The Poker Gods are a cruel bunch. Most of the time they keep relatively quiet, perhaps deep in sleep or watching something on the box, but now and then, they awake from their slumber or daily dose of reality TV to strike down a lightening bolt of misfortune on the table, if only for their own amusement. The victim this time around was a battered and bruised Chris Moore, his dejected, yet composed face taking one on the chin and forcing him to simply shrug in that 'what can you do' way.
The hand itself actually caught my attention when the dealer abruptly called out for a ruling. I, along with the TD that I virtually pushed out the way, raced over to the table to see what all the fuss was about. When we arrived, all eager eyed, the situation was that Fowzi Baroukhi had limp-called a 1,150 raise from Huseyin Yilmaz only to be told that Chris Moore had made it 6,125 from the small blind.
Slightly panicky that he might have to stick in half his stack, Fowzi was relieved to learn that he could fold and sacrifice the extra 850 that he'd put into the pot. And indeed, he did fold, leaving Huseyin to push all his chips in behind him. Chris made the obligatory call, but would have done so whatever the price was. What was most surprising, however, was that his
was up against a rather paltry
(!).
"That's what happens when you're on tilt," reveals tablemate Ben Grundy. "Big tilt," adds neighbour Jim Moult.
But tilt or no tilt, it's a funny old game as Jimmy Greaves once said, and as the dealer popped out a
Flop, I think we all knew what was coming, even when the Turn brought an innocent
.
River =
Ouch! 1-0 to the Poker Gods.
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