Learn Texas Holdem

Since it's a nose dive that I technically could have saved myself from, I'm not sure if it's considered a bad beat. It was terrible luck though.

At my last family reunion about 8 of us sat down for a poker game, tournament style. I had lost my home game the week before due to two all-in suckouts on the river, so I was anxious to get my groove back.

It was only a $5 buy-in and we're family, so the table was full of hyper-aggressive maniacs. The game itself lasted less than two hours. My conservative play got me heads up with my cousin's wife, who had never played Hold'em before.

She had a 3/1 chip advantage over me, but despite her incredible run of luck (making at least five full houses that evening) I worked her down to just two $100 chips. That left me with about 78 $100 chips. Her big blind was $100, so she went all-in blind.

At this point all of my family (mostly guys in their 20's) gathered around to watch me crush her. She was a bit of a loud mouth and the guys wanted me to shut her up. Her hole cards were trash, something like 8/4. I had a couple face cards. Neither of us connected with anything until a 4 came on the river, doubling her up.

The next hand she went all-in blind again. The guys informed me that if I dare look at my cards before calling her I'd be teased the rest of the night, so I called. This time I had ace high, and she had more trash. And of course, she ended up catching a pair and beating me again. This happened over and over again. My cards were always favorite pre-flop, and she always caught something to beat me.

Half a dozen hands later (which seemed like a hundred hands later) she took a substantial chip lead. I'd have been branded a coward if I'd done anything but go all-in blind, so I did.

For the first time since we were heads up she was winning pre-flop. I moaned that I hoped I didn't catch anything so the nightmare would be over, and I got my wish.

She ended up learning to play dominos that night, and crushing everyone at that. Then the next night the ladies taught her a card game called Spite & Malice, and she crushed them at that. We told her to buy a lottery ticket but she never did.

/ Paul