The God of Irony

Mike Caro is working on getting his old poker web site, http://www.poker1.com/, up to date, after it fell into neglect for a long time. As part of that, his assistant has been posting lots of his old columns. I know because I get his RSS feed, and they have been pouring in at a rate of several per hour today. I don't have time to read them all when they come so fast, but I've done a little sampling.

I particularly liked an old piece he wrote about "The God of Irony":

Let me tell you something about the God of Irony, so you know what you’re
up against. This is the guy who waits for you to begin a thought with the words
"Wouldn’t it be terrible if" or "Can you imagine how bad I’d feel after winning
all this money if…"

You think those thoughts and you’re apt to gain the attention of the God of
Irony....

Hey, you gamblers know what I’m talking about, don’t you? The craziest
things happen to us all the time.

Truth is, the God of Irony is a pretty dull fellow. He never has a creative
thought of his own. We keep putting stuff in his head. The little sucker knows a
good idea when he hears it.

I couldn't help but chuckle at this, because of a hand I played at the Rio Saturday. There was a guy who had been beating me every friggin' time we were in a hand together. Finally when he raised and I called with 7-8 suited, the flop came a very cooperative 9-10-J rainbow. I bet and he called. I thought, "I'm OK with any card except a queen or a king here."

So naturally, the God of Irony heard that thought, and BANG! Queen on the turn, leaving me with a one-card straight, and the butt end of it at that.

Actually, I still ended up winning a small pot there, but the point is that it was exactly the kind of scenario that Caro characterizes so well.

Beware the God of Irony. He is one cruel bastard.