Halloween Gonad Abuse

Two strange things happened Saturday night at Wade's place:

1. Came back from the dead. After losing a pot I was left with 800 in chips, or exactly the big blind which was going to hit me in two hands. Tossed it in with a K8o and won against 2 other hands by hitting a second 8 on the river (AK and KQ I believe, an A and 8 on the flop). Later pushed with 99 against two players who checked it down to the end (T4o and 22 I believe) and it held up. And later had KK hold up against Ax and was above average, ending up with 2nd place. I've always been jealous of people when they come back from the dead... now I've done it :) There's something liberating about knowing you just have to purely gamble and hope.

2. Witnessed the worst beat I've ever seen with both hands in pre-flop. I probably have some details wrong, but I'll try to set it up. Rob B. to my left limps (or raises, can't remember), Christian raises, and Edwin pushes in. Rob B. shows me his pair of 8s and asks me if he should stay in -- I tell him I can't say either way. He thinks a little longer and folds (and then I tell him it was a good fold with the action behind him since he was in for so little and had a large stack). Christian insta-calls and shows 99 (Edwin has a reputation for getting money in with the worst hand). Edwin shows... 88. It is at this point that Rob B. reveals he folded the other two 8s. Ripples of conversation cycle around the table as people say things like "ouch" and "wow". Flop comes something like 95J and people like me start saying "drawing dead". Turn 6, and everybody is convinced the hand is over, but Larry says "He's got a 7 still..." and Bam: river is 7. Christian has clearly been kicked in the testicles and looks sick (and continues to for quite a while -- I'm sure he's still thinking about it).

Getting out the handy poker calculator shows that Edwin had 4.2% equity assuming his suits were different than Christian and a paltry 2% equity if the suits were the same (I can't remember what they were). About as bad a situation you can get into preflop, even AK vs AA has a little better than 5% chance of winning. But, even with a 50 to 1 shot, you've got to figure that it'll happen occasionally given how many hands we see, especially on the internet. Still, it sucks to no end when it happens to you (and it is amusing when it happens to someone else). Yay poker!