Apparently it was real late in Texas

Some nights it's just not your night. For me that was tonight. I just couldn't win.

I guess the good news is most of the time I got in there with the best of it. But overall it never worked out for me.

I played with some really bad players and I noticed a strange trend.

Any time I overbet my hand I got called. It made no sense. So I started experimenting.

Anytime I'd hit the flop or have a draw I'd bet most of my chips. This happened 3 times in the last hour I was playing. And all 3 times I actually got called.

Here were the hands.

My favorite was a flop that had an ace with two hearts. I moved all in. I don't necessarily recommend this move but I just wanted see what would happen. I was giving a flush draw the worst possible odds. And even an ace has to think I have a set or two pair right?

No he doesn't.

A dude actually called me with ace 7, no hearts. Lets just say I won this hand.

On the internet I might have wondered if I was playing against a bot with a bug. Someone please tell the programmer that his bot is calling all ins with top pair and a 7 kicker. But this was a real human being. I guess my overbet must have screamed bluff to him? Strange call.

The second opportunity to overbet was me repopping the pot for half my stack with ace queen.

Damn it's fun to gamble.

Or at least is was until a guy came over the top of me from the button. Now at this point I figure I'm beat but I have to call. I'm getting 3 to 1 on my money.

And like I said I bet half my stack. The other half was going in the flop no matter what came out of the deck.

In this spot I'm what's know in the poker business as "pot committed."

Meanwhile I have to be behind here. He either has a pair and we're racing.

Or worse for me he's gonna show me ace king.

Nope.

This real live human being turns over ace 8 suited.

Yes. He reraised me all in with ace 8 suited.

Huh? Why? How? What's going on at poker tables in Las Vegas?

More importantly, if this guy is reraising me all in with ace 8 in a hand where I've gotta call, then American public schools are failing. This "man child" has been left behind. Someone get the President on the phone.

Incredibly the universe didn't let him suck out on me.

I'm still in shock. Both by his reraise. And the fact that my hand held up.

Now as you might remember at the start if this blog entry I said it wasn't my night. Here's why. Those are the only two hands I can remember winning.

No need to bore you with my pain. Lets cut to the end.

On the final hand of my night there were a couple of limpers and I decided to push all in with ace king preflop. If someone has a pair lets gamble. If they don't then good for me.

Everyone folded except for this one gentleman from Texas who literally looked at his watch and said "It's getting late. I call."

Then he turned over jack 8 offsuit.

Now I know that ace king loses to jack 8 all the time. I'm not going to discuss the math.

But a preflop ace king all in shouldn't get called by jack 8 because "it's getting late."

At least tell me something like "I'll give you action."

Or "I want to gamble."

Or "Jack 8 is my favorite hand. I have to play it."

But please don't tell me that you're gonna call me because "it's getting late."

I've read alot of poker books but I can't remember any of them ever recommending a call based on what time it is.