My Poker History

My name is David Berger. I started playing poker in casinos when I was 19 with a fake ID, a head full of math, and weekend trips to Atlantic City. I would win often which made me think I was good. I would enter the major poker tournaments at the time and would get knocked out quickly. I remember one time I sat down to play in the Orleans Poker Open and the guy next to me said we had 3 world champions at the table. I did not recognize anyone. I think the saying "If you don't recognize the fish, then it is you" applied.

I didn't study the game, I just knew the math. I would play with many of the top pros that you see on TV today. Poker was a fun hobby, especially playing cash games because I was profitable at it, and eventually stopped playing tournaments. Not because it was not profitable, but I didn't enjoy the lack of freedom. I enjoy being able to stop whenever I want. I like to eat when I want. I like to go to the bathroom when I want.

28 years later, I was living in Colorado and still playing cash games. I saw an advertisement for the Heartland Poker Tour coming to Colorado. For some strange reason I decided to play in it. It was a small $200 buyin no limit hold'em event on a Sunday. To this day I do not know why I decided to buy in. But I did, and I made the final table. It wasn't much money, but it was fun.

February 2018

I did not play another tournament for over a year when, in 2018, I saw another advertisement for the Heartland Poker Tour. Again, something inside me told me to drive up to the casino and enter the tournament. This was the $400 kickoff event and had 918 entries. I played solid poker, got a fair amount of bluffs in, had a few bad beats, and had a heater or two.

I made it to the final table. There was one professional from Las Vegas, Timothy West, and a local professional. The rest were all amateurs. Tim was very difficult to play against. He seemed to read me very well. That made it a challenge to play against him. I got 6th place and over $9,000. I was amazed at how well I did and how well I played. I went home that night and decided that even though I could not play in any other events, I would play in the next tournament that came to town.

April 2018 MSPT

In April the Mid-States Poker Tour came to Colorado. I played in the kickoff event which was $360. I was doing fairly well until I ran into a confrontation. I had made a decent size bet into another player and the other player asked me how many more chips I had. I lifted my hands to clearly show my 3 even stacks of chips. The player asked me how many chips were in each stack. I did not answer. The player asked the dealer. The dealer asked me how many chips I had in each stack. I did not answer. I was fairly certain I just have to show my chips to the other player and not count them. The dealer called the floor, and the floor asked me to count how many chips I had in one of my stacks. I was quite upset because I felt like they were wrong and I was right, and it might have effected my play and I busted shortly after.

I rebought into the tournament and was building a nice stack when I ran into another confrontation. I was in a hand with 77 against a very aggressive opponent. I had raised to $600 preflop and he called. The flop came 48T, and I said "same bet" and put out a $1000 chip. The opponent then put out 6 $100 chips. The dealer looked at me and said "what does same bet mean? Same as last bet? Same as bet from last hand? Same bet does not count as a verbal bet" I just looked at the dealer waiting for him to say that my bet was $1000 but he didn't. He just stared at me waiting for me to say something. I did not want to give away the weakness of my hand so I kept quiet. He kept staring at me and I finally said "I said that early in the tournament and the dealer knew what I was betting". After I said that, my opponent pulled back his 6 $100 chips and put out 5 $1000 chips which the dealer did not see because he was still staring at me. The dealer still had not said what my bet was. He finally looks over at my opponent and sees the $5000 raise and announces "raise". I fold and am trying my best to keep my cool. I bust shortly after and decide I hate the MSPT and did not play in any other of the event in that series.

May 2018 Colorado Poker Championship

The next month I played in the Colorado Poker Championship. My first event was a deepstack, but I did not cash. The second event I entered was a freezeout. 109 players entered for $400. I battled long and hard and got to heads up with an older gentleman. My strategy was to wear him out, since it was really late and he was very old. It did not work. He battled and battled and after hours of heads-up play, I finally beat him. I took home over $11,000, my new highest tournament cash. I was unaware, but I also receive points for the win. I was a few points away from winning a free entry into the $2,500 highroller event, so I decide to play many more of the CPC events, The next event I min cashed. Then I survived the $2,000 survivor tournament. Next I played a $300 deepstack tournament. Again, I made the final table, but only got 7th place. Next, I played a main-event qualifier, and I won. So I was playing the main event, which I did not cash in. I had enough points to get a free entry into the highroller, but the most points got a free seat in the World Series of Poker main event. So I played the tournament the very next day and got 5th. Moving up in points, I had a good chance of winning the WSOP seat. The next day's tournament was not so good to me, as I did not cash, but I got 5th place in the next day's turbo tournament, moving me up to 2nd in points. There was one last tournament. If I cashed in it, I had a good chance of winning that WSOP seat. Unfortunately, I did not cash. I played the high roller and also did not cash. At least that was free.
I was cashing in over 50% of the tournaments I have played, and was still not sure if I was good at playing tournaments, or if I was just getting lucky.

June 2018 Planet Hollywood Goliath

The next month I took a trip to Las Vegas to play in a Goliath tournament. 1465 players entered the multi-day tournament. I busted out of Day 1A, but re-entered on Day 1B. I played solid poker and was building up a big stack. At one point I was sitting next to Will Givens, a professional from Colorado, with about $2.5 million in winnings. I made a sick bluff against him and showed. We were in the money and down to about 10 tables when I ran into a sick hand. I clawed my way to build my stack back up after that devastating cooler, but eventually busted in 63rd place. If I had not lost that one hand, I felt like I could have made a serious run at the win.

July 2018 Heartland Poker Tour

The next month, the Heartland Poker Tour came to town. I played the first kick-off event with 832 players, and got 32nd place. I played in two other tournaments but did not cash in either.

August 2018 Colorado Poker Championship

The next month the CPC started up again. I was out of town for most of it, but was able to play the $1,100 main event. 250 entered and it was a good tournament. Lots of good players were in this one and I had to play my 'A' game. I made the final table against a lot of tough opponents. When we got down to 6 players, they handed us each a CPC hat. I busted in 5th place, and over $14,000, my highest tournament cash to date.

To this date, I was still cashing in over 50% of all of the tournaments I entered.

September 2018 Heartland Poker Tour

The next month the HPT came back to town. I played the kick-off event and got 3rd place out of 722 players, paying me $20,700, my new highest tournament cash.