Un Jinxed James

The one or two readers here may remember a post way back when about jinxed James. He tended to play poorly at our home games. Read alcohol and smoke induced. Furthermore, when he did play well, it seems he would always get out drawn in the most horrific manner. Bad beat after bad beat. James went to Vegas and got "un" jinxed.

We roll into town, James, Pat and yours truly, about 8:30 a.m. Dropped our bags off at the 4 Queens and headed over to Binions. We all decide to play in the 10 a.m. tourney. This really amounts to a three table sit n' go but it was fun.

I started out running hot in cards but getting little to show for it. For the twenty minutes I was in the tourney I saw QQ get out straightened. AK and AQ out flopped. TT win a small pot. JJ win pre flop. And AA get no action. My bust out hand was AT. I was in the big blind. It is limped around in 4 spots plus the small blind. The first limper looked like he wanted to raise pre flop but did not. The flop comes ATT. Gin!!!! I check and the strong guy picks up chips to bet and then just checks. I am pretty sure he has an ace. I am formulating in my head how to extract value. Turn is so ugly....A. I bet out he puts me all in and I call. Every one else goes away. He flips over AK and says like a donkey asshole that my ten is no good. I show him my flopped full house and told him AK got lucky. Of course the K hits the river and I go kick a slot machine. But enough about me. This is about James.

The other guy we went with busted out a little after me. We then sat down and played the highly entertaining, and maddening game that is 2/4 limit. I would periodically check on James and he was always short. Nitting it up. I checked with about 16 left and on break and he had less than one big blind. I told him to just push with any two cards blind. Alas he did not take my advice. Next thing we know he is at the final table, but a shorty. Then he is in the money, but a shorty. Then he is in the final three, but the shorty. Then he is chopping for the win. Did I mention he was a Vegas virgin. He is in town four hours and wins a tourney. He nets over $300, $50 gift certificate to the steak house and a t-shirt.

Fast forward on our last day. I run KK into AA and lose a big pot. But I did not go broke. It was a local and I was pretty sure he was huge. Anyway, James gets AK and calls $50 plus bets down to the river and scoops a plus $300 pot against super agro donk overplaying A7os....tourist.

James had a good weekend. I lost about $400. It was fun. Sort of.