A Big Payoff

Second biggest night ever for me in terms of dollars won. Biggest ever playing cash No Limit Hold Em. +$740. It's taken me a while to write about it, but finally I have some time after the busy past few weeks ...
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Started off not-so-good. I had been talking so much smack to Billy and our friend Jun about how well I was doing playing cash games at casinos, especially after such an extended hiatus. I was just cruising for a bruising at the poker table.

So after work on a Tuesday I took a ride from downtown to the Bike. I got there, waited a little bit for a seat to open up and watched as one of my sports bets for the day went up in flames. Just as I sat down, a 3-pointer was tossed up, giving the Bulls one last chance to cover the spread against the Lakers. But it was an airball. Symbolic of the Bike session to come.

Basically, over the next hour and a half, I played like I was in a hurry to leave and donked through $200. I paid off hands that bad beat me even when I already knew I had been had. I limp-re-raised with Ace-rag. I called all in before the flop with Q-J suited (I actually won that hand, but still). Just all around stinking it up -- and making a stink over it at the table.

Long story short -- I lost a few buy-ins in a blink.

So I left the Bicycle with my tail between my legs, wondering how I could allow myself to play so poorly – especially after doing so well of late. I started driving up the 710 N and saw a sign for the Commerce … and a chance for redemption. I wasn't ready to eat crow just yet. Pretty soon I was exiting the freeway and heading towards my poker home.

When I arrived, I decided to play some Stud. I was playing Hold ‘Em so poorly that I thought a game change would focus me. However, the wait for a Stud game was about 5 deep, and in a limit game players don’t exactly get felted every two minutes. On the other hand, the $2/3 Hold ‘Em board was completely empty. After waiting five minutes, I decided it was best just to get in whatever game was available and play the best poker I could.

After dropping my first $100 buy-in on the second hand I played, I began to fear my best poker might not be good enough. It seemed fairly obvious to me that my shot at the next level had failed, and that it was time to get back to $1/2 at the Hustler. I had just been stacked when a guy cracked my Queens, by calling my flop all-in with top pair (9s) and hitting his kicker on the river (an offsuit 6). It was time to go home now.

But I had another $100 buy-in in my wallet. And I wasn’t quite ready to admit defeat. I could salvage the evening if I won back even $1 of the $300 I had blown over the past hour and a half. So I rebought one last time, and confound me if that wasn’t one of the best poker moves of my career.

Suddenly, I just caught fire. The guy that had sucked out on me continued to call my huge value bets. I took one yellow stack off him, then another. There was one hand where he rebought $100 worth of chips, and while he waited lost an all in to me the very next hand. When the stack of yellow chips arrived, he gave a big smile and told the chip runner to just send them to me. My smile was twice the size of his.

Even better, the other players at the table didn’t seem to realize that I was playing ridiculously tight. No one seemed to believe my bets, and I got paid off time after time. One hand, I raised before the flop to $40 with A-K of spades. One limper called me. He checked when the flop came Queen high, and I bet $75. He called. The turn was a miss. We both checked. When the Ace hit on the river, and the board showed now straight or flush draws, I put him all in for $130. He called, and I tabled my pair of Aces. He mucked his cards in disgust. What could he possible have called with? I'll never know, but thanks for the chips, man.

But the biggest hand of the night was still to come. I had built my stack up to about $575, and even though most of it was only making back the $400 I had bought in for between the Bike and here, it still felt nice to look at that full rack of $5 chips. I had seen others with such stacks in the past, and always felt a bit of envy. It felt great to finally join that crowd. Besides, even though I was only up $175 on the night, I was up $475 on my last buy-in. So in those terms, things were going great.

Anyway, back to that big hand. Basically, there was one other guy at the table with a bigger stack than me, and I had only seen him play two hands in about ten rounds of action. Both of these he had folded on the flop. He was pretty much sitting on about $900 and not doing anything with it. Well, in the last 15 or so hands leading up to this one, he had suddenly become more active -- betting at pots and calling down with pairs. He went after about half the pots in that 15-hand period, and won all of them. Three he showed down, and these had all been the nuts or close. I was winning the ones he wasn't. We were more or less avoiding one another by silent agreement. We were the big stacks, and clearly the better players. We didn't say it aloud, but we both realized there was plenty of easy money flowing to stay away from the tough money. All that was about to change, however.

Well, I had openly complained to the table about not hitting a set in "forever," so I was basically seeing all flops when I held pocket pairs, figuring I was due to hit one sooner or later. Finally, I pick up 10s in the big blind. Big Stack is third to act, and after a limp and a fold pops it up to $20 (we're playing $2/3). The table folds back to me, I call, and the limper folds.

The flop is beautiful: Ks-Kh-Th. Flush draw, straight draws, big pairs and trips are possible ... any hand that a tight player like him raised so big with probably likes this flop. And I like it even more, for obvious reasons. I glance at the guy's stack (Jun says this is my tell, but Big Stack doesn't know it) and start trying to figure out how I can get as many of his chips as possible from over there to over here. I'm hoping, begging, praying that he has a King (but not pocket Kings :-P). Ace-King would be perfect. I realize that if I check, he may check as well and wait for me to catch up to his monster. Then I won't get the full value. I want to make a significant bet -- one that will signal I have a strong enough hand to bet into a board like that. I want him to put me on Aces, or Queens, or best of all King-Queen. I want him to sense the opportunity to stack me and not be able to pass it up (even though we've stayed away from each other until now).

I need to make a bet that he can't help raising the crap out of.

The pot is $44. I bet $35. He looks at me for a long moment, no doubt wondering if (hoping that) I have a weaker King than his. He raises to $100, and then I know it's over. He's holding Ace-King, and he smells blood. Got him.

I take my time. I stare at him, so hard that he puts on his sunglasses. I mutter to myself (but just loud enough for him to hear), "No way he has Ace King ... this would be sick if he did ... I can't put him on that ... I think I'm good here ... Are we gonna chop this pot? ... He doesn't have Ace-King." I move in, and he calls instantly. Ace-King of clubs. I table my full boat. Two other players assure me that they folded an Ace each, so I just have to dodge his single out. The turn misses. The river misses.

Euphoria.

The game got broken after that, and I'm looking at a stack of $1140 (after tipping the dealer, of course). Now I had two full racks of yellow. At that moment I wished I'd had my phone on me so I could snap a pic like Ship-It does. Only once before had I seen a stack this big in front of me, and that was playing Stud. My Hold Em confidence was restored, and my wallet was smiling. So was I.