Happy Chappy

It must be so boring sometimes for the pros to hear low-limit players going on about their little $40 victories one day and then their little $20 losses the next. When you deal in 1000s of $$s and 1000s of ££s each day or week and have a mind on the long-term goal with 5-figure sums in mind, it must sound pretty pathetic hearing Little Johnny $5 Sit 'n' Go man going on about his "bad run of seven (count 'em SEVEN) non-cashes" or his "brilliance" at managing a run of 5 cashes, in a row, in an afternoon session.

But this is the thrill that us amateur players seek. This is what we love about poker and what keeps us coming back to this mind-fuck of a game. This evening, for about four hours, I was breaking-even at the $0.50/$1 game with ABC poker. I was actually thinking of just cashing out my winnings, chalking up a winning month online, and knocking online poker on the head for the month. Nothing special was happening as I was just chugging along as usual, but then I hit a lovely run which has put me up $250 on the night - and I just wanted to share the joy that us struggling players can experience. This hand occurred after I was already up $100 in an earlier session:

 

Ok, so the preflop raiser was getting frisky so I thought I'd throw a curve-ball in and play it cute with a call on the button with KK. However, the other villain's crazy/small raise on the flop practically telegraphs to me that he has the trips - but I still can't really fold anyway for $16.50. (Yes, of course, these are poor odds to hit my two-outer but I have great implied odds if I do hit my king and - hell - he might not have the 2 after all.) So when that king hits on the turn it's happy days baby!

P.S. You have to be questioning his play anyway here. He calls in the small blind with 82o(!) and he's not really going to get me to fold on the flop with that raise. An all-in move on the flop would certainly have had me thinking.