Funny thing about poker. You don’t need much skill when you get good cards. I didn’t play as well as I did the last two weeks and yet I finished in the money. I had three monster hands and sucked out loads of money on each one.
Monster Hand 1: With J-8, the flop is 5-9-10. The turn is a 7, I have the nuts straight. The river is a 6. Two other players also had 8s and assumed it was a 3-way chop. Not so, my Jack high straight trumped their 10-high straight. I was already at 2.5x the average stack.
Monster Hand 2: A-9, the board is A-A-6. I check, then call the moderate bet. The turn is nothing. I check again, he puts in a lot, I put him all in and win easily.
Monster Hand 3: A-A, another A comes on the flop. When I go all in on the river he won’t call, but I already have most of his chips.
Between these three hands, I was sitting pretty. I spent most of the last two hours folding and patiently waiting for other players to be eliminated. That was a good strategy. I cruised to the top three. In our game, the top three finish in the money (50%-30%-20%). I was slightly short-stacked. I went all in prelop with A-J. I was called with K-J. A king came up so I was knocked out in third place. It was a bad beat to go out with, but I can’t complain about the cards. And now to watch the TiVo’d Celtics game.
Tonight: $32
Total: -$14