I was playing poker with my mates tonight. I'm not a bad player. Ok, I'm not the best, but I win a few. So picture this. It's been going on for about an hour or so, nine players started, down to eight. Started off with 30 chips each and I'd hit a couple of big ones and now I'm down to ten. Not good, but far from drastically bad. First place takes back £60, second gets £20 and third gets their money back, which I'd take happily.
I'm getting crud all night, nothing suited, no pairs and not much over a jack. But on this hand, I get a pair of aces. Pocket rockets, as it were. Being down to ten, I think that the only way I'm getting back into this game is to go all in, so I do. The guy next to me takes me on and he's been having similar luck to me all night.
I felt good about flipping my two aces over, and even better when I see an unsuited King and Jack from my opponent. Any pair can lose of course, but you have to fancy your chances. The flop comes down and I felt even better. An eight, a five and, to my delight, an ace. The table gave it's usual gasps and "oooh"s and I'm feeling really happy now.
The turn card comes down and it's a queen, and everyone says "ooooh" again. It is here where my sinking feeling comes. I know my luck very well, and I know when the Gods are shafting me. I can smell it. If a ten comes down, I'm screwed and out of the game. For those of you who don't play, a run of five cards (or a "straight") beats three of a kind. And a ten would give my fellow struggler a ace-ten straight.
Guess what happens next. Any other card. Any card in the pack. I'm not picky, just not a ten. It's a ten. Everyone shouts. I'm out. Bum.
The feeling of getting shafted like this gives you one hell of a bitter taste in your mouth. You feel like screaming, crying, fighting and sleeping all at once, but of course you can't do any of it because it's the nature of the game. It happens and you have to take it like a man. It's just so finckug annoying. I actually said after the fourth card came down "oh 5h1t". It's like being caught in the middle of the road with a truck baring down on you. You know what's coming, but you can't do squat.
I hate poker. But I know, come next thursday, I'll be there with my tenner and something horrible will happen again. But the feeling you get when you win is worth a hundred loses. It's quite fun really.