POKER APOCALYPSE........or how i rode hard over papier mache'........

Be forewarned................as if the title and the image weren't warning enough, this post is about poker...........it's a game i love and indulge in from time to time........so i gotta talk about it occasionally.......

I got invited to a poker tournament with an inexpensive buy in last night by the guitar player in my band..........it was a nervous proposition for me because i haven't played a live game in over a year...........i do keep my game sharp with several hours of online play each week.........but still, i was nervous........i mean no live play in a long time in a room full of unknown quantities.......i had no idea how well these guys played.........

My anxiety was relieved a bit when they had trouble figuring out how to work the blinds.........and even further relieved when the first dealer had to ask whether or not he was supposed to burn the first card before the flop.............

I had decided to be patient and observe the play style of the other guys at the table......which through two hands was a very passive "let's see who got the best cards" sort of approach.......and that is NOT the way to play no limit hold em unless you really enjoy giving your money away.......

On the third hand of the night, i peeked down and spied king-queen suited..........so the patient approach went out the window, it was time to boogie.........so i led out big after the blinds merely limped in to my right............each called and we were three handed going to the flop.........wonder of wonders, the flop came out queen-x-queen.........i smiled inside and raised when it was my turn to act.........my raise went unrespected to my joy............by the time we hit the river, there was a possible straight and a possible flush on the board and this made me nervous because the two guys on my right were tenaciously hanging onto this hand..........it was a HUGE pot.......but i would've been crippled if i folded.........on the final bet, the small blind made an announcement that made me giddy.........."if you've got trips, i'm gonna hate myself.....it'll be a short night for me"............are you kidding me.......trips is a good hand(shit i wasn't laying it down), but that should've been the least of his worries.........if he could'nt beat trips, he had no business being in the hand.................so he went all in...............he had me covered plus ten bucks..........to my surprise the big blind called as well............i pushed too...............

I never saw the small blind's hand, but he was crippled with only ten chips and out the very next hand..........the big blind also had trip queens, but i had him beat with the king kicker...........so after tripling up in the third hand, i bobbed and weaved for the rest of the evening picked hands to put folks to decisions for all of their chips...........one by one they fell......and no one came close to my chip lead............in other words, i was an absolute nightmare at the poker table last night.........i won the tournament without breaking a sweat and quadrupled my money.........

I hope they invite me back.......

Rock it like you've got pocket rockets............take ALL the money.........