A poker session to remember.........

I had to put up all this info as soon as I got back from the casino. I'm afraid that if I don't put it up now, since I've been up for 21 hours straight now, I may forget it all.

I met Rudy around 6:30 at the casino for a night of poker. I originally sat down in a small no-limit game. The play wasn't very fun and the guys playing were even more boring. Rudy showed up a bit later and ended up sitting down in a limit game. I decided to move over and play with Rudy.

We had a really fun table. Lots of characters. One of my favorite characters that I've become familiar with from my few visits to the poker room is a man named Leon. He's an older guy with a great personality. His favorite starting hand is Ace-two. He owns a couple of grocery stores and often comes to play poker. Leon knows all the dealers and a lot of the players and goes out of his way to give them grief all the time.

Early on, we had a dealer named Jorge come to the table. Jorge is a really nice guy. He's of Argentinian descent, has a very heavy accent, and was born in Detroit of all places. You can hardly understand him at times, but it doesn't matter in the end. As Jorge sat down, Leon laid right into him......

Leon: See this guy, Jorge? You'll be lucky to understand a single word he says!

Jorge: (laughing) You're one to make fun of people since you can't even read!

Leon: (laughing) I thought we weren't going to discuss that!

Me: Leon, how long ago did you learn how to read?

Leon: 3 1/2 years ago.

Me: So you've been playing poker longer than you've been reading?

Leon: (sarcastically smiling with a wink) Yep!

These two went at it for most of Jorge's time at the table before a new dealer moved in. They loved it and I'm sure it made the time pass quickly for Jorge. Also, it's always good to have a fun table as people are more likely to bet on bad hands, which is better for the bottom line.

I had a pretty slow night overall. Around midnight, I was not getting hands and was probably about $100 down. I was resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to break even for the night. But that was fine. I got to have a great time with Rudy for several hours and we'll just write it off as quality entertainment time.

But then, 'it' happened.

I raised the pot with Ace-Three of Hearts. I was called by three other players.

The flop was King-Queen-Jack, all Hearts. I had flopped the top flush. Excellent! I bet and someone raised me. This is great because now I have someone who has a good hand, which is always something you want when you know you have the best hand at that point. I just called.

The turn card was the Six of Clubs. There's no way that helped his hand. I bet and the other player just called.

The river was the beautiful Ten of Hearts. Yes!!!!!! I had just hit the mother of all poker hands. I had a Royal Flush!!!!! I bet and, much to my surprise, the other person raised. What did he have????? I reraised with the best possible hand. Then, the other player did something amazing. He actually said, "Do you have the Ace of Hearts????"

Why is that amazing? Because he actually read me correctly and just called and turned over the 9 of Hearts. He had the second best hand in poker (King-High straight flush) and yet he realized that he was actually still behind and didn't waste any more money. You don't realize just how good of a play that was until you were put into his position. He saved a lot of money.

The casino has a royal flush progressive jackpot. So in addition to the money I won in the hand, I was given $462 for getting a royal flush. So I ended up way up for the night because of one lucky card on the river. It's a great feeling to hit a royal flush. I've done it before once online and once at home. Of course, it paid off quite a bit more when I hit it in the casino. Rudy kept telling me how ridiculously lucky I am.

We hung out for a couple hours more and then I headed home to beat the snow that's headed our way right now. Yes, we're going to have snow in April. Tell Al Gore that global warming is officially over in Missouri.