Sleep is for losers

So I can't sleep, and because I'll be occupied for most of today, I figured I'd make a blog entry now to keep myself in contention for the title of IMBC champion.

By the way, you'll soon notice that the title of this blog entry may be considered a pun.

- So I was playing some more online poker earlier--play money, of course, because online gambling is illegal. I put $10 onto a $20 no-limit table. An hour later, I was down to my last $2, not because of bad play or bad beats, but because I was completely "card-dead." The best hand I saw for this session was a pair of deuces, until the final hand I played.

I held pocket nines, so I threw in my last $2. I got called by one player, who held A5. Of course, the flop held an ace, with two clubs (my opponent held the five of clubs). The turn, miraculously, came a nine! It was the nine of clubs, but still, I now had the best hand. All I had to do was avoid another club on the river.

Oh well, at least I was up overall for the day, thanks to my profitable session earlier. Of course, the day would have been even better if I made the call with my pocket kings, as mentioned in the last blog entry.

- After that, I played some blackjack switch, which is similar to regular blackjack, but with a couple key differences:

1) You play two hands simultaneously, instead of one. Therefore, you need to make two bets instead of one.
2) The second dealt card in each hand can be switched with one another (hence the name of the game).
3) You can still split and double down. Blackjacks pay 1:1, not the usual 3:2. Blackjacks can be made after a switch, but not after a split (i.e. you have AA, split them, and end up with A-J and A-K; neither hand is considered a blackjack at this point).
4) A dealer 22 pushes all non-blackjack hands <-- the real stinker to this game.

So I was playing a few hands at $2 each ($4 per round), and was losing pretty badly. I then bumped up my betting to $5 a hand ($10 per round), and started making a recovery. I was actually in the black, when I played my last hand.

I was dealt 5-10 and A-6 against a dealer 6. If you remember the rules I mentioned above, you can see that this is an ideal situation to switch.

5-10, A-6 --> 5-6, A-10

Now I have a double down opportunity--made even juicier by the fact that the dealer has a 6 showing--as well as a blackjack. At this point, I'm guaranteed nothing worse than a loss of a single bet, assuming I double down on the 11 and end up losing that hand. Sure enough, when I doubled down, I was dealt a face card to give me 21. On top of that, the dealer's down card was a ten! All I had to do was avoid a 5 or a 6, and I was going to win 3 bets, or $15.

When the 6 came, I was kinda ticked off. I still won a single bet for the blackjack, but I felt like I got robbed. I stopped playing after that hand, only because I felt that my momentum was slipping, and I was pretty happy to finish in the black after my horrible start.

Then again, why should I be so annoyed? I was playing with play money, after all. I would gamble online with real money if it were legal.

Good night...er...morning!

(So...did you figure out the pun?)