eights), which I win and I'm still alive. 3A in diamonds, I go all-in with the 600 chips I have and the board comes 7675A, meaning two pair aces and sevens. Still alive, but in last place (39 of 39).

A pair of nines in the pocket, I go all-in with 1440. It is called by two other players. If I get this, I can still have a shot. Nope. My two pair nines and fours lose against queens and fours and I'm out at 31st place.

From top to bottom in thirty minutes play. That's poker!