Luck Of The Irish

On Tuesday an email from my friend Miguel opened my eyes to something. He asked me a question that I had been asking myself in the back of my mind for the last few weeks.

Would you say you are improving or have declined? Have to admit, mate, I thought you would have won a big tournament by now.

He was right, my game has been slipping in the past few weeks. Even in tonight's Poker Night Live game I crashed and burned in a way that Tim Henman would have been shocked by.

In the last few days I had turned $17 in to $53 playing regular table games on Paddy Power Poker so after being knocked out in the early stages of the tournament I decided to have another go at the $0.25/$0.50 No Limit tables.

I was hoping to bump in to a few Irish players tonight who were a little worse for wear after celebrating St. Patrick's Day and logging on to the poker server.

I didn't find any but I did come across a pot of gold after a few hours of play.

I had been butting heads with a player most of the night. His nickname was The Shuffler and the cards he was playing made me think he really was in charge of the deck.

I had built the $53 to around $80 and thought I should go and leave while I was ahead but decided to play one more hand. This ultimately led to The Shuffler beating me and knocking my balance down to $47.

I clawed my way back to $67 and paid the twenty-five cents for the small blind. A queen of Spades and a Jack of Diamonds were dealt to me. I decided to play so posted the remaining amount to call the big blind.

The flop arrived as; Queen of Diamonds, Three of Spades and Jack of Spades.

I had two pair.

At this point there were three players left in the hand; Philly74, The Shuffler and myself. I checked, Philly the Big Blind checked and then The Shuffler betted $2. I knocked Philly74 out when I raised Shuffler's bet to $4.

The Shuffler and myself fought on to see the turn card. The card was an Ace of Hearts. It is at this point I felt that maybe my time had arrived and to fold but as the first player to act I decided to make a probe bet of $4, I was called.

The river card was a Six of Spades so there was no chance of a flush or straight.

I decided I would make a large bet and put down $14 to see if The Shuffler would relent. He wanted to fight and went all-in. I had to put another $30 in to the pot and I sat there for a few seconds contemplating what to do and whether his hand was better than mine.

I recalled he had played some dreadful cards throughout the game and was bullying a lot of players with his raises and luck was working in his favour when he was called so I thought that the best he could have would be a pair.

My judgment was correct. He turned over a Ten of Diamonds and a Jack of Clubs which meant his best hand was the pair of Jacks. My two pair won the pot of $103.90.

I thought I would run off after making that much but decided to play on a little bit longer.

I ended up leaving the table with $139.77. Not bad for a night's work!