JAM SESSION

                                                       

             An expression we used to employ in Paris regarding earning money at poker went like this:  “you can’t make bread without jam.”  By stretching the imagination, I guess confiture, the word for jam in French, does sound a bit like the word, conjuncture.  Which was just another example of the locals trying to be clever.

 

In French or English, conjuncture indicates a combination of events or circumstances that precipitates a critical state of affairs.  Meaning you can have fabulous cards from noon to midnight and still only make peanuts.  If your opponents all have busted hands, whose going to pay to see those quads, boats, etc? 

 

Surely most of us can remember an occasion in which the pair we had in hand was duplicated on the board.  Naturally we checked again and again, hoping that somebody would make a flush or full house and bet into our strength.  Instead, what usually happened was we picked up naught but the blinds.  C’est la vie.   Without the proper jam you are not going to accumulate chips.  

 

Two nights ago at a $1-$2 No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em game at the MGM I saw a player corner the market on jam, jelly and conjuncture.  From the deal of the cards to the turn and the river, everything fell in place for him.  Well, almost everything: he could have been playing at a higher stakes table.

 

Don’t ask me why nobody raised before the flop.  Since the session was exceedingly defensive, I guess everyone was waiting for someone else to make the initial move.  That way, I was able to limp in with an unsuited king-ten.  Here’s what six of the other nine players were holding:  two queens, two jacks, two nines, two eights, A-KH and 7-6S.  The flop turned over, 5D, 8C, 9H.  Happily for Mister 7-6S the man with a set of eights was on the button.  Checked around to him, we finally saw some action.  And plenty at that! Before you could say: “Je pense, donc je suis” four players with substantial piles had gone all in.  With a measly $26 in front of me I too put the rest of my chips in the pot.  Now if only a jack and queen would turn over, I would have the nut straight!

 

Nothing of the sort happened.  By turning over the deuce of diamonds and the trey of hearts, the dealer once again confirmed that only one person per hand is apt to get lucky.   In this case it was a middle-aged gentleman with thick eyeglasses and a pencil thin mustache.  I don’t know how much he raked in, but for that table it was plenty.  Standing up to leave, I had to pass behind his position.

 

        “Yes, Siree,” I heard him remark to the player on his left.  “I sure played that hand like a pro.”