[luckyjimm]

I spoke yesterday to a friend who just went on a great Omaha spin-up on Microgaming/Gutshot. He put in $100, sat at $0.50/$1, doubled up a few times, sat at $2/$4, doubled up, then sat with $1000 at $10/$20. The way he tells it, this all took place in about twenty five minutes. He doubled up again and all of a sudden had a mighty $2000 from his original $100. He could have cashed it out at the Gutshot club where he was playing (which runs a Microgaming skin) and walked off with a nice builder's wedge of used banknotes!

But did he bank the win and spend the rest of the evening celebrating his win? Did he heck! Onwards and upwards, so why stop at a grand??? So minutes later he found himself in middle position with KKxx on a KT2 rainbow board. First player pots it; he repots it to $675; another guy calls. 3 on the turn, bringing a diamond draw. First player pots it, our spin-up merchant calls - putting himself all-in - and the player behind calls as well. So $6,000 in the pot - wow, that would be nice to have, not bad from $100 half an hour ago, eh. But fate has other ideas - diamond on the river and ship the pot to the first player, who had AQJ9 for a full wrap with backdoor nut flush draw; the third unlucky player had a set of tens.

Is it noble to have aimed for the stars and fallen flat on your face?

I was very surprised when my friend told me this, as he is one of the most solid, rocklike and respectable players you could hope to meet. He is now broke until payday. I fear my bad influence is rubbing off on him. But, respect for the attempt - I salute him!