Poker has replaced religion in my life, no doubt about it. It's a sad thing, but like so many other undergrads these days, I play it fanatically. I paid more than twenty dollars the other day just for Super/System, the bible of poker. I put it away though after reading the section on Hold'em. I should really learn to play more forms of poker besides the now ever popular Texas Hold'em. But ESPN and WSOP have made Texas Hold'em the most popular poker game in the world. Speaking of tourneys like the WSOP, I saw the final table of the 6th Annual U.S. Poker Championship the other day. This may have been a repeat on ESPN but whatever, it was Siedel v. Toto. I have so little respect for Eric Siedel its not funny. Everyone should take a look at the WSOP final table from like twenty years ago when Siedel called Chan's all in drawing dead; "Eric Siedel can not win this hand but he does not know it." Anyway, in two or three hands of the U.S. Poker Championship Siedel let Toto bluff him out of about 3/4 of his checks. All of these hands had Siedel bet and Toto come over the top of him. Siedel folded and folded, even while he was holding winning hands (my God he bet with them initially). If you're heads up and you bet into someone and you're not bluffing you gotta hold fast for the next card. Oh well. I just like to pretend I know more than Eric Siedel whose won more money than I'll probably ever see. I'll end my second post with hte most incredible poker game I've ever been a part of. To begin with, while I was in the bathroom early in the game Peter, Jamie, and Nehlsen played a damn good gig on me. They stacked the deck so that when I got back I drew J-J. The flop came cheap and it came J-J-Q. Incredible, the first four of a kind I'd ever been a part of and I pushed all in because I figured I had the deck crippled. Jamie and Nehlsen folded showing me A-A and K-K. I should've been suspicious right there but I wasn't, I just wanted to believe my good fortune. Anyway, Peter called me with Q-Q and a full house. Of course he needed a Q to beat me. The turn came as rags and the river was slow turned (by Peter who was the dealer) to a queen. I was ready to go upstairs and shoot myself. They all got a good laugh. The game got interesting for serious reasons later. The table, a freeze out, came to me and Nehlsen. With almost even stacks I got called on an all in. I was holding K-Q off suit and he turned over and Q-7. The flop came rainbow K, rags, 7. He's almost drawing dead right? You'd think that but the only card to save him, a 7, came on the river. I was left with 700 of 17,500 checks on the table. That's just five percent of the total chip count. Amazingly I came back. The hand I broke Nehlsen on was just as ridiculous as the one he almost put me out on. Nehlsen had K-x and the flop gave him two pair to my none. I'm holding A-Q and I have to hit running cards to win. I do, J-10 on the turn and river, to give me a straight and put Nehlsen to like 500 in chips. He went out the next hand. I've made a little come back in the past few games, winning about 60 and putting me back into the positive for my wins/loses for the past half month. Keep drawing...

Source: The Short Happy Life of...