Well, as a fairly new poker and tournament player, I set out to level the poker field. While continuing to play at my local casino, I decided to invest some time reading a few books on poker. One was exceptional! 

Books? How on earth are they going to help, someone might ask! What I needed was more table time and actual experience, not books. And that’s the advice all the losers would give me. I didn’t figure I’d learn anything from other players making the same mistakes I’m making, so I sent for the doctor of deals, the collector of chips, the creator of champions, Mr. Roy West. He exhorts true down-to-earth poker wisdom in words that even I can understand. His 42 Lessons book should be called Poker for Dummies, as I found out how creatively stupid I had been at the stud table. 

Roy put it in perspective real quick and hammered it home with reminders about discipline, live cards, best starting hand, best drawing hand, and proper pot odds. I read, I reread, I studied, I played. I read, reread, and I studied again. I also continued to play, modifying my style to blend in what I learned from the book. Bingo, I started to see more winning sessions instantly. Small ones at first, then a large one here and there. Oh sure, I lost an occasional session, but it seemed to be only small amounts, and after checking my monthly log, sure enough, I was several grand up from my previous months play. 

I’d say the biggest change was the amount of money I was not throwing away, while picking up an occasional ante to offset the rake. Believe me, he’s right! A chip here, a chip there and soon you have another stack to count. 

I used some of Roy’s advice to win last month’s tournament at San Manuel Casino in San Bernardino, California. Was it a fluke, or did I really break the code to playing winning poker. I was as skeptical as you. So when this month’s tourney came around, I was pumped and ready for action. 

Let me first tell you that I never had any cards of note all day. No trips, no two pair, no straights and only one gift flush. I did have pocket aces twice in the entire three hour tournament, and that was the highest hand I held, including the one time I went all in during the late stages, when I again held those sometimes dreaded bullets. 

At the $800-$1600 level, my opponent opened with a queen of clubs up and I showed a 3 of diamonds. I figured he was stealing the ante, because my stack was low. So with the power of the aces, I fired back a raise, and went all in. He stopped for a moment, looked over his chip count and decided to bust me out. At stake was a trip to the final table and cash money. He did in fact have another queen and a 5 underneath; the suits didn’t match or matter. I then turned over my aces for the heads up play. My two black aces staring him in the face as the small crowd of on-lookers whispered and called out subsequent cards as they hit the table. He caught nothing for three cards and I caught three non-connecting hearts. His sixth card was a 5 giving him queens up and I caught the 3 of hearts. I desperately needed to pair anything and still hope he didn’t catch more help. Odds were still with me as I had four times the outs as he did. 

On the river came a blank for him and a ten for me. I didn’t pair, however the ten was another heart, five straight hearts to follow the pocket aces. Game, set, and match! Flush it was, push the chips… 

I now knew I had enough chips to survive the antes for several hands, and I was again headed to the final table. It wasn’t a fluke after all!