I consider myself a small timer when it comes to poker but luckily scored a big tournament that paid for my first Las Vegas trip. I was just so excited to go to Las Vegas for the first time but most of all, I just wanted to play poker at the Bellagio.

I was already having bad signs at the airport because my flight was delayed 5 hours and I ended up being 7 hours late to my hotel. Once I checked into my hotel, I went straight to the poker room from pokerace99. The poker room was nothing like the ones I’ve been to in my hometown and I was just full of awe. I don’t know if my flight delay brought me bad luck but the waiting list for the 30/60 was very long. I did not want to play anywhere else so I decided to duke it out. Finally, after hour and a half I was able to sit down.

I bought in for $2500 and posted my big blind. Some Players looked friendly and some looked like they were playing cards for a living. I didn’t want to be intimidated by other players so I started observing players right away. Before I knew it, the cards were dealt and then it was folded to the button who made it $60 to go. The small blind folded and I looked at my hole cards and discovered 2 black kings. I was sitting on seat 1 and I sat back a little bit so I wouldn’t give away any tells to the player who just raised. I quickly 3 betted and I could hear the original raiser saying “Whoa, easy there buddy.” and threw in the chips to call my raise.

The flop came out to K,7,7 rainbow! I had flopped the full house!

I was dancing inside my head and I didn’t even know what to do. I killed some time and tapped the table, indicating a check. The original raiser bet and I check-raised him. This time, he killed some time and called my raise. I knew I was trapping this guy in for good and I was just thinking about raking in a huge pot. The turn was another 7 that put a flush draw out there but of course flush wouldn’t be any good because I was worrying about my opponent having quad 7s. Could he have raised preflop with A7? 78? 89? I decided to kill some time again and tapped the table, indicating a check. The original raiser quickly bet and I knew he didn’t have the quad. If he did then I was willing to pay for it. Even before his chips across the betting line, I quickly check-raised. He asked me if I had pocket aces and reraised me. At this time, I knew he did not have the quad for sure and I figured he had a K in his hand for Sevens full of Kings which is still behind my Kings full of Sevens. I 4-betted him and he just called.

The river was……………yes another 7. I checked in disbelief and my opponent bet threw in his 6 $10 chips and said “chop, chop?”

The board was reading K,7,7,7,7. My full house was nullified and I had quad 7s with K kicker…so basically, my hand plays the board. I made a crying call and my opponent flipped over A,K to take down the pot. Quad 7s with ace kicker. I threw my hand away shaking my head and murmuring to myself. I racked the rest of my chips as one of the players was requesting to see my hand. I did not want to say anything nor hear anything. I just ran to the cage to cash in the rest of my chips.

Steve…