Cowboys Poker: Chapter 3
February 8, 2009 by Kris Jones
Filed under Sports
With the two players headed into an electric showdown, the flop cards tumbled onto the table.
3 of hearts.
9 of clubs.
The Ace of spades.
The Ace was a big card. Rock was holding AQ of diamonds.
Rock put out a bet of nearly half the pot with $22 and figured he’d take it down right there, but Matt looked puzzled as he strung out the necessary chips to make a call.
What was this puzzled look for? Did that mean he wondered why he made that big of a bet? Did that mean he wasn’t happy with his hand? Rock couldn’t read Matt’s poker face. In fact, he was clueless when it came to Matt’s cards. He had tried to mentally call some of Matt’s prior hands with no success.
The next card was a 5 of clubs. Worthless card. Rock put out another $40.
Matt thought about it for literally a minute and called for $40.
The last card was another Ace. Rock just hit trips on the river. He couldn’t help but curve the left side of his mouth to a near smile as he announced all-in for his remaining $228.
Matt took a sharp glance at rock and whispered, “Gotcha.”
Rock’s stomach dropped.
Matt turned over duece four, otherwise known in poker as trash but today these cards were king. Matt had a 5 high straight that crushed the trip aces of Rock and left him without a penny.
The room fell silent. Everybody thought Rock had it. Everyone was behind him and the cheater had just taken his money fair and square, calling a huge raise with nothing.
But this was no ordinary bad beat for Rock. He had just lost more than he could afford and he now faced the prospect of living at either a city shelter or someone else’s house. His rent was due in three days and he was now way short. Rock was walking out of the saloon when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
It was Matt.
Chapter 4 continued next blog.
