Sometimes, it’s just luck

Oxford Downs is a horse race track near my home in The Villages, Florida.  Not sure when they actually run horses, but they have simulcast wagering on races and a nice poker room with about 30 tables and, as you would expect, daily tournaments and cash games.

I recently took a seat in a $1-$2 No Limit Hold ‘em game, full nine handed table. I was able to dribble away about half my stack playing ABC poker, raising with my premium hands and following through with continuation bets. My raises got no respect, getting met with 3 or 4 callers and the obvious board draws seemed to get there. When I rivered two pair, it completed the flush. Ugh!

That is how I found myself playing like an old retiree trying to get lucky. I topped up my stack and after a limp, I tossed in my $2 call with a not-very-connected 10-6♦️ suited. This was followed by folds to the button who raised it to $12. As usual, no respect. The Small Blind called followed by the Big Blind and the limper came along, too. This offered me $50 in the pot for a $10 call and the opportunity to close the action, so I took it. Most of the time when I play, a hand like this is in the muck but this day, after getting beat up a little, I thought a change was in order.

The flop came 4♥️-6♠️-10♠️ Giving me top two pair and a lot of possible draws out there against me. They went check, check, check ahead of me and I bet $20 to make the draws pay a price to beat me. The button raised “All in” to $65. It wasn’t enough to get those draws to fold because both the Big and Small blinds called the $65 and the only other player in the hand folded.  It was up to me. I figured the all in player, the preflop raiser had a made hand like an over-pair or a set while the other two guys likely were on a draw and both of them still had about $100 behind. I thought that even if “All in” had me beat with a set, I needed to make the other two pay for the privilege of drawing out on me.  In the event I had the raiser beat, I wouldn’t mind if the other two folded. Turns out they didn’t. After I shoved the rest of my chips in, both players called creating a side pot as big as the main pot. The dealer did a nice job of pulling in the $65 from each player and creating the side pots.

All that was left to do was to run out the board and see what happens. A J♦️ showed up on the Turn and an innocent 3♣️ on the River. I showed my 2-pair right away. The original All In player mucked his hand. The Small Blind couldn’t win anything with a pair of 8’s and the Big Blind showed me what he missed when he tabled  the J♠️Q♠️.  Whew!

I can’t say it was the most skilled poker I have ever played, but it sure is fun to get lucky once in a while! 😁