Take Me to the River

Jack of Diamonds
Jack of Diamonds, oh yeah
Jack of Diamonds is a hard card to find...

So... where have I been?

Vegas, baby. My friend Jeff and I headed out there for a mid-week weekend, and really made the most of it. We saw some magic shows, ate at some great restarants, and gambled our fool heads off. And the best part? We each won a poker tournament.

Now, Jeff's a good poker player -- he'd been practicing for years, and deserved his win. My win was more a fluke than anything else. Certainly it was as much luck as skill (It'd put the mix at 70-30 luck, at least), and it helped that it was a small tourney. The Paris poker room has a tournament every odd hour on the half hour (1:30, 3:30, 5:30, etc.), 24 hours a day. I'd played (and lost) in a few of them the day before, and wasn't planning to play in the 11:30 am one, but I noticed it was a small tourney (there wound up being 11 players; I think Jeff bested 19 in his win) and decided to enter (the entry fee is $65). Winner got 70% of the take (after fees and the casino's cut), and 2nd place got 30%.

It helps to start the tournament with pocket aces (what'd I say about luck?). I didn't get a lot of money out of it, but it gave me a slight chip lead right off the bat and made me comfortable in passing up questionable hands. I folded a lot of hands, playing really tight. And mostly, I let the other players take each other out of the game, but occasionally I won some decent hands, regaining the chip lead by the end of the game.

Finally it came down to three of us: me, my friend Jeff and another player. Jeff was the short stack (but wasn't in dire straits yet) and the other player had a decent amount, but less than me. I had an Ace-Jack, and thought it was a pretty decent hand. After what I thought was a pretty aggressive bet, the other guy went all-in. Then Jeff went all-in, too.

I probably should have stayed out of it. If the other guy won, Jeff would be out and I'd be in the money. If Jeff won, the other guy would be short-stacked and most likely out soon. And if they were both all-in, at least one of them was confident of their hand.

But I didn't think of all that. What I thought was that, whatever happened, I had the chip lead, and would still be alive after the hand. If I won, I'd win it all, and if the other guy won the hand, Jeff would be out and I'd be in the money. If both Jeff and the other guy beat me, I'd be pretty much hosed, but might be able to make a play if I got good cards. So I went all in.

My ace-jack was the worst hand on the table. The guy turned over pocket queens, and Jeff flipped pocket kings. It all came down to the community cards.

The flop gave me another jack, and some other stuff of no consequence. So I had a pair too, but the low pair. I needed an ace or another jack to win, while avoiding a king or queen, which would clinch it for one of them.

Nothing came up on the turn...and then the river gave me another jack. The Jack of Diamonds, which as any bluesman knows, is a hard card to find. A last-minute victory by the skin of my teeth -- it was like being Maverick.

Man, I'm flyin' high. Anyone wanna play?

Rob