Woody After Hours

Bar Fly

See what I did with the title there? Woody isn’t a barfly, which is a person who frequents bars, often to drink to excess. No, Woody is a bar fly, a guy who annoyingly buzzes around other people who are trying to drink in peace. Pretty clever, huh? No? Well, forget you then.

Let me share with you how I began my weekend. On Friday night I went to a friend’s house to participate in his monthly Texas Hold’em poker tournament. On the second hand I was dealt a king and ten of clubs. The flop was a nine of spades, jack of hearts and a queen of spades. That’s right; I’m looking at a king-high straight on the flop.

Now, there were ten of us at the table. The probability of getting a straight at all, much less on the flop, was pretty low. So, I figured I had to have the best hand. Only one other person stayed in. He and I raised the pot. I reveled in the thought of doubling my stack and take an early lead. The turn card was an ace of spades. My straight was now ace-high.  This was getting better and better. We both through chips into the pile. At this point I was planning my victory meal at McDonald’s.

The river card was a king of spades. That didn’t help me, but that did mean that there were four spades on the table: nine, queen, king and ace. My opponent went all in. My heart sank. I figured he must have had a flush. A flush beats a straight. I hated giving up my hand, and most of my chips, but I did.

It turns out I made the right choice. That %^&*#@! had the ten and jack of spades in his hand. He had a royal straight flush.

With most of my chips now at the other end of the table I folded the next ten hands. Then, after the blinds had eaten up more of my meager stack, I was dealt pocket rockets. Ok, when you’re handed two aces you have to take that as a sign to go for the gusto. I went all in…and lost to that same #$%^&*@ guy again. This time he beat my two pair with a full house.

Did I mention that this site accepts donations?

– Ben

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