Revenge. It's Not So Sweet...

Especially if you're on the receiving end of it. But we'll talk about that in just a second.

I hope you all are having a good Valentine's weekend--everyone remember to wear your good drawers tonight, just in case! As for me, I was gonna go out and play a little poker this evening, but I found out that I have to work, instead. However, before I don the brown polyester clown suit, I'm gonna play Valentine's Day Santa Claus and make a delivery to a certain fetching young lass who has an affinity for red wine, dark chocolate, and big bald guys with large hands and boyish good looks...

Anyhow...

Remember the other day how I was saying that my poker game was in kind of a rut? After an amazing run that lasted several weeks, all I could do was grind away with dead cards for hours on end. So I decided to just hit a couple of the smaller rooms closer to home and play some low-limit, if only to work through all of the bad cards I had coming to me. I've played the last couple of nights, hitting a little 3-6 and 4-8. Both nights were profitable, but nothing like my run at the no-limit tables. I think I'm up about $150 total for the past two sessions. Not great, but it certainly beats the alternative.

Oh, and remember the game I got into the other night that had four dealers in it, plus a couple of rookies, where I popped that same guy three times in about 15 minutes with monster hands? Well, he got his revenge last night.

I was playing at a 4-8 half-kill game in his room, and around midnight or so, he came over and pushed in to the game. It was a kill pot, meaning that we were playing 6-12 on that particular hand. He dealt me pocket Kings--Nice. I liked my chances to rake a big pot.

I raised it up to $9 to go and got three callers.

Because I was sitting in the 2-seat at the end of the table, I saw the door card when the dealer went to spread the flop. It was the Ace of spades, and for a split second I got pissed off. Nothing coaxes an Ace on the flop like having pocket Kings. But then, right behind the Ace, came a Six, followed by the third King! Woot!!!

Two players checked to me, and I bet $6. The hottie blonde gal on my left insta-called, so I knew she had the Ace. Both other players called, too.

The turn was beautiful--a second Ace! That gave Miss Blondie trip Aces, but I now had Kings full. Oh hell yeah. Again it was checked to me. I bet $12, and the gal couldn't raise fast enough. The other two players folded, and then I re-raised. She thought for a moment, and then just called. That told me that she didn't have a Six, and probably had a weak kicker.

But then the river came out. The dealer who I'd popped in the no-limit game the week before, beating him with four-of-a-kind, a straight flush, and trip Aces over trip Kings, finally got his revenge. He put another Six out on the river, sabotaging my hand. My Kings full of Aces was worthless against my opponent's Ace-rag shiat hand which had suddenly turned into Aces full of Sixes gold.

F*CK.

I checked, she bet $12, and I mucked my cards face up for the entire table to see. Several players groaned when they saw the bad beat. Ugh. It was awful. That crippled me for several hours. I think I saw the dealer crack a faint smile, too...

Fortunately for me, I made a little bit of it back when I busted Blondie's boyfriend about a half hour later, but it took me another three or four hours of grinding away just to get back to even. Finally, around 5:00 o'clock this morning, I called it a night with a $60 profit. I was dead tired and the game was short-handed anyways, so there was no more money to be made. A couple of my buddies were there, so we hung out for a bit and had a beer once the game broke, but I was falling asleep in my chair, so I came on home, turning down the offer to go out to breakfast.

After I got home, I got a call from work telling me that I'd picked up the graveyard shift for tonight. That made me happy, as it's been a slow week for me. Our room has been busy, but people have been going to bed early or the big stacks have been dominating the no-limit games. So while everyone on swing shift was pocketing the cash, my graveyard shifts haven't been quite as good. So yeah, I'm very happy to get a shift tonight, although normally I'd rather be hanging out at the M trying to make a few hundred bucks in the no-limit game.

Anyhow, that's the news from here. There's really not much else going on this weekend--I think I'm working the next several days. So even if when the red wine and dark chocolate works it's magic, I won't be able to do a damn thing about it for awhile...

But I'm gonna wear my lucky Elvis boxers tonight, just in case.

Mikey