Poker Yin and Yang

Often, when a known wild player joins a poker game, he or she will immediately raise their first hand, irrespective of the strength of the cards. This modus operendi is an obvious attempt to intimidate the table. This tactic usually backfires. Danny is such a player. Last night in the 4-8 hold'em game, he raised his first hand "in the dark". After a couple of callers, I raised with queen-Jack suited and Danny re-raised (in the dark), the others folded, I called and we were heads-up. The flop was queen-rag-rag. Danny bet, I called. The Turn and River were non-threatening and Danny checked and I bet my top pair (queens)and he re-raised and I just called. He turned over pocket Aces and I was beaten. With a normal player, I wouldn't have been in this pot too long, given the vigorous action. But i knew that Danny was capaable of firing bullets all the way through the River with a marginal holding, so I played. The moral of this tale is that even wild players get good cards and Lady luck favors them sometimes. That's poker folks!

On a brighter note, I hit a bad beat jackpot and won $1000 earlier in this game. Also I placed fifth in the Sunday no-limit hold'em tournament earlier in the day and won $200. To top off my good fortune, Sue, a lovely woman, a friend and a fellow poker-player, joined me for wonderful dinner of fine wine, Oysters Rockefeller, and petite filet mignon at Charmaines, the Oasis fine dining restaurant. It doesn't get much better than this. A winning day of poker and the companionship of a sweet woman is hard to beat!

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