The Hammer Strikes Again

by Luckbox

Playing the Hammer is a skill borne over time. But some people seem to take to it fast than others. Jena is one of those players. I first wrote about her back in May when I sat next to her at a table in New Orleans. It's there that I introduced her to the most powerful hand in poker.

It wasn't long before she was using it to her advantage. And now, she's done it again:

I just had to get my poker fix before I come to join you in Vegas. I was playing the single table tournaments. The first tourney ended up with me and Cindy heads up. We were rather friendly and we got to talking about our favorite hands in poker. While we played, I told her the story of my first exposure to the Hammer (under the tutelage of CJ).

When Cindy wanted to know if I continued to play the Hammer, I answered with a laugh and said, "Ah, not really--all the players at my regular game have read the blog--I only play it when I am on the button now."

Cindy and I went on to chop first and second for a nice $470 each. We soon met on another table that morning. I landed the prized button. I did not look at my cards until the action was on me. I had to suppress a smile when the peek revealed 72o. There were two limpers ahead of me when I called as did the blinds.

The flop came 3A9, rainbow. Both players checked to me. I immediately raised to $400. Both blinds folded, followed by the first limper in early position. He threw down his cards disguised and threw me "the Look." The last limper folded and I took down the pot.

Just before stacking my chips, I flipped over the Hammer for all to see. This caused the early limper to exclaim, "You did not play that!" And began to boil at having laid down the best hand to the Hammer. I laughed and told him, "Now, we've broken the ice at this table." Cindy began to laugh and recanted my first exposure to the Hammer to the other players.

Jena arrives in Vegas tomorrow. We'll see how many Hammers she drops this week!

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