Barrage Of Bullets

You don't hear it often, but I laugh when players lament pocket aces.

"I hate aces" and "they always get cracked" are two of the popular cries, along with "I'll take what's in the pot," after a ridiculous over bet gets them seven bucks.

This post isn't to preach how it's ridiculous to hate the best starting hand in poker. It's not to explain that even though you lost a boatload of chips to a flopped set, that even in this economy, aces still have a postive EV. And it's not to give you tips on how to handle being check raised on the turn.

No, this is to relish my recent run of pocket aces.

It's a statistical anomaly, but I haven't lost with aces the last 20 times I've had them! How do I know it's 20 in a row? Because with my touch of OCD, I've been keeping track during my live play (not much on-line for me).

The bullets have been on target, pocket rockets are blasting my profits to the moon and American Airlines has me flying in first class.

It doesn't matter if it's a cash game or a tournament, if I take it down with a standard preflop raise or if I'm all-in and we see the river. 20 in a row!

Unfortunately I can't say I've WON all 20 hands because of an unfortunate chop when my tournament opponent also had bullets. The nerve of that guy, dropping my record to 19-0-1. He should've been scared that I was going to four flush him out the door, that's how good my rockets have been running.

I started keeping track after last year's Sahara-like drought, when I didn't see aces for, something like, 20 hours of play. If you figure there's an average of 30 hands per hour in live play, and the odds of getting dealt pocket aces are 220-1, I should've had Alan Alda at least twice in the 600+ hands I played.

Fast forward to 2009 and the streak started with a couple of AA wins in a 4 hour session and continues to build. The official stats break down like this:

15-0 in casino $1/$2 NL play,
1-0-1 in casino tournaments
3-0 in free rolls (Riverchasers)

My most satisfying win was at Borgata when I did all the betting, on all the streets, and the dude kept calling. Finally on the river, he goes all-in and I snap call.

"Do you have aces?" he asks. I motion that I called him and I wanted to see his hand.

"Do you have aces?" he repeats in a more irritated tone.

Finally the dealer makes him turn over his AK, which gave him top pair, top kicker on the king high flop.

Dude is ticked when I show AA and take him for $250. It prompts him to call me a feminine hygiene product, followed by a homophobic slur, which another player brings to the floor manager's attention.

I just smile while stacking his chips.

I'm not arrogant enough to keep track of all the money I've won during my good fortune and I'm not afraid of jinxing future results.

It's simply an amazing run.

I've got another Atlantic City trip scheduled and just want to keep flying first class as long as possible. Hopefully the players whining in coach don't disrupt my friendly skies.