We are underway in a poker game at Red Rock Resort in the early afternoon on another day ending in “y.”
Two women are chatting amiably. A guy with a U.S. Marine shirt (Semper Fi!) is involved in many pots. Another guy in the No. 3 seat has a stack of green chips in front of. Right behind him is a super-aggro guy who takes breaks to smoke Marlboros and eat Hershey’s chocolate.I’m in the No. 5 seat and trying to find some rhythm in a game that runs between aggressive and loose. An older guy in the No. 2 seat gets up to leave and is replaced by an otherwise unremarkable middle-age guy with grayish hair and a sometimes revealing face. He wins a huge pot from the No. 3 seat when he goes all-in with the nut straight and the No. 3 seat calls with the second-nut straight. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
A few laps go by, and I dig into my pocket to bring my chip stack up to snuff. A new dealer sits down and flicks out the plastic cards. I peek down to see a red king. I slowly peel back the other card, and surprise, surprise, it’s the other red king. By some accounts, the court cards in a deck of playing cards have ties to history. Some accounts say the diamond king is based on Julius Caesar, and the the heart king is based on Charlemagne. Other accounts dismiss that and say playing cards are just playing cards. What-ever.
Regardless, I toss out an average-size raise of about 3x the big blind. It folds all the way back to the unremarkable guy in the No. 2 seat who calls. Well, we have action. Let’s see what the flop brings. I mostly watch the other players when the flop comes out. You can always check back to see what’s on the board, but the reaction from players is sometimes revealing.
But out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse the flop. It’s K-J-J. Whew, talk about an action flop. No. 2 seat checks, and I check behind. The turn card is an offsuit 8. This time, No. 2 seat leads out for $25. Could he have hit the jack? Very likely. Could he even have K-J? Let’s hope so. Is J-J for quads is also in his range. But let’s hope not. I call the $25 bet, and we have an decent-size pot building.
The dealer burns and turns, and a harmless 4 falls on the river. This time, the No. 2 seats leads out for two green chips. I think momentarily. Would he call an all-in bet with a jack? Maybe, maybe not. I count out some chips and decide a min raise of $50 plus another $15 would be a good price for someone sitting on a jack. I look at him. He looks at me. I slide my raise out past the betting ring. A hushed silence descends over the table. The two women who had been chatting turn eerily quiet.
And the No. 2 seat goes into the tank. Deep into the tank. He’s thinking and thinking and thinking. Does he have K-J and plan a reraise? Does he have J-J and just putting on an act before going all-in. We wait and see. And wait some more. Finally he flips out a single chip at announce a call. I table the two red kings for kings full of jacks. He smiles and shows Q-J. His three of a kind looked very good on the flop though he would have also lost to A-J, K-J and the second nuts, K-K.
Everyone at the table gasps at the two big hands. The two women buzz. The No. 2 seat flips out two more green chips for his call. I remind the dealer he owes me another $15, and he puts it out. Would he have called more? We’ll never know. Would he have called an all-in? We’ll never know that either. But a pot is a pot, and it’s always good to add chips to your stack.
And then the dealer digs out another hand from the automatic shuffle, and we play another round. I don’t even remember what I had, but I folded.
(The black kings also have historical ties by some accounts. The king of clubs is based on Alexander the Great, and the king of spades is based on King David. If they were around to see no-limit Texas hold’em played in a casino, they would probably be amazed.)
