Freerollin'

I was at Mandalay Bay this afternoon. I had Kh-Qh under the gun. I raised to $7. The player to my left reraised to $12, which was kind of strange. We had started a new table only 10 or 15 minutes earlier, so I didn't know a lot about him. Two or three others called, as did I.

Flop was Qs-Jh-5h, giving me top pair with a good kicker plus the second nut flush draw and a back-door straight draw. I was OK with this. I checked, intending to either check-raise or take a free card. (Or, of course, reevaluate if somebody showed extraordinary strength.) The pre-flop raiser bet $45 and was called by the guy on his left. The others folded. I check-raised all in, a total of just under $200. The raiser called, and the guy trapped in the middle reluctantly folded.

I flipped over my cards, and was delighted to see that my opponent had Kc-Qc. I was freerolling! Whee! I was guaranteed to win at least half the pot, but might take the whole thing. My opponent, meanwhile, had to fret about a heart coming to turn his half pot into my whole pot.

Alas, no flush came for me, but my last opponent and I each made a little money on the hand.

I don't have any deep point to make with this story. I just find myself in freerolling situations so rarely, and it's such a great feeling (definitely one of the top ten sensations in poker), that I had to mention it here.



Did you notice who's on the bicycle in the photo above? That's Rita Hayworth, way back in 1940, doing a little freerollin' of her own. The photo is from the Life magazine archives. See here.