I keep having this recurring dream. It's a silly dream. A dream you can only have if you've got a certain level of addiction. It involves me sitting at a live poker game, of the no-limit hold'em variety, with non-trivial stakes (let's say that I have over $500 on the table at the time). I'm doing well in this game. I have a good read on my opponents and more importantly I am hitting cards. On this particular hand, I am dealt KK. BOOM, I think to myself as I contain my level of excitement (only the 2nd best starting hand for those not in the know). Anyway, I quickly begin building a pot by raising pre-flop and I get a couple callers. The flop is always something super-safe like K72. It is inconceivable to lose at this point as long as I play as I should. And I do. I jam the pot, and the two people keep calling. Before you know it, I am all-in and as the last two cards come down, a 9 and another 2, I've now got the top FH and can't wait to turn over my cards. In fact, I beat the other two people to it. I flip over my cards and excitedly yell 'Kings full b*tches'. Yet I look down at my cards and they're actually a queen and a jack. I actually have nothing. No hand. Everyone stares at me in disbelief. One of the other players turns over the cards that I thought I had and I'm left to walk way with nothing except for the tail between my legs. How quickly this game can turn on you. How quickly life can turn on you. You may think you have the cards, you may be doing all the right things with these cards, but life can, in an instant, change your starting hand rendering you with nothing. But at the end of the day, what more could I have done? All I'll keep doing is all I've ever done, keep checking my cards, keep playing them right and hope that life doesn't change my starting hand.
