The Ultimate Run Good: How 5-2os Scored in the Talking Stick High Hand Promotion

The year 2025 has not exactly been one of my better years for playing poker. I'm sure some of my friends (and my wife) are tired of hearing me whining about the many bad beats I have taken in the past seven months. Some of them have been really horrible. I shove with a huge lead, then watch my plan work as I get someone with an inferior hand to call. Unfortunately, getting it in good sometimes ins only a moral victory. More times than I can count, I have lost big hands in 2025 when my opponent binked the river, taking a pot of several hundred dollars away from me as I was mentally adding up the profit in my mind. Well, Monday of this week saw me take home a big pot at Desert Diamond in Glendale, AZ with the ol' suck-resuck. What -- I actually caught a break after a player chased and hit a gutshot straight on me? Then on Tuesday, I was playing in a private online O8 tournament ... and won! Hmmm. With this kind of momentum going, I definitely felt the need to chase some promo money at the Arena Poker Room at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, AZ yesterday. $1/2 NL was my game of choice. I was seated immediately.

The table had some decent players and one guy who seemed like he suddenly took a hit of speed, turning uber aggressive. In fact, I relied on him to double me up when he jammed on a board where I had trip Jacks, Ace kicker. His pocket 9s burst into flames. He left, and play returned to normal after he had padded my stacks and those of three other players who seemed to be pretty decent. One was a cute young woman who was sitting next to me. She made a few deceptive plays, and accepted the good-natured kidding we were giving her for looking so innocent, but being a silent killer.

With the spewing player gone, we were focusing on trying to hit the high hand promotion. On this particular day, the high hand every 30 minutes was paid $500. There had to be $30 in the pot (sometimes a bit of trouble if your $1/2 game is nitty) and use both hole cards. A full house was the minimum qualifier. The room was pretty busy, and the high hands ranged from Aces full of 10s to a Royal Flush. It was time for the miracle hand.

I was on the button. Players started limping. Limp ... limp ... limp. It looked like this was going to be a family pot or close to it. The play came around to me as I looked down on 5-2os. This is not normally a hand I would play, but with so many limpers into the pot, I thought it would be worth a $2 investment on the button. I called. However, the player in the small blind raised. What then happened? Call ... call ... call. Everyone was calling and the pot was getting bigger. I was in position, so what the heck: I called. The flop was 222! Since the player on my left raised and had so many callers, we easily met the $30 pot minimum to win the high hand. I knew exactly what to do. Someone raised and even got a caller or two. I looked up at the high hand board and saw that the current high hand was Queens full. There were about 9 minutes left in the 30-minute high hand period. My choices were clear: either try to suck as much money as I could from the players at the table, or instead jam all in and hope there would be no callers. If nobody called, I would have the current high hand with 22225 and would have to sweat out the final 8 minutes and hope that my hand wasn't beaten. There was no way I wanted to see another card since a 6 or above would invalidate my high hand. I jammed all in. Everyone folded quickly except for the cute girl. She tanked for a bit and likely had a decent pocket pair. I'm sure that she was thinking that I was stealing the pot. She wasn't a regular player at the room and might not have really understood how the high hand worked. Otherwise, who would jam all in with quads instead of sucking out every dollar from the other players? Fortunately, she was a sharp player and folded. I immediately turned over my cards and declared "high hand." The dealer, who I'm sure has seen many players screw up high hands one way or another, looked at my cards and said, "That was a great play!" She fist bumped me and wished me luck that my hand would hold. Those eight minutes seemed to drag on as I tried not looking at the clock. However, time expired without hearing the dreaded "High hand!" I was soon handed a rack of redbirds to add to my stack on the most unlikely of high hands.

During the next half hour high hand period, I was dealt KK. I raised and got three callers. The flop was A-2-10. Friggin' ace! With three other players in the hand, I imagined that at least one had an ace. A guy bet and got a caller. I decided to see one more card. One other player folded. The turn was a 2. There was a raise and a call, and it was time to painfully muck my kings. Both of the other players went to the river. One had a straight flush draw that missed, and the other had pocket 2s for a hand of 2222A! However, there was a straight flush on the high hand board, so the guy at my table didn't get a high hand bonus. Such are the fickle poker gods!

I stuck around for another hour or so, losing some chips, then getting them back. My stomach was growling, so I decided to cash out with a sweet profit thanks to the high hand bonus. Feeling lucky, I played some slots and was doing well. I hit a very nice bonus at the end and cashed out a decent profit. To end the night on a great note, I stopped at Portillo's on the way home to get a free cheeseburger that I had been awarded through the app. It was a nice way to end what was really a fun and profitable night. If they could only be more like this most of the time!

Thanks for reading.