Thursday, February 12, 2009

Poker Night #58: Broken Hearts

Humbled. That's the only way we can express what happened tonight at Lil Kim's Cove. Our big hands were humbled by something bigger, not once but several times. And the result was a last-place bust-out -- our worst showing since November 2007.

We walked to the tournament remembering a TLC tune: "Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls." That approach worked for several hands. But we were at a table with people making moderately-large raises before the flop, daring you to commit -- and our promising hands kept winding up as empty promises.

In one case, a player who went all-in with less than 1,000 hit a full house on the river to beat our pair of A's. In another case where we folded, a man with pocket 3's stunned everyone by revealing he had quads. Then there was this hand....

BLINDS: 50/100.

IN THE POCKET: Ah-Qh.

A few players call before us. Our wounded starting stack is down to about 2,700, so we hope now is the right time. We raise 200, and a few players join in.

ON THE FLOP: A-7-3. (The 3 is a heart.)

We bet 300, but this is an "I dare you" table. A couple of players call.

ON THE TURN: Q.

Two players check ahead of us. "I'm all in," we declare -- pushing in 2,225. A man to our left who seemed to be gunning for us from the start is undaunted. He calls, to stay in.

ON THE RIVER: 5.

"You just lost," the man to our left says as soon as this card is shown.

A smart mouth? No, a smart mind. He shows a 4-6. He hit a straight the hard way. We sit stunned for a few seconds, before finally revealing how right he was.

"I told you it's not my night," we say to the woman between us and the winner.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Not our night there, either. We weren't even at the table 30 minutes, so never developed anything.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 24 final tables in 58 nights (41.4%) -- 7 cashes. Please note we will have to skip next Thursday night, due to work commitments. (Maybe we need the break!?!)

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $11,820 -- up $116.

No comments: