All the pairs belong to me

Intro

I think you can get 25 to 30 hands per hour in a live game. I think its about a 5% chance you get a hand. Let see: choose 1 card 1/52 and then the next card to pair has to only 3 left. 3/51. so 1/52*3/49 = 1.2%. That doesn't look right, but thats for 1 particular pair. The right way to calculate for any pair is: 13/52 and and then you can choose 12 cards to match... (13/52)*(12/51) = 5.9%.

A Busy Night at Graton

I called up and put my name on the list. 44th. Never been that far down. I found out there was a tournament that night...actually every night for the last 2 weeks. I totally spaced on that event. (Mental note for next year!). I headed to the blackjack table. Eventually headed back to poker and got a seat. Only had to wait about 1.5 hours. Full table and I couldn't find a shark, but not really bad players either. I started with $290. I know weird number, but that was some blackjack winnings. Anyways, I was in in 3 and I'm beginning to see that sitting at 2, 3, 7, 8 are the best places to check out the entire table.

So my intro eluded to pairs. In 3 hours of play I should get on average of 3 pairs. Well, I got a bit more. AA twice. KK. QQ twice. JJ 3 times. 88. 66. 33. 22. 12 pairs. I flopped quads once and hit a set once as well. But I couldn't win much. I walked away with $200 in profit. My JJ got screwed twice. My pairs didn't work out in terms of big money except for the set of 66s. I biggest hand came with a AQ up against KQ. I didn't get any flushes or straights or full houses.

Summary

It was frustrating that I couldn't win more with those premium cards, but you need someone else with the 2nd best hand who thinks they have the best. I didn't bluff or semi-bluff. My QQ did get bluffed, but I think I made a good fold. I raised with QQ to $20. 5 callers. Flop 998 rainbow. I bet. One caller. Someone raises to $75 or so. I fold. He showed JT. He might have had a flush draw too, so maybe not a rainbow flop. Heads up. I'm not folding. But I thought it was 50/50 that he had a 9 or a draw. I felt it was a good fold. Anyways, I'm going to keep playing some cash, but I do want to get back to tournaments.