When a player goes all-in on the first hand of the night, a tone is set. That happened at my Lil' Kim's Cove table tonight -- and it led to several all-in bets, including a couple by me. I won one. But alas, I lost one -- and wound up 15th, out of about 30 players.
I was dealt A-J on the first hand of the night, and made a quiet weak-looking call as the play went around. The player to my left raised 300, and I joined in. But then after an ordinary-looking flop, that player went all-in. He scared me off, and that was good. He had pocket aces, which beat a challenger's solo remaining ace.
Several more early all-in bets followed, many of them justified. One young man held Q-Q twice, and rolled up big scores. But he went all-in one time too many in a bluff, and was called and busted.
"I came to play Wal-Mart poker," I joked to others at the table, "and everybody else is playing Neiman-Marcus."
From a starting chip stack of 6,000 (5,000 + 1,000 for buying a soda), I went all-in with about 3,000 left. I had pocket kings, and they held up to put my chip count in the 15,000 range.
But then old-fashioned overconfidence kicked in, as I attempted to eliminate other players who went all-in. I lost about 2,500 in one case, when a man had three 8's and my dream of a gut-shot 10 for a straight didn't happen. (We'll talk about that "confidence" in another post.)
The last straw for me came shortly after the one-hour break:
BLINDS: 500/1000
IN THE POCKET: A-10 of diamonds
Standard calls happen. Six players are at the table, and three stay in.
ON THE FLOP: 2d-10-3 (suits for the others don't matter)
I make top pair, with an outside shot at a flush. I'm on the button, and bet 500 after others check. The two remaining players call.
ON THE TURN: 5d
The first player in line started the fireworks by going all-in with pocket aces. Now he goes all in again. Player 2 folds, so it's up to me.
I suspect my neighbor is holding a high pocket pair, or maybe a 10 of his own. He really hasn't bluffed all evening. I show my hole cards to a player at my right, and she whispers that I should call him. I probably would have, anyway.
"I'll call." My neighbor turns out to have hit two pair on the flop, 3's and 2's. But I have all sorts of escape routes -- A for my own two pair, 10 for a set, 4 for a straight, several diamonds for a flush....
ON THE RIVER: 6h. Not the way out, so I'm out.
No one mentioned the blog, so the man who beat me wins our prize -- and he seems genuinely stunned to receive two Carmike Cinema movie passes.
MINISTRY MOMENT: A young man across the table with a Western-style hat declared Jesus's name twice. Not in praise, but the other way.
My response to the first one: "He's my hope of salvation."
To the second: "He's the king of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16). No response in either case.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 21 final tables in 48 nights (43.8%) - 6 cashes. The slump continues.
YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $8,360 - up $159.
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