Good Riddance

I had a plan.

It was a good evening on Saturday when I took part in the Sky Poker tournament with a few beers. I thought I would recreate it last night.

I was too late.

There were already four hundred players registered for The Open so I decided to forget about the plan for a night and join the next available tournament I could find.

I entered aa $10 game on Ladbrokes. There were ninety-three players including myself.

I thought I would mess around with a few early hands and raised them. When everyone folded around me I decided to show the cards I had played with in order to agitate my rivals.

Later in the game I was dealt an ace and a ten. I made a bet four times the big blind and had two callers. The flop conained a jack and - as I was first to act - I went all-in.

I had one fold and one call.

The caller revealed a jack and six. It wasn't the first time this week a six-jack had knocked me out of a tournament this week and - as he had paired his jacks - I was on the outs once again.

But an ace came on the turn.

I won the hand and an enemy. The person who challenged me called me a 'muppet' for my play. I responded in defence telling him he was one to talk considering he called my initial raise with just a jack and a low card.

As the tournament progressed we were moved to different tables. After an hour or more I ended up at the same table as him again.

He had done well for himself, too. He accumulated thousands of chips and the ratio between me and him was almost seven to one.

We ended up facing off at one stage when I had a king and queen of spades and he had an ace and a five. Neither of us hit anything on the board but his ace was the deciding factor in the hand. I finished in twenty-fifth place.

He knocked me out and typed 'Good Riddance' in the chatroom.

Good riddance? What an idiot!

After washing my hair and having a drink of water, I returned to my PC and decided I would check out how my new enemy was doing in the tournament.The sinister side of me smiled when I saw he had been eliminated in twentieth place.

I may have lost the battle but it was reassuring to know he didn't win the war.