Life imitates art, or "pay that man his money"...

My nickname in our local poker circle is KGB. It's a cooler nickname than I deserve, and I'm named so for my Russian background and our love of the John Malkovich character in Rounders. Mr. Malkovich's scenery-chomping mad Russian Teddy KGB is the perfect foil to Matt Damon's...um...adorable blandness.

Anyway, in the climactic poker battle, Teddy KGB is foiled by Matt's straight, but the audience is let in on the fact that Matt has Teddy beat from the very beginning. What's supposed to impress us is the cool way Matt plays the hand in order to fool Teddy to bet all of his remaining chips. This is after Matt discovers that Teddy's giveaway is to lick the center out of his Oreo cookies. You'd think in an underground poker parlor, supposedly filled with the greatest players in NYC, a giveaway like that would be more readily noticed. "Gee, every time he has a flush he opens his parasol, pets his Pomeranian, and does the hokey-pokey!" But I digress...

In last night's poker tourney I found myself heads up with the exact same amount of chips as my opponent (3500). After a few hands, I was whittled down to about 3K with 100-200 blinds. In my fatal hand, I was dealt 4-8 offsuit in the big blind and stayed in when my opponent called. Flop comes down Q-K-J, check is good. Then a 4. Checked to me, I bet 500, get called. Last card is a 6. Opponent bets 500, I say all-in and I'm quickly called. Oh, he has A-9, I win...wait. A-10. He flopped the nuts and had me beat all the way, and then trapped me into betting all of my chips. And so, I'm subject to the same downfall as my namesake. The irony was almost worth settling for $20 in second place cash...