We hadn’t been running well at this particular casino.
Call it variance, call it bad play, call it poor bankroll management. But whatever you call it, the results didn’t lie. We had been recording losses here. And this had been going on for awhile.
But on a recent weekend, we came back with a fresh approach and reminder on strategy — play tight, play tough and play aggressive. And avoid the obvious mistakes.
There was a lighter moment as we wandered toward the poker room. A young man passed us in the opposite direction wearing a dark T-shirt that said only Comic Sans in a Comic Sans font.
How comically droll, we thought.
Regardless, we had a seat at table within about 20 minutes. Looked around and the lineup seemed fairly reasonable. A lot of regulars were there, a definite calling station was in his familiar seat and one tourist was playing too many hands. And drinking.
We won a few pots early, then our stack fell, and we had to rebuy. We chastised ourselves for making a couple of highly speculative preflop calls that hadn’t worked out.
Don’t get lucky, we reminded ourselves — play well and let luck take care of itself.
We had gone to a half-kill in this limit game and looked down to find Jh-Js staring back at us. We were in middle position, there had already been two calls so we flat called to see what developed behind us. Two more callers came along.
The dealer burned a card and the flop fell Jd-8d-2c. We’d flopped top set, a huge flop. But there was trouble lurking with two diamonds on board making a flush draw highly likely.
It was checked to us, and we led out with a bet. Two players, including the tourist, called behind.
The perfect turn card, we thought briefly, would be the diamond deuce. It would complete the flush draw but also give us a full house.
The dealer burned and turned. It was the diamond deuce.
With luck having taking care of itself, we decided to lead into one or more likely made flushes and see what happened.
The tourist didn’t hesitate to push out a raise. An older, white-haired man behind him called two bets cold.
Back to us, we have two options: Reraise here or wait until the river and trap both players with a check raise. We decide to wait until the river.
Once again, the dealer burned and turned. And the river brought a very scary card — the diamond queen.
So we’ve gone from a turned full house to holding the fourth nuts — behind a straight flush, four deuces and queens full. While all of those hands are unlikely, anything is possible in poker.
We still plan to check raise, but the tourist himself checks. But the older gentlemen leads out with a bet.
Keenly aware we’re holding fourth nuts, we check raise. The tourist quickly dumps and the older gentleman thinks for a second. If we get reraised, we’re going to learn very quickly where we stand, and it won’t be pretty.
But he merely calls, and we turn up jacks full. The older gentleman mucks and the dealer pushes us a huge pot. We tip him a chip, then “string tip” him another one. He smiles and pockets both.
It takes some time to rack up the chips, but we do it slowly and deliberately. A few minutes pass, we look up and find the older gentleman has left the game.
It’s a satisfying win and a long time coming. Which leaves us with one nagging question.
Where can you find a T-shirt that says Comic Sans in Comic Sans font?
