Kyle asked me if I would include a hand in my notes that was played out between himself, Rachel, and Nathan. Since it was the hand that sent him home, and since after I thought about it some it does offer an interesting point, here it is. The game is Hold’em, and I’m in the small and Kyle is in the big. Tina folds pre-flop, and Nathan goes all-in with eight dollars and change. Rachel can cover that, and promptly does. I fold. Kyle hasn’t yet looked at his cards. I tell him I’ll look and throw them away if they’re no good. It’s a ten and a ten, so I pass them on to him. He calls. The action is over so cards flip up. Neither Rachel nor Nathan has him beat yet, but both hold at least one over card, though Rachel’s Jack was duplicated by Nathan’s. Kyle gets a third Ten on the first card of the flop, to give him trips, but the rest of the cards contain an 8, a 9, and finally a Q. Nathan has a straight to the king on the river, beating Rachel’s straight to the queen on the river, and leaving Kyle’s three tens in the dust. That was when he asked me if I’d include the hand here, because it was such a bad beat for him after he got that third ten. I couldn’t think of a reason to really write about it, until I remembered that at some point Kyle asked me, before the hand was played all the way out, if I would have called with two tens. I said, “Oh, absolutely!” After giving it some more serious consideration, I think I would have had to qualify my answer a bit more. If I were sitting at the final table of the WSOP and four or five were possibly still in the action, and one bet all-in, got a caller, and the bet had me capped, I think I would have to fold. The chance for a high pair, or of being drawn out on by three or more over-cards would be just too much. I’d have to let the tens go. It’s not really even that tough a decision. Last night however, Nathan had gone all-in three times in the hour before. Rachel had called all-in with little more than just money. There was no possibility of more players in the hand, and there was no chance of a raise after the flop. I think Kyle’s decision to call with his pair of tens was just as clearly the right decision as the decision to fold with the same hand in different circumstances. Unlike in chess, in poker, we play our opponents, not the board. People who win money at poker get river-ed a lot more than they river others, and almost everyone who wins money at poker knows it.

Well, I’ve been a little lax since my last update here. I’ve had one losing night and two winning ones since the last time I wrote. Two out of the three have been mere days (or hours) ago, though, so I guess I have done worse in the past. The first time, to which I can remember few details, other than a crushing hopeless feeling as I kept losing with good cards until my cards turned bad, and then I lost with those, too. I lost twenty dollars altogether at a variety of games. I won a couple medium-sized pots, but mostly it was just an exercise in futility. The last two times I’ve played however, I’ve won a lot. Friday night I won about three dollars while I was still sober, and then twenty more as I got more and more drunk. I don’t remember a lot of it, except for being endlessly patient, and playing for a long time, at the end of which ridiculous drama erupted. Last night I played again for a twenty-four dollar win, winning all but a dollar of the cash involved, but letting Rachel take her blank check back. Not that it was a gift, she just had enough chips left to cover it. I can’t take much credit for playing well, I just kept getting really good cards. I raised into a large bet that Cory made one time because I was pretty sure he was full of it, and got folded to, but called by Rachel while she was still on a draw. I also made one decent move against Nathan when I had been semi-bluffing all through, and let him think I was still trying to do that when I hit the straight on the river. He raised me all-in, more or less correctly and expectedly, and naturally I called. I played very aggressively when I had the cards, and I had the cards often. Poker was over right quick.

Sometimes there are hands I almost feel bad about winning. It was the last hand of the night, by prior agreement, and the game was Crazy 8 [four cards to each player, five on the board, first one up before the first bet, turned one at a time with betting rounds between, third card turned is crazy, if it’s an eight, game is straight poker, best five card hand wins, use ‘em all, if lower than eight, lowest card of that suit in any players four card starters wins half, if higher than an eight, highest card of that suit in any player’s four card starters wins half the pot]. By this point in the evening, and it was only about 12:30, I was so tired I couldn’t think straight. I had been trying to recoup a certain person’s losses and head home more or less even, but I was still a couple bucks away from doing that. I faced one opponent, Mr. O’Hair, who can be dangerous when sober, and he was. His was the short stack, about twelve to my eighteen. I catch two kings in the hole, and a couple low cards (which aren’t necessarily the worst thing to have with kings in this game). The first card on the board is trash. Betting is vigorous, as this is the last hand, but Kyle is taking the lead, so I’m calling along. Second card is a king, giving me trips. I get bet into again, a little heavier, and call. The third card is the Jack of Spades, making my King of Spades a favorite for half, with only the Ace somewhere out there to reckon with. The fourth card is an ace, but not the Spade. Kyle is still betting vigorously, and I’m happy to let him dig what may be his own hole. I still have that ace out there to worry about, along with straights, flushes, full houses, etc, any of which can be concealed fairly easily in this game, but, except for the high straight, aren’t necessarily likely with this board. The fifth and final card is a Jack, and that’s what I’ve been hoping for, a pair in the air but not the aces. This gives me kings full and the King of Spades for the other half. Suddenly I’m thinking about how to get the rest of Kyle’s money into the pot. I’m a big favorite, but I’m pretty sure he will fold if I go all-in, but it is the last hand of the night, and I definitely want to put the screws to him. There’s also the probability to consider that he may want to call because it is the last hand of the night, not just fold it out. I express caution, and bet a dollar. Of course I’m hoping for a raise, but I really don’t feel like he has enough, and I want to show a little weakness in case he feels like raising. He quickly surprised me by going all-in. It was nine dollars or so for me to call. Of course I did, but in the next two seconds or so, I was hit with many doubts. His all-in bet indicated a strong hand, or a very, very gutsy bluff, and he was not in a bluffing mood. As a matter of fact, the read I was getting from him was that he thought he had it won. Of course, both of us were very tired, so I was a little confused anyway. He declared his hand, full-house. I thought, “Oh no, he’s got two aces, and one of them is the Spade. I’m drained.” He laid his hand down, and there were no aces in it. I was relieved. I have been hitting so many brick walls lately, and he seemed so sure. I was a little slow in naming my hand, and felt bad because I know how it feels when I think I have won and someone is slow about telling me that I’m beaten. It was a dramatic turn of events, but that’s what we both signed on for when started playing Crazy 8, No-Limit.

That twenty-five dollar win (not counting the fifteen dollar loss Tina accumulated) put me about ten dollars up over the last few months. I don’t remember when all the games occurred, but I remember losing five, losing ten, winning fifteen, and losing fifteen, since the last time I recorded here. The only things worth mentioning about those games is that when I won the fifteen, I was drunk and it was a very big game, meaning many players. That’s a good combination for me, because when there are a lot of players probability tends to win out over the finer nuances of the game, and my basic game when I’m drunk is better than when I am sober, because I don’t get so bored waiting on good hands. It’s a known fact that if you start out with better hands you end up with better hands. That’s something I can’t get Tina to figure out just yet. Actually it’s a lesson that still stings me a little when I throw down an ace-four or so in a five handed game pre-flop. The other thing worth mentioning is that I have obviously not been doing as well lately as I have in the past, and I think there are two reasons for that. First of all, these guys have been playing roughly twice as often as I have, and they’re just getting better. The second thing is that I have been so distracted and worn out I have been a little off my game. The five dollar loss in an excellent case in point. It was at my house, four players, just me, Tina, Anthony, and Mona. I don’t usually worry about a five dollar loss, except that by the time I had all my chips in, I was convinced that I could not win at that table. I felt like my poker thinking had turned to mud. I was on Mona’s right, which isn’t good for anyone’s sanity, and I was so tired it hurt to pick up my cards. When my chips were in, mostly thrown away on calling the blinds with mediocre crap and getting raised until I folded pre-flop, I begged myself into a game of Trivial Pursuit. It doesn’t require nearly as much brain power as poker.