We finally picked up our complimentary lucky medallions from Caesar’s Palace yesterday before playing some 2/4 at Imperial Palace. I think this gross oversight could be responsible for my not being a famous poker player yet. Hidden in my pocket, the medallion’s effect was tempered for all but the last several hands of the session, but radiating luck at even a fraction of capacity, it still willed me to victory. One fairly monster hand went roughly like this:
- I have J♥T♦, four or five people limp in, I follow suit in late position, and the blinds call. The flop is Q♣J♦5♥, giving me a fairly unimpressive middle pair with lowish kicker and crappy back door straight draw. In ultra-loose low stakes limit hold-em games the odds are right to try and get lucky (especially with a lucky medallion in your pocket), so i joined four or five other folks and called a $2 bet to see the turn card. T♣. Excellent! Someone would have to be pretty amazingly awful to have AK and not raise pre-flop, so that’s one straight combination I’m not overly concerned about. K9 and 89 for straights or QJ and QT for better two-pairs are possible, but not worth worrying about at this point. Someone bets, two people call, and I raise with everyone calling. Big pot. The river is the J♣, which is a fantastic card. It likely gives someone the flush they wanted while giving me an even better full house. The first guy leads out, next calls, the guy to my right raises, and I 3-bet. Only the guy to my right calls and he shows me the ace high flush. I could possibly have gotten one more bet into the pot if I had just called and let the other two players call behind me, but I think raising has more potential.
I hit a long cold spell but was still up a moderate amount when Anand decided to stand up from the table. I stayed for my free hands while the blinds were coming back around and pointed out to him that the lucky medallion was working, to which my neighbor said that I really ought to be wearing it. So I wore it the last few hands, and It’s full magic went to work on this, my fourth to last hand:
- The guy three to my right straddles, i.e. raises blindly and effectively becomes the third blind. The guy to his left 3-bets blind. There’s no name for that, I’ve never seen anyone do it, it’s an exceptionally ridiculous poker move, but it sure made things interesting. There is 13$ in the pot without anyone having even been dealt cards. Dealer deals and my neighbor folds while I remark that I hope I get something crappy so that I don’t have to get involved with this nonsense. K♣K♥ … not quite as crappy as I had in mind. I raise to $8. Very surprisingly, two people behind me call the $8. I have no idea what they could have had. Either the straddler or the blind 3-better caps it and everyone calls. This makes it 53$ in the pot pre-flop with five people still holding cards. The flop is A♣J♣6♣ and I’m briefly too disgusted about seeing the ace hit to realize I’m on a nut flush draw. The straddle bets and everyone but the guy to my left calls. I guess he had TT or something. Turn is the 3♦. Darn. Same guy bets and all call. River is the 3♣. Bingo! Well kinda; now full houses are possible. This time it’s checked to me, I bet, and straddle calls. I show him my K♣ for the flush, and he shows me his 2♣7♣ for the losing flush that he had flopped. Thanks lucky medallion!
My last hand I raised with a suited AJ of diamonds, four spades came, and I chalked it up in the L column. The guy didn’t show a spade, but had QT for two pair and the winning hand. Or so I thought, until the dealer called to me after I had stood up and started walking away. She asked “don’t you want your money?” “Uh, yes?” I had completely overlooked that I caught a runner-runner straight with my jack. Good thing I didn’t muck! Thanks again lucky medallion!
