In Malta the legal age of entering a Casino is 25 (if you are Maltese), if you are a foreigner the legal age is 18.  My friend Gerban from Holland is in Malta and he’s also a poker enthusiast and we decided to go at the Westin Dragonara for a €10 + €1 tournament on Monday.  The tournament structure was unlimited rebuys for the first hour and 1 addon before the 1st break.

Players were trying to stack up early and since it was unlimited rebuys, things got crazy, a bunch of all ins with mediocre hands and sick calls to booth.  I played tight for the first 30mins or so, took my time to scout the table.  It didn’t take long to seperate the good players from the fish and the smart from the reckless.

After the first break I won a couple of good pots which allowed me to play for another 2.5 hours.  Didn’t get much cards, made a couple of steals and the people on the table where chatty so I didn’t get bored at all, actually it was great fun.  I played for over 3 hours, survived until the last 2 tables and didn’t get any of the €700+ prize money. Bummer.

After I got kicked out Gerban suggested we play some BlackJack which I never did before although I do know quite a bit about the game.  Gerban went over some basic strategy rules, like not going crazy when the dealer has a 4 because it’s hard to defend, how and when should I split pairs and Aces and so forth.  We sat on a table I put out €40 and the minimum unit was €5 which apparently is quite cheap compared to foreign casinos.

I lost the first two hands in a heartbeat, that’s €10 down.  The next hand, I got a BlackJack which pays 3 to 1 on your money. Nice.  I won a couple more in a row and when I had €50 in chips I decided to double the bet, since I was playing with the house’s money.

This is the same strategy I use in business.  I allocate a certain amount of money for a project, then instead of taking the initial earnings and put them in my pocket, I keep re-investing the money I make from the project into the project and make the money work for me.  It’s a basic leveraging strategy we call Boot Strapping.

I walked out with €120 euros, getting back the €21 euros I lost in poker and then some.  Not retiring on my winnings yet but it was definitely great fun.

I’ll be back