Turkey Day Shootout at Bay 101

Mid-way through the second round of a 100-person, $100 buy-in no-limit tournament, a "regular" taunted me yelling, "His hands are shaking. Look at his shaking hands. Ohhhhh...." It was true. My hands were cold and shaky, revealing equally shaky nerves. I was playing in my first live tournament on Thanksgiving morning at famed Bay 101 in San Jose. My brother, who brought me here, was playing at another table. Beforehand, he'd warned me that this particular card room is home to very aggressive and solid players. Until now, I'd played almost exclusively online, where it is easy to remain anonymous and hide insecurities. Pulsating veins, yells of pain and joy, grimaces and grins, and shaky hands were not liabilities when playing in front of a computer screen. But at a real table with real humans, all these things and more tell your story.

So here I was, hands shaking, looking at pocket ladies on the button. My stack was better than average. I'd been playing air-lock tight, waiting for top hands. And they'd been coming to me about once every half hour. The guy next to me had been moved to our table just a few hands earlier. He was in about 7th place at our table of nine, but he still held a decent number of chips. He raised nearly all of his chips, and I put him on a strong ace. For protection, I raised all in. Small blind folded, big blind stared me up and down and called for time. I put my hands in my lap and waited. He folded AJ (or so he told me later), and the guy who's bet I had raised called, making it heads up.

He turned over A 10 s and never connected. That shaky bet padded my mattress and I continued to play tight over the next two rounds. I made it to the final table and finished 9th, but the highlight from the experience was sitting at the 2nd-to-last table with my brother. Thanksgiving after all is a family affair. The whip cream on the pumpkin pie: the obnoxious taunter wasn't sitting in any of the final 18 seats.

So my online playing proved to me that I've developed at least some modicum of skill. But lots more to learn, including steeling my nerves.