Hey, a shout out to Martin Boigt from Poker Olymp who faithfully translates my blogs into German for all the Cowboy fans over there. I miss Germany and look forward to playing there again someday. It was the one time in poker that I played in a game in which I was the minority and the only one who spoke English. I felt so out of place but joined in the laughter and had a lot of fun. I believe it was at the Speilbank Casino in Baden where I stayed at a beautiful hotel just up the street. It was kind of eerie as I was unfamiliar with my environment and when I exited the casino I was enveloped into a dark rainy night and the cool air sent a chill up my spine. Thick half-bare trees lined a park across the street. Losing their leaves they peppered the wet pavement as I walked with a bounce in my step back to the hotel, my pockets filled with gangster roll-like cash from my fortuitous win. I have many great memories like this from my trips abroad and feel blessed to have had the opportunity to play in exotic places like this all around the world.

I’m singing the song “Memories,” to myself, lol, which is difficult as I am sitting outside the practice room of my son’s band as they rock out to Iron Maiden and Aerosmith. My foot tapping and head bobbing to the pulsating music I’m not against it. My son Spence is ten years old and I’m jealous that I didn’t have half the talent that he does at his age. He’s already played a few live concerts with his band “Play Doh,” and to tell you the truth, they Rock! It’s not my first choice in music but I can appreciate it and love that he has found a talent for this positive vehicle for his musical expression.

I’m sitting here after flying back from Atlantic City to Las Vegas the other day and then making the four hour drive back to Los Angeles. I had a great time teaching in AC but am disappointed that I didn’t get to play in the WPT main event. With 40k in chips and one and a half hour rounds it was a great structured tournament for the professional.

In my last blog I left my update with me competing in the final 27 of one of the under-card events. I finished a disappointing 18^th by making a donkey call with AQ on an all-in move by a player pretending not to look at his cards. In fact he did sneak a quick peak behind his rack of chips. Racks are not supposed to be on the table and this is a clear display of the reason why. To prevent players from using them as an angle. But in the haste of trying to move the tournament along in breaking from three tables down to two, the director got the clock moving and the dealer pitched the cards before people were even settled into their seats and the racks had been removed from the table.

Caught up in the moment I looked to take advantage of my opponent’s flippancy of quickly moving all-in recklessly after I had just limped into the pot. Everyone else had folded to him in the Big Blind and it looked as if he was looking to pick up an easy pot. I thought to myself, wouldn’t he want action if he had Aces or Kings? How could he hope to get action from someone who had just limped in for 12,000 and still had a quarter million in chips behind? This coupled with the assurances from other table members who were laughing and assuring me that they didn’t see him look at his cards was sufficient bait to put my ego on the hook. I fell for the trap in hopes to make the “hero call,” and stand up to what looked to be someone establishing himself as the table bully.

Imagine the look of my stupidity when he said, “I don’t know what I’ve got…let’s take a look…” and then flipped over two Aces!! Instantly I knew I had been had and exclaimed, “thats the oldest trick in the book.” He confirmed in fact that it was and while he got my chips he didn’t get my reaction from him sticking the dagger in and twisting it when he slowly flipped over one card at a time.

As the board ran out a dry river, I sheepishly made my well wishes to the table and held my head high as I surrendered my stacks of chips to my opponent. Did he outplay me,? Outwit me,? Or Angle me in this pot? How could I be so stupid to fall for this angled stunt after so many years of experience on the felt? It doesn’t much matter as the result is all the same. An 18^th place finish worth $1,670 and perhaps an even more valuable lesson learned should I protect myself from such antics in the future.

Profit doesn’t always come with winning. There are profitable situations all around you every day. We only have to open our eyes to them and recognize that sometimes great successes come from simple failures. I hope this was one of them and in the meantime I’ll enjoy rocking out to my sons music….

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna James