Last Night's Action

As I mentioned a few days ago, I've been very lucky at cards recently. I'm not sure why, but it's happening. After a disappointing seventh-place finish in trivia last evening (the bonus question was about Project Runway; nobody on my team watches that show; we missed it), I went down to the basement for a game. It seemed like the thing to do. The Olympics at the time were about women doing tricks on snowboards and falling. Yawn! I can do that! Where's my silver medal?? Anyhow, this is the fourth game we've had here at the Rivoli this week. The turnout was a healthy 15 people and we got down to it shortly after 10:00. For a long time, nobody except my soon-to-be-former-neighbor Josh was making any money. Stacks were getting shorter and people began making daft bets. I was there to call them. And I was lucky enough to win - again and again. I knocked out so many opponents that I lost count. It must have been at least 10. I'm not sure. All I know is that I knocked out three people in one hand and another two the very next hand. I wasn't like I felt that I couldn't be defeated. I had good hands and I thought that I could afford to call anybody's all-in bet. Luckily, the cards broke my way. It could have easily gone against me.

Meanwhile, Josh was also making money, though he wasn't knocking anyone out. With seven people still at the table, he started negotiating with me about how we were going to split the pot. That makes for some super-terrible luck. I didn't want to hear it. I've had games where I hold an insurmountable chip lead and see it all evaporate in minutes. The reason? I start thinking about how I'm gonna spend all that money I haven't yet won. So yeah, negotiating before the table is down to the final two is poisonous.

I managed to knock a few more people out and then it was Josh, Danelle (another neighbor who is relatively new to poker) and me. Josh kept chiding me to knock Danelle out, so we could split the pot and he could hit the bars. It was about 12:30 by now. As things were, I started getting really lousy cards. I couldn't do squat. Finally, Danelle knocked Josh out in two hands. We split the $150 and I got my name on the wall, which is how we keep track of past champions. After two second places and a fourth just this week, I won. Praise Allah! My winnings for the week are $235. By the way, Josh holds the record for most consecutive wins with four. I'm pretty sure that it will be a long time before anybody breaks that streak, as luck is a very fickle thing.

OK, so I didn't mean to turn this blog into a poker symposium. I also didn't intend to feature French and Russian pop music, but here we are. Don't worry, though, my luck will soon turn and I'll go back to my dependable, losing ways and I will write nothing about that. I promise.