Al's token

When Al, the Turing demon, had last visited he gave me a token, which would allow me to call for one precise card at a time of my choosing when playing online. Unfortunately, the token had to be used fairly quickly or it would dissolve into a mess of sulfurous goo. I spent a few days consolidating my bankroll on a single poker site. I considered breaking my ‘no new deposits’ rule under these exceptionally favourable circumstances, but in the end maintained my bankroll discipline.

My plan was to sit down with my entire bankroll at a no limit table, and wait for an opportunity to ensure a double up using the token, and then to rathole it without compunction. It didn't take long to find a table where I could buy in short, but not ridiculously so -- 0.05/0.10 NLHE. No, just kidding, it was 3/6.

I posted blinds for a few orbits, limped with suited connectors occasionally, and stole the blinds once or twice when I actually got some decent cards. Of course if I had managed to generate any action on those hands that might have been my opportunity for the double up I was craving. But I was willing to wait. Meanwhile, I was hoping that my play was presenting a fairly weak/tight image that some aggressive player might try to take advantage of. I was losing a little bit of ground, but still had very nearly my entire starting stack to work with.

The critical moment came after about 60 hands at the table, when a player, Hut8, whom I'd tentatively identified as a LAG, in turn raised to $24 from the cutoff, on my big blind. In front of me on my screen sat Q♦Q♥. The small blind folded, I called, and we saw the flop heads up.

When the flop came K♠Q♣J♥ my pulse quickened. I might normally bet out at this, but with my token in reserve decided that a simple check was in order, hoping to convince Hut8 to make a play. That would depend on him having some paint, since I doubted I'd get any action from a small pair or low suited connectors, but if he didn't I'd simply save my token and accept the small pot. Hut8 bet $24, and I simply called.

The turn was the J♠ giving me a boat. I checked again, and this time Hut8 bet $32 at the $96 dollar pot (I'd already mentally consigned the $3 small blind to the rake). I decided it was time to move at this pot. If I could take it down now without the token so much the better. If not, I still had time to think about it. So I check-raised the pot, $192. Hut8 took some time to consider this, and then raised enough to put me all in.

Now it was time for me to think. Was this the moment to use the token, or was I already ahead? It was certainly possible that I was behind KK or JJ. The time had come. I called, grasped the token in my left hand and, as Al had instructed me to do, screamed loudly queen! (He'd mentioned that counterfeit versions of some of these tokens were fairly common, which goes some way to explaining some of the antics we see on poker shows at live tournaments).

The Q♠ duly arrived on the river. “DQB!” I might have shouted, had there been anyone there to hear it. Time slowed to a crawl ...

And Hut8 turned over A♠T♠.

My hard drive began to make odd noises, which, when I leaned over to listen to them more closely, sounded an awful lot like snickering. See you all in the freerolls and on the play money tables.