The Poker Gods: Friends or Foes? Heck -- I Don't Know

Whereas most people who know anything about poker will tell you that it is a game of skill, the inevitable luck component also remains a factor in varying degrees. Take my 2025 poker results as an example.

I had a horrible losing streak in 2025. Between May 11 and June 28, I lost money in 15 consecutive poker sessions. From what I remember, at the beginning of the streak, I took some unreal losses. I had my money in good before the river, and then ... This scenario happened time and time again. I'm pretty sure that I started stressing, leading to some suboptimal playing. Fortunately, most of the losses were not that great, ranging from $34 to $550. Most losses were between $150 and $300, or about one buy-in at the regular levels I play: $1/2NL and $1/3NL. To lose that many sessions in a row really sucks the fun out of poker. The streak began at Phoenix-area poker rooms, continued in Las Vegas, then finished at the Phoenix-area rooms.

I decided that I needed to invest more time in training, so I watched many videos and decided that I needed to tighten my game up. Soon afterward, I was winning pretty regularly again. However, I had dug myself quite a hole during the bad streak. Afterward, I suddenly was not losing every flip or even hands where before I had lost to three or four outers.

My Las Vegas December trip report posts chronicled some good winning sessions, some solid poker play, and some degree of luck. Had the poker gods decided to give me a break? Would they be back with a vengeance when I returned home? Well ...

The December holidays provided area poker rooms incentives to host some decent promo days. I went to Talking Stick in Scottsdale on Dec 14 to play in a special promo day that included a football match- the-score ticket promo, and $1,000 high hands every 30 minutes. The session started out badly as I had one of those days when I had second best hand several times. I moved to a different table, and the magic began.

I hit on the football promo for a $150 bonus. Shortly afterward, I turned a 9-high straight flush and had to hang on for over 20 minutes. Luckily, nobody else had a higher straight flush during that time (all/most of the 70 or so poker tables were full), giving me an additional $1,000 bonus.

On New Year's Eve, I had hoped to go to Desert Diamond in Glendale for the room's hot seat promo, but the wait list was extremely long. I learned long ago that few players leave when big promos go on there. I decided to instead go to Lone Butte in Chandler. I played three separate sessions there that afternoon and evening from 3:00pm until 1:15am. My first session saw me lose $30. The funny thing is that I remember almost nothing of the session! After taking a break to play some slots, I went back to the poker room for session #2. The $1/2 table was absolutely wild! It was not unusual to see guys shoving with marginal hands. I thought one guy was bluffing me off a hand when an Ace appeared, but he played me well and took half my stack. I called a raise with KsJs and saw my opportunity when the flop had two spades and gave me a gutshot straight draw. I shoved all in after a raise and got one caller -- a guy who flopped two pair. He called. The turn completed my straight, more than doubling me up and putting me with a $142 profit. I cashed out as there was no way to go promo hunting for the $1,000 high hands every half hour without risking my stack virtually every hand.

I took a dinner break and decided to play one more session. There were gift card drawings, hot seats drawings, and splash pots along with the high hand promo, but I never sniffed any of them. For hours, my cards were so bad I couldn't even limp into hands, Then at 11:30pm, some magic happened. I was in a hand with Ac5c. The flop was 2c3c4s. I had flopped a wheel straight and had straight flush and nut flush draws. The turn was the magic card: 4c! Unfortunately for one regular player, he had Qc9c. He bet and I hollywooded about whether or not to call his $100 bet. "Reluctantly," I called. My opponent shoved on the river, and I tabled my straight flush. I had just won a big pot and now had to wait out the final 22 minutes of the high hand period. As the clock ticked down the final seconds to the new year, people were blowing horns and making lots of noise. I was hoping not to hear the dreaded "high hand on table ..." right before the half hour expired. When midnight hit, everyone was celebrating the new year. I was celebrating that the first second of the new year provided me with a $1,000 high hand bonus!

There was a final hot seat giveaway for $2026 at 1:00am. Would my mojo continue? I was at table 31, seat 4. The winner: table 32, seat 4! It was time to head home.

I went to two promo days hoping to hit $1,000 high hand bonuses. I hit one at each day with turned straight flushes, with an extra $150 at the first promo day. Quite different from the luck  -- or lack of it -- that experienced earlier in the year. Were the poker gods asleep in December? Did they feel sorry for me and see a need to even the score for me? I dunno. Promos seem to come and go in streaks. Over the past couple years, I had individual sessions where I won two promos: one with two $500 high hands (Quad Aces twice in one session), and one when I got a straight flush for $200 and flopped quad deuces for $1,200. Poker can sometimes be sweet!

I look forward to another year of low-level NL poker. All my best to my readers for 2026!

Blog comments are welcomed and encouraged. Thanks for reading.