Brush with pugilistic mediocrity

When KingLucky and I visited the Thunderbird Wild Wild West Casino a few weeks ago on his Poker Trip to Oklahoma, half the slot machines and video poker machines in the main room were gone or in the process of being moved.

Friday night I found out why, they were setting up for "Friday Night Fights" on ESPN2. This would probably be a big deal in Norman Oklahoma, but with ZERO advertisement, the only people who cared were the ones saying "What happened to my favorite video poker machine?" Ticket sales were so abysmal that they came into the poker room and started giving away free tickets so the stands wouldn't look so empty.

I wasn't going anywhere, however, as I was seated at one of the most fun poker tables I've attended in a long time, mostly because I was sitting next to Maudie.

After a couple of hours a fellow sat down next to Maudie who had the unmistakable signs of a boxer...that smashed flat face and too-many times broken nose. Maudie chatted with him and found out his name was Oscar Diaz. He bought in for $60, played fast and loose, even sucking out on me when what I thought was a harmless deuce fell on the river and made his straight. He quickly disappeared, but a few hours later we looked up at the TV screen which was showing ESPN2, and there was Oscar again, beating the crap out of some tall skinny black guy.

We were rooting for our new poker buddy (suckouts not withstanding) and he went the distance against his opponent, easily winning a victory on points.

It was kind of surreal, sitting next to a guy one minute then looking up and seeing him on national TV soon after. Like I told the dealer who asked how he played, "For a poker player, he's one hell of a boxer."

The only other highlights were bluffing with the hammer and winning, and sucking out on the river against Maudie. I showed the bluff to the table, and I had to poke Maudie in the side to get her to notice. What could be worse than winning a bluff holding the hammer, showing it and not being noticed by a FELLOW BLOGGER AT THE TABLE? What a nightmare.

The suckout hand was a real barn-burner. I was on the button with 33 and Maudie had missed her blind so she posted. An EP player raised pre-flop and I called because of the implied odds of hitting my trey. Maudie already had $3 in the pot so she called the raise. The big blind then re-raised, because he was a serial raiser and couldn't keep it in his pants, even though he had already re-bought four times for $100. The original raiser didn't cap it so Maudie and I made the crying call for another $3. It was an easy call considering the two "I've never folded pre-flop and I'm not going to start now" folks between the serial raiser and the original raiser came along too.

The flop came 236, a dream flop for me in a raised pot, or so you would think. The serial re-raiser checked (what a pro) and the original raiser also checked (also a genius) but when it got to Maudie, she bet. I put Maudie on huge range of hands because she posted, so I though maybe she was playing strong with a six. I quickly raised. I wanted a little protection for my hand because the set was so small. There were probably a couple of callers (I don't really remember) when it got back to Maudie and she re-raised me. Suddenly my range of hands came down to two EXACT cards. The only two cards she could re-raise with were 45, and she had flopped a straight. I called and the rest of the table went away.

The turn was a ten, and Maudie bet out. Why not? She still held the nut. I wept as I called, saying "At least I have a lot of outs!"

One of which came on the river when a beautiful ten landed right next to his fraternal twin brother. Maudie checked, I bet and she called. Big pot, I'm glad most of the money wasn't Maudie's. I was so giddy I think I actually tipped the dealer after that one.