The Corner of Broadway and Spades, Hammer Trips & Hammer Bluff

Saturday night/Sunday morning at 1am. Meek's four tabling the party $0.5/1 limit HE, working on a reload bonus. We get QA of spades under the gun. Strong hand, so we raise it up. We get reraised by another player, and call. The flop comes Ts 7c Js. Very promising. Let's count some outs here. A spade (9) give us the nut flush, a King (3) gives us the nut straight, an Ace (3) or a Queen (3) gives us TPTK, but may give someone else a straight. That's 12 outs to the nuts, and 6 outs to a solid hand. Let's call it 16 outs, 16/(52-5) = 34%. Meek's Small Stakes Hold Em reading has been paying off. Actually, I'm sure he just thought, look at all the pretty spades. Anyway, we might be behind here, but with all the draws and this being limit, let's go. We raise to try to hide the flush draw and get called.

and the turn is another spade. Cool, nut flush. Oh wait, That's a K. That is THE NUT FLUSH. Spades Royal. The rare, once in a couple of years, unbeatable, untie-able (in HE) hand.





What to do now? In SS:HE, on page 44, it says you could fold this hand everytime and still be a profitable player. Miller, Sklansky, & Malmuth are making the point that a lot of little mistakes hurt you more than one big mistake, but we don't want the fold word anywhere near this hand. We just got to make sure we don't accidentally hit fold, or PeoplePC doesn't log me off of dial up. What else, oh, we got to get a screen shot, save it, and get some more screen shots. Okay, we bet, hit print screen, jump over to Powerpoint and drop the picture off. What's happening at the table? enough screen shots, lets get back there. (If you notice, the betting action caused the name 'PartyMeek' to be covered up, but you see "Good Luck PartyMeek" at the top of the screen)

Actually, we want this hand to go to showdown. We want others to share in the joy that is the Spades Royal. Screw a few BB. This is poker, and I have the holy grail of poker. Ranked right below a tilt inducing hammer bluff-show, from what I hear. However there is betting from here on out.

Done. Not disconnected, Spades Royal shown down. There's no pop up window from Party telling me congrats, or I've won a new car. Lets see how this sinks in at the table. Will it be lost on these donkeys? Who is at the table . . . donk, donk, calling station, donk, He1ixx, donk, rigged poker donk, donk, Wait . . . was that Helixx? He's elite. Even better, we get the Spades Royal on a random party table, and there is an elite, old school blogger there to witness it. Oh wait, I took his money with that hand. Hmmm.

How to bring this up in chat without rubbing it in or outing him as a masterblogger to the rest of the table . . . Lets see, don't use the blog or website terminology, how about using the word "post" . . . nevermind, it's not important to tip toe around this table, they didn't even acknowledge the Spades Royal.

"He1ixx, you going to post about this hand?"

"uhm . . . blogs are gay"

"Yeah, girly journals, I totally agree."

It's confirmed, that's Helixx. I think he was just surprised that we knew of him.

Next hand, we lose the Royal Flush money playing JJ when an overcard hits.

A few hands later, we get 72o (Hammer!) and know I have to play this, in Helixx's presence. We uncheck the automuck, so it doesn't go for naught. We raise, get re-raised and call. flop gets a 7, we raise. turn is another 7. We bet out and the player calls out, we take down a nice pot. Helixx acknowledges this with a "Hammer!" cry.

Another orbit or so, we get the hammer again. Flop is AQA. hammer bet gets two folders, and we show. "Winner!" says Helixx. This leads to the 'rigged poker donk' lecturing everyone on how the party game is rigged. Helixx plays along, saying he hasn't hit a flush draw since he cashed out. We attribute my royal to a recent deposit. She plays right along, arguing down someone who doesn't believe her. We threw out there how it was easier for Party to cheat since they were getting a rebate by paying employees in India to rig the flop, and she ran with it. She went as far as to say she saw the suck outs coming and altered her play accordingly. Fish in sites - - - tagged. We weren't going to throw out the obvious - 'Why do you play here if it is rigged' argument, that would ruin the fun.

What a run of cards. First, the Spades Royal, then the Hammer Trips, then the Hammer Bluff, and then the tilting fish show. And to top it all off, we got to meet Helixx. Just another night of cards? I think not.