Last night was the first night of poker in "David's":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ new house. Most people couldn't make it for various and sundry reasons, but we had 4 people, so that was enough for a few hours of limit raise. Casey even made "poker chip cookies":http://moblg.net/view.php?id=10907 for us to munch on! From the first hand on, it was pretty clear that I wasn't getting the same sort of cards that I had "the week before":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001107/. With play being only 4-handed, I loosened up my starting requirements somewhat, but just wasn't catching cards. I was getting whittled away slowly, with David and Jason building up their stacks nicely, and Joshua going out pretty early.

Towards the very end of the night I started to come back. I drew a flush on the river which got me a nice pot from David, and then I played the Best. Hand. Ever.

I was in the big blind, and got dealt the mother of all hands, the one that "Iggy":http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/ and I like to call "The Hammer", statistically the worst possible starting hand, 2-7 offsuit. I raised pre-flop, David folded, and Jason called. Flop came out with low cards, including a 2, so now I was paired up. Jason checked, signifying that he hadn't paired anything on the board, so I raised. He called, and the next card came. Now the board paired, so I was looking at 2 pair. Throwing caution to the wind, and determined to bring "The Hammer", I raised again. Jason called once more, and then the river came. Another 2. With the board already paired, that meant that I had a full house. From 2-7o. Unbelievable. Jay checked, I raised, he called, and I pulled in a monster pot. Back from the dead, again.

Next hand was going to be the last hand of the night. I look down at 8-3 offsuit, which is probably the 2nd worst starting hand, declare it "The Mini-Hammer", and start betting away. It was nearly a mirror image of the previous hand. I kept betting, and Jason kept calling. An 8 came on the flop, the board paired on the turn, and the miracle 3rd 8 came on the river, giving me 2 full houses. In a row. From absolutely horrible starting hands.

So, by the end of the night I was only down $7, and as David put it "that's a whole lot of entertainment for $7". David made about $6-7 himself, and Jason was the big winner, coming out $30 over what he came in with, or "a can of paint", as there was much discussion of home improvement last night.

When I got home I went on partypoker.com for a few minutes, and on about the fourth hand I drew to a flush and put some joker all-in, and wound up taking the pot, and making about $20 in five minutes, thereby wiping out any losses from earlier in the evening.

Some other highlights of the evening: * David had pocket aces. THREE TIMES. * Funniest hand of the night saw the board come up with a straight, 10-to-A, so the pot was split between Jason and David. The kicker? They were holding Q-Q and A-A, respectively. * "The cookies":http://moblg.net/view.php?id=10907. Definitely the cookies.

This morning, Pat wondered how I had all this money to be playing poker, and I have to say it's because I'm outsourcing critical help desk support for feralboy.com overseas: