While I was going to Bojangles (my favorite fast food place in the world) for some dinner, I called up hao cause i hadn't seen him in a while. He invited me over to his new house (he moved about 5 minutes down the road to a NICE big house). We hung out for a while .... but as I was leaving (I was OUT THE DOOR!) he brought out the cards and chips and tempted me to play some poke her. No limit Texas hold 'em. ARGH! MY KRYPTONITE!

So we played heads up Texas Hold 'em. We've figured out a good way to play so it's fun and long-lasting without losing too much money - we get $20 worth of chips ... but you *have* to take the other person's chips. Once you do, you win ... a total of ... $3!!!!. Yeah, it's not much, but we really play for fun and to get better.

So the first two rounds I beat Hao pretty easily. $6, baby! (For the record, I've taken at least $24 off of Hao off of these $3 games) Then he goes, "Alright, let's go double or nothing."

Now note that the first two rounds had lasted a combined total of maybe an hour ... so I agreed. Judy had called me and I wanted to call her back within an hour and I figured I could finish a round of Texas Hold 'Em in an hour.

Oh boy, was I wrong.

The last round was fought tooth and nail. There was a lot of inaction (he was playing pretty tight), but when there was action, things got pretty interesting. At one point, Hao had gone all in (like $7) ... and I doubled him up. Then I was down to my last $5 and I came back up $20. We kept swinging at each other, unable to knock each other out.

After about an hour half of grueling play, I got the golden hand. I opened up with a 10/9 offsuit while Hao had opened with 9/? (I forget his second hand, but they were both suited spades).

The flop came: two spades on the flop with a 10. At this point, Hao had a flush draw and I had a pair of tens. Lovely. On the turn I picked up another 10 (no spades). At this point, it was a tossup between us; Hao had a flush draw and I had a solid three-of-a-kind. He still had a lot of outs. We both raised the pot about $5 at this point... and then we both waited for the river.

Lo and behold, it was a 9 of spades. This gave Hao a flush, but it gave ME a full house (10s over 9s). I went all in, and he fell for it. Amazing play.

What a way to end the game. A fullhouse has odds of something like 1/700, while a flush has odds of something like 1/500.

Great game, Hao. I'm really learning the intricacies of poker and am becoming more bold with betting and bluffing. I also have a pretty good read on Hao now ... mwahahahah.