LittleWyvern.com

Thursday was a pretty surreal day for me. I have been quite sick lately, sleeping between 11 and 16 hours each day and running a fever that feels to be over 103 degrees (though it is strangely reported by my thermometer as 97.5). That could definitely be part of it. But I blame the rest, and likely the majority, of the surrealism to the bizarre out-of-body sensation brought on by a series of improbable coincidences. Have you ever felt as though you were living a life built upon Fate’s rails? Experience days where you find yourself doing things that only yesterday you would have sworn could never happen? If it were written in a book – and I just happen to know a writer who could make it so – you, as a reader, would laugh at how ‘totally unbelievable’ the storyline is. At every turn I meant to do one thing, but somehow ended up doing the opposite. And in the end I found myself wondering, “Now how the hell did that happen?”

My morning was fairly routine: I woke up around 9am and watched some tv. I did a little bit of work and then tried to do a little bit of writing. I am having a bit of a problem now where I feel like it’s about time for my story to actually have an over-arching plot. That should be a simple problem to solve but for two facts. First, my story is very much a character study and the ideal setup for my novel would essentially have all the characters sitting in a room talking to one another. That seems unbelievable and fairly uninteresting so I am finding myself inventing various subplots to make them do things (go to the store, get a job, fight off some ninjas, etc…) The individual subplots work on their own, but I feel that both the trip to the mall and the five page ninja battle should be somehow related to a larger plotline. That is not as easy as I hoped. Secondly, I am writing the book from a first person perspective. That was done on purpose because, as it is a character study, I think the narrative becomes much more understandable and powerful. The unexpected downside here is that I can’t talk about anything that our hero doesn’t see, do, or think. I can’t pull a Tolkien and suddenly jump from Isengard to Rohan. I can’t give hidden back story about one of the other characters because our hero wouldn’t know about it. I am necessarily restricted to the life and times of only one person. And that is fine, but I am having trouble not reverting into blog-mode and simply talking about what the guy did today. And if I do start talking about the hotdog that he ate for lunch, I feel it should have some bearing on the larger story being told (most hotdogs don’t exert that level of influence). So anyway, I was having a rough time with the writing.

Getting nowhere I thought that some quiet Me Time would be useful for generating a dynamic and exciting plot line. I couldn’t say why the idea popped into my head, but suddenly I became thoroughly convinced that the ideal place to space out and think would be at a poker table over at GVR. Excited with my cleverness I suited up in my long neglected poker clothes (jeans, black t-shirt, track jacket, and ipod) and headed for The Ranch. The afternoon was slow, only one table was running $1-$2, and I was quickly given a seat. The game was generally uneventful save for a few crucial hands. Despite not having played in over a month – not since before Halloween – I was playing fairly well. I made a lot of good reads and did not make any serious mistakes. If I had not been running incredibly unlucky I should have walked away from the table up at least $500. Instead, of course, during six hours of play I failed to hit every single one of my flush and straight draws (fairly incredible considering the number of times I flopped one). The highest pocket pair I was ever dealt was 5’s and did not hit a single set. Three hands are worth noting though. They are the ‘Go Big or Go Home’ hands: if you can’t win these then it’s hard to have a winning session. I will save you the thought process because in these cases there really weren’t any.

Action is limped to me in the small blind where I complete my option with 6c – 9c. The flop comes 4c – 7c – 8s and I check. A player in late position bets $15. I check-raise to $45. The player goes all-in for another $50. I instantly call. He flips over Ah – 8d for top pair top kicker. I turn over my hand and show off my open-ended straight draw, flush draw, and over card. I tally my outs at 18, and with two chances to catch I am better than a 2-1 favorite (despite not actually having anything yet). Nearly half the deck will win it for me, and I get to draw two cards. As I am sure you assume, the board delivered two red face cards and I lost the pot.

After that hand I managed to build my stack back up to even before this hand occurred. I limp in early position with Q-K offsuit and action is limped the rest of the way around. The flop comes 9h – 10c – Jh. The player in the small blind immediately opens for a bet of $20. With hearts on board I don’t want to get clever here so I quickly raise him, cutting out three stacks of four red chips: $60. Everyone else folds and my opponent once again goes all-in. I of course immediately call and flip over the nuts. The guy does not show his hand. The turn and river both bring 3’s. After a pause he loudly declares, “Nines full of threes!” and flips over his pocket nines. The $350 pot is pushed away once more.

The last exciting hand is actually one that I won, though in a way I really lost. Green Valley has stopped paying out Bad Beat Jackpots but now uses a High Hand system where they pay you for just being dealt good hands. The highest payout listed was a straight flush in hearts which would earn you $1700 in cash. You don’t have to lose with the hand, all you need is to be dealt it (using both of your hole cards). The strategy then obviously involves limping into pots with any connected hearts in hopes of hitting big. Sometime in the afternoon I limped in early position with the 4h – 5h and was happy to see a cheap flop. The board came Ah – 3h – 8c and I immediately realized how beautiful it was. I was only one card away from the money. Unfortunately a player in the blind opened the pot for $10, but getting just under 200-1 odds I of course made the call. Two other people called as well, but then a player in late position took the opportunity to do exactly what I hoped he wouldn’t: he went all-in. Everyone folded back to me and I told him out loud that I didn’t have a choice but to call him. I announced to the whole table that there was only one card that I needed, but I had to take a shot. I made the call and flipped over my hand. Upon seeing my hand the players at the table became visibly excited. The dealer burned a card and then quickly dropped the turn. A bright red two! Half the table screamed. I took a deep breath. It was the two of diamonds. Right value, right color, wrong suit. The consolation of the two of diamonds was that it gave me the nut straight and won the hand, but both to me and the rest of the table it felt like a missed opportunity.

Weird, I am 1400 words into this post and haven’t even got to the really interesting part yet: the part that makes the day surreal. So far I just explained the mechanics of the afternoon, the cards and bets upon the table. The interesting, nay bizarre, elements of my story took place above the felt. Do I keep going or wait for a second post?

It is almost 3am here so I am going to split this into two posts. I have no doubt the second will be at least as long as the first so it’s probably better to wait. As a teaser though I will give you a quick trailer.

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Next Time on LittleWyvern…

Our hero meets a mysterious man dressed in black who lives a life that some of us only dream about…

The mystery man invites our hero to his Las Vegas mansion to party with his millionaire friends…

Does our hero accept this stranger’s offer?

One decision … Could … Change … Everything!

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