The Breaks

Clap your hands everybody
If you got what it takes
Cause I'm Kurtis Blow and I want you to knowThat these are the breaks
Brakes on a bus brakes on a car
Breaks to make you a superstar
Breaks to win and breaks to lose
But these here breaks will rock your shoes
And these are the breaks
Break it up break it up break it up!

If your woman steps out with another man(That's the breaks that's the breaks)
And she runs off with him to Japan
And the IRS says they want to chat
And you can't explain why you claimed your cat
And Ma Bell sends you a whopping bill
With eighteen phone calls to Brazil
And you borrowed money from the mob
And yesterday you lost your job
Well, these are the breaks
Break it up, break it up, break it up

Extract from 'The Breaks' by Kurtis Blow

I played this song through my head yesterday when I was asking myself how unfortunate two specific hands I played cost me in the tournaments I had entered.

I spent the afternoon playing poker and entered a $5 touranent and in the early stages of the game I was dealt an Ace and King so thought that regardless of how many people enter the pot I would play the hand.

One person to my right went all-in and his chip count was greater than mine so I knew that if his hand was better I would be out so I decided I would take the gamble and called his bet.

His hand turns over and he has a pair of tens. At that point he was favourite with his pair by a touch of a percentage more than me as I had two overcards (cards higher in value than his).

I didn't manage to hit any pairs on the community cards so I was ejected from the tournament.

Then, an hour later, I decided to play in the Irish Open qualifier. At about the same time in the earlier tournament I was dealt a pair of fours and the person to my right made an all-in bet just like what had happened in the previous game. I had been watching this opponent more closely than any other at the table because I had noticed he entered many pots and was playing a lot of high cards and not pairs. I figured in my mind that he might have had AK and thought that I would get some retribution from the previous game and win with the hand that I had. So, going against one of my disciplines of not playing with low pairs I called. His cards were an AQ (lower than I had anticipated from him!).

He hit another ace on the flop. I bowed my head in frustration.

And these are 'The Breaks'.