My son is a CARD RACK.

Holy hell. It's been a while! Busy as .... between work, fatherhood and stuff. Poker, in a 'live' sense seems been a distant memory. I've been working even tho the Deerhunter has been keen the last couple of Saturday nights. Since C-nut has gone to Perth it's been quiet. Shame. There is a few emails going around late yesterday and today working on a Sunday arvo shuffle up. Here's hoping it comes to fruition! I'm keen to utilize some of the stuff I've been reading in "Harrington".

(Speaking of, I've finished "Super System 1". Great read, but didn't enjoy it as much as Harrington's stuff. Can't really put my finger on why. Weird. Just Brunson's over-emphasis on aggression pissed me off after a while. I mean, I understand that aggression is essential in poker, but it's got to be controlled, and precise. At times it didn't feel like Doyle made that point clear. I'll end up re-reading it to see if I get something else out of it, no doubt. But Harrington is brilliant. He's probably more consevative than I am in the way I look at hands occasionally, but it's awse. I can't recommend it enough. I will sorta do a review of each of the books as time goes by. It's just a matter of time!!!)

Anyway, on to the topic behind today's title of this post. My son. My brilliant kid, Zac. (I could post about how his mum is supposed to have him for the ENTIRE school holidays to give ME a FUCKING BREAK, and how he's home after THREE FUCKING NIGHTS with mum.... but I won't bore you...! Plus, I love him too god-damn much! There. I feel better already!) Anyhoo .... We went out into The Rumpus after going to see Shrek the Third (Brill flick btw) and played some heads up. He is a certifiable CARD RACK. Unbelievable. He even suggested we play for money yesterday! Classic! 5c buy in. So we did. Winner take all! Oh, the thrill of High Stakes poker!

Anyway, I won't go into minute detail about hands (except for one) but he just couldn't help getting cards. See, the thing is, I don't want to go folding hands that I know are pretty much unplayable, because half ... if not all ... of the fun is seeing the flop and the action that ensues on the turn and river, with him. And he's good. Really friggin good! Classic example on one hand where he just comes across as a very natural player. Flop comes all clubs, and he's first to act. He bets out $200. And I raise to $400, because I had flopped my flush. And he insta-folds. And said to me, "I just wanted to see if you had it". It was seriously eerie. Talk about value feeler bet. Quite happy to lose his chips, but happier to have worked out what I had, and folded.

Keep in mind, the kid's just turned SEVEN. Fark. To quote Eminem "....I've created a monster...."

In the end it didn't matter that he lost those chips. He was virtually unbeatable. In fact, if I didn't know better, he pretty much experienced his first true 'rush'. One of the first hands we played he collared me with Fish hooks. Then about 5 minutes later, I ran Q's into K's. I raised from the small blind, and he just flat called, so I had no real reason to think he had Boys. He ended up busting me when I pushed all in on a rag flop there. Bastard!

Then he caught Boys again when I had something like QJ sooooted. He flopped trips! Only a couple of hands did I have any luck. I flopped a set of 9's which he didn't pick. But apart from that, he just walked all over me, except for the last hand which I'll get to in a tick. Another impressive piece of play he showed was recognition of kickers. We both had an A in the hole. Me with a rag, him with a 9 from memory. We flopped top pair, with me to act, and I put in a good sized bet. He immediately repopped me. I folded, and he said out loud " ... I wondered what your other card was ..." FREEEK!

Last hand .... and it's a ripper. (I took a photo of the cards. Just gotta work out how to get them onto the site!) He's dealt pocket J's. I get AJ off. Flop comes J-A-A. Unreal. I pushed all in and he calls! Classic. Very similar (In fact almost identical to this. Sensational. I feel for this poor bastard! At least he was philosophical!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cixMq97Zo38

That's the sorta stuff you play poker for isn't it?!!