High Stakes Home Game

Well, the home game started out pretty scary, but ended up being alright.

In the first tournament, I was the 2nd player out of 10 eliminated. Early in the tournament I made a raise w/AQ and got one apprehensive caller. I don't know much about this guy except for that he's won about $15k online, so I know he's solid. I was happy to see an A on the flop, and made a bet equal to my preflop raise. He raised me. I decided to pay off and see one more card, and it turned out being the one card I didn't wanna see, a K. He bet fairly sizeably, and I had to let it go. I lost about 1k on that hand, and later found out he had hit a set on a pocket pair. I'm not fond of calling raises w/pocket pairs, but that's just me. 7 times out of 8, I'm gonna win that hand, so I just have to take satisfaction with that. I then managed to scoop a decent sized pot w/K 10 hitting 2 pair on the flop and thought I was back in it. Until I picked up AQc in the small blind again. The blinds were 75/150, and I made it 450 total to go. My brother-in-law apprehensively calls me in the big blind. The flop came a seemingly harmless 5J5, with 2 clubs. I checked, he bet like 300, and I pulled my favorite new move, the check-raise on a draw. It got me my free card on the turn, and then no club on the river and that was that. He ends up showing down 10 5 of hearts and had hit trips on the flop. It took me until the next hand was dealt to realize it, and I go "Wait a minute...did you call my 300 raise w/10 5?!" and he whimpers "it was suited!" That left me with 500 chips, and BURNING. Of course, I eventually got over it and it was the running joke for the rest of the day, but when I was trying to play the best game I could, it really stings to lose to such a terrible call. That was virtually it for me, as I got my last 500 chips in a few hands later w/KQ against Ax and neither of us got any help.

So after a long wait, we finally shuffled up and dealt the 2nd tourney. Two had to leave, so that left us with a full table of 8 players. I won a couple of pots to keep me around or above my 2500 starting stack, but then it was getting tight w/5 players left, and 3 getting paid. I felt the "Eugening" coming on. I may refer to Eugening often in this blog, and it basically means finishing on the bubble. My middle name is Eugene, and I went through a streak of 2-3 months late last year where I was constantly finishing 1 out of the money in SNGs on PokerRoom and even at our monthly game, so bubbling in our circle of friends is referred to as Eugening. Naturally, I'm flattered. Anyway, with 5 left, I was 4th in chips, and everything looked to be in order for my Eugening and a VERY dissapointing home game. However, I picked up a couple of pocket pairs when things really started looking grim, and with a couple of pushes managed to scoop. But I'm still in 4th, *maybe* third. But then the miracle I needed came down. A buddy in the big blind makes a raise, and my brother-in-law who had limped thinks about it for a while and moves all-in in 1st position w/J 10 and loses to the raiser's A-high. Now all of the sudden I'm 3rd in chips with the big blind falling on the 4th in chips player, who had less than the BB. I proceed to knock him out and take down a pot, and am in the money. But I'd only be getting 1 buy-in back, so I really would like to get deeper. At least I've got a little more wiggle room in my stack now. A couple hands go by and I find myself looking at a suited ace in the small blind. I raise it up, and my buddy in the big blind re-raises all-in. I love this guy, and I respect the hell outta his play, but it seems like he does this to me a lot for some reason. I don't know if he does it because I'm notoriously weak/tight, if its just a coincidence, or if maybe I just notice his play more than others, but after almost letting it go like I usually do, I decide I'm making my stand here, I can't be in *that* bad of shape, and make the call for all my chips. He shows a red KQ, and I'm pretty satisfied. The flop brings 3 hearts, and all of the sudden a K, Q, or any heart and I'm history. The turn is an A, so at least the K and Q outs are gone, and the river is a blank and I double up. That left him with 1k left, and he lost that going all-in in the dark on the next hand. Heads up play isn't even worth talking about, as I got 5 pretty terrible hands and got bullied around, ended up pushing w/KQ after a blank flop, and got called by my opponent's A6 that had paired his 6. I've got 2 live cards, but miss, and that's that. $20 profit on the day, and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

The first tourney I just got throttled by luck, and then in the 2nd some pretty solid play and an equal amount of luck got me right where I wanted to be, so overall it was satisfying to come away as a winner. I really wanted to be one of the top 3-4 players at the game, and I think I proved that I was.

Time to go get groceries. Take it easy. Hopefully nobody's working today.