And the high of doubling up after some grueling hours of play were quickly dashed by a second trip two days later that resulted in catastrophe.
It was an evening of K-2, K-4, and K-8 offsuit. I got those three hands more times combined than other hands total. However, the only three hands of consequence were the following ones.
While holding A-7 suited under the gun, I limped for $3, along with a handful of other players. The flop came out A-6-5 with one of my suit. The small blind led out for $15, which was about the size of the pot. I called expecting to see a turn and if I improved I would hang around. If I didn't I would get out of the way. If folded around to the button, who raised to $45. The small blind then re-raised to $115. With it now $100 to call and me obviously being in second place at best and third place at worst, I elected to fold and become a spectator. The button contemplated for a bit and finally made the call. The pot now had $260 in it.
The turn was a seven and made my stomach twist. The small blind moved all in and the button made a quick call, but made it sound like he knew he was beat. The small blind had A-5 and the button had 6-5. Had I stuck around to the turn I would have tripled up with my better two pair. I made the correct decision at the time, but it still hurts to know what I would have won had I been a terrible player.
That leads me to one of the most infuriating hands I've ever been a part of. A young woman sat on my right and bought in for $300. She made it clear she was not a regular casino card player as she didn't know many of the house rules about the betting line. Within 20 minutes of her arriving I was dealt A-Q offsuit and raised it up to $15 after a few players limped (the young woman included). Nearly the entire table called and we went to the flop with seven players and a pot of $100.
The flop was A-9-2 rainbow. It checked to the young woman and she led out for $15. With top pair and a very good kicker I elected to make it know that I was sitting on something pretty good and I raised it to $65. It folded back around to her and she didn't take long to make the call. The pot was now at $230.
The turn was a 6 that did not give any flush draws. The young woman to my right checked and I thought about it for a few seconds. I was still very confident I had the winning hand and I wanted to make a decent-sized bet that would be called by worse aces. If she was doing a great acting job with A-9 or A-2 then I would give her props and let the river dictate what happened next. She didn't take long again and started counting out the $90 in $10 increments. She finally stacked up enough and moved it forward (again I emphasize she wasn't aware that she could speak her actions and speed things along). The pot was now at $410.
The river was a jack, making a board of A-9-2-6-J. She took now time and pushed forward the rest of her chips, even having to leave behind about $30 because she didn't say all in and hadn't included it in her initial push of the chips. It didn't matter though as what she pushed out there originally had me covered by about $10.
My first impression was I obviously was beat by either a flopped set or two pair (and had played me for a fool) or rivered two pair with A-J. I couldn't see what she could be holding that I beat other than A-10 offsuit or A-X suited. However, there was now $535 in the pot and I had $125 left. I only have to be winning 1 out of 4 times to make the crying call, which I eventually did. I didn't like it though.
She showed J-2, which means she called me down for a raise on the flop and nearly $100 on the turn with bottom pair. I was livid and gut punched from how lucky she had gotten to hit her two pair with such a terrible hand. I would have definitely handled A-J a lot better.
With my final $100 I should have hit the road as my mental state was not in a place that was going to do anything productive, but instead I put it in play and tried to make something good happen. After a few limps that went nowhere I got 10-9 offsuit in the big blind and after a guy two seats to my left raised it up to $16 and got five callers, I elected to try a squeeze play and went all in for $85. It worked so well, I got two people to fold and was now against four opponents. With $450 in the pot I was praying for a miracle flop. It came out jack high and I never improved from there. The original raiser eventually went all in and got called by one player. He showed A-J for the best hand and I went home very, very, very upset.
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