Jan 29, 2007

The Wild Card

I was left with two options: I could stay at home and study Water Law, or I could go out with some friends and play Texas Hold-Em at a local watering hole.

What do you think I did?

OF COURSE I chose to play Texas Hold-Em. It was a great choice, too!

But not initially. I am a newish poker player. My experience at Texas Hold-Em has been limited to watching Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo and playing Hold-Em on my computer. It was the first time I had sat down with ACTUAL opponents.

I was full of tells. I couldn't stop giggling or laughing. I kept fidgeting. I kept looking at my cards. The other players were reading me like a book, nicknaming me "The Broke Lawyer," due to my inability to keep a good poker face going on. I was losing my money faster than I ever thought possible.

However, I did have one thing working for me at the poker table: I was a wild card. No one knew exactly what was up my sleeve. I had established myself as a bluffer pretty early in the game (Not by choice-- I actually thought I had a shot at the cards when my "shot" was about as good as the odds on a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.)

I was down to very few chips at this point in the game. I was the short stack at the table. And then a miracle happened: I was dealt a pair of fives. (I know-- nothing to scream over, but I'm not done with the story yet...) The flop came: Another five went down. I pushed in half of my chips at this point. Being established as a bluffer, everyone called me. The turn went down: A five. At this point, all my chips went in. Again, as I had previously lost a good chunk of money (at least for me) everyone called my bluff. One of the players at the table commented to me (rather cockily, I thought) "Lawyer, there is no way in hell that you have a pair of fives."

Everyone turned over their cards: I had the pair of fives. The river didn't matter, as the other cards were so sporatic that no one had a chance for a straight flush. Obviously, I took down the pot and left about $50 richer.

Could I have made $50 studying Water Law? Yeah, I didn't think so, either.

3 Comments:

At January 29, 2007 10:13 PM, Blogger angela said...

Awesome! I haven't played Hold 'Em in forever... now I feel like going gambling.

 
At February 15, 2007 3:19 PM, Blogger J.U. said...

I played Texas Hold-Em once. I decided to fold since I had a lousy hand (a 2 of Clubs and a 10 of Spades). Guess what happens. The cards that show up are as follows:
2 of Hearts
10 of Diamonds
2 of Diamonds
10 of Clubs
2 of Spades

I was cursing so loudly when I saw what cards came up as I could have had a four of a kind.

 
At February 19, 2007 1:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

10-2 is Doyle Brunson's hand. Always play Doyle's hand.

 

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