He had five times the chips.

 

12 hands later, I am down to about 30. 

 

He has NINETEEN times the chips.

My buddy calls me up at 6pm for some poker. Since I have the house to myself for the next 2 weeks, I offered to host it. He said about 6 people would be there. 3 hours later, there's 10 playing for $10 each. We split into two tables. $100 pot: $80 for the winner, $20 for second. 60 chips each, singles. At my table is Mark, Doug, George, and Ibrahim (one of these things...). The other table has Charlie, Peter, Adam, Ibs friend, and Shane (Adam being the only white guy at the table - it was a random draw )

I've played with Mark and Doug several times before; Mark is a very tight player, but very good in his own right; Doug is good but not great. First two hands Ib. takes it with a straight and a flush consequtively. He plays smart, knows the angles and how to bet. I am very scared. You see, IMHO, I am a great poker player. I see the angles, I know how much to bet and when, I usually can tell what the guy across from me has... however... I lack... balls.

I see the angles, I know how to play them (Check, Check, Check, Check - it's on me... hmm... I should put out a small bet to test the waters and weed out those who have the cards and those who don't...), but I usually don't play them (...so I check as well). I've shown signs of brilliance - right down to the perfect performance to get more money in the pot when I have the nuts. I can go from playing like Gus Hansen, to playing like, well, Mark. I wear Sunglasses at the table fer crissakes. But, in the end, after about 20-25 games played over the past year (I play about once a week), I still haven't won a game.

Now, we play for $5 usually, so it's not a huge loss. I've played for $10 a handful of times (maybe 3 of those 20 times), so in total I would say I've lost a little under $100 playing. I usually justify it, and continue playing despite the frequent losses, as "having fun". Games usually go on for 3-4 hours, lots of gabbing at the table, jokes, good times. For five bucks, it's worth the fun. As good, or even better, than any movie in theatres. I rarely ever am first out, and usually come in second or third. The more people, the better I am (because the more free cards I get).

Back to the game.

I am down to about 50 after a few hands. I bluff myself 20 extra chips. The next hand I get pocket 10's. Now, next to 3/4 suited, 10's are my favourites. I get aggressive right away and George follows suit. We basically gun it out till I have half my stack in there. He shows his, I show mine. He has KK. I say fuck. The board had an ace and a queen on there, if I had played stronger when the ace showed up I could have taken it, but I was foolish. I played it like I had two tens. After this, I start playing conservatively. Winning some hands, folding most. The other table lost 2 players, so we had to give up George. Turn of the tide.

One of the biggest hands at the table came down to me and Ib. I had ace queen. I play it like I have it. He plays it strong too. Flop has an ace. I bet big, he calls it. The turn has a Queen. In my mind, I am untouchable. But I don't play it all that strongly. Flop comes, I bet, he reraises huge (calls me all in), I call and flip my nuts on the table and take the pot. Shortly after, George was out at the other table and we merge. I have about 120 in chips, feeling very confident. The rest of my table had about 20-40 each. In my mind, I was thinking "I might go into this table as chip leader!"

We show up at the other table and Adam has about 300 in chips - HALF OF THE ENTIRE POT! It is disgusting. I've played Adam before - he's really good, but I've been able to get the better of him before (2/3 suited, all in before the flop, for the flush). But now, the odds are certainly against US. Peter had about the same amount of chips as I, and Peter is a good player as well. I played heads up against him a few games before and was able to bust him up pretty well and mess with his head before deciding to split the pot. I was sitting the the left of Adam, which meant he had the advantage in betting. Not a good position to be in.

Ib gets taken out first by Adam. Then Mark goes shortly after. I am able to take Doug out with A-5 suited. He had A-6 unsuited. I manage to pick up a 5 on the river and build my stack up a lil. Peter is down to about 20 chips, and goes after a few hands. Heads up time, me vs. Adam. I have about 100 chips. He has 500.

He had five times the chips.

12 hands later, I am down to about 30.

He has NINETEEN times the chips.

What happened was pretty simple - I got shit cards. 5 9 unsuited. 3 8 unsuited. It was constant folding. And whenever I DID enter a hand (J 5 unsuited) (Q 4 unsuited), he'd muscle me over after the (shitty) flop. Meanwhile, he is getting four Kings, straights - everything. "I am not playing against you anymore. I clearly am playing against fate." I should note that the blinds are 10/20 by now, and soon they'll be going up to 20/40. I am getting slaughtered.

I know I shouldn't be playing this way - I know "it's not the cards you have in your hand, but the cards you make your opponent think are in your hand", but when you don't even have good enough cards to bluff with and the guy across from you has 19 times what you have, it's hard to make him think you're anything but a loser... so that's what I do. I feed into it, I play it up.

Then, something strange happens. I GET A GOOD HAND! A K! I GO ALL IN! He FOLDS immediately! I GET HIS BLIND! FUCK! The one time I play it strong and have a chance to double up and he has shit cards in his hands. It wasn't big slick that doubled me up - of all hands - it was 10 8 suited. "I've got a good feeling about this hand" I sez. "I shouldn't play this hand." I sez. "This is an awful hand" I sez. "It's a battle between my head and my heart" I sez. I play it. The flop gives me a Jack and a 7. The turn gives me a Queen. I have a inside straight draw. I need a nine. River. Shows. A. NINE! I double up to about 120, maybe 140. I am back in the game. I didn't put a dent in his stack, but I have chips to leverage with now.

Right after that, I play it hard. I steal the blinds on the next hand. A nice declaration of my newfound strength. Somehow, someway (I can't even remember), about 10-15 minutes later and I manage to take the chip lead! Now, this is by far the comeback of the century. There was no way in hell, going into the merge, that anyone could beat Adam. And there was certainly no way in hell that I was going to beat him heads up. Infact, the certainty was so small that the others went to play another game rather than watch the inevitable. Only Doug stayed. "So, you're going to bare witness to my miracle comeback" I said to him as we started to play heads up. "Yup" he laughed. Mark walked in as we were playing. I had about 340 in chips lined up. He walked in, saw it, his eye went WIDE open, he threw up his hands and walked out. That said it all.

Adam stole the blinds a few times - overbet some pots. It was getting close to being even. I saw the momentum swinging and knew I had to stop it. I had Q 9 in my hand and the flop had 2,3,9. Suit didn't really matter. I was dealing. Adam checked, I bet, he reraised big, I went all in and he immediately called. Now, I had top pair. He didn't bet before the flop meaning he didn't have a Queen or a king or an ace, let alone them together. So top pair with a 9 seemed good. Instead, he had 2 3 as well - two pair. I needed a Queen or a 9 - anything else would have killed me. 6 cards would save me. 39 would kill me. That's about 75% chance of losing.

River.

Shows.

A.

NINE!

For the first time in my poker playing career, I WON. And not only did I win, I won the largest pot I've ever played for. I won against disgusting odds. I did the improbable. Fuck yeah, motherfucker! I won and let out a big "WHOOO HOOO!!" 80 bucks richer. That's not a lot for most poker players, but for a lil fish like me, that's amazing. The guys at the other table were astonished, and I got congrats from both Mark and Charlie (who've taken my money many-a-time) and I will go to sleep tonight, for just one night, the greatest poker player in the world. A Poker God.