With all the poker I’ve played in the past few days I completely forgot to write about one hand in particular. It’s amazing to me because it’s something that I’ve heard about, along the lines of ‘a friend of a friend once played a hand’, but had never been fortunate enough to experience for myself. I have tried to use this move a few times before, but before this Saturday I had never successfully pulled it off.

In the middle of an otherwise boring and frustrating session of folding I decided to make a loose call from late position with the 5 and 7 of spades into a pot that already had two limpers. The blinds checked their options and five of us watched as I flopped gin: 4s – 6c – 8c. The blinds checked and the first limper led out for $10. The second limper made the call. I didn’t see how either of them could have any kind of real hand here other than a club draw, and not wanting to steal their lead just yet I made the overcall. I wanted to 1) make sure a club didn’t fall on the turn, 2) give the players in front of me the chance to make a second best hand (without a flush draw chances are they were both probably drawing dead), and 3) bluff off some more chips. The turn brought a red 7, hurting my hand but not adding any doubt at all that I had the best hand. Again, the first player bet out, though this time much larger. He made what I considered to be a massive overbet, betting $60 into the $40 pot. The second player then called all-in; he had less than the $60 bet in front of him. The pot was big enough and I didn’t want to mess around anymore so I went all-in for another $120. My opponent instantly called. But before he could even finish stacking his chips across the line the dealer turned the river card: my complete nightmare – the 5 of clubs. That one card not only completed the flush draw but also put my straight, the straight I had flopped, out on the board for everyone to play. At best I could only tie, at worst I would lose the whole pot.

I immediately recognized what had happened, but kept myself composed. While my opponent had been counting chips and the dealer had been dealing the river card I had been in the process of turning over my beautiful hand. I didn’t even pause in my motion to turn over my forfeited straight. I flipped up both cards and pointed at them while looking right at my opponent and telling him, “I have a straight.” My opponent glanced at my cards and sighed before tossing his cards face down to the dealer! I almost stood out of my chair. I quickly pointed out his cards to the dealer, “Is that a muck?!” The dealer looked at the cards sitting facedown on the felt between the dealer and my opponent – cards that aren’t officially dead, by the way, until they either touch the discard or are touched by the dealer. As he was supposed to, the dealer quickly picked up my opponent’s cards and pushed them into the muck. My other opponent, the one who had called all-in, said he had caught the flush, but at first didn’t turn over his hand. He too pushed them face down towards the dealer, acting as if simply announcing his hand was good enough. I again started counting my blessings, but before the dealer could do anything the man grabbed the cards back and turned them over; indeed he had chased down his flush.

The man who had mucked his cards finished stacking out his call of my all-in before he realized what had happened. “Wait… I mucked didn’t I?” When the table indicated that he had the man let out an F-bomb that could be heard from the blackjack pits. After a few quieter, though still loud f-bombs he pulled a hundred dollar bill from his pocket and held it in the air. “REBUY!”

It was amazing. I flopped the nuts, caught runner-runner two pair to completely counterfeit my hand, LOST the main pot to a river flush, and STILL won money on the hand. It was more than amazing; it was almost beautiful.