Monday, February 21, 2005
Randy and I headed over to Armando and Kathie's last night for a little shorthanded Sunday night poker. I officially dub any games at Mando and Kathie's house the Yin Yang games. They have the coolest 2 cats ever - Pepper is pure white, and Dolan is pure black. The two of them sat like sphinx's last night, right next to each other, staring at us as we played cards. Cats rule.
Anyhoo, we started off with a NLHE game, 500 in chips, $10 buy in, winner take all. It was much of your usual game - I forgot my notepad, so I have no specific hand notes. Randy went out first and Kathie second, leaving Armando and I heads up. It lasted a few hands, when I decided to see a flop from the button (small blind) with 6-7 offsuit. I almost mucked it preflop, but I thought, "Well, at least it's connected." Flop left me open-ended on the idiot side, and the turn brought a 5 to make my straight, 5 to 9. Armando had flopped trips with his pocket Snowmen, so of course he was betting into me (as well he should have been). He ended up all in, and I thought I had fewer chips than he did. I called his all in, we flipped up, and the brutality inflicted by the hands of the snowmen was felt all around the table. Ends up I had Armando covered in chips (barely), and I took first place.
We played another game of NLHE, and this time Armando went ballistic collecting all of our chips. It came down to Armando and Kathie heads-up, and they decided to chop the winnings so that we could squeeze in another game. Kathie suggested a game of Omaha. Nice. I've never played Omaha "live" before - only online. So our third and final game of the evening was Omaha.
Early on, Armando's monster preflop hands were getting crushed, but one huge blow against his wife, and he was in the black and back with a vengeance. Kathie ended up making a boat, 4's over Aces, with an ace and a pair of 4's onboard and an A4 in her hand. For those unaware, Kathie's favorite hand (sentimentally, anyway) is 4's - the sailboats. (I must admit, even I get a little excited when I see them, if only because I hear Kathie's voice in my head exclaim, "Sailboats!"). Fours over Aces - about the only hand that could be cooler in Kathie's book would be quad 4's - two sailboats. Unfortunately, Kathie got the wind sucked right out of her sails when she ran into her husband's Kings over fours (holding pocket cowboys with a K on board). Ouch. I think Armando might have been sleeping in the garage last night. Or maybe out on the back porch.
It came down to heads up, Randy versus Armando. It might have been the first hand into HU play - it was quick - We see a flop of Q-J-3, and Randy makes a big bet at the pot. Armando pushes all-in over the top, and Randy calls. Armando had Randy covered in chips. The nasty wicked truth: Armando had QJ for two pair, and Randy had Q3 for two pair. Mando's hand held up for the win.
So, my winnings for the evening:
$30 profit from game 1
- $20 losses from the next two games
= $10 winnings
- $9.11 for the 1:30am Big Mac craving (I treated Randy to McNuggets, the Big Winner I was)
= + $.89 for the night
Good times. In addition to some good poker, we also learned that chocolate and beer go very well together (thanks to Armando). I personally don't like beer, but Randy does. Armando was quick with the chocolatey goodness to allow for chocolate-and-beer experimentation. I myself skipped the beer and enjoyed the chocolate. We also got to try the new fudge peanut butter cups. They were OK - I prefer the regular milk chocolate ones. Not much of a fudge girl.
Thanks for having us, guys! Hug those kitties for me :)
