Don’t burn the queen….
A few years ago I was playing a tournament and was nearing the bubble without many chips. I needed to commit to a hand soon, or the blinds were going to bust me. I was dealt a queen, and then another queen that flipped over before I quickly slapped my hand over it to try to save it from being burnt. Nobody saw the card but the dealer insisted on burning it anyway, denying me the pocket queens that would have kept me in the tournament.
Today I played a brief 1/2 session which ended on a similar note. I played my first hand (KQ) in a multi way pot that nobody hit and I was able to take down and it gave me some chips to play with and I promptly moved off my cards and stole small pots to quickly build up my stack. Then right after I changed gears I was dealt Aces, which got 3-way all in action against kings and 3. The player with the 3s said he thought he was in last place pre-flop but wanted to “gamble” and it paid off for him as he spiked a 3 and ate most of my session profits.
I went back to picking spots and taking down small hands while waiting for a real hand to play, when I was dealt a burnt queen (it too flipped over). When my next card came I remembered the tournament and managed to think “I hope it’s not a…” to my self before peeling back the card and confirming my fears. Cash poker games are a tedious grind, while you wait for those kinds of hands. I was already planning to leave within a couple hands (I always try to leave when the blinds work around to me) but that made me pick up on the spot. The dealer offered a timid “sorry”, I told her it was no problem but that was the end of that session.
And because I’m logging my sessions on this blog (that I and a random robot are the only readers of) I should mention that the streak is intact and I turned a $120 profit for the session (2 hours) despite the bad luck. I’m going to start playing regularly again. Not full-time again, but at least weekly. The poker game in Costa Rica seems to have picked up a bit and I want to test its profitabilty in a mix of 2/5 Clarion casino games and 1/2 Colonial casino games. But next time, please please don’t burn the queen.