"That's Poker"

I was playing a no-limit hold 'em tournament the other day. I had made the final table and there were 9 players remaining. I was "on the button" (dealer) and I was dealt a pair of kings, clubs and hearts. Pocket Kings - a damn good hand! Two or three players before me called the big blind so when the betting got around to me, I raised. The standard raise of 3 times the big blind. The small blind folded, but the player in the big blind called. One of the original callers called, but everyone else folded. Three players.

The flop comes 8 of spades, King of diamonds, 4 of diamonds. Woohoo! I've flopped a set of kings, this is certainly the best hand at the table. The player in the big blind checks, the player to my right makes a moderate sized bet. What does he have? Does he have the 4th king? That would be great for me. Maybe he has 2 diamonds. Well, I've got to at least call. Should I raise? If he's got two diamonds, and he's on a flush draw, I should raise. A flush would kill my hand, so I want to get him off the draw. So I raised a significant amount. The big blind folded, but my main opponent called my raise. Hmmmm....I'm thinking now it's more likely he's got that king. Maybe he was dealt Ace-King, Big Slick. Here comes the turn card - 4 of hearts. Now I've got a full house! And here comes my opponent - he bets enough so that if I call, I'm gonna be all in. But how can I lose? I've got a full house! So of course I call.

And anyone who knows anything about poker knows exactly what my grinning opponent turned over.

I won $279 for 9th place and the buy in was only $40. Not bad. Of course first place was around $1400.