I made a good showing in each tournament making the final two tables both days. But both days had something else quite incredibly, agonizingly similar.
On Friday with the finish line in sight (and having played for over six hours) I had been card dead for two hours when I picked up pocket kings. Other than pocket aces this is the best starting hand in Texas Hold'em poker. You wait a lifetime for these hands. I pushed all-in pre-flop and got one caller. She turns over pocket nines and I feel giddy knowing I have a much better hand. The dealer deals the first three cards and I now become an almost certain winner. The fourth card (the turn) she catches one of only two cards that can beat me (a nine) and beats my pocket kings. I was crippled to literally one chip - and so with the one chip I keeping pushing all-in til my luck runs out and I finish 18th. The money was paid to 11. If my pocket kings hold-up it is almost certain I will cash or better yet go on to win. I am dejected but know that I played well and did everything I could to put myself in a position to win. I go home tired and hungry, because I forgot or don't like to eat during play and eat and go to bed.
Saturday, the state championship. I am tired from the day before but got a good nights sleep. Believe it or not playing 8+ hours fatigues your body and mind. I go in determined to win and play my best game. I play consistent and manage to once again get down to the final two tables. Then the moon and stars MISalign and I get pocket kings. This is a crucial make-it or break-it portion of the tournament where chip leaders can go home in two hands and people with small stacks get lucky and become chip leaders. It is tricky negotiating. The table folds around to me and I raise to $4,500 with the big blind being $1,500 (a hefty raise). In the back of my mind I don't know whether I want a call after what happened to me yesterday, or do the right thing and make a bunch of chips with my beautiful hand. One lady pushes all-in and I have no other option than to call her. I have her covered (more chips than her), but not by much. I ask before she turns over her hand if it's aces and she says "no". Before I can relax and enjoy my good fortune she flips over POCKET NINES! That sick feeling came over me when you know that even though you should be happy, but instead know that something awful is about to happen, even though you try to push that to the back of your mind and think POSITIVE, it's too late! The dealer flips over the first three cards (the flop) and there glaring like a freakin beacon of radioactive waste is a NINE!
My throat closes up, my stomach heaves and a sweat bead trickles lightly from my brow and I think back on my colonoscopy a month ago thinking it wasn't as bad as this. Lightening strikes me in my nether regions two days in a row. Are the poker Gods that cruel? They are. I lose the hand and once again am crippled to the point where my only option is to push all-in with any semblance of a good hand. I pick up pocket sixes and get called by Ace, King and lose when a king hits the turn. Where was that damn king when I had my pocket kings!
So once again, I play many grueling hours, to come up just short of the money but realize that it would be a much different ending if my pockets kings had held up. It wasn't meant to be, and any poker player will gladly recount a bad beat story during a critical time in their poker life. It's part of the game and like Phil Helmuth once said "if it weren't for luck, I would win every hand". It's times like these where a lot of us say, I'm done with poker, it's too heartbreaking, but the next day or two when the wounds start to scab over you hear the riffle of the chips, or feel the call of poker room after watching High Stakes Poker and you get in the car and before you know it the trip you thought you were taking to Costco ends up at the poker room.
I hate poker today but I know in a couple days I'll be looking at my scab wondering where that came from and head back out.
Next big tournament for me is in Las Vegas at the Rio for a $75,000 invitational. My buy-in and rooms for three nights is free and first place wins $10,000 cash and a $10,000 seat to the main event next summer in the World Series of Poker. This takes place November 3-5. But just know this, if I get pocket kings -
I AM GOING TO FREAKING FOLD THEM!!!!!!!!
If you think about folding pocket kings, you've already lost. Hope that's a joke.
ReplyDeletePlayed in a tournament tonight. Got pocket kings back to back. Played them correctly and this time won both hands. Callers folded both times on the turn. And yes I was kidding.
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