My biggest payoff to date.

Last night, I walked into the Commerce Casino with $145 in my wallet.

I walked out with $1,166.

And no, I didn't get lucky at blackjack.

I went in and played $4-8 7-Card Stud, same as I always do. For a while, I was down. My table was too tough for me, the players too savvy. I lost about $50 bucks there. Then, the player next to me had second thoughts about the table change she requested, and I saw my opportunity. I took the table change in her stead, and wow, what a great decision.

Talk about game selection.

The first hand at the new table, I make trip kings on 4th St, and I bet it the whole way, only to get raised on 6th St. Turns out the raiser made two pair, and was lucky enough to fill her boat on the river. So I start steaming a little bit, muttering just loud enough for her to hear me call her a chaser and a loser. I'm down to $20 left of my $100 buy in. I reach into my wallet and pull out my last $45. It turned out I wouldn't need it.

(Well, let me pause for a minute to clarify. I don't want to over-dramatize the situation. It wasn't really my last $45 -- I could have gone to the ATM if necessary and taken out whatever I needed. But I feel like going to the ATM just kills your table image. Makes you look like a loser. So I generally limit myself to what's in my wallet. Okay, back to the story).

The next hand, I bet my hand the whole way with Kings and 9s, and the same lady chases me down. I check the river in case she did it to me again, and she bets. I make a crying call, and she turns over Jacks and 3s, and I take down a nice-sized pot.

A few hands later, I take down another. And another. The odds on my hands hold up for me long enough for me to reach $300. I'm feeling unstoppable at this point. I get a little more aggressive, still with strong hands, and I get bad beat for 3 pots in a row to take me down to $170. I tell myself if I get down to $150, I'll settle for the $50 profit on the night and just lick my wounds at home.

Getting down to $150 turned out to be a non-issue. Over the next hour, I started winning more than my fair share of pots, and large ones. I took over $300 off one guy alone. I almost felt bad for him. He was sitting on my immediate right. That is, he was sitting there until I felted him a few times. But I had to bully him ... he totally had all the signs of a chronic loser. Shoulders were slumped. Didn't say a word when he got bad beat ... just accepted it as the normal course of things. I re-raised him with ace high on 5th St when he had a pair showing, because I just knew I could catch my guthot. That's how bad his luck was running -- and how good mine was. As a player, you have to recognize that both good and back luck tend to come in streaks. A 4 on the river gave me my wheel, and I broke him.

That's how the night went, from that point on. I would start with three suited cards, and hit the ace-high flush every time. If I made two pair early, they would hold up against multiple chasers. I would call down with a baby pair and hit trips on 6th St or the river. And I knew I was running good when the dealer gave me rolled up 4s. My main competition at the table, a middle-aged lady, picked up deuces full on 5th St. (Jeez!) and I filled up on the river to break her as well.

Eventually, I got tired of reaching over 5 racks of blue chips, got tired of shuffling six white chips, and decided to call it a night. I didn't think it could possibly get much better at the $4-8 tables; my luck was destined to run dry at some point. So I cashed out, and damn, did it feel good to see the cashier laying out all those Benjamins.