10 Of Clubs

I was playing a 1/2 No Limit Holdem at The Mirage. (1/2 meaning the table had a $1 small blind and a $2 big blind.) I got there as the table formed and everybody got $200 to start with. I dragged in a nice pot after picking off a bluff; dealer's pitching the next hand as I'm stacking up. I think, Perfect time to run a bluff, people will think I'd only stop stacking to play a big hand. I'll raise with anything. I look down and see a pair of Aces, so I make a nonchalant raise and got 2 or 3 callers. The flop showed an Ace, Jack and a 4. The guy to my right bets $20 and I call, planning to pop him on the turn, while the other players folded. The turn was a King. He bet $50, so I assumed he had an Ace Jack or an Ace King and drawing dead. Stone-cold lock, right? So I raised him to $125. He goes all in for another $55 and said "If you got me, you got me," basically advertising an Ace Jack. I called and he rolled over not an Ace Jack, not an Ace King ... but an Ace Queen. I think Going to the mattress with top pair? Crazy! You're not as strong as I thought. He also wasn't drawing dead, as it occurred to some yokel who piped up, "Hey, he can win if he pulls off a ..." Just then the dealer turned over the river card ... it was the 10 of G-ddamn motherf&%$ing clubs. Broadway. Ship him the $400+ pot. Because of that loss, I went to $65 instead of $650, which would have let me dominate the table. Worst part was the guy left about 3 hands later with my money ... obviously to go tell his hipster buddies, "Hey, check out this sick monster pot I took off this guy." No buddy, you STOLE it. I almost got back to $200 that session, the whole time thinking, What if? So now whenever I'm playing and I see that card on the board I hafta yell, "Tennaclubs!"

~Ken 2011

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