Poker Update (it’s a good one):

Thanks to a nut flush and trips and not playing many hands, at one hour in I have 7,000 in chips (avg is 5000).

We’re at 100-200. With two raisers to 600 in front of me, I have a pair of 10s. I think the correct play here is raising, but I just call. Both blinds call. There is already 3,000 in the pot.

The flop is 10-J-Q. Hey, I hit my trips! But those are some scary cards. And the player two positions to my right instantly goes all in for 2,800. The player to my right calls the all-in. Ugh. It seems obvious that at least one of them has K-A for the high straight. Maybe pocket Jacks or Queens. I should fold, right?

Not so fast. If another Jack or Queen comes out, I have a full house. There’s around a 24% of that. It would cost me 2,800 into a pot of 8,600. I call. And it’s a good thing I did, the turn is another 10! I have four 10s! I have about 3,500 left in chips. I bet 1,800, which I think was the exact right amount to get a call, and then my all-in on the river is called. Boy, those were some fun cards to turn over! You don’t see quads very often, right?

On the very next hand, the player to my right gets four nines. Wow.

Four hands later I call a min-raise with pocket 3s. The flop is 2-3-x. There’s already 1,600 in the pot. Naturally I raise, I bet 1,000. I’m called. The turn is — yes, you guessed it — another 3. I have four of a kind with 3s. This is just ridiculous. Someone makes a comment about how Muttrox probably has quads again, and I completely lose my poker face. Half my mouth is twisted up, the other half is twisted down, my legs are bouncing all around, I can’t contain myself. Fortunately the person deciding whether to call me doesn’t know me well. I think he thought all my antics were to cover up a stone cold bluff. He called. On the river I went all-in. This time he folded. The table reaction to another four of a kind was priceless.

What an hour I had. Two hands later I had pocket 6s. Before the flop showed I was already deciding how to bet my set, I had no doubt that another 6 would come up. It did.

The rest was ordinary poker. I was monster stack, other people caught up, I got low, I won a coin flip (my K-10 paired up vs pocket 5s), found myself in heads up against a relative amateur. He didn’t raise my big blind with 5-2. The flop was 3-4-5, the Ace on the turn gave me the win.

Whoo. That was a crazy night. I played well, but with those cards coming it didn’t even matter how I played it.

Tonight: $145 ($25 buy in, $150 for first place, $20 in bounties)