It’s almost time for Santa to come sweeping across the horizon with his sleigh filled with goodies and those wonderful little reindeer jumping and prancing and pulling the load. Magic! That’s what really sings in our hearts this time of year, children feel it, want it, need it, and in our hearts, even as adults, a lot of us want to believe in magic also. It’s there. It’s in the air, surrounding our being and thoughts, just out of sight and out of reach, but still….

Ok, back to the real world.

Talk about taking some beats, this is one really bad run in $100-$200 7 Card Stud. The victim, er…ahhh…player, is Cal in the 2 seat. He started rolled up with 10’s. A player – known as “K” – in the 4 seat, brings the bet in for $25. He’s low with a 5.

Cal never even slow played the hand. Cal completed the bet to $100. K. came right in.

On 4th Street Cal caught a King. K. caught a 5 which paired his door card.

K. bet $100, Cal raised, K. called.

On 5th Street, Queen for Cal and K. caught another 5. Three 5’s showing in K.’s hand now. K. bet $200 and again Cal raised. K. called.

Sixth Street brings Cal a Queen which gives him 10’s full of Queens.

K. catches a 6 and checks. Cal bets and K. calls.

On the River Cal catches a 9 and K. catches…surprise card…the 4th five. He caught runner-runner 5-5-5 and then fired $200 at Cal.

Cal called with the statement, “You must’ve made four 5’s.”

K. triumphantly turned over his cards to win the pot and Cal started laughing. No…not hysterical laughter but most of the world would’ve reacted with that having taken that beat.

The worst part of it was that K. started in with, “Why didn’t you raise me?”

Really bad form and a totally stupid statement but that’s the way it is in the real world today.

Cal had two more beats by the same player in the next few hours.

Cal started with 9-10 Hearts in the hole, up card Ace Hearts. His next cards in order were 5-8 Hearts. He made a flush in five. His last two cards were the 7 of spades and Queen of Clubs.

K.’s hand went like this; hole cards, AD-JC, up card 4S. His next cards in order were 4C-JD-3D and Rivered a full house with the 4D.

The next little, nerve shredding beat went like this:

Cal’s hand; KD, 3C,//KH-9D-9C-6S//10S.

K.’s hand; QD, 5C//QH-7C-2H-8D//QS.

Obviously Cal never had a chance in any of these hands. Humph! Gag, choke, spit! He never slow played any of them and still knows that he had the best of it and will every time he plays because he is a ‘player’. He takes the beats and the wins in stride. Cal doesn’t do the hand wringing, card throwing, swearing crap when he takes a beat, he just gets ready for the next hand.

Watch out kids!

*****
This post is done by Chanzes – during the time period that I took a break from posting in the Diary.