Oh No, There Goes Tokyo…

…Go, go, Quadzilla! Yep, this lizard can swallow big boats with a single gulp, and he proved it again Tuesday night.

About, oh, 27 years ago (or so it seems) Charles had an operation on his, um, nether regions, and we’ve been hearing about the pain he’s in ever since. I’ve been telling him that it’s nothing compared to the pain he’ll be feeling at the poker table, but you how stubborn old people can be…

After a pretty juicy night of 5/10 NLO8 (Omaha High/Low – 8 or Better), the crowd thinned down to just three of us – Charles, Bill and me. When we get down to four or less we normally move to 5/10 Omaha (High Only). So that’s what we’re playing when I look down at 3-5-5-6 (suits are unimportant), and we see a flop of Q-5-4.

I like the flop, of course, as I have middle set and an open-end straight draw. Charles and I both have fairly deep stacks, and I have him covered. I not sure I remember the exact bet amounts, but I believe Charles raises the pot (already sweetened by a straddle) to $150. I raise to $400, and Charles moves in for an additional $1,300-1,400 or so.

You can bet your first-born child that the only thing Charles is doing this with is top set. If all I have is the one-outer fives, it's a pretty easy laydown. The open-end gives me an additional eight outs, however, so assuming he has queens, I’m pretty much right at a 2:1 dog. Normally these decisions, for me, are mostly driven by the math, and the $900 or so in the pot means I’m not getting the right price. Buuuuuut, I've been running really well lately - it’s been a good night and a great few months. I'm in the mood to gamble a bit, and I decide to give him some action and call. He immediately grimaces and says that he didn’t want a call.

He turns over something like Q-Q-10-9, and we strap ourselves in for a quick, exciting ride around the turn and down the river. The river ends up being a bit anticlimactic, as Mikey (our dealer) brings forth the intense pain on the turn in the form of the case 5! The river brings a harmless 10 (what, no case queen?!) and I rake in all of his chippies.

I must admit to being a bit disappointed, as initially Charles was too much in shock for the usual whining about how unlucky he is, how I must have been born with a horseshoe up my butt, etc. Hearing a losing player carp, bitch and groan is usually more rewarding to me than the money, and here I was about to lose out on the best part of sucking out on someone. He finally threw me a small bone, however, when he started sniveling about the one-outer. As I pointed out that it was a nine-outer, he threw out the instant classic “You keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better” and kept whining about the one-outer.

It wasn’t quite as classic as his line from a couple weeks ago, when the board showed a flush on the river, and he tried (unsuccessfully, surprisingly) to bluff at it with the “Nekkid queen.” The whole table was rolling on the floor, and he was looking around with that look like “What?” Charles scared us all when he told us a couple weeks ago that he was going to take a break from the game for a while. Charles, I’m glad you changed your mind, ‘cause I’d hate to have to go out and get another job!

See ya at the tables…
Rick