Sunday, February 14, 2021

Flying Chips at the Stick

One of the best things about moving to Arizona has been my proximity to the Arena Poker Room at Talking Stick Resort. With good promos and different games and levels, it is really a great poker room. I decided to partake in a Saturday late afternoon/evening $3/$300 spread limit poker session yesterday. I bought in for $400. As usual, the Stick did not disappoint.

Early on - perhaps in the first 45 minutes or so, I got into a big hand. I looked down to see A-J unsooted and put out a small raise to $10. The button re-raised to $25, and I called. The flop was A-A-rag. Since I was new to the table, I didn't have a lot of prior information to go on. The player seemed solid, so I thought he could have one of several combinations with an A, or perhaps KK, QQ, maybe JJ. I checked and he put out a $50 bet. I called. The turn was a Queen. I checked and he checked behind. The river was a beautiful Jack, giving me a full house and the second nuts. I raised $100 and my opponent re-raised to $200. At that point, I considered just calling, but seeing how I was ahead of almost anything he could have, I shipped the rest of my chips. He called and flipped over A-Q for the stone cold nuts. Major ouch! Less than an hour in and I was felted for $400. At least the guy who did it was  good player and didn't river me with some crap hand. He also showed a little empathy, so I just kept a stiff upper lip and bought back in for $300. What a bad start to the poker day.

Well, as it so often happens in poker, things changed about a half hour later.  I did get a few hands and won a few pots. Then ... it happened. I was in the big blind with QsJs. Someone raised to $15 and got several callers. It came back to me and I called. The flop: 9-10-K rainbow! I led out with a small $30 bet to see if I could get someone to raise. There were a couple of callers until it got to the player to my right -- the guy who had felted me a bit earlier. He raised to $100. I raised $300 (the max), making my total raise $330. The opponent went into the tank. Finally he called. I had about $75 left behind. The turn was a low spade, butting two spades on the board. I pushed the rest of my money in. He called. The river was another spade. I flipped over my cards to show the flopped straight. He turned over pocket 9s for a flopped set that didn't improve. So ... shortly after losing my $400 buy-in, I scooped a $1000+ pot. Isn't poker a great game?

The players at my table seemed pretty good. Different people were hitting hot streaks and chipping up, then losing some. It was a fun, challenging night of poker ... until a terrible player came to the table. Unfortunately, he was also unbelievably lucky, hitting a number of winners on the river. I took him for some pots and then, unfortunately, rivered the nut flush on a paired board. When he bet $100, I fortunately just called. He had turned quad Jacks. Day-um!

He was like an elevator -- up and down, up and down. He was pretty much a calling station and was spewing chips. The sport over the next few hours was to see who could end up with his chips. I am not sure, but I think that he bought and rebought in with a total of $1,800. Pretty hefty for a game of $3/$300 spread limit. He was finally felted by a woman wh had suffered some terrible beats to him. There is justice in poker?

With a small but acceptable profit, I called it a night late in the evening, had a quick dinner using my comps, and road home in the dark and quiet night, remembering why we love this game called poker so much.

Thanks for reading!

5 Comments:

Blogger The Neophyte said...

Any time you come out with a profit is a successful day at the table. Good for you Lightning and great comeback.

5:39 PM  
Blogger Arch said...

Welcome to the Wild West, my friend. Less humidity, less bugs, less taxes...more FREEDOM.

8:43 AM  
Blogger Tony Bigcharles said...

great photograph on the cover.

8:33 PM  
Blogger Ace said...

A win is a win, are you looking forward to the vaccine?

7:57 PM  
Blogger Gamer Man said...

:)

2:49 AM  

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