Milestone

I got the call at about 9:45 p.m. last night. I was eating Chinese and watching Ultimate Fighting at Drew's.

My dad was on the line. He told me he and my mom had been locked out of the house, and they needed me to come home and let them in.

No problem, I thought. But the fish are going to have to pay.

The circumstances were right. It was a Saturday night. The cards have been running extremely well. I wasn't tired.

I decided I would take a shot at $15/$30 if the tables were good enough.

And let me tell you, they were good enough! I jumped ahead early with some routine hands -- check-raise top pair, turn two pair kind of hands. Then I lost small amounts on some second-best hands. The river brought a two pair to me but a flush to my opponent. A pocket pair of 8s lost to a pair of Jacks on the river.

But I still felt good. I was able to steal a few pots before the two magic hands both came at the same time.

First I limped with A2 from late position. Three people saw a flop with two cards of my suit. Early position bet, middle position called, I raised. Early position three-bet, middle position folded, I capped. Turn brought a blank. Bet and called. River brought my flush. Bet, raise, call. Big pot vs. a flopped set.

The biggest hand was going on at another table. I held 98 offsuit from the big blind in a big multiway pot. Flop brought a gut shot. Turn brought a double belly-buster. River filled me in with a highly unlikely third nut straight. I check-raised the field on the river, but then I got three bet! Fuck. I'm screwed. But I automatically called because the pot was enormous. The raiser turned over another flopped set, and I collected.

Shortly afterward, the tables dried up. I got tired and went to sleep, waiting until this morning to check my results.

I woke up this morning and went straight to PokerTracker. There was the verdict: $1,033 profits in a 1.5-hour Saturday night session. My first $1,000 day! The most money I've ever made in a day. And I did it by playing a computer game in my parents' basement.