I've lived in Vegas for over a year and have been playing poker here for ten.  My wife's family lives here and we'd vacation here several weeks a year.  I put a minimum of 30 hours a month in the poker room, sometimes that much a week.  I'm up close to ten grand over the last year (been on a skid lately).  I keep my poker finances separate from my bill/mortgage money.  I have a safe deposit box at Venetian with my cash in it and haven't used anything but money I've made gambling to gamble with in years.

Last Wednesday I was meeting my wife and kids at Sante Fe Station for dinner.  It's ten minutes from my house and has a nice, small poker room with a lot of action.  During the week, before 8pm they usually don't have a $2/5 no limit table.  I bought in for the maximum $300 and sat at the $1/2 no limit table.  I had a couple hours to kill before my family got there and I was ready to play a few hands.

The three hands after I sat down, I got dealt a king and queen of hearts.  Not a stupendous hand, but I definitely wanted to see a flop.  Somebody made a $10 preflop bet, four callers in front of me, and I was priced in to call.

The flop came up ten, jack, and ace.  I'd flopped broadway, ace high straight, the nut hand.  What's more, the ten and jack were both hearts.  I was open ended to the straight flush.  An ace or nine of hearts would make me a monster hand.  As a promotion, the casino was paying anybody that got a straight flush $250 and a heart royal flush would net me $4,000.

I was first to act and bet $50, almost what was in the pot.  I got a caller, then the guy to his left went all in.  Fold, fold, fold, I pretended to think about it for a while and called, the guy to my left folded.  Now I'm heads up with the all in guy.

He doesn't show, so I don't either.  The turn card is another heart.  My ace high straight is now a king high flush.  The river card is a blank.  He turns over ace and nine of hearts.  He had both my straight flush outs and beat me with an ace high flush.  I lost $300 in five minutes at the table. 

I was so annoyed that I didn't even buy in again.  No point in trying to play while I was steaming.  I can't even fault the guy's play that much.  He had top pair and was working on the nut flush.  Still pissed me off though.