Matt Damon, I ain't...

And while that also means that I have the more rugged manly sexiness of a Ben Affleck rather than polished boy-next-door features, in this case I mean I can't play no-limit hold 'em for shit.

Yesterday I entered my first tourney, billed as an $10, 18-person casual affair, where I thought I might be able to sharpen my skills and build on a couple of mildly successful low-limit sessions in casinos. Well, 4 people showed up, and I was out first. I don't even have any good hands to analyze, but I'll throw in the one that knocked me out...

I had about 250 left (started w/1000) and 20-40 blinds, going up to 25-50 after the hand. By this point I was looking to go all-in with anything halfway decent since I was the short stack, and I got A-3. I raised it to 50, two fold, one calls. The flop comes out 4-A-3, so I go all in with my remaining stack and get called. I hope the guy has A-K or something like that, but he turns over A-4, nothing on the turn and the river, bye. I played too many damn hands and didn't throw away when I knew I was beat.

Now you may be thinking, "what the hell's the big deal about a $40 game"? Well, I'm insanely competitive. I'm a real dick when I play Trivial Pursuit as well...