Warning: poker content.

I hit the Commerce again last night and played more $100 buy-in No Limit Hold Em. I got off to a rocky start and was down to the felt within half an hour, but one re-buy and a few hours later I cashed out up $160. Not bad for a few hours’ work fun.

Best hand of the night:
A young Israeli kid here on vacation is at the other end of the table, doing well. He’s catching some good cards; in fact he just took down a nice pot with pocket Aces. He’s on a rush and has the chips to back it up. The cards come out for the next hand and I look down at AK offsuit. The kid looks at his cards and puts his rack in the middle of the table, going all-in.

Me with my AK, I have one of the best starting hands there is in Hold Em. It’s the kind of hand that — if you’re going to play it at all — you play it hard pre-flop: you push all-in with it. That way you maximize your winnings when it hits, and when it misses you can at least take consolation in knowing you played it the best you could. So when I saw that AK I really, really wanted to go all-in with it. But that damn kid beat me to it, which meant he probably had a pocket pair — maybe Aces — which made laying my hand down a sensible play. But AK is pretty much a coin toss against anything but AA because if an Ace falls it makes me top pair and beats his pocket pair. The kid had just had AA, so it was unlikely he had it again, and if he was just betting Ace-high then I had the best kicker. And now there was a ton of money in the pot and I had a good shot to take it. So …. what the hell. Coin toss to double up? I called.

He turned over Aces. Oh shit.

I was in big, big trouble. AA is the top pair, so having another Ace come out on the board to pair my Ace would give him three of a kind, still dominating me. Only two hands would save me: Two more Kings to give me three of a kind, or Queen-Jack-Ten to give me a straight. Both were astronomical long shots. I was dead.

The dealer dealt the cards. The flop came rag, rag, 10.
Then the turn was a Queen.
And as I stood up and chanted “Jack! Jack! Jack!” for the river, the dealer turned over…
a Jack.

I made my miracle straight.

The kid couldn’t believe it. He was livid. I was stunned. That was a $450 pot that should have been his but was suddenly mine. It was the epitome of a bad beat.

I felt really bad about it. But not bad enough to give his chips back.