Saturday Night's Not Alright

Talk about a bummer 75-minute span on Saturday night ...

Chicago Blackhawks/Boston Bruins game two of the Stanley Cup Finals went to overtime. The Hawks had a chance to put the game away in the first period when they swarmed the Bruins. but came out of the period with only one goal. They seemed to run out of gas in the third period and overtime. So the clock starts at 10:40 p.m. with Boston getting a goal in overtime, tying the series at 1-1. Crappo.

I got in my car and drove to my home poker game which had already been going on for over three hours. I got there about 11:00 p.m. and proceed to get pocket Kings my second hand and win a few bucks. Then the trouble started ...

I picked up pocket Kings on the button and raised a pot of limpers. One of the players, an aggressive but smart players named Sibin, did the old limp-reraise. Knowing Sibin, his range could be wide. I put him on A-K and decided to just call since I had position and wanted to see the flop. Sibin had a much deeper stack than me and a raise would have basically committed me to the pot. The flop had low cards with a flush draw. I thought I would win the pot. Sibin checked and I fired out a big bet. He went all in and I called. In my home game, the players at showdown mutually agree on how many times to run it. Sibin suggested three times and I agreed. The flush might have been hit by one of the three hands, but I wasn't convinced I would lose that one anyway. I turned over my pocket Kings. Unfortunately, Sibin turned over his pocket Aces! Dammit!

I made a short rebuy and several hands later picked up Q-Q. Joe, an aggro player if there was one, was on my immediate right and raised, which he does on virtually every hand. I reraised. Joe decided to go all in. I called. He wanted to only run it once. The flop came with a rag-Jack-Queen, so I was feeling pretty good. The turn was a 10, and I got this sick feeling that Joe might have A-K. The river was a rag and Joe said "I've got the nuts." Boom - my pocket Queens that improved to a set on the flop got counterfeited on the turn. Short rebuy gone. Time to go home. It is not even midnight and the game was going to end early tonight anyway.

Sometimes poker sucks.