Pocket Fives
I have been having a torrid time at the game. Could not win a hand if I was playing a two year old. Every thing I wanted was being extra difficult to achieve. Even though I was playiing OK it seemed that the poker gods wanted me dead.
This may sound paranoid delusional musings, but honestly I have not been on the ‘wacky baccy’, I just have lost my mojo. I cannot get beyond the point when I should be winning tournaments.
All of a sudden I am playing in a low stake confidence booster tournament and I am nearly in the prize money. Hallelujah! At last the drought is about to end. All I have to do is cruise into the money and I will have broken my losing run. Then I get it the dilemma!
That moment when you’re playing a very loose and sloppy player who will have a stab at any card and just wants to be in evey hand.
I’ve got pocket 5’s in the dealer position. Everyone has folded to me and I raise 3 x’s the big blind in the hope that I take it down and more or less guarantee my entry into the prize money range.
The big blind (our loose player) calls. A 9, 5 and deuce drop. I have 3 fives and I feel confidence. The big blind goes all in! Now normally I may call as the odds look good. He may have 3 nines but if he has why would he go all in? Surely, he would play it softly, even check it, not go all in which is designed to frighten off any potential player.
I looked and thought and thought again. Shall I call or shall I bottle it and accept my loses but guarantee my prize money? I went for the second option.
Yes, I was a coward. Yes, I maybe should have listened to the old phrase that feint heart never won fair poker pot, but, I just did not want to miss out of actually getting into the money. In fact I was scared of losing and so decided to fold my trips.
I spoke to several people since and they have either looked at me as if I was some sort of evil doer or they gave me a sympathetic look of ‘so you’re my next victim. sucker’. It was hard to do and experience. I still feel physically sick at what I have done.