A hike--and POKER!

Yesterday Nina and I drove the last 25 miles or so of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped at several scenic overlooks. At Waterrock Knob, we took the hike to the top. It's only a half mile each way, but it's straight up. And then straight down. The up part strained our aging hearts and lungs. The down part strained our aging knees. But it was fun anyway, and gorgeous.

Then we headed into Cherokee to the casino for a couple hours of teh pokerz. I was up about $240, until I played "one more hand," and lost $80 of that when A-Q made top pair/top kicker, but lost to bottom two pair. Sigh.

But the best hand of the day was, of course, with The Mighty Deuce-Four. I was in the small blind, and called a raise, as did several others. The raiser then bet $25 into a $40 pot on a flop of J-3-5 rainbow. I was the only caller.

Turn: Ace. Of course. Because Deuce-Four always makes the nuts. I checked. He bet $35. I had $109 left; he had more. This was a tricky spot. I couldn't tell if his smallish bet here (about 1/3 pot) was because he was afraid of the ace, or because he loved it and wanted to maximize his chance of getting a call. If the latter, then a check-raise should get me paid off. If the former, it probably didn't matter whether I put it all in now or on the river, because he would fold either way. So I opted for the all-in check-raise. He insta-called.

Which turned out to be surprising, because he had unimproved pocket queens. I guess he felt pot-committed, but he was drawing dead to my wheel.

Ah, my beloved Deuce-Four! It's been a while, but you're still a reliable old friend.


Here's Nina's view of the day: http://www.somebeaut.com/2014/09/27/waterrock-knob/