"First hand!" - Oliver Hudson at 2005 WSOP

For those of you who aren't familiar with the reference, here is the video clip to explain it.



Fortunately, my first hand was decidedly less spectacular. At a nine handed table I buy in for the default .80, sit down, and post my BB as does the highjack seat. So much dead money out there already, ripe for the picking. I pick up the powerhouse Tc5d4s7d which can flop a straight flush or one for four different quad possibilities. I'm already salivating over felting everyone else at the table for a first hand to 9x-up my stack. UTG folds, another fold, I check to slow play my potential monster. Behind me there's a call, fold, check, limp, call from the SB, and a final check from the BB. With the folds I am limited to a maximum of only a 5x-up but there is already .12 in the pot which would be good enough to get started. Flop comes 4c9s2h. Not quite as nutty as I was hoping for but I could still catch running fours or a running rainbow three, six to make the nut straight. Running tens, fives, or sevens likely good as well but I'll discount them for now. Both blinds check and I decide to check to let this thing develop a little more then the guy behind me bets .04! Followed by four more flat calls. Decision time. I have second pair moderate kicker getting 8:1 on a call. After some quick math I reluctantly decide that I am not getting the right price to continue and make the tough decision to release my hand. Though I feel I made the correct decision I have to see how the board played out. Turn is 6d, one of my perfect runners for the nut straight. Crap, did I misplay this thing? A .02 bet from the same lead better and calls all around would have almost given me the right price to call to catch my perfect river card. Alas, a Jc comes on 5th street and I can rest assured that not only did I make the right fold but I didn't even have to go on ROT tilt for the rest of the session. It checks all around and the cutoff takes down MY .40 pot with a measly top and bottom two pair. I feel like I could have repped a huge hand and bet pot on the end which no one could call but I'm playing it conservative. Maybe too conservative?

The first hand was a tough lesson for me. I realize that I'm not just going to have chips handed to me on a silver platter by people drawing dead. After the first hand I'm down .02 or 1/50 of a percent of my seed money. At this rate I'll never get my bankroll going in the correct direction.

There is only one course of action now...time to step up my game.