A Wild 30 Minutes

I've been playing a lot of live poker lately, and have seen my fair share of odd happenings at the table. I've even been involved in a couple of interesting hands that I probably should have written about. Still, I've never seen - or experienced - anything like the swing I went through last night. And it all happened in just 30 minutes.

I was playing in my usual 1-2-5 NL game with many of the usual suspects, and a few newbies who were helping keep the game interesting. That said, I really couldn't capitalize on very much because I was as card dead as I've been for the first four hours of the night. I played maybe three pots and felted the table's big fish once. Somehow though, I had turned my starting stack of 650 (my 500 buy-in plus 150 I won on blackjack earlier in the evening) into about 1,150 when the hand happened.

I picked up A-J suited, which was probably the third or fourth best hand I'd seen all night, and called the standard 15 euro raise. The flop came A-10-8 rainbow and I found myself in a three-way pot with fish-boy and the gambler to my right. Fish bet the flop and the gambler and I both called.

The turn brought a 7 and gambler led out for 200. I really thought he was stealing here and raised him another 300. He thought for a while and then reluctantly called. I wasn't happy. When the river brought a 6 and he checked, I immediately shoved for about 550 more hoping my tight image would drive him off the hand.

It almost worked.

I spent a very nervous 5 minutes watching the Giants find new ways to lose to the dreaded Patriots while he pondered his decision. I never looked his direction, even when he said to himself "You fool, why'd you call the raise if you weren't going to call the river." I kept my eyes glued to the TV while I silently wished him to drop his hand and let me take down the pot.

He didn't and I may have almost weeped when he shoved his chips into the middle. I turned back to the felt and tabled my A-J. He looked at the cards for a second before sheepishly turning up A-Q for the notch and the win. "I figured, what the hell, let's have a gamble," he said as he raked in my chips. "Good call," I said, somehow resisting the urge to strangle him.

My once lovely tower of chips was reduced to a measly 64 euros worth. I somehow consoled myself with the fact that most of what I lost in the hand was profit and figured I'd play out my stack before deciding to reload or not. As it turns out, it was a decision I never had to make, as I then began one of the most remarkable comebacks I've ever seen. And it all started with the mighty Hammer.

Yes, 7-2 off-suit sparked my resurrection. A couple of hands after my big loss, I picked up the Hammer and decided I may as well go out of the game in a true blaze of glory. So, when three players in front of me entered the pot for 15 euro each, I shoved all-in for my last 65. Fish boy called and everybody else dropped out.

The flop couldn't have been prettier. 9-8-6 rainbow. When the turn brought a 4 I almost laughed, and happily flipped my cards up after the brick on the river. I got ready to scoop the pot when fish boy revealed his hand - 7-3 off-suit - for the chop. "What the..." Oh well, I still made a little money on the deal. My stack was now up to about 110.

On the next hand, I picked up A-Q of spades, and again shoved all-in when the action came my way. Four callers later I smiled to myself on the Q-high flop. I smiled even more when the third Queen landed on the river, and I tabled my trips.

I won another small pot a couple of hands later and, in less than 20 minutes, I'd gone from being nearly felted to being almost 100 euro in the black. It was a pretty amazing turn-around, if I do say so myself, but the best was yet to come.

A couple of more uneventful hands passed by before I picked up pocket Jacks, which let's be honest, aren't really my favorite hand. When the UTG player raised to 25 and got called by the player to his left, I decided to channel my inner donkey, raising the action to 125. The rest of table folded, an both UTG and UTG + 1 called. Uh-oh.

I put UTG on a pair - possibly better than my Jacks - and UTG + 1 on A-K. When both players checked the 8-high flop, I figured I'd try and take the pot down right there, so I shoved. 445 euro into a pot of about 450. Bring it on.

And they did. Both of them.

UTG took about a minute before he threw his chips into the middle, and UTG + 1 took even less time. Now I was really worried. Someone had to be ahead of me. The turn brought a brick and the river made me smile when Jack number 3 hit the felt.

I turned up my hand and both of my opponents just shook their heads. UTG turned up pocket 10s and UTG + 1 threw his A-Q into the muck as 1,785 euro made their way from the center of the table into my hands.

I was back and better than ever - all in about 30 minutes of truly donkeyish play. Hee haw!

Happy New Year everyone, and may you too channel the power of the donkey in 2008.