Aces, Poker This Time

There's one starting hand every poker player wants. Most have a hand they have some unexplainable affection for, usually stemming from a lucky hand they won once. But that's not smart poker. Only one hand are you hoping for every time you check your hole cards.

Last night I was playing in a 19 man tournament, and I was among the final three. To my left I had Mr. Aggressive, the guy went all-in pre-flop with a chip lead anytime he had a face card. To my right was the chip leader, I was in second, and he kind of just went with his gut feeling on some hands. He played a 2-3 suited against me when I raised. On this particular hand, I was the button. I look down and lift the corners on my two cards. I see one, then the other. Thank you poker gods. It's the dream hand. A-A. American Airlines. Bullets. Pocket aces. So I just call the big blind hoping that one of the other two will raise. I get my wish from Mr. Aggressive. He goes all-in for 55k. Our other player folds and I call immediately and flip over my Aces.

He flips over an Ace-Jack of hearts. Perfect! I have the hand owned right now. Only thing I kind of hoped he didn't have was a pocket pair of his own, then he only needs one card to hit to take the lead. With Ace-Jack, his ace is essentially dead in the water. If an ace hits, I have three of a kind. So, at the very least he needs two cards to get lucky. He could get two jacks, then his three jacks would have the lead. Leaving me with some outs still. Or he needs three running cards to either make a straight, or a flush.

The flop comes, and damn my luck, there's two hearts. I just went from about an 80% favorite to win the hand, to a little over 50%. I'm not liking this. The turn comes. Crap, it's a heart. He made his flush. Now, to make things interesting that card paired the board. Meaning, I still have a chance to win the hand. Just 10% or so but, a six or another ace would give me a full house. And a huge chip lead going heads up for $240. No such luck on the river, it's a complete blank.

The words of Teddy KGB come to mind right away, "Mr son-uv-a-beeech!"

On one hand, I can't really be mad. I played the hand correctly. There is no doubt about it. In poker, you want to get your money in when you have the best hand. You may not always want someone else in the hand but, that's the goal. It's just as Mike McD said in Rounders. But luck does come into play. For me, it was bad luck. For him, it was amazing luck. So on the other hand, I'm furious that I got so un-lucky. I got kicked square in the testies. They are still somewhere in my abdomen, I hope they drop back down soon.