$180

That's right, $180

$180 for about 3 hours of "work".

If you can call playing poker "work".

About 6 months ago I started seeing my chiropractor, Dr. Keith. After a while we found out that we both like to play poker. I invited him to my home game and told him I would love to play in his sometime. He came to my game but wasn't able to stay for very long. Last night was my first time at his home.

Of course I was the only woman there but they seemed to be okay with it. We ended up with 16 players. The buyin was $20 with a $20 rebuy before then end of the 4th level - luckily I didn't have to rebuy.

I wasn't sure what to expect so I tried to just play my normal game and get a feel for the other players. The first hand I played was 55 UTG + 2. Flop was horrible for me and I ended up folding.

The next hand of note was between two other players. One had flopped a set the other ended up with a flush draw. The 9s made full on the turn when the flush hit but paired the board and then the case 9 hits on the river for quad 9s!

Not long after that Dr. Keith hit quad As on the other table.

I raised with AT on the button and get called by BB and UTG limper. Flop comes out JJ5. I put in a continuation bet. UTG mucks out of turn while BB thinks a long time then mucks.

The table is very passive. I get AK in the SB with 3 limpers ahead of me. I know a raise isn't going to get me anywhere and I'll be out of position so I just complete and the BB checks. Flop: K8x. I'm trying to decide how to play and figure my best bet is to push. I don't want to fight 4 other people for this pot. I get called by UTG SS with 8x and MP big stack with AJ. The MP player said he thought I was bluffing! My hand holds and I more than double up.

I get AA UTG and raise, get no callers.

I call a SS's all in with AJ and he doubles through me with AQ.

We are down to the final table. The blinds are 500/1000 with around 45K in chips on the table. Several players have only a couple BB in front of them. I have around 9K.

I push with AQ and get called by Dr. Keith on a SS with A4 and take him out.

I pick up JJ UTG and push again. The BB is concerned and asks me if I have Ks. I just shrug. He calls with AQ no help for him; I river a set of Js.

We get down to 4, I'm in the money! I don't recall anything interesting happening but two of the four go out and now I'm HU with a very passive player (he didn't bet trip Qs on a somewhat scary board when he was HU with a SS). He has me barely covered.

I push with AQ and he calls with Ax and I get him down to 3.5BB. He goes all in next hand and I call. I have him dominated but he hits a pair on flop and rivers trips.

Again we get it all in, I'm ahead and he hits a wheel on me.

A few hands later I put him all in with Ks8s and he calls with 4s6s. Neither of us improve and I take it down.

Wooooooot!

One of the other players owns a bar/restaurant in a small town a few miles away. He told me that his place is having a $50 tournament on Super Bowl Sunday and invited me to come play. I had to tell him that my birthday is Super Bowl Sunday and while there's nothing I would love to do more than play a poker tournament that day, my family may have other plans and I would need to ask the other half. They all laughed and said, ASK?! You just won $180!

I hope they let me come back and play again. It was a great time. I really don't get to play as much live poker as I would like. Online is one thing but live is definitely something you need to practice to get good at.