Have you ever played the game called Slap Jacks? It's a crazy fun game that I played often as a child. The object of the game is to accumulate all the cards. Everyone is dealt a card in succession until all the cards are dealt from the deck. Once all the cards have been dealt play begins with the person to the left of the dealer. This person then places the first card into the middle and continues in a round about fashion until a Jack hits. Then everyone races to place their hand on top of the pile of cards. The first hand that hits the pile wins all the cards in the middle. The game can become pretty brutal with people slamming their hands on top of hands already in the middle. This is an attempt to stop others from placing their hands in the middle to quickly.
The three of us met just north of McKinney, at Tom's favorite place, Chilis. We set out to make untold fortunes. Upon arriving at the casino, we placed our names on the list and had to wait about 20 min. It was the first time we had ever had to wait, usually I have enough pull to get them to start a table for me, or maybe it's always because there are 10 on a list to play, but this time they wouldn't. We all get set at different tables, this was also a first. My table was full of tight passives, which to some degree is a pretty good table, but the pots are going to be small and it's going to be a grind. It can take several hours to make back a single lost pot at this table. Well I got off to a good start and turned the nut flush on my first hand, winning $30 or so. A few hands latter in the BB I flopped 2 pair and actually ended up losing this hand to a bigger 2 pair. I did lose the minimum here thanks to a tight passive table. I check raised the flop and bet it down and only just got called by a guy who flopped a bigger 2 pair. So I am down about $80 at this point, when Tom comes over as tells me his table loose and aggressive and that I need to move over there. So I ask for a table change.
The floor manager comes over and says he can't give me a table change, our table is short players and he can't make it shorter. I ask the floor manager if he is going to sit the next person at our table and if then could I move, he agreed, but that's not what happened. A guy walks into the room and sits down at that table. I look the dealer and say that's one. I continue to play, about 10 minutes later a guy is getting ready to sit down and the deal calls the floor and I get my table change.
I sit down with my $120 and notice one guy with about 1k and everyone else at about $200. The guy who took my original seat is in a hand a moves all in and everyone folds but one guy makes a comment about his rather large bet. Well it turns out the guy the took my seat got dealt AA on the first hand and got busted for $150, his second had AK got busted for $150 more when he hit a Ace on the flop and his third hand KK got busted for $100 more or so. I guess someone was looking out for me that night. So with all this action I decided I should reload because I want max payout if I hit a large hand. I borrow $100 from Tom, because I didn't really want to take the walk of shame to the ATM machine they have nicely located in the poker room. The very next hand after I get my chips a guy raises preflop to $25 and gets two callers. I think to myself, I am only playing AA here. I look down and see them. I reraised to $75, I actually wanted to bet $100, but I didn't announce the amount of my raise and they called me for a string bet. This guy makes a comment about me shaking or something to that effect. My bet screamed AA, and the reality was I was happy with the $75 in there, but I wanted to only go up against one opponent. Well I got two callers. The flop came Q33 and was checked to me. I moved all in. I figured if you had a 3 well screw you and if you had QQ well screw you too. I got called by QTo and he almost hit two runners for a flush. My AA held up. I made back my losses, covered my loan and was up $100 at this point.
An hour later or so came my next strike. I had pocket 4s I limped in and they guy who make the shakes comment raised to $20. I said if I got two more callers I would call. 5 saw the flop. The flop came 345, I hit my set. The original bettor checked and Farmer Jon makes it $65 to go. I was thinking what could this guy be playing to call $20 preflop, I figured I had the best hand, so I just called, and the guy behind me moves all in which was about the same amount as the bet. I was thinking well there is a flush draw and a straight. The turn is checked and the river pairs the board. I bet out $100 and farmer Jon thinks about it and finally folds. I turn over the boat and pick up a nice pot.
The last big pot I played was 66 in the BB and I hit the set on the flop and got paid all the way down until he folded to a $45 bet on the river. The game was really brutal; everyone was calling $20 preflop raises like it was nothing. All you could do was hope you had a big hand that could withstand the pounding from all the other hands hitting after the jack came.
My total for the night was up $310, thanks Tom for telling me how juicy that table was.
