You’ve been on a roll – you’re picking up Aces and Kings and winning with them. Picking your spots and games – shifting gears for the curves and speeding up at the perfect time and braking for the downgrade with the skill of a veteran, cross country hauler. You’re so used to leaving the game with a win that when it turns around, you’re not sure if these are your cards or if you’re at the right card room or even if you’re awake. This could be a nightmare.

The game is rocking and rolling around you. You’re in the big blind – player “A” (in late position and new to the game) raises – the button and the small blind both call – there are three players behind you that have played every hand since you sat down and you know they’re calling. You look down to the J-9 of diamonds and call. As predicted the other three climb right into the action.

The flop – K-Q-10 with the 10 of diamonds – you fire right out – everyone but the small blind calls. The turn – Q of diamonds – you bet your open ended, straight flush draw knowing that the Q could have hurt you but what the hell, you have a chance to improve. Two players call (one of them is the original raiser and also the last to act) – the last card slams you right onto a coral reef – an off suit Jack. You check and the next player follows suit. As player “A” is firing at the pot, you’re turning up your hand, showing the whole table what you started with and whining, (as you throw it away), because you got beat . There’s no call and now you’re wondering if you made the right move by not calling.

Player “A” proceeds to split a raised pot (raised by you, of course) when you have A-K and he has A-3 and then pounds you one more time when he turns a small set in the next hand.

You haven’t won a pot in days now and you’re having a hard time adjusting your play. You never flop a pair – if the flop gives you a nut flush draw and you turn a straight draw – you never improve and it costs you the maximum. It’s so grim and the cards are so dreary that you never even throw away a winner.

Ouch! You’ve gone dead in the water. Not only did that Black Jack slam you into a coral reef . . . it tore a hole in your craft. There’s a huge leak and your cargo hold is filling with water. The tide’s coming in. To make matter worse, you spot at least nine canoes filled with head hunting cannibals disembarking from the nearest island and they’re all zeroed in on you.

Options? 1) Stay and let the cannibals take you apart piece by piece. 2) Go down to the cargo hold and hope the tide sinks the ship before the cannibals get there. 3) Jump over the side and swim for the next island.

If you picked #1, you may go crazy before they’re done with you. If you picked #2, you have a greater stress factor because now there is no escape and if the tide’s slow – obviously you are going to face #1. If you have any sanity left, pick #3 – there’s a chance you will survive and while you’re swimming you could sort through your emotional behavior and learn to get around it if you elect to sit at the table. Hopefully there aren’t any sharks in the water and if there are they’ll steer clear of you because they know you’re desperate and they may get eaten instead.

I picked the swim. For one reason – I can’t sink – I’m a survivor. You have to be if you’re going to be a player. See you there – at the table or in the water!