Beer-Brained!

Saturday night I was able to join the monthly poker tournament again after being away since my third place finish in September. Of course I was feeling nervous as I always do, but I was also feeling confident due to my win at BGG.Con.

I won't bore you with the entire play-by-play, but suffice it to say that I was doing very well. I made it to the final table (last 9 guys out of 26 players) and I was the big stack. The tournament paid out to the top six finishers, so all I had to do was outlast three guys to make my money back. I was golden. But then, the beer caught up with me.

I had been drinking Saint Arnold Christmas Ale most of the night. This is a rather potent brew. Plus, I hadn't had dinner. After the third one, I realized I needed to cut back. I just kept refilling the empty bottle with water, so my competitors would think I was still getting sauced. The problem was, I ended up drinking a few more in addition to the water, so any benefit was completely destroyed.

So, I'm feeling pretty good. A hand is dealt and I have pocket 9s. Not great, but definitely playable. I raise the stakes fairly high, and that knocks out all but one player. The flop comes and it's AA7. The other guy bets $12,000, which was huge and nearly put me all in. And here's where the beer killed me. I knew he had a pocket Ace. I just knew it. Every part of my brain was telling me to just drop. But my gut, oh my painful and doomed gut, was telling me to call. I did, he had it, I lost. But here's the thing. My gut wasn't arguing with the logic that he had the Ace. My gut was screaming to me that another 9 was going to come out. I don't know why, but I believed completely and without doubt that one of the next two cards would be a 9, and that I would win with a boat.

But that didn't happen.

The next hand I went all in with what I had (which was still a lot, compared to others) and lost to the same guy. But that hand didn't bother me. I made a legitimate decision with that hand, it just didn't work (I had KQ suited, he had AJ unsuited, won with high card).

I finished eighth, out of the money. What an idiot!

But, I did learn a valuable lesson, the kind which is blatantly obvious to even the most novice poker player: don't play drunk! Next time, I'm only bringing one (well, maybe two) bottles of beer. After that, it's just water.