March 22, 2004
The river
Sometimes the river in poker just screams at you: I HATE YOU.
For instance, I was holding pocket 55s and off the flop (866) the person before me goes all-in. I have him read for some sort of draw and follow with the pocket 55s. He's on a diamond draw ... and the turn and river come 6-8.
We split the pot. The dude dodges a bullet. I'm pretty annoyed that I had made the proper call and the guy managed to get the pot split.
Now, the next hand, I pick up A7 suited (spades). The flop comes K48 (spades). I have picked up the nut flush (but not the nuts, as you will soon find out). This guy bets big off the flop. I simply call. The next card comes up (garbage). He raises big; I reraise him all-in. He calls.
He's got K4... so he picked up two pair. I am a statistical probability to win this hand (he needs 1 of 4 cards to come off on the river ...) ... and he picks up a 4 on the river. He picked up a boat.
Earlier, I had two consecutive hands that were similar to this. First hand, I pick up QJ suited and pick up the J off the flop; I bet big, and three people follow with calls and reraises. Realizing that I would probably be beat with a higher kicker ... I find out I'm right. The person immediately before me had the K kicker. I only lost about 1/10 of my chips, but this story is an interesting precursor to the next hand.
The next hand I pick up 83 of diamonds off the big blind; there are no raises, so I simply check. Lo and behold, I pick up the flush off the flop. Well, to cut a long story short, someone else ends up having the 9-high flush. Really a killer.
But, I've gotten better at taking bad beats. Maybe I'm just getting more experienced with poker, but I realize this is a game of odds and statistics ... and sometimes the improbabilities *do* happen.
But I am definitely getting better. Last Thursday, I ended up playing 10 heads-up matches (4 against Bobby, 1 against Pete, 1 against Godwin, and 4 against John Moon). I won 8 of these... so my skills are definitely getting honed ;)
I also went over to Duke over Spring Break and did pretty well. Actually I felt really bad towards the end that I was taking most their money so I lost some of it back so they wouldn't be entirely pissed at me...
For instance, I was holding pocket 55s and off the flop (866) the person before me goes all-in. I have him read for some sort of draw and follow with the pocket 55s. He's on a diamond draw ... and the turn and river come 6-8.
We split the pot. The dude dodges a bullet. I'm pretty annoyed that I had made the proper call and the guy managed to get the pot split.
Now, the next hand, I pick up A7 suited (spades). The flop comes K48 (spades). I have picked up the nut flush (but not the nuts, as you will soon find out). This guy bets big off the flop. I simply call. The next card comes up (garbage). He raises big; I reraise him all-in. He calls.
He's got K4... so he picked up two pair. I am a statistical probability to win this hand (he needs 1 of 4 cards to come off on the river ...) ... and he picks up a 4 on the river. He picked up a boat.
Earlier, I had two consecutive hands that were similar to this. First hand, I pick up QJ suited and pick up the J off the flop; I bet big, and three people follow with calls and reraises. Realizing that I would probably be beat with a higher kicker ... I find out I'm right. The person immediately before me had the K kicker. I only lost about 1/10 of my chips, but this story is an interesting precursor to the next hand.
The next hand I pick up 83 of diamonds off the big blind; there are no raises, so I simply check. Lo and behold, I pick up the flush off the flop. Well, to cut a long story short, someone else ends up having the 9-high flush. Really a killer.
But, I've gotten better at taking bad beats. Maybe I'm just getting more experienced with poker, but I realize this is a game of odds and statistics ... and sometimes the improbabilities *do* happen.
But I am definitely getting better. Last Thursday, I ended up playing 10 heads-up matches (4 against Bobby, 1 against Pete, 1 against Godwin, and 4 against John Moon). I won 8 of these... so my skills are definitely getting honed ;)
I also went over to Duke over Spring Break and did pretty well. Actually I felt really bad towards the end that I was taking most their money so I lost some of it back so they wouldn't be entirely pissed at me...
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