So I guess I jinxed myself. Talking about how good my poker run was going has produced a series of really bad performances. I'm still in the top 100, but if I don't get a few more big finishes, this session could end badly.

Poker players always want to get their chips into the pot with the best hand. It's all a statistics and numbers game really. The higher the percentage, the better chance that you'll come out on top. It's really a series of decisions to make, if you make too many bad decisions, you're done. If you make ALL the right decisions, you usually win.

But there is a factor of 'luck' or the best hand losing. I'm not whining here, I'm merely commenting about how a very strong hand can lose at almost any time. I hate sitting around and listening to people's bad beat stories, in fact, I'll often berate people and tell them to go to therapy. There's one guy in the league that EVERY week I put my ipod on and turn up the music just to avoid his bad beat stories.

Last night, I had some decent hands, but it seemed like I just kept running into a better one. I made some incredible lay downs, because I knew I was beat. Two out of three of these laydowns, the players showed me their down cards, and I did in fact make the correct decision. (I love it when people have to show off their hands, it totally validates my play, and it also gives me valuable information. I can learn how they act, what they do, how they throw their chips into the pot when they have a very strong hand.)

I was down to about 1500 in chips, after starting w/ 3500. The blinds were 200/400, so I was really short stacked. I looked down to find , so no doubt about it, all my chips were going into the pot. This is the best starting hand you can get. So I kind of 'reluctantly' put my chips into the pot, hoping a few others would come along for the ride. Nobody else, but the chip leader did. So he called me and proudly flipped over  I smiled and turned up my aces.

At this point I was an 80% favorite.

The flop was brutal.

In this case any 7 or any 6 makes my opponent's straight. So learning what we did from the last post that is 6 outs. 6 x 4 = 24% roughly, we see that CardPlayer magazine says 23%, but our calculation is pretty close. The turn came a J, so now their percentage is cut in 1/2. But of course the six came on the river. Even when you're a 3:1 favorite, you can (and sometimes will) lose.

I didn't get mad, or feel bad, you shrug your shoulders and say, "That's poker." I was happy to get my money in pre-flop w/ the best hand. My opponent sucked out on me.