Aug 19 2008
Bad Timing With Two Good Hands
The Holy Grail of poker hands is the royal flush. It’s a 1 in 649,740 shot. When and if you ever see one you just hope and pray someone has something… ANYTHING to play with so you’ll win some kind of pot. (Exhibit A is this hand where Tony G flops a royal and has nothing to show for it).
I find myself in the small blind with 
. It’s an unraised pot and I while I really don’t like calling with this hand cause I typically either win a small pot or lose a big one (ominous foreshadowing). I call and the big blind checks behind me so we go to the flop 4 handed which comes:
I figure I’m in pretty good shape even against a flopped flush. I make a pot sized bet to try and scare some folks with no diamonds away. The big blind and the player to his left fold and the button goes all in for nearly all of my chips. Like I said before I figure I’m in pretty good shape but it’s relatively early in the tournament and I’d hate to be down so low so soon. I decide to go with my gut and make the call with my two overcards and nut flush draw.
The button turned over 
for an overpair and a flush draw of his own. The turn and the river brought blanks for my hand leaving me near the felt but on the button. The antes hadn’t kicked in yet so I figure at the very least I can play another round waiting for a good hand before I go broke. I’m already to the point where I’m low stack at the table so I know I’m going to get action from just about any ace if I move in. The action folds around to an aggressive player who makes a big raise. I look at my hand and see:
I’m still steaming a bit from my last beat but I know that the raiser is aggressive and I figure this is probably as good as it’s going to get in the next round before the blinds hit me so I move all in for less than the big blind (which is always so imposing). The blinds fold leaving me heads up with the raiser. After he takes back the portion of his bet that I can’t cover he flips over his hand:
which is actually right around where I figured he’d be.
The flop comes out and I’m feeling pretty damn good about my hand:
and it just keeps getting better from there. The turn comes a 
giving me a royal flush.
The river comes a 
giving my opponent a sucker straight that didn’t matter. So with my best hand of my life I collected a pot that still left me as the short stack at the table. Such is life… that’s poker! You can see a picture of the hand here.
See you after the flop!
