When to play. Where to play. Who to play.

I had not played poker at the casino for quite a while, but last Friday just seemed to good an opportunity to miss. Friday nights bring out a lot of bad poker players. The best reason I can figure for it is that for a lot of folks this is payday, and some people just seem to want to spend their money as fast as they can. You want to play poker against people like that.

This particular Friday night was the last home game of the season for the Calgary Flames, whose area was a very short walk from the casino. After games the card room is full of hockey fans who want to have a little fun. A lot of people have a few beers in them - and some have quite a few. Again, ideal poker opponents. I had taken a nap that afternoon and felt refreshed.

What makes it tricky is that all these fish attract a lot of sharks, so you have to be careful. You loosen up your range to play more hands against the donkeys, and you too often find yourself in trouble with mediocre holdings against a solid player. As hard as it is to stay tight when you see guys pushing in after flopping top pair, you have to stay patient. There is no need to take any real risks.

I showed up at around 10:00 p.m. and all twelve poker tables were in use. I was able to find a seat right away. The first order of business is to find out who the fish are. Shortly after sitting down one guy, who seemed a little tipsy, was in the middle of a hand when he asked the dealer if aces were high or low. This was a very good sign that I was at the right table. After an hour I figured their were four guys at this table who thought flopping top pair was good enough to go all in with. The plan was to wait until I had a monster and they had something they felt was really, really good - like K 9 on a K 6 2 board.

After four hours I had made a modest $125, but I did it without really taking any risks at all. In fact I made almost all of it on a single hand, when I was dealt the red aces and flopped a third ace. My opponent tried to bluff me by going all in. With no flush or straight draws on board, it was a bad time to bluff, but with top set I would have called regardless.

Anyway there you go - that is the most basic way to play poker. Play against bad guys. Play against guys that have been drinking. Play against guys who are tired and should have quit. Play against guys who have lost too much already and are desperate to get it back.

At 2:00 am there were still 9 tables playing - but I was getting tired, so I went home.