Miracle on Fifth Street

Following the £100 game I went to see if there was any solace to be had at the cash table. I found a nice £25/£50 with some juicy looking fish - calling stations every last one of them.

When the table charge came round three of them said this was going to be their last hand and bemoaned that they always lost money on their last hand.

I have the second blind and the action was call, raise to £2 (!!?) raise to £4 call, call, call, call, call and on to me. I look down at 2 red kings. Pot, well all in for £20 anyway. 5 callers! Fuck.

Flop comes Ad 8d 3c. I am already getting my coat. Checked all round, weird. Turn comes 7d, now I am praying for the miracle. Checked all round, surely somebody has something but with £120 in the pot nobody is buying. River... 5d. Yee-fucking-ha! Nuts on the river. Ship It!

So with 3 calling stations gone I probably should have - once again - packed up and left but then came another couple of likely looking lads and a kid who I swear was barely old enough to be in the club. So I paid my table charge and set in to wait.

About 30 minutes into the hour I get QcKc on the button and call the £5 bet figuring with position and high suited connectors I can take a look here. Flop comes Jc Tc 5red. An up and down straight/royal flush draw! Time to jam it me-thinks. There are the usual 6 or so players in and it is checked round to me past the original raiser. I make it £30 to go thinking I can take that now or get a mega pay-off if I improve further which surely I must.

Lets pause for a second and count my outs to improve: Any nine clubs give me the second nut flush (good enough) the three other Aces give me broadway, And the three other nines a king high straight. It was possible that the kings or queens might help too but what about the original raiser? It folded to him and he looked pained but made the call after a little dwell.

What would he raise then call with there? From previous plays I had seen him raise with TT and AJ. Not much information. He looked like an Asian Elvis impersonator so I will put him on 88 to AA and AJ to AK. A fairly large range and excellent reasoning and logic.

Of that what is really hurting me? The Aces reduce my outs to the straight and kill the kings and queens, but surely aces would have bet on the flop to protect against the draws? Not aces then. For the same reasoning I discount kings and queens. He could be slow playing tens or jacks but if he is then I still like my chances to improve. Nines and eights are surely passing here. AK with the Ace of clubs? calling £30 on a gutshot and a backdoor flush? AQ? same deal. So all I can think is AJ which leaves the three kings and the three queens as outs but pops one off the ace count.

Summing thats: 9 clubs (assuming he doesn't hold the ace of clubs), 2 aces, 3 nines, 3 kings and 3 queens. 20 outs. Twice.

The turn is a red 2. Again he checks. He has £20 left so I put in £20. He thinks for a longer time this time before saying "I already have so much invested I have to call" what does that mean?

The river is a red 7 and I cant believe I missed. However what I then cant believe is what hand he turns over to take the pot down. AQ of spades!

As he scoops the £130 pot that he won with ace high me says the totally incomprehensible thing that left me reeling. "I thought you only had a pair". What the fuck? If he thought I only had a pair then how in the name of all that is holy did he call with a non-flushing ace high with a gutshot?

Shit. back down to the £30 I sat down with and time to go home.