That Fat Bastard: My Obsession with 9-4 Off.

9-4 off has been lighting me up again. I was playing a freeroll, taking a moment to work on my Money for Nothin' stake before heading down to help clean the poker room, and I caught 9c 4d. A couple of Friday Night Poker regulars were hanging out, and we had been joking about my previous 'lucky hands' so everyone stopped to watch the fun. Not only had I gotten terrible cards, but I was first to act. Knowing full well that I was making a mistake, I called them. Some joker playing from position raised over top, but it was cheap, and it's a good move when everyone else just limps in, so I can't really blame him. I can still call him names, though. I called his raise, too. Now I've got 12 chips in a pot of about 50, and a couple of really crappy cards. You'd think, at this point in my life, I'd be smarter than this.

For those of you that don't know. The freeroll sit-n-go at Everest is a 10 person limit game. The starting stake is 100, blinds start at 1/.50 and go up every 4 minutes. Basically you get 2 hands at every level until most of the players have dropped out. The trend is to auto-raise, as most of the players are inexperienced and aggressive. If you an experienced player, or have at least learned how to fold, it's not difficult to come in the money. The game pays a total of 10 cents, so we're not talking big money action here.

Now I'm sitting on 9-4 off, first to act, with one quarter investment in a pot that is worth half my stake. The flop drops Ah Ts 5c. Oh well, superstition is silly, and it's only a freeroll. I check, the next to act bets, and the player from position raises. As I am positioning the mouse to fold, The Experience leans over my shoulder and says, "What are you doing? You can fill out that straight."

Whatever.

The god that rules the poker table is a trickster. After all that. After foolishly calling cards that I know can't win. After laughing off the loss of stupid money and putting up with the peanut gallery. After chiding myself for treating random coincidence as if there was such a thing as fate, I fold. The god of poker must have a great sense of humor, because at this point he turns to his friends and says, "Wait, wait. Watch this. This will be funny."