On my birthday, my gift from my wife was that I can play in the evening poker game. After receiving her blessings, I half jokingly touted that I was coming home with the winnings. Our games usually run until 8pm or beyond so when I called her around 7:40 and told her I was coming home, she didn’t broach the subject of who won. Only after getting home and spending a few minutes talking to her about it did she realize that I had won.

What a win it was, after starting the game with a bad chase, I gave up almost half my chips to Vivek. After licking my wounds and playing a few choice hands here and there, I had a fighting chance at staying in the game. One hand, I got a big blind special with a T3 , after some hard calls, I was made a set of 3s on the river and took down a sizeable pot. Manish unfortunately was the hand leader with KKs until the river. Some mediocre hands later, with the button on Mike, Sentil was forced all in for 550 at the SB and Manish put in about a quarter of his stack for the 1600 BB. Vivek folded and Fred (thanks for coming Fred, it meant a lot to me) called. Glancing down at my hand, I spotted AA peeking back at me and my heart skipped a few beats. Fighting down my usual urge to jump the gun and push all-in, I put on my best performance and glanced at my cards some more before raising to 3200. Mike was in a tough position and asked if I had an A, I couldn’t look directly at him for fear of giving away my hand strength (Although I did want to tell him not to call). After pushing all-in for ~ 2200, Manish thought a bit and called my raise while Fred folded (can’t blame him with so many people in the pot). The flop came J4K rainbows and Manish checked to me. At this point, I was hoping he had made a pair and pushed all in. Thinking quickly, he called and turned over QT with the open-ended straight draw.

We turned over our cards and both Mike (AT) and Manish (QT) were devastated after seeing my AAs. Sentil had (J4) giving him Jacks up and the chance at continuing. The turn was an uneventful 7, and the river came another K. … Wow. I could hardly believe that the board was so good for me. I win all three pots with my Aces and Kings to take about 90% of the available chips. Let’s take a look real quick at the hand. Manish had an open ended straight, but with Mike’s earlier question of if I had an Ace, he might have concluded that Mike would have one himself or perhaps a K at the least (which my Ace would have beaten). With my two Aces and Mikes, Manish had only 5 outs. We also learned later that Fred folded the other Ace. Mike had only 4 outs after the flop (3 if you count Manish’s hand) but he was in preflop.

After this monster hand, I threw away an 89 offsuit (which after the rabbit hunt, turned out was a great decision). The very next hand, with Vivek in the SB and Fred in the BB, I called with JT on the button. The flop was Q49, Vivek checked to Fred and I raised. Vivek called all-in and Fred folded his pair. I called with the open-ended straight and Vivek turned over J7 (it was either a 7 or 9). The turn was a 4 and the river completed my straight with a K. At this point, I had 95%-97% of the chips and Fred graciously surrendered to take second place.

What a game to remember huh? See you all next time!

-Huey