Sully’s Bad Beat – And His Cool Tattoo

Date: 2008.04.14 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

(Hellmuth here: About 18 months ago, Sully Erna, the charismatic lead singer of Godsmack, took a bad beat so upsetting that he went out and got a huge tattoo on his back. Erna’s poker story — in his own words — follows.)

I had been at the Bellagio playing in a tournament with David Plastik and Gavin Smith, but I was knocked out by midday so I decided to go play in a cash game. I sat in on a $5 to $10 no-limit hold ’em table to kill time. I sat in seat one and bought in for $500. Four hours later, I was sitting on about $3,000. In the big blind, I peered down at pocket aces and watched two people ahead of me limp into the pot for $10. Seat 10 raised it up to $90 to go, I smooth called, and both limpers went away. The flop came down As-Qs-Ah. I checked … seat 10 bet $220, and I smooth called again. The turn card was the 10s, I checked, praying that he had spades, and he bet $500. I raised it up to $1,100 to go, and he pushed all-in! He had me covered, so I called for all of my remaining chips. I proudly flipped over my four aces, and he showed me pocket kings with the king of spades. “Yummy!” I thought.

Then the river card was peeled off, and the Js hit the felt as if it were in slow motion — like in a movie. Boom! Royal flush for seat 10, and a big pile of chips gets pushed his way. I stood up from the table and said, “There’s no justice in poker.” I then called my friend Nina, who hooked me up with her tattoo artist. I headed down to his shop, where he tattooed four aces going up in flames on my entire back with a banner below it, which read: “No Justice.”