a brush with greatness



stan, matt, steve, and i decided to try our poker skillz at the casino. we had enough people to start a new table, so we all got sit together. i still can't say wheter it was a good thing or a bad thing.



so deciding who the dealer was going to be, they let us pick a card from the deck. somehow i manage to come up with the Ace of Spades. best card of the 52 deck. the dealer tells everyone else you might as well not bother picking to see if they'll be dealer since it doesn't get better than the ace of spades. so the first few hands i've been given were crap. i fold the first 6 hands that are dealt to me, without putting out a single dollar. the advantage of starting out as a dealer. this also estabilishes credibility at the table as me being a really tight player. but in all honesty, i was getting crap. i finally eventually manage to start getting some callable hands, and win a few small pots here and there. breaking even for the first hour or so.



first interesting hand of the night was when stan was dealt pocket 4's, and the other guy (a well known veteran of poker at this casino it seemed) was dealt pocket aces. seeing how the guy with the pocket aces never preraised on the flop, but did it this time, it was an easy fold for me. stan on the other hand seemed to be still in this hand for some reason. i wasn't in the position to disturb any play or calls to be made. then the flop comes out 4, A, something. Both stan and the veteran make their trips. Stan is holding 3 of a kind 4's, and the veteran is holding 3 of a kind Aces. And the betting begins. The dealer tells us there is no limit on how many times we can reraise, just in how much increments. so they both can't seem to reraise fast enough. and the veteran decides to take it easy on stan and just call. and then another 4 comes up, giving stan 4 of a kind, and the veteran a full house. another intense round of betting begins. i'm thinking the whole time, "man, stan is playing unusually agressive." i'm really holding back from telling him to stop betting so agressively. i blink for a second, and stan turns over his 4 of a kind, and the veteran turns over his full house. man, i almost felt bad for that old guy. you can't fold a hand like that (trips on the flop, and a full house on the turn).



another interesting thing i kept noticing was that a pair of 3's would come up on the flop almost every other hand. so i told myself, if i get a 3, no matter how crappy the hand is, i'm gonna play it. so i played every single hand when i was dealt 3's. also, 10's were my lucky number, so i decided to play a weak hand with a 10 in it, like 10, 8 unsuited, or 10, 6 suited, etc.



so i get dealt 3, 6 and i'm like, alright, i'll try this out. and wouldn't you know it, a pair of 3's on the flop. an easy win. a couple of old guys say, "man, no one ever plays a hand like that."



so i get some more very weak hands with 3's, and I seem to be winning every pot.



then i get dealt pocket 3's (3,3). I'm like, alright, if i just get one more three on the flop, this should be pretty easy. people are betting pretty agressively. i reraise pre flop. 5 people call. and i couldn't believe it at first but a pair of 3's showed up on the flop. so i raise again. big mistake. i should have figured that no one even has had a chance to pair up. so everyone basically folds except steve. after the turn, i check thinking any raise, and steve is going to muck his cards. steve checks. after the river is dealt, i raise again, and steve mucks his cards. i decided to show my hand anyway, and i get a big, "whoa" from everyone in the crowed. man, are they glad they made the right call. and me with my 4 of a kinds on the flop should have slow played it. it turns out stan would have had the nut flush (with an ace), and if i hadn't reraised before the flop, he would have possibily stayed in knowing how competitve he is and how cheap it would have been to get to the river. pocket 3's is definitely not a good hand to preraise before the flop, but knowing how much of a luck streak 3's were, i felt really lucky. next time for sure, i'm slow playing my 4 of a kind on the flop.



after that, i get 3,6 again. as bad of a hand that is, i decide to call. and i flop an inside straight draw. having some money, i decide to call to the river against a guy i clearly read had trips on the flop. and wouldn't ya know it? the river gave me a straight. i raise, he calls. i win. he gets super pissed about me beating him with a junk hand. for the second time. according to stan, he was about to cuss me out. i feel like i'm the king of the world. hahahah.



so i pretty much played a tight game. made the right folds. and i picked up on some unmistakable clues for luck, and ran with it. i played 95% of the losing hands correctly, having never folded something i would have regretted except maybe once or twice. surprisingly i won 7 out of 8 hands whenever i held a 3 or a 10. the 3's were screaming at me to play with them. i just can't describe how obvious the luck was staring me in the face. me and stan combined had winnings of $90. matt and steve lost a combined sum of $91. so our net gain was -$1. but me and stan had such an incredible time.



i played poker again on saturday. won on saturday.



i'm gonna go again tonight at ocean's 11. i'm planning to play my A game, and play a super tight game. it is my nature to start playing loose when i'm on a winning streak. so i'll have to practice my patience tonight. i'm not looking forward to winning. just improving my game.