Saturday night

So I’m getting ready to eat some dinner, leftover pizza, I’m a real heath nut, before getting ready to head out to Saturday’s poker game when I get a call from Doug. He’s calling to ask if I can give him a ride to Ron’s. Even though it’s a bit out of my way I tell him sure. I like Doug even if he is my nemesis at the poker table. Doug is a good player of the LAG-tard variety. He makes ck seem almost passive and it’s almost impossible to put him on a hand. Not to mention he’s also lucky as hell. He’ll bluff and bluff and somehow if he doesn’t buy it he winds up with the best hand by the river any way. Actually playing Doug is one of the reasons my game improved. When I started playing NL I was a very passive player and used to let Doug control the action. Even when I figured I was best I reacted rather than acted and more times then not let Doug catch something to beat me. I finally figured that if I wanted to win against him when I was good I had to be the first off the mark so as not to let him get there which in turn led me to a much more aggressive playing style. Nowhere near what he does but a lot more than I was. While it has helped my overall game it hasn’t seemed to help me much against Doug. This is because while I’ve learned to attack when good and win some pots from him Doug will still think nothing of attacking back every so often and somehow it usually all winds up in the middle and then he still sucks out on me somewhere in the course of the night. Actually I think Doug occasionally reads this damned thing. Either that or he’s bluffing in a different sense. A couple times last night I bet into him with strong draws and/or over cards and he called me down with middle pair. Now at one time Doug would never have done that. He may have made a play and come over the top but never just called yet here it happened and he took my chips a couple times. Afterwards I asked him about it and he tells me to forget it, my image is shot. What the hell is he talking about I ask and he just says he hears things. Now what he could have heard is beyond me as I haven’t played anything local but these games, not even the bar games, so there is no one who could be telling anything about me. There are only two places where I have talked about my game and that is the poker forum I frequent online and here and I doubt he’s reading posts in that forum.

Be that as it may I’m getting ready to head out. Game starts at 7 and while I’m usually one of the first there most folks don’t wander in until a bit later. Today however I’m going to be one of the later guys. Due to circumstances beyond my control things go FUBAR and I’m running late. I start rushing around and finally am ready to book when I get a call from Doug saying Wookie just stopped by his house and so he’ll ride up with him but can he catch a ride home with me. Again, no problem, it will save me time and off I go. I get a mile down the road and it dawns on me I was rushing around so much that I left without various items including my card protector. Nothing that was necessary but just some things I like to have but I’m not running back for them. The omens are not looking propitious for this game. I stop at the Wawa on my way to pick up a cup of soda and a bag of ice for the bottle of umbrella drinks I brought with me. Ron has a great selection of whiskies at the Manor but it’s getting warm out and straight whisky is a thing for winter drinking for the most part as far as I’m concerned. Beer and boat drinks are for the heat. While there I wonder whether to tap MAC for some back up cash as I only have 3 buy ins with me but I get overconfident and decide not to. Forgot about those damned omens. So I got my stuff and head out and finally get to Ron’s. Game is already in progress and my favorite seat is already taken. Damn, them omens are really starting to suck. Put the ice in the freezer, the drinks on the kitchen table and head in to the game room.

The game is mostly NLHE, .25/.50, with a $40 buy in or 75% of the big stack if you are late or rebuying. As the night goes on we’ll throw in a round of the Pineapple variations or PLO or O8 just for a change of pace. It hasn’t been going on for long so it costs me $40 to start. There are 6 already seated. Ron, our host, banker and owner of the palatial Snakster Manor is at the head of the table. Very good solid players, not usually given to flashy moves but he will occasionally have his moments. Going clockwise the next player is the above mentioned Doug. Next is Chris, a friend of Doug’s, whom I know nothing about. Next is Wookie. Wookie is puzzlement. I’ve played with him only a couple times, usually in tourneys, so really have no idea how his cash game is. Also he has usually been heavily into the beer when we’ve played before but tonight there is a glass of ice water at his elbow. He does partake of Ron’s hospitality with the whisky eventually but compared to what I’ve seen him do to a beer supply it’s exceedingly moderate. What effect no beer will have on what little I do know about his game is any one’s guess. Next to him and in my favorite spot, is Trucker, Dave. We ran across Dave at the RPT games and he’s a pretty nice guy with an offbeat sense of humor at times and he wound up being invited to the game and is now a regular. A retired Teamster and a decent player though he’s mainly her to have fun and socialize which does color his play at times. Finally there’s Pops. Pops is Ron’s father-in-law, a great old guy and has in-law quarters at the Manor He only sits in for about the first two hours of the game then calls it a night. Have to be careful around Pops; you never know whether he’s got A high or the freaking nuts. He has a tendency to get frisky at times. I’m informed that Darryl and Frank are supposed to show later. Darryl I figure is a given, he’s pretty regular. There was a time I would have said the same of Frank but over the past year or so instead of showing up early he’s come late when he has shown at all. Last couple games he said he would be there and hadn’t shown so who knows. I mention that my nephew said he might come after he’s done work at 11.

So I pull up a seat between Chris and Wookie as I like keeping Doug to my right and right away some one mentions that Darryl’s gonna complain I’m in his spot. No biggie as I say I’m putting in my claim for Pop’s seat when he leaves. It puts Doug on my left but I hate sitting down on the corner of the table. First or second hand I dust off some chips to Dave. Talk about insult to injury, he’s in my seat and taking my chips. According to him it makes his night, he doesn’t care what happens as long as he won a pot from me. I did say Dave has an offbeat sense of humor didn’t I, especially as far as I’m concerned. A couple hands later I spread some of the cheer to Wookie. I really should have paid attention to the omens. I put another $20 in the bank as I hate being caught short stacked and play goes on. It’s not too much longer when I ship the stack to Wookie when my K-Q runs in to his A-K and the K hits the turn. Oh well. I put the rest of what’s in my pocket on the table and it ain’t even 9 yet. It’s already been a long night. I win a small pot or two and Darryl shows up just as Pops is getting ready to leave. I go out to pour me a drink, he takes his seat and I grab Pops’. Pops had been up earlier but I think he may have gotten frisky and put most of them back. I take a couple more small pots and think maybe my luck is turning even though I donked off a few to Doug when he called me down with middle pair and caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. Then I’m in the cutoff with T-T and after a couple limpers I make it $2.50. Ron, otb, sits there and thinks with Doug doing all he can to get him to call. Doug finally persuades him and then calls himself and everyone else folds. Flop comes 2-7-6 rainbow and Doug checks and I go $10, which is about the pot. Ron shoves for about $30 more. I figure that Ron might have had connectors, maybe suited otb, and hit top pair, maybe top two. I call thinking that I might have him beat or if not I still have outs. The turn and river are blanks and he turns over a pair of ducks for the set. Never figured that because didn’t think it would take him that long to decide to play a pair from otb. True it was a small pair but my raise wasn’t all that big by game standard and with Doug intimating that he was playing pre there was enough implied money to make it worthwhile to set mine. A couple hands later I dust off what I have remaining to Doug when he makes a play to my A-Q suited and I shove on a low board with the overs and nut flush draw. True, I didn’t have enough to really force him off but he only had middle pair and as I said later there was a time he would never have made that call knowing that he couldn’t come back and force me off my hand later. So I’m tapped and might have gone home but it was still early and I wasn’t in the mood to leave. So I tell them to keep my seat warm and back off to Wawa and the ATM I go.

I pick up another 4 buy ins and return and cash half of it. We’ll see where we go from here. My luck starts to turn a bit. A small pot here and there and I finally hit a decent one. I pull 5-5 and call a raise by Chris. I figure I’m racing at best so far and probably behind as he’s been playing tighter than a bull’s arse at fly time. There’s another caller, Dave I think. Flop comes 3 low and Chris bets which makes me think that he’s got a bigger pair and we both call. The turn puts a straight draw out there and puts me open ended and scares Chris as he checks as does Dave. I bet the 5s with the OESD and Chris folds, Dave calls. River gives me my straight and Dave checks and I bet and he calls and I win and Chris kicks himself as he thought I had made my straight on the turn and he laid down best hand at that point. Playing way too tight. I win a couple more nice pots though not as nice as I would have wished. One was when we were playing PLO. I’m in the BB and flop quad Qs. How do you get paid off here? Everyone is going to be cautious with that pair on the board. I fiddle around and get lucky when the turn puts flush possibilities out there and a couple of small bets get me some chips from Darryl as he has the nut flush but had to size them right because even as he was calling me on the river he was figuring I had a boat but bets weren’t big enough to lay it down. Another hand I had –T-T again and smacked the set on the flop with Dave and Doug in the hand with me in the middle. Dave and I checked and Doug bet out which is what I was looking for. Dave and I both called. On the turn Dave bet out, I called and Doug folded. Damn, I wanted Doug in this hand, not Dave. Doug had the bigger stack and I wanted to use his aggressiveness against him. River pairs the board and Dave bets again and I raise and he folds. Doug says that he had hit top pair on the flop but that when both of us came along for the ride when he bet he figured he was cooked. Damn Dave, Doug with top pair and a big stack? I could have made up all my losses and then some.

Somewhere along the line Frank actually showed. Frank’s a hell of a nice guy and a decent player or he was. Somehow he’s come to the conclusion he’s got to be like Doug and all the other LAG-tards out there and it doesn’t work out so well for him. While he still plays a solid game he has Matasow like blow ups usually at the wrong frikkin times and winds up donking back everything he has accumulated and then some. Last night I felt a bit sorry for him for while he made a few plays he shouldn’t most of his game was solid, just unlucky. I got to him first when he raised and I called with suited connectors. I flopped open ended and turned the straight and when I raised the river he called and I had outdrawn his pocket queens. As the board was draw heavy he should never have made the call but then again I was a bit loose as I called a pretty substantial flop bet with my draw. A bit later he got it all in with Qs again against Dave’s 9-9. After the turn Dave started to congratulate him on the hand and it was no sooner out of his mouth than the river comes a 9. Poor Frank He buys back in again but a bit later he runs across Doug. Forget how preflop went but I’m sure there was a raise in there somewhere as Frank had A-A. Flop comes 3 spades and Doug shoves. Frank is in the tank and Doug tells him he has the flush. Frank is still thinking and he and Doug are going back and forth about the hand. Frank finally calls and shows 2 black aces vs. Doug’s 9 hi flush. Both turn and river brick and Frank is broke. There ensues a lively discussion on the merits of the call with Frank saying that as it was a cash game it was entirely appropriate while Doug insisted that in the specific situation it wasn’t. Doug’s argument wasn’t that drawing to the nut wasn’t correct in a cash game but rather when you don’t have anything left to rebuy it becomes more like a tourney situation and you have to wait for a better spot. Kind of agree with Doug on this one.

Before Frank bottomed out my nephew Patrick joined the game and his arrival jinxed me. I had been doing halfway decent and it looked like I had made a recovery but after he got there I went card dead. Oh I took some small pots here and there and gave some chips back the same way. There is a house rule about giving a half hour notice before leaving, unless you bust out of course, just your table stake not your wallet, and along about 1 Wookie mentions he’s going to give notice soon. I say I’m booking at 2 anyway myself and Doug right away goes 2:30. 2, I say. Anyhow somewhere along the line we get started on a round of PLO8 and since I always stay to the end of the round it somehow wound up closer to 3 before the game broke up, mainly because of two hands. One was a 3 hand pot between Doug, Wookie and Dave where Dave wound up shoving the river and Doug calling leaving Wook contemplating a $100 bet into about a $350 pot with the second nut high. Here things got a bit dicey as the table talk, while appropriate for a HE game was not for a hi/lo one. Doug, figuring Dave was all in and the bet had Wookie about covered so he had no more at risk started discussing the hand with Wookie. Basically he was telling Wookie that he had the same hand and that if he couldn’t beat it he should fold because he would lose money. Part of the problem is that Wookie didn’t quite get the hang of the quarter figuring that even if he lost half the hundred to Dave because of the lo there was still enough in the pot to make up for it. What was inappropriate was that one didn’t know whether Dave was playing hi or lo so talking Wookie out of calling was depriving him of half the bet if low or maybe even the whole thing if hi. As it turned out Wookie finally folded Dave had lock lo and Doug had 2nd nut hi, the same as Wookie had laid down. I heard Doug did offer to make up Wookie’s missed bet as we were leaving but don’t know if Dave accepted. Knowing Dave, probably not. The other hand was again Wookie, this time with Ron on the last hand of the night. Wookie potted the flop which left Ron in the tank trying to put him on a hand. Seems Ron had top 2 with a lo draw and wasn’t sure if Wookie had bottom set. Took him awhile to figure it out but eventually he decided Wookie did have the set which he did. The rabbit hunt showed it was a good fold as Ron would have gotten neither a hi or lo. As Ron is the banker however we spent some time waiting to get cashed out as this hand played out.

All in all it turned out to be a decent night. It was enjoyable playing with these guys again and when I totaled things up I found I was $15 to the good. Not a great haul but considering where I had been earlier I’m not going to grouse about it. Was actually up a bit more but a couple of draw heavy PLO hands that didn’t pan out cost me about a buy in or so. I’ll be waiting for the next one.

Thanks for the listen