Dam breaking

I have mentioned that I've been in another slump lately, with a long stretch of coolers and suckouts driving me insane with frustration. Past down periods of this sort have tended to end rather dramatically, with some huge win finally signalling the end of an era.

Well, I may have had another one.

I won't bore you with the betting sequence, but at the Venetian last night I was at the eye of a perfect storm. I had 4-4 in the hole, the table maniac had A-2, and a solid player had 3-5 in one of the rare limped pots. Flop was 4-2-2, and the turn was an ace. That gave me fours full, the maniac deuces full, and the solid player a wheel. I got all of the maniac's chips plus most of the ones in front of the solid player. (He was smart enough to be suspicious and just call rather than raise me, and I think I pushed him about as far as he would have gone in terms of committing chips. The last hundred he put in was with deep reluctance and an "I know I'm beat" look of resignation.)

It was the biggest pot I've won in probably four months or so. It has left me with the sensation that the dam has broken, the storm is over, a new day has begun, and a bunch of other corny metaphors.

Remember the old commercials for Mennen's "Skin Bracer," in which some guy would get slapped in the face and say, "Thanks, I needed that"? That's how I'm feeling today. (I found a couple from that series on YouTube, here and here.) I really did need that.