The strangest cards can fall out of a 52-card deck.
Online at wsop.com, a middle-position raiser makes it three big blinds to call. He’s called by another player behind. Neither of these players have shown any remarkable moves and neither has gotten out of line.
I’m in the big blind with Qh-8h and decide to defend so we see the flop for nine big blinds.
It comes down A-A-4 rainbow.
Not the flop I was looking for and I quickly check. The raiser is apparently wary and also checks. And the player behinds him also checks.
There’s the electronic sound of the dealer burning a card and the turn is another ace.
I check. If anybody even rattles some chips, I’m history and ready for the next hand. In the virtual world, the next hand is always just a few seconds away. But the raiser checks and the player behind checks along.
Once again, there’s a burn card. The river falls and it’s the last ace in the deck.
You saw that coming, didn’t you?
“I got there,” I type in the chat box.
That elicits an “LOL” from one of the other players.
The fourth ace has counterfeited any small pocket pairs — if they were out there.
It goes check-check-check for the third time and the showdown goes very quickly at wsop.com. In fact, it turns out four aces with a queen kicker is a winner.
In “Guys and Dolls,” Sky Masterson says, “One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you’re going to wind up with an ear full of cider.”
If someone had bet me that Q-8 would emerge a small winner after all four aces would fall, I would have laughed. And ended up with an ear full of cider.
Even in a 52-card deck, the strangest cards can fall.
