Me and Bettie Page!

There are pinnacles of human achievement that mark our time on this planet. The very act of dreaming the impossible makes that thing possible. This is a concept well known to the likes of Galileo, Davinci, Socrates, Einstein, Pitt and now yours truly.

Why do I belong amongst such prestigious company? With all due respect to these great minds I have accomplished something that not a single one of them has ever accomplished. That's right I've won the Club 506 Tournament Championship twice in three years.

Few can understand the joy of besting your friends in a well played, hard fought poker tournament. This tournament is probably the best poker you can find in our area what with the lack of casinos and all. Club 506 isn't a place to "play" poker. Club 506 is a place to learn poker, live poker, breathe poker and heckle your friends when you win.

Ahh the heckling. I was the first out in last year's tourney when the Carny cracked my Aces with his Jacks. That hurt and it stuck with me for quite a while. I worked on my game all year in anticipation of the next tournament. I wanted the Bettie Page back. By the Bettie Page I mean the winner's trophy the "Green Jacket" of Club 506. The Bettie Page is pictured at below.

As you can see one of my duties during my last tenure as champion was too teach the Pope how to play online poker. Funny guy that pope, man could he run a bluff - god rest his soul.

So the official Club 506 2006 Tournament Results are:

1. Shiny 2. Xavryn (2nd year in a row in 2nd the oddly named one will not be happy) 3. The Experience 4. Fancy Hands 5. The Carny 6. Fat Chris 7. The Old Man 8. TFB.

My win was an upset to the poker world. The official line had me listed as a 6-to-1 favorite to win it all with Xavryn the leader of the pack at 3-to-1. Xavryn and I played heads up for quite a while, both of us exhibiting an iron will and mad poker skills. I knew it was going to take a crazy hand to get all his chips in the middle.

On the third to last hand I raised out of the small blind with pocket sixes. A middle pair is a decent starting point heads up and a raise introduces a good bit of confusion and makes it difficult for your opponent to put you on a hand. Xavryn calls my raise. The flop comes five, eight, Jack. I check. Xavryn bets. At this point I think he is ahead but he has been bluffing me out of a lot of pots and I did raise pre-flop so I call.

The turn is a nine. So now I have an open ended straight draw and a low pair. I have 10 outs with the four fours and four nines and two sixes equaling salvation. I call Xavry's bet again thinking that he has a pair and does not have a straight. The river comes and it is a nine. This glorious nine is probably the luckiest card I've ever pulled. See not only did the nine give me the straight but it gave Xavryn two pair, Jacks and Nines. I immediately go all in. Xavryn really has no option here but to call and he does. I win the hand and leave him with 10 chips to my 390. I take the victory two hands later. It was extremely lucky and opportunistic but I'll take it.

So I have now spent more days in the Bettie Page than any other player at Club 506. Xavryn has won the most championships and I am tied with Fancy Hands for second most with two but the Bettie Page wasn't introduced until two years ago. Bettie and I just seem to have a thing for each other. I sure hope I can keep her entertained.