Poker Pouri
Monday, May 22, 2006
There is nothing better than spending a lazy Sunday slinging cards and chips in the comfort of your own apartment.
Yesterday, wifey Kim was on Long Island at a baby shower, so I took it upon myself to utilize this opportunity for a home game. A Sunday afternoon game isn't the most common format, but it definitely has its advantages. For one, it is done relatively early (I threw everyone out at 8pm), so I could have the night to unwind with wifey Kim. Also, it makes Sunday feel a lot less like, well, Sunday. It helps when you win some money too.
The original plan was to have a $60 tournament at a game that consisted mostly of bloggers. Too ensure that we'd have a sufficient amount of people, I decided to send out a wife player net, asking a variety of my old home game crew, NYC bloggers, and some interested parties to join the fray. Sunday afternoon being what it is, the group wasn't as blogger-heavy as I expected, but I can't complain one bit. Lately, it had been a chore to get the troops in line to play, so I thought I needed a blogger-heavy turnout to make it work. Little did I know that the home game crew would turn out in spades.
The game started out with 9 players: me, F-Train, Dawn from I Had Outs, Dave Roose, Robbie Hole, Scotty, Peter, Matty Ebs, and bro-in-law Marc. There is a wide range of players there, from the serious F-Train to the fun-time-guy combination of Scotty and Pete. Scotty, always generous, catered the event, ordering a platter of Subway sandwiches that didn't go to waste. A HUGE thanks to Scotty, who is always a class act.
I had a couple of cancellations, including Mikey Aps, Platinum, and Law School Dan (with Law School Craig), but we had enough other players to make it work. Platinum and D-Root would stop by later for a cash game. The players who were present were largely part of the ole Hole Home Game, where they play $15 turbo tourneys, so, to accomodate what players we had, the buy-in was dropped from $60 to 40.
The game started off pretty loose, and remained that way for the entirety of the tournament. I think I saw Dawn's eyes light up when I sat back down at the table after setting everything up while the first few hands played out. If I wasn't mistaken, those eyes said, "WTF did I miss and where did all this action come from?" I'm sure it was also the look of a shark eying its prey.
I wish I can say that I played well in the tournament. I didn't though. I folded repeatedly, and then crippled myself against F-Train when I held TT. I believe that I was in the BB, or maybe UTG and I limped. He was on the button and raised. I called. The flop was KQ3, and I check-raised, sensing weakness. He must have sensed the same thing, because he re-raised me all-in quickly and confidently. I folded. He showed his A3, for bottom pair. We rabbit-hunted, and I would've run.
I then pushed my short stack with QJ on the button, only to be called by Petey who had KK in the SB. Hence, my early exisst. The final three were F-Train (3rd), Dawn (2nd), and Petey (1st). If you've read about Petey before, you know that he isn't the best of players. In fact, he is easily the least experienced, and, I must admit...sorry Petey, the worst player of the group. But he was hitting cards, and he DID play well. So congrats Petey.
After the tourney, we decided to play a .25/.50 NL cash game, with a $40 max buy-in. I lost my first $40 against Petey. I held K2o on the button, so I limped with the passive preflop crowd. The flop was Kc3c3s. It was checked to Pete (CO) and he overbets $10. He was catching cards in general, and his overbets were getting common. I decided to put him to the test. I push all-in for another $18 more. It folds to Pete and he calls with Jc8c, a flush draw. As I dealt the turn, I yelled "fuck", expecting a club. I was wrong. When I dealt the river, I yelled "fuck" again, expecting a club. I was right. The Ace of Spades! I rebought.
Then something happened. I'm sure most of the table will attest that I was my usual joking self. I like to have fun at the table, so I was making my usual wiseass shtick. But as I was doing it, I slowly started chipping up. I don't even remember any specific hands. I know I busted Scotty with J8o when the flop was AJJ and he had an Ace. I doubled up off of Hole with my AQ vs his AK after the flop came down AQx. I always get action from Robbie Hole!
Somewhere in there, Petey and Scotty left, and D-Root and Platinum jumped in. I continued to chip up, and finally called the game end at 8pm (in fact, it ended at 7:45 after I busted Matty Ebs).
I ended the cash game with the most cash on the table, $170. With my $80 in buy-ins, that was a $90 profit in the cash game, and $50 profit overall, when considering the $40 tourney loss. Another successful live game in the books, and I started the day playing horribly.
As a result of the home game, I missed the WPBT event last night. Twas a shame, but a man can only poker so much, especially when the Sopranos and (gag) Desperate Housewives are on.
Thanks to all of the players that came out. I'm now looking even more forward to the SoxLover blogger home game this Friday. Should be fun! And don't forget DADI 6: Pot Limit Hold'em. It's one week from today, and VPP has offered some additional prizes besides the cash prize pool. Be there, or be elsewhere.
posted by Jordan @ 9:50 AM,
5 Comments:
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At 12:35 PM,
said...
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Eh, I tend to be kinda quiet around folks who are new to me (of which there were plenty).
Thanks for hosting man. Twas fun, especially laying a monster bluff down on you. It reinforced my answer to TripJax's question of which is more satisfying: aces holding up or winning one on a bluff.
Bluff, no question. -
At 12:58 PM,
said...
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I dunno, F-train, my aces holding up against Jordan felt pretty damn satisfying.
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At 1:24 PM,
said...
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Good, you two. Get it out of your systems.
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At 2:08 PM,
said...
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hahahahahahahha
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At 7:33 PM,
said...
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nice job on the win in the house game jordan, and thanks for the AC response turned out every freaking room in AC was booked including the hole in the wall places too because of preakness weekend.....and a good bluff is better then aces holding up any day i def agree
