Daily Archives: January 20, 2007

Somewhere it is written that “Maudie shalt not leave any structure that is considered to be a casino with more money than she possesses upon entering said casino.”

A little while ago I cashed out of a 1.2 no-limit game, a little dazed and incredulous at what had just gone down at table eight at the Gold Strike casino in Tunica, Mississippi.

When The Hand was dealt, my stack was sitting just north of $800. I’d very carefully nursed that stack to it’s current state. The stacks of reds sitting neatly atop two crisp one-hundred dollar bills. I’d dug in and was determined to keep it healthy.

This had been an habitually passive table – rarely did we see a pre-flop raise. This hand -The Hand – was no different – I called the limpers with my JT offsuit.

The flop was AKQ rainbow. A Crusty Older Gentleman, who’d only sat down a few hands earlier, bet out $50. That got the others in the hand out. I paused, then min-raised to $100 (stop your groaning – this was standard for the table, plus I’m still learning the finer points of no-limit cash games and… ok, I’ll stop with the excuses…).

Crusty Older Gentleman popped it to $350. At this point I felt it necessary to check my cards to be sure that I did, indeed, have the nuts. I lifted up the corners of my cards and, yes, they were still a jack and a ten.

They snapped back to felt (actually, it was more like velvet instead of felt, dark, dark green velvet that makes it easy to flick your cards into the muck because there’s less friction with velvet than there is with felt, but I digress) and without further hesitation, I announced “I’m all in.”

I figured he may have the straight as well, but his pause after my announcement belied that notion. Now I thought he would fold, but instead he asked the dealer how much it was going to be for him to call.

He put a few $100 bills out along with the remainder of his chips (cash on the table plays here in Tunica) – the pot was a tad over $1600. Sixteen hundred dollars. One thousand six hundred dollars. And change.

I heard COG say he was needing a queen as he flipped over AQ. The turn came a king and I think I stopped breathing, the river was a blank and so was I for a moment before realising that monster pot was being pushed my way.

I wanted to be cool about it, to pretend that this was just another pot, la di da, ho-hum, move along now. But not even all my years of training and chops as an actor could stop my hands from shaking or supress the silly grin from my face.

That felt so good. So godamm good. So “this is what it’s all about” good!

An orbit later I cashed out – satisfied. Satisfied with the win. Satisfied that I played well – not great – but well. I know I’m still hovering around level one to one and a half thinking in the no-limit cash arena and that there’s still a steep hill to climb, however I’ve been given a much needed shot of encouragement.

Somewhere it is written “Maudie shalt not shall, on occassion, be allowed to leave any structure that is considered to be a casino with more money than she possesses upon entering said casino.”

About damn time.

In the interest of full disclosure, if not for the razor sharp memory of BadBlood, who was witness to The Hand, I would not have been able to recount the progress of The Hand because, well, I was stupified… yup.

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