No cigar

I played in the Delta Gold Poker Classic today at the Gold Strike Casino (see above) in Tunica. It was a $350 buyin and 197 turkeys players signed up. There were 18 players who would cash and I just missed finishing 28th. My poker has been like that lately: min-cashes and bubbles.

The bust out hand was particularly frustrating. I had 32,000 and the blinds were 2000/1000/300. It folded to the small blind who completed. I held the uninteresting hand of ♠4 ♣5 and was happy to see a free flop: ♦3 ♠6 ♦9. SB bet 4000 and I had a choice. Raising would pot-commit me, so that was out. You either fold or shove, or do you? I decided to call. A scare card on the turn might let me see all the way to the river. If the SB would fire big on the turn (and I miss), I can fold and still have a playable stack, 13 big blinds. Anyway, that was my thinking, so I simply called.

The turn was the ♣7 giving me a straight, but not the nuts. The SB bet 6000 and I, of course, moved all in. The SB called and showed: ♦10 ♦7 for a flush draw and a gutter ball higher straight, i.e. 12 outs. At this point, I'm a 72.73% favorite, according to the Card Player magazine odds calculator.

The river was the ♣8 giving the villain a higher straight. I won't be winning the $19,000 first-place prize, just a hard-luck story for my blog.



Photos taken with my point-and-shoot.