"I thought I had a straight"

I went to the Goldstrike last night to play in their 6 p.m. tournament.I arrived at 5:55 and the tournament was full and they had 35 alternates ahead of me! There is a WSOP tournament in Tunica at Harrah's and so all of the poker rooms are booming. Instead of getting on an alternate list behind 35 players, I decided to play some 1/2 NL hold 'em.

I bought in for my usual $200 and settled in. The table was good. There was action, but not crazy action. After about 20 minutes, I looked at my hole cards to see ♠ K ♣ K. I raised to $15 and got three callers. The flop was ♣10 ♦8 ♥7. I guess that's a pretty good flop for me unless someone hit a set.

I bet $45 into a $62 pot and it folded to an old man who raised to $120. What the hey ... ? I thought for a while and went ahead and moved in. Yes, he could have a set of 10s, but he didn't play a hand with a 9 for $15 unless it was a pair of 9s, and then he still has to hit his straight. I put him on J-J or Q-Q or a horribly misplayed A-10. He called. In a cash game, you don't have to show, but I usually do. I think it makes it more fun. He turned his cards over too, and showed ♥10 ♠6. Huh?

Now he says, "I looked at it wrong, I thought I had a straight." The way he said it, it sounded believable, but who knows?

You know what's coming, don't you? The turn was another 10 giving him trips and the river (not that it mattered) was a 6 filling up his boat. Instead of sitting with close to $500 in front of me, it was rebuy time. Sure you hate to lose the money, but the way it happened makes is so much worse -- a guy (claims to anyway) misreads his hand (CHERRYS) to get lucky and win a big pot (LEMONS).

Today is a new day. I'm going to play in the WSOP tournament at Harrahs at 4 p.m. today. I figure why not? I've used up my bad luck -- it's time for some good luck.