This hand burned me a bit. Actually, a lot. Early in an SNG I have AJ in the small blind. We’re only 15 hands in so I decide not to raise, let’s see the flop first. And it comes K-Q-10.

OK, I flop Broadway. The big blind bets T200. The first limper, crippled early on, pushes his last T450. I decide to call, in case the small blind feels pushy. He doesn’t.

The turn is the 5 of clubs. The big blind and I have just about the same number of chips. I check, fully expecting him to push. He does and I call with the nuts. I figured they might be drawing dead or to a tie. Uh, no. The original limper has KK. The big blind has KQ. And of course the river is a queen and they divvy up the pot. I go out in 9th place.

Now, that isn’t what burned me. What burned me was that after I was eliminated and before I closed the table the guy with KQ said in chat, “That’s what you get for not raising with a big ace.”

“True true,” said the guy who didn’t raise with his kings.

I think it’s this blinkered stupidity that I’ll miss most if the fish pond dries up over the next few months. Every day, in almost every way, I despair for the future of my country.

And I’d feel exactly the same way if I’d won that damned hand.

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