Poker Night #51: The Professor is Wrong

"You remind me of a professor of poker," a man said when he saw me at Club H2O Wednesday night. I think he was comparing me to poker pro Howard Lederer -- but I don't have the beard, much less the bankroll.

Now this was a poker tournament -- as 140 players crowded around tables, at what's probably the biggest poker night in Columbus. We lasted a long time. More than two hours, in fact. But we didn't win, finishing in a fairly respectable unofficial tie for 33rd.

Poker is played Tuesday and Wednesday nights at H2O. It's up a set of glassy dance-club style stairs, and free to play. There are NO extra chips for buying drinks, unlike some places we've visited. And with only $100 in chips to start and slow-rising blinds, conservative play is somewhat encouraged. (But that didn't stop one player from going all-in on the first hand at our table, and seeing his three 10's lose to a full house.)

We gained a few pots, which were more timely than huge. In one case, we had a queen high vs. A-A -- but the board gave us an ace-high straight, which beat his three aces. In another case, we went all in with A-A and it held up.

The final straw came a couple of hands after that man called us a professor. With the blinds at 20/40, a man ahead of us went all-in with $75. We had K-Q of spades, had only $80 left, and decided to go all-in as well. But a third player who stayed in took the pot with a pair of 7's, when the board didn't pair anything we had.

This tournament seemed more like Las Vegas than any we've experienced. The table and seat assignments were determined randomly by a computer, among the 140 players. Yet after a couple of table combinations, we wound up with last Wednesday's top two players at either side of us.

H2O pays well, which may explain the crowd. First place wins $175. Second is $75, and third is $25. And by the way, sodas only cost ONE dollar -- half-price, compared to other places with poker.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We took our silver "Jesus as your Savior" coin for a card protector again. "Do you agree with that message?" we asked a man sitting next to us while we waited for play to begin. Thankfully, he did. A second player read it later in the evening, and didn't really have a response to it.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 21 final tables in 51 nights (41.2%) - 6 cashes.

OK, here's the spin on that. If we had played at Lil Kim's Cove (which we won't Thursday night due to other commitments) with a tournament about 1/4 the size of H2O, a 33rd-place tie whittles down to about ninth -- and we're fighting for a seat at the final table.

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $9,607 - up $45.

There's spin for that, too. The total should be about $9,800, as we won five hands in a row Monday to gain $196. But Yahoo never recorded our gain! So much for trusting in Yahoo finance....