She's Got the Gene

There are some days I simply lean back, put my feet up and think about how lucky I am. From the great job, to the beautiful fiancee, to an uncanny ability to pull a two-outer on the river. It's my lot in life, I suppose. If there's a constant amount of luck and bad luck in this world, then my opposite must be one unlucky soul.

But I digress... this isn't about my luck.

It's about Lady Luck's luck.

Over the past few weeks, I've been teaching her the game of poker. We started slow, just learning the rank of hands. From there, I showed her how the game of Texas Hold 'Em is played. Next, we considered starting hands. Then it was learning when to throw a hand away. Finally, we started slinging chips.

In our first mock game, it became immediately clear that being dominated does not bother Lady Luck. Late in the game, I'm holding J8 to her 89. Her short stack is destined to become mine.

I burn a card and slowly reveal the flop. It's a 7 in the door.

"Oooh," I say, "that's good news, you might have a straight draw."

The next card I reveal is a 10. Uh oh, I think. And there it is. A six. She flopped the nut straight. We had just watched Rounders. I felt a little like Teddy KGB (insert your own jokes here).

The turn and river did me no good, she had doubled up.

The next time she got herself all in, she was holding 78s. I don't want you to think she's just playing connectors. She was the shortest stack and was finding the best spots she could to get her money in. I was holding 57s. Our big stack, the ghost player (there were two other hands I was managing), was holding KQs.

The flop? How about 8-7-x. The turn? How about the case 7. Her boat was unbeatable, but, unfortunately for me, the ghost hand managed a four flush on the river and knocked me out.

I really think she enjoyed it. Checking is still a bit of a tricky concept for her, but the rest of the stuff has come pretty quickly. She's even learning shuffle chips.

We'll be home this weekend visiting family and maybe we'll have a chance to see how she stands up against the rest of the Luckbox clan. It's only a matter of time before she's taking your money at the tables.

She's got the gene.

| Luckbox's Thoughts