The First Poker Author Challenge Tournament

The first Poker Author Challenge tournament was held at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in March. It was very successful, and will probably become an annual event.

Following a book fair/book signing, the $120 buy-in open tournament took place with 218 players, including some 17 authors of poker books (many of whom were columnists for Card Player). The authors were "bounties" in the tournament. Whoever knocked out an author won his choice of any two poker books from the book concession that was efficiently operated by Borders.

I arranged to arrive the night before the tournament so that I could also play in one of my favorite weekly tournaments, the Taj's Saturday night $340 buy-in no-limit hold'em event, which is always well-attended. And I was supposed to meet with Sheree Bykofsky, the book fair/authors tournament coordinator, whom I had never met and knew only from e-mail communications.

About an hour into the Saturday night tournament, we took a break. Since I had not yet met Sheree, I asked several players and the tournament director if they could point her out to me. Sheree had mentioned in one of her e-mails that she probably would be playing in the $340 tournament.

The break soon ended but I had been unable to locate her. As I retook my seat at my tournament table, a kibitzer walked up to the young woman sitting directly across the table from me and addressed her as Sheree. Yes, she just happened to be sitting right at my table - a 15-to-1 shot (16 tables in the tournament). And it turned out that I had plenty of time to chat with her, as we both made it into the money (the tournament paid 18 places).

On Sunday, the book fair/signing was well-attended and many books were sold. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. The 17 authors each put up $20 for a side-action last-man-standing pool. Three of the 17 authors ended up in the money in the Poker Author Challenge: Dan Kimberg (won the pool), Sheree, and myself.

There was one annoying little episode that happened to me that might point toward some future corrective action. Compared to many established sports, poker tournaments are still in their infancy, and many problems and complicated situations will occur in which equity should be restored.

Late in the tournament, with fewer than three tables remaining, I was in the small blind and I picked up a 4-2 suited. Each of eight players had anted $200 and the blinds were $2,000-$4,000. I had dwindled down to about $25,000 in chips, and everyone folded around to me. The big blind had about $30,000 in chips and was a rather solid player. What would you do here?

Simply put, I really wanted the $7,600 in chips already in the pot - so I went all in. It was unlikely that the big blind would have a great hand, and in this "near-the-bubble" situation, he would be reluctant to put in most of his chips with a mediocre hand.

Note that even if he called with two big overcards, I would only be about a 3-2 underdog. But if he called with a big pocket pair, I would win only about one time in five. All in all, this speculation has a relatively high probability of success, especially when compared with the odds of winning most no-limit hold'em confrontations.

The big blind started thinking, and counted his chips. It appeared that he wanted to fold. After he had thought for several seconds, one of the other uninvolved players said, "He's a bounty. Knock him out and you get two free books." Then another player said, "He bluffs a lot." Needless to say, I did not appreciate these comments.

Fortunately for me, he chose to fold, so I did manage to steal the blind and antes. But what if that gratuitous advice had convinced him to call? All casinos have rules against giving advice during play. Would I have had any recourse against the two "illegal" advisers? Under the current rules, probably not.

Since a casino can invoke disciplinary penalties, the two illegal advisers could have been penalized with disqualification (unlikely) or penalty-box minutes. But is a tournament director authorized to adjust chip holdings in order to restore equity?

Suppose the big blind had made some motion that looked like he was starting to fold his A-9. Then, after apparently listening to the two advisers, he decided to call, and I lost. What would be the best ruling? This will happen again. If poker is to be accepted as a serious sport, hopefully for the Olympics, we will need good rules to handle these situations.