Poker Night #46: The Aces Crack'd

Playing carefully helped me win an early pot at The Roadhouse tonight. But a top pair in the pocket wound up biting me, and I wound up in about 15th place. (We have to say "about" because only two tables were in action, but latecomers kept being added to the game as others were knocked out.)

BLINDS: 50/100.

IN THE POCKET: Aces!

I'm the big blind, and players call around to me. I raise 400, and several people join the party.

ON THE FLOP: K-Q-junk. (I think it was an 8.)

I'm first up, and bet 1,000. The man to my left calls without a flinch. One or two others do the same.

ON THE TURN: More junk -- maybe a 5.

Something tells me trouble is looming here, even though there's nothing to indicate a straight or flush. So I check.

"I'm all in," the man to my left says right away. Uh-huh. "You don't go f***ing me by checking there. Take my chips."

What would you do? He might have an A-K or A-Q and merely have top pair.

"I'll do it. I'll call," I decide -- pushing in 3,300 to match his bet. "I've got rockets."

"Two pair," he says -- showing a K-Q.

"I feared that," I say in response. My hunch turned out to be right. Something WAS wrong here, but I dared to play on anyway. Yet all I have to do is pair the board on the river, and I'll win the pot with a higher two pair....

ON THE RIVER: More junk -- a 6, I think.

We never recovered from that big loss, finally going all-in with K-Q with the blinds at 100/200 and 625 left in our bank. But in that case, another player had pocket Aces -- and they held up to take the pot, and take me out. Didn't we just have a post about giving and taking away?


MINISTRY MOMENT: Before the game begins, a man notices my new card marker. It's a coin mentioning Jesus being your Savior. (More on that coin another time.)

"Feel mine," he says -- a thick, gold-edged old Mexican coin. The man then talks about the devaluation of the peso years ago relative to the dollar, and how Mexico's economy recovered from that much faster than the U.S. is from its housing mess.

"This," I say referring to my coin, "is more about the message than the money."

"Maybe it's platinum," the man says. But after holding it a second and looking at both sides, he concludes it's made "from the top of a Mountain Dew can."

This man must have read the message on the coin. But he didn't want to talk about what it said. Maybe another night he will -- or maybe he needed to think about it.

UPDATED SCOREBOARD: 21 final tables in 46 nights (45.7%) -- 6 cashes. As we mentioned below, this will be our last live tournament for a few weeks due to an upcoming church convention.

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: RECORD HIGH $8422 (Up $652). We've been cooking there lately, gaining more than $1,500 since Labor Day.