The Good & The Bad....

There is nothing quite like the poker feeling when you mentally put someone on a hand, follow-through with the hand to the end and find it to be correct. And, in reverse, how painful is it when you put someone on a hand, follow through with the hand to the end and find the proctologist standing there.... no glove, no lube, no dinner, no kiss.... just the, as Chevy Chase quipped in FLETCH, "Moon River."

Friday night in Cary, I've got an interesting hand, Kd, 2d, Kc, 3c and the flop gives me my needed Ace, a 4x and I remember correctly a 9x. I believe that everyone checked the flop and the turn brought us a 7x. I believe it was Brendan who led out with a pot sized bet of about $30, I called and Rick called. As soon as he bet, it was a pretty easy process to put him on the nut low. I called and Rick called. The river was another middle card, I think maybe an 8 or 10. Rick leads out with... "I'm all-in" but he actually still had about $108 or so left over (important fact, but I missed it), Brendan called the $250 bet by Rick and I moved all-in with another $350 or so, Rick made a crying call with his last $108 and Brendan called. Everyone knew that someone was going to get quartered, but until the cards were turned up, no one really knew who. I had put Rick on the high and Brendan on the nut low. I had the nut low and pocket Kings. I pushed all-in thinking that Rick was out of chips and that if Brendan called I would quarter him and basically take half of his remaining chips. I was right and I think that had Rick had a lot more chips he may folded his two pair thinking that I had him beat. Rick was definitely the big winner in that pot, but I made money thanks to my re-raise all-in from Brendan and the side pot. There was a little table talk about it for a few minutes, but I think that everyone understood the move.

The bad came a little later when I ran into Raj. Frank raised the pot pre-flop to about $40 leaving him only about $25 or so behind. Raj and I make the call. I'm holding Ax, 4x, 5x, 6x and the flop is 2h, 3x, 9x. Raj leads out with a bet hoping I guess hoping that I will just go away, but I smooth call. The turn is the 10h and Raj pots it. Now there's about $250 or so in a side pot between Raj and I. I felt that Raj had a set and was just trying to bet me out of the pot. The river is the card that Rick describes as .... if there is a card that will cost you money, it'll come!" and there it was, the 5h giving me the wheel and a 6 high straight. So I push all-in! Raj takes about 5 minutes squirming around which was making me feel as if I had made the right move and had him beat and maybe even a scooper. He finally calls and turns over the nut low with the second nut flush! Wow! I couldn't get over the deliberation! If I had that hand, I would have re-raised my opponents all-in... LOL. A monster. He said that he thought that I might have had the Ah, 4h. Nope, only Rick has cards like that! LOL. So Frank turned over the Ah, 10h and quartered Raj and I in the main pot and Raj quartered me in the side pot and took a mountain of chips away from me!

We had a good table and quite a bit of action considering some of the real action players were MIA.

Oh well... back to the felt!