Poker again tonight. After spending the early evening falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV, I decided at 10:30 that the sensible thing to do was to go play poker at the Commerce. And so I did.

I started out at the $100 No-Limit table where, in short order, I had my ass handed to me. After maybe 30 minutes in, I was down $200. I couldn’t catch a hand to save my life, and when I did catch one the other guy would out-draw me. It was fugly. The hand where I flopped two pair and raised it all the way down only to see the other guy make a flush on the river with his absolute garbage starting hand, well, that was the last straw. I called it a night after that and headed for the door.

But on the way to the door I passed an ATM machine. A sign, obviously. So I took out some more cash and sat down at the 4-8 Hold-em table. Go big or go home, as Beth would say, while cringing that I was opting for big after starting for home.

But not to worry, 4-8 was good to me. I won back the $200 I’d lost plus another $100 by the time I left, so I count that as a good night. Because let’s face it, any night when you stagger to the cashier holding four racks of chips to cash out is a good night, especially if you only bought in for one of them.

Best hand of the night is hard to pin down. Was it the one where I had AA vs KK and he kept reraising me on every round? Or was it when I bluffed the guy with top pair out of the pot on the river with just an $8 re-raise?

No, I think it was the hand where I played 5-7 offsuit just for the hell of it. The flop came 4-8-Q and I went ahead and called a raise along with two other players. Then a 6 came on the turn, giving me a stealth straight, and one guy raised and another guy called and I re-raised and the first guy called and then the second guy re-raised me and then called when I capped it! And on the river we played the raise / re-raise game until he turned over trip Queens and was absolutely stunned by my straight. There was a buttload of money in that pot when the dealer pushed it my way.

Suh, and also weet. I love poker sometimes. Maybe I need to get back to playing Limit more.