Wheel Flush

Wow, last night was quite an amazing night for cards. I wanted to jot down the few hands that stick in my head before they fly away.

Hand 1: Holdem tourney. Down to three players, I’m short stack. Marsh best, I raise, and he three-bets all in. I call. I’ve got AcQx, to his 99. Flop comes KJ8c. Doing the math later, I actually was favored to win at that point, even though Marsh was ahead. I know these things happen quite often, but it still amazes me that it’s possible. I think I was 59% to win or something like that after the flop. Result: of course it didn’t hit, and I fell out of the tourney shortly thereafter.

Hand 2: Holdem cash game. Me, Tiffany, MB, Kris (sp?) and Martin. Don’t remember the specifics, other than the board was 4 to the diamond flush, with A35Jd and some other card. Martin bets 20 and I can’t call because I don’t have a diamond. Result: I knew my king was red, but luckily it was a heart and not the d, because Martin had the straight flush wheel (or is it wheel straight flush? or straight wheel flush? Or just wheel flush? I like wheel flush.) Whew.

Hand 3: O8. I’ve got AJ4d with a fourth card I can’t remember. Flop brings 53d2h. A few players follow me in, but I’m trying to disguise my lock on the low hand with good high-hand possibilities. Turn brings the 2d. BAM! Best card ever. I’ve got the wheel flush, and it gets down to Marsh and me. Luckily, Marsh bets into me for 20 and I call, hoping the river brings something fun. River brings 3c. BAM! Best card ever. Marsh bets 60, I go all in, Marsh quick calls. Result: my wheel flush takes down his quad 3s. I know this is Omaha, but my god, that’s the worst bad beat I’ve ever seen.

Hand 4: Pass the trash. All night every time Pass the Trash was called, I kept saying that I’m waiting for the day we see quads over quads. Quads seemed to be coming even more frequently for this session than they had in previous PtT sessions. Anywho, the short of it is Tiffany and Kris have joined us at the mixed-game table, and are crash-learning the games as we’re going around the table. I get myself into a hand with the two of them, and Tiffany gives an Oscar™-winning performance. Everybody knew Kris had a lock on the low, and therefore each betting round was capped. At first, as Tiffany is rolling her cards, she is struggling to call the back and forth bets. Up until 4th street, when she’s 4 to the royal I was convinced she was only playing a high flush and hoping I wasn’t going to make my full house (8-9-9 showing). But on fourth street, once it was apparent that I wasn’t going away, Tiffany starts raising it up. Brilliant, because I can’t throw my hand away at this point, a lesson which I reinforced later in the evening (see below). Result: Tiffany’s royal flush crushes my quad nines.

Hand 5: Pass the trash, last hand of the night. Marsh and I are vying for the high hand and betting into each other the whole way. Kris has a lock on the low hand. Marsh has QQ77 showing and I’m four to the Q-high straight flush. Marsh is saying things like “Does Royal have the straight flush?” to himself, but loud enough for me to hear. In the middle of raising to 24 on 4th street, Marsh says “You better have it, because I’m not going away.” and holy hell that line almost worked on me. It was only 16 more chips for me to call it down, but only have an A-high flush, and if he has the boat I’m screwed. He HAS to have the boat, so why would I call here? I hadn’t given him a Q when we passed cards, but I had given him at least one 7, so would he have gotten this far with more-likely 777QQ boat? And why would he call me here if he knew he was losing even to a flush? Result: Marsh had only 2 pair, and his acting job almost worked.

Once again, a great night at the T&I. Martin, thanks for being a master poker controller, and T&I, thanks for hosting! And honestly, you don't have to have food for us, so please don't feel bad about not having food I shouldn't eat anyway.

Martin, I thought this tourney structure was pretty close to perfect. I was a little frustrated at first due to how the tables were randomly distributed and I was stuck at the table with the time-sucking collusion twins. I thought Table 1 was seeing a lot more hands than Table 2. But when talking with Marsh about it, it turns out your table was having the same sorts of issues. And as far as issues go, that's a pretty harmless one.