One Night in Atlantic City
Part of my poker experiment this year was to take my money to Atlantic City and see how I did. My friends Mike and Ben picked up a sweet deal on a place up here for the July 4th Weekend, so I figured I'd give it a go. Poker's something I enjoy a great deal, and usually, I do pretty alright at it, so I figured, take out $300, play some cards and see what happened.
The answer to that lifelong question is that stupid people will in fact take your money and mean it.
I sat down at a 2/4 table (meaning, $2 blind, preflop and flop bets, $4 turn and river bets, it's limit poker, so you can only raise three times on any given round, making it somewhat solid poker, but not something you'll lose your shirt on right away. Perfect, just what I need to start off with.
We arrived at the Tropicana around 7, having taken in what little sights Atlantic City had to offer, and started playing cards. I put in $200 in chips, and Mike headed off to the 2/5 No Limit tables, and I sat in the six slot of a brand spanking new 2/4 table. Sitting in the Ace slot was a college kid who clearly knew what he was doing, we'll call him Senior. His neighbor in the deuce was not as clear, we'll call him Soph. In the trey slot was Cally McCalls, because he would literally not lay down his cards. The four slot was in and out most of the night, and never played worth attention. The five slot was Elaine, and then Sarah, both of whom played solid cards, fairly tight. I was in the six, and the seven began as the Freshman, a guy so unable to do mathematics it literally scared me. The eight was a Russian limo driver who vacillated between Cally McCalls and "I'm so very cryptic", leaving the nine slot to an older woman much like Elaine and Sarah. Her card said Gigi. She didn't play much, but it was clear that when she bet she wasn't fucking around, so it was best to fold, unless you were holding some stealth hand that could come and do damage that she couldn't see.
I watched most of the first two dozen hands. Stayed in with some decent hands, only to see them demolished into rags by flops that were the most craptacular run of cards this poker player has seen in consecutive hands. I'd pull a middle or high pair, only to see the board flop aces, and the lead position bet like it was their job. But I think the best hand of the night, the one that most epitomized the sort of cards I was playing went a little something like this:
Pre-Flop, I'm sitting in early position, holding the Ace of clubs and a 5 of spades. Figuring it's the first decent set of hole cards in two dealers' shifts, $2 is worth a flop. I call. Frosh calls, as does Sekrit Agent Man, Gigi folds, as does Senior. Sophomore decides it's time to play a hand and chips in. Cally McCalls pushes two and shifts in his seat (a sign that he had a least one decent card, probably a Q or a K), fourth seat folds, and fifth seat decides to check her big blind. Excellent.
The flop is one I was looking for: All Clubs. Jack, Eight, Ten. Wunderbar. I'm first to act, I open the betting with a $2 bet. Frosh calls, primarily because he is young, dumb and full of cum and he is trying to flirt with the cute girl in the short skirt that has come to watch him and Soph play. Sekrit Agent man folds, but Soph calls, and you can easily guess what Cally McCalls does. Fifth Seat, Sarah, calls and we continue.
The Turn: Six of Spades. Does no one any good. Raise 4. Frosh gives up, since the girl has gone to the bar, Soph calls, Cally calls, and Sarah looks at me, thinks and calls.
The River: the Nine of Clubs. Excellent. Nut straight. Wunderbar. Raise. Soph folds, and Cally calls and Sarah looks at me again. And she raises.
Fuck.
She has it.
She has the accursed Queen of Clubs that makes her straight flush. But I can't NOT call. Too many people have tried, in vain, to force people out of limit pots. This late in the hand, it just cannot be done. If someone has gotten this far on a decent set of cards, they're not going to lay down that easy. They're just not. So, stupidly, I call, and she flips over the Queen and the six of Clubs. She had the flush on the flop, but made her straight flush.
Hers was one of three straight flushes at our table in an hour. The statistical likelihood of seeing three straight flushes out of forty or so hands is fairly unlikely.
But such was the way the cards fell tonight, all for other people, frequently at my expense. KhKd in the big blind? Flop is 3 4 5 spade. Ad10d in the small blind, flop is 4 7 9 and Cally McCalls somehow bumbles into the straight with his 86.
Tonight was not my night. Perhaps tomorrow will be my day.
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