Life and Times of a Poker Addict

Hopped my afternoon flight back from FLA to Richmond, got in at 8:37 pm on the nose and was picked up by JB and off to the weekly poker game at Mo's by 9:15. That's dedication for you, people. Or obsession. But I'm gonna go with dedication.

We had a full game of nine players with a $40 buy-in. I mucked the first hand, JB was behind me and ended up losing with his AK suited. Second hand I looked at one card at a time... Ace... Ace. Lovely. I raise it and JB promptly re-raises me. I can only hope that I'm not smiling on the outside as much as I am on the inside. Action folds around to me and I put on a little bravado and say "re-raise" as emphatically as I can, hoping he won't believe that I have the one hand that kills him. He calls me and the flop is all undercards. I lead out at the pot, he raises me and I call. Turn is another brick and I lead out, he goes way over the top of me and I move all-in back over him. The table is loving this action, and JB announces that there's only one hand that beats him so I know I've got him caught with KK. Eventually he calls me, and I show him the bad news, Eke and Ike. So in the course of two hands JB has had AK suited and Kings and he's busted out of the tournament. There's no justice in poker.

This did however present a bit of a conundrum. Four minutes into the tournament, my ride is knocked out and I'm chip leader, so I could be there a while. We decide to make this our first ever re-buy tournament. This would prove interesting throughout the night. About ten minutes later I look into the cards and there are the bullets again. To what do I owe the honor, fellas? Three people limped in front of me, I raise and they all call. Thanks, guys. Flop comes 8 9 10, with two diamonds. I'm first to act so I lead out with a modest bet and JT ponders for a long time before finally mucking his hand. While he was debating I had already decided that no matter what I was going all-in over a raise or on the turn, I didn't think I'd be up against anything better than a flush or straight draw. PokerDon folds and then Mo pops back over the top of me for $100. Before he could finish saying it I had moved all-in. A series of expletives and a few minutes later he called me and turned over KJ of clubs. He got no help on fourth or fifth street and suddenly I'm tripled up in the first 25 minutes.

It seemed obvious the poker gods were sitting on my shoulders at this point and it grew even more apparent a little later in the night. I got KQ offsuit and Matt had AK in the seat in front of me. The flop came AK8 and when Matt checked to me, I decided to make a play at him since most of the night I had controlled his action. I led out into him and he re-raised all-in which I called since I was pretty much pot committed. When he turned over Big Slick I could feel my face fall and I told him that he got me as the dealer turned over a Jack. "It's all over unless a ten comes on the riv-" as the dealer turns over a ten on the river. I sat in shock for a couple seconds before showing Matt my straight and I briefly wondered if he were going to strangle me to death right then and there. So now I've got stacks of chips sitting in front of me that look like the New York skyline. And then...

It all went south. I made a horrible call (in my opinion) against JB when I caught K3 on a King high flop with two clubs and went back over the top of his raise and put him all-in; he had K10. Stack one, collapsed. Then I got involved with Matt again (stupid re-buys) when I caught pocket fives on the big blind. The flop came K84 and he checked it to me, so I led out at him trying to represent the King. He called my $100. Turn was a brick but it also put two diamonds on the board. He checked again so I loaded up one more time and fired at him with another $100... which he called. I'm sure the sounds of my brakes squeeling could be heard after he called the second time, but then the ever so lovely 5 of diamonds came on the river. Now I loaded up a shell with a real hand and put another $100 into the pot... and he called again and showed me his King-King... a higher set. Umm, tower, we've got problems here. Stacks two and three, collapsed. Only the fact that a third diamond came out saved me from losing all my money on that hand. So, I'd been chip leader for five hours and some change at that point and now I'm short stacked with about $270 remaining. There's no crying in poker, Rossi.

There's something truly embarassing about having quadruple what everyone has for five hours and then missing the money which is exactly what I was staring down the barrel at. Got lucky and doubled up off Matt with pocket sevens versus his Ace-Queen and then finally, at 4:15am I got knocked out in third place (money!) when I went up against JB's Ace-Queen with pocket two's. That was the second hand I thought I played poorly. JB raised $100 and I figured him on exactly the hand he ended up having. My brain was telling me to simply call and see the flop but somewhere the idiot inside told me to put it all on the line. If I had seen the flop which came with an Ace, I could have folded and been in fine shape to keep playing. Live and learn.

JB finally won about forty minutes later, which he quite frankly has earned with the never ending string of bad beats he has taken over the last few months, particularly from me. Today hasn't treated me so well on the poker front, down a couple hundred bucks, but for some reason I feel really strongly that I'm gonna take down something big soon and make it to the World Series... just got a feeling...