Ooooooo, ahhhhhh. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I'm writing too much. You can't read this fast, can you? Well, it's your loss then. For the random guy who might stumble across this someday, I wish you the best of luck on your journey through life, and maybe you'll find something you can learn from or use for yourself from within these electronic pages.
Last night, with the parentals out at a Chinese get-together ('till 11, which was my original prediction), and since no one else was in the mood to host a poker game, I took the liberty of bringing said game to my humble abode. Oh what a glorious decision that was.
Having become the host of this game, I was finally able to bend these journeymen poker players to my way of thinking, and we had a cash game. A CASH GAME. Woohoo!!! Perhaps I shall take the time to expound to you, o' loyal reader, the virtues of a cash game, especially among high school kids with some cash in their wallets. A normal tourney, which most kids play on their poker nights, is very restrictive money-wise. Anywhere from 6 to 16 guys, $10 buy-in, and the prize pool is of course concentrated towards the top. The winner takes the lion's share, the runner-ups take something for their time, and everyone else is left out in the cold. Not so with a cash game. The smarter ones won't lose their entire stack, but even if you do, you're always welcome to buy back in. And thus, the amount of money on the table is really limitless. At least until the poor fishes are dead broke. Originally, most of these players for our game were coming with the idea that they'd be playing a $10 buy-in tourney, with prizes to the top 3. I convinced them otherwise, and what would have been a prize pool of only $90 became by the end of the night, $140. Of that, I managed to take home $85.
But before I get ahead of myself with stories of brilliant play, horrible beats, and downright stupidity, we shall first examine the structure. Perhaps you too shall learn from this, and maybe emulate it in your home game. 9 people make for a perfect, full NL ring game. With the buy-in determined to be around $10, blinds were $0.10/$0.20. Seems cheap, doesn't it? Let me just tell you, with our game (which I would say represented a fairly normal collection of players, bankrolls, and playing styles), average pot size probably hovered around $5. That's a quite a lot, considering we squeezed in almost 4 hours of play from a little after 8 to around midnight. A conservative estimate of say, 30 hands an hour, leads to the conclusion that over the course of the night, $600 changed hands. Still seem cheap?
Max-buy in was set at 100 BB, or $20. I bought in for $15, and so did Hamill, to spite me. Ge decided to follow his Asian brother and put up $5 more. Everyone else bought in for $10. First hand of the night, I forget. Nothing happened, but I did notice a heck of a LOT of action. At least $10 in that first pot, and I think Greg took it down. Second hand, I'm UTG+1. Look down to see K-10o. Now, a lot of you would play this, limping probably. I'm here to tell you, that despite whatever your crazy preconceived notions about starting hand requirements from early position may be, K-10o does not make my list. I folded. About 6 to the flop of, no I am not kidding, Q-J-9 rainbow. I am freakin' not kidding. I folded the nuts. About this time, everyone started going raise-crazy. I drooled as I watched the action pile up on this pot. $10 already in before the turn. J. A board like Q-J-9-J made me slightly happier. I took comfort in the fact that someone might have a full house now. River was a blank, and when the cards were turned over to decide this $30+ pot, Greg had been playing a Q (bad kicker too, don't ya know?), Brabson had something useless, but Rain (yes, his Chinese name literally translated is Rain) turned over the cards to vindicate me. J-9. Gosh, I love myself.
Few hands later, I had the first of two semi-bad beats. A few limpers around to Van Cleve on my right, and he raises $2. I look down to see 8-8. I got nothing that could be construed for strength from the limpers, so wanting to isolate my man, I raise to $10. Folded around back to him, like I predicted. He pushes in for the $3+ left in his stack. A-5 of spades. I'm in good shape. I'm dealer for this hand, and I turn up first a 2, then a 3, and then a Q for the flop. In my mind, I'm chanting 4, 4, 4, 4 to try to keep it from coming. Maybe it didn't hear me. 4 on the turn, and my $15 is down to a little over $9.
But don't worry folks, I'm a patient man, at least when it comes to cards. I sat on my ass for a full rotation as the button swung all the way around the table. Lot of money changed hands. Some bust-outs, and same number of rebuys. Everyone seemed to think he could do better. I pick up J-10o on the button, and limp with 4 others to a flop of 10 high, with 2 diamonds. I don't remember this hand that well, but it came down to Brabson and me at the showdown, and my top pair held up, doubling me up to about $20.
I start daydreaming and begin to wonder if I should loosen up some, when it's 2 people limped around to me, and I happily see K-K in the hole. With the amount of action we've been seeing, I limp in middle position. Brabson to my left happily raises $1 for me. Hamill calls, and it's folded back to me. Hmm... Brabson raises with a lot of different hands, so I could probably attach him to a hand like A-J with a medium raise. Hamill has played EVERY SINGLE HAND up 'till now, so I don't know if he would fold or not. I would prefer he fold (later on, he called Max's all-in of about $6 with 9-7 of diamonds...). I raise, $4 more. Both of them call. Flop comes 8-7-6, with two clubs. I'm scared shitless, because Hamill could very well have a 10-9, or two clubs he'd be unwilling to part with. Luckily, he checks to me. I know if he had any significant piece of that flop, he'd a bet something stupid like $0.50. So the only thing I'm worried about is if Brabson hit a set on me with a lower pair. Only one way to find out (and also to hopefully push the draws out). I bet almost the pot, $12. Brabson calls after thinking for about 1.3 seconds. Hamill takes a little while longer, counting out some pretty stacks of blues ($1 chips) and reds ($0.25 chips), before carefully sending them into the pot. At this point, I don't know what to think. They can't both have trips, can they? Turn is J of spades, Hamill checks, and on the outside chance that one of them is still hanging in with a draw (and 'cause I'm getting frustrated), I push all-in for $4.80. Brabson... folds? I have no idea what to think, but before I can figure anything out, Hamill's called. I flip over kings disgustedly, almost sure he has 10-9. He holds out on showing his hand, and the river falls a red 4. He... mucks??? Jesus H. Christ, what the hell just happened here? I feel like screaming something to effect of $@!#%!%&(%@&kings;$@#%*#%#(%@!()%)@$(&%$#. But I try my best to calmly rake in the $50+ in this pot.
That's where the majority of my stack came from. Later, I busted Mike B. with A-Ko against his A-8, when he reraised me, I reraised, he called, and we saw the flop of J-7-4. I put him all-in, and I guess he felt obligated to call. More money for me as no 8's came.
In the middle of all this came my second "bad" beat. I raised $0.75 from middle position with A-8o, maybe stealing, maybe not. Three calls, and I have position on them all. Flop: A-J-9. Casey (whom I had not met before), moves all-in, first to act. Folded around to me who, for $6.45 more, feels like an ass for calling. I swear, I would fold that ace in most cases, but this game just seemed too loose, and maybe he didn't have the J-9 that I thought he had. Well, I was half right, he had one 9. His other card was a 3 I think. Whatever. I stopped thinking whatever though, when the turn turned out to be the winning 9. Oh well, dumped a little over $7 to a fish, maybe I can keep him on the hook for later. Unfortunately, I never got another crack at him, as he cashed out as soon he hit $20.40. He was up $5.40. Good for him, maybe he'll come back someday to pay me back.
I remember another non-essential but illustrative hand worthy of posting. Busting Brabson again, this time with two pair. He mucked his hand, so I don't know what I suckered him in with. K-Q of spades on the button, and I raise $0.50. A few calls, as usual. Flop is Q-high, two diamonds. Checked around to me, and I bet $2, draw-protection. Brabson calls, and everyone else folds. Turn: K. He checks, I check, feigning weakness. River is a diamond, and I kick myself for perhaps the only wrong play I made all night. Do not check when the next card could bust you. Well, as luck would have it, Brabson checks, I bet his remaining chips, fuming inside, and feel like crawling under the table when he calls. I turn over my cards and mutter something about damn river flushes. He says two pair is good. I take this pot that I don't feel like I've earned, and wonder how people continually surprise me by not having the goods when I think they should. Nay, when they almost HAVE to have the goods. But they almost never do. Weird.
The rest of the night, since I was up so much money, I decided I did not need to loosen up. Just sat still and played my big hands carefully. Got A-A once, but everyone folded to a $0.50 raise (we were 5-handed by now). Made some money taking down a pot with a K on board, with my pocket queens. Other significant pot, money-wise, was a big blind check with Q-3 of spades. Flop A-3-5. Checks all around. Turn 3. Check again. River K, and just as I start worrying nothing's going to happen, Russ on my right fortunately bets $3. I don't have much of a read on him, but suffice it to say he was one of the three people (including me), who finished with a profit. I was almost certain my set of 3's was best, especially with the Q kicker. If he had 2-4, then he was a bloody genius. Likewise for K-3. I didn't worry about A-3 because (and this is purely my own feelings on the subject) where as I could see him checking 2-4 and slow-playing, I just could not imagine him checking A-3. I felt as if he would have bet it. Call me crazy. Anyways, after running through it all in my mind, I decide to raise, but not huge. $5 more. If he can beat me, then I won't lose too much. If he can't beat me, then at least it's not too much for him to call this $5 more (massaging chips out of the guy, it's evil, I know). I flip over my set of 3's, and he mucks his K, I think it was.
Turned my $15 buy-in into $85. $70 profit for 4 hours of play, not a bad way to make a living. Of course my luck won't hold up so well each time. I think the key things were I capitalized on my big hands, made as much off mediocre hands as I could, and avoided chasing or losing money on tilt. Kept my emotions pretty much in check, and no one got a read on me. Which surprises me, because I can attest that I never took down a hand by bluffing. I made one pure bluff, got raised, and folded. Still, people seemed just to want to call me, even when they had seen me turn over nothing but good hands. Not the nuts, but good enough to beat them soundly. And they kept on calling and calling. I just don't get it.
Damn that was long. Read it, learn something from it, and maybe the next poker game we play together will be a little more interesting.
