Topic: Poker
If there is one puzzle that will torment me until my dying day, it's not 'Why are we here?' or 'What is the meaning of life?' or the riddles of the pyramids or quest for the unified field theory. Long after those mysteries have been sold, mankind will still struggle with the eternal question 'How does Michael Arnold get paid?'
Michael knows how to play, of course, but what marks him out above all others is his incredible ability to get paid off by the occasional visiting stars to the Victoria's hold'em games. If you spot someone who's never played before and they are sitting in a nine handed game with £1,000 in front of them, it's about a 50/50 shot that Michael will take the lot off them. Last night, there was one such individual, who managed to outdraw people for large sums of money and at one stage flopped a straight against my trip sixes (which cost me over £500 because he would have played bottom two the same way). Sure enough having built his stack up to four figures, this happens. He calls a raise from his right and the rest of the table calls. On a flop of 6 8 9 rainbow, he calls the preflop raiser's bet of £125 and Michael raises £500. The preflop raiser folds and our hero now reraises Michael £470 more all-in. Michael calls with his second-nut straight (5-7) and if he had any doubts at all, was soon reassured that the two grand in the middle of the table was rightfully his when the next two cards came runner-runner diamonds to give him a flush.
We weren't shown what the other fellow had but another Vic regular was standing behind him and later told us that it was King-Eight! Is it any wonder that some of us have considered extreme measures like the idea pictured above? It could be the way forward.
