[TaoTe]

Poker story, related to straddling.

Last thursday, my friend Derick and I were standing out on the balcony smoking cigarettes. "Derrick, you have a gambling problem," I said and we both started laughing. Twenty minutes ago Derick was 300 dollars richer.

Several times a week the rooms above Wakim's bar turns into a cardroom, all no limit Hold'em, cash games or tournaments. Derick had been tearing the felt up in his usual maniac, win or die style of play. He'd bought in for one hundred and from what I could tell he nearly had nearly three hundred in chips in front of him. Derick had probably bluffed me off of four or five good hands and I was just waiting for my chance to bust him and double up. I knew sooner or later he would make some outrageous bet and I'd take it down.

I wouldn't get any more of Derick's chips that night, though. A hand came up and Derick was under the gun. Something of a normal play for him, he started putting a raise in before the dealer had even finished shuffling the deck. He started counting chips. He put an even bigger raise in. He had a look in his eye akin to Jack Nicholson in the shining. He wasn't psychotic, but his eyes were red and glazed over. He shot a quick glance at me at the other end of the table then went back to counting out his chips. He finished counting and announced to the table, "Two-hundred and eighty to call," as he moved the rest of his chips in. A few of the players grumbled about the play but no one raised any complaints. The cards came out and people began to fold. I already had it in my mind that I was going to call with any ace and any pair. I woke up to find a nine and a deuce. My cards went into the muck.

It looked the play would work, Derick betting nearly three hundred dollars to win three, but the big blind, one of the weakest players in the game, quickly called and turned over two queens. Derick turned over one card at a time. The first one, the king of clubs, and he started laughing. He began to peel back the second card slowly. I was thinking of how great a story it would be if he found two kings.

He flipped the second card over and I made a quick guess that he would win the hand about 20% of the time. The second card was the deuce of clubs. Derick just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Deal." Two clubs fell on the flop and Derick started laughing. He would have gladly put the rest of his chips in after the flop with a flush draw. The third club didn't fall.

Derick wasn't broke after that hand but he was a few later when he tried to bluff when a three straight fell on the board. Bad timing for him as the player actually had made the hand on the turn.

"You have a gambling problem," I told Derick.

"Yeah, probably," was his answer, "stake me a hundred."

"No," I screamed, "you'll lose it. You just risked three hundred to win three dollars." I flicked my cigarette out and looked at Derrick and thought a moment. "I'll give you twenty but you can't try and steal any of my blinds."