Hella Hold'em

Last night was the 2nd installment of our new biweekly round-robin home game. The first was hosted 2 weeks ago by Jim at the Nice Table, and last night we hit up Scott of the Diamond games for some action. Nine players were in attendance for the evening's no-limit hold'em festivities. We played 2 tournaments with 10 minute blinds and a $20 buy in. Top two places paid.

Game #1

The lineup:

1. Ed
2. Randy
3. Todd
4. Jennifer
5. Shelly (me)
6. Derek
7. Scott
8. Brian
9. Jim

Level 1: 10/20

On the very first hand, Derek takes down a pot with the Nerf Hammer against Jen. Nice to see the Hammer represent every once in a while.

On the third hand of the game, I pussed out and folded my Authentic Offsuit Hammer under the gun.

The first big hand of the night: Derek raises preflop to 100 (5xBB). He finds a caller in Jen, and we see a flop of 8♥4 ♣ Q ♥. Jen takes the lead and bets out 200. Derek raises to 700. Jen calls. The turn comes the 7 ♠. I have noted that Jen bet and Derek again called. The river brings a J ♦, and action goes check-check. (??) Showdown: Derek holds AQ for top pair, top kicker. Jen holds K4 for bottom pair, and Derek takes a monster pot, crippling Jen's stack.

Shortly after that hand, we see a flop of Q ♥ 2 ♥ 5 ♣ and a big bet from Derek to put Jen all in. She calls with her pocket 10's (The Roman), and Derek's 9 ♣ 5 ♥ does not improve. Jen doubles up.

Level 2: 20/40

Another monster hand involving Jen! This one could be used in Mike Caro's next book. Good stuff. The turn peels off to display a board of J-9-8-x, and immediately Jen sits back in her chair and rubs her hands together like a mad scientist. Derek wonders aloud if she is holding the Queen-Ten for the nut straight. We all ponder. Ed, who was in the hand with Jen, decides to go hog wild with his set of 9's (despite the slight possibility that there might be a made straight in the room), and heads for the river. A miracle J came off on the river, giving Ed Nines full of Jack's, and Jen lost most of her chips. (She indeed held the QTo).

Finally, I play a hand. I limp into a pot with Q♠ J♠ to see a flop of Q-7-7. Jen bets out, and I think long and hard. I couldn't escape the thought that she was holding A-7 or some other such nonsense to trump my Queen. I laid down the winner there. Jen was betting Q4 offsuit. This became a theme in my game last night - folding winners, and exhibiting general cowardly play. I don't know why I was such a pussy last night. I must have wasted all of my aggression on Full Tilt earlier in the day, winning back what the fishes had taken from me the night before.

Jen made her last stand in level 2, pushing with a suited Jack 5 and finding no help. She was out in 9th place.

We saw another casualty early on when Brian and Todd decided to mix it up. Todd raises preflop and finds a caller in Brian. The flop came J♣J♠3♥. Todd bet the flop and Brian called. The turn of 6♠ went check-check, and with a river of 4♣, Todd bet out 200. Brian raised all in for 1460, and Todd called all in with 685. Todd's pocket Aces were doomed by Brian's King-Jack for the trip Jacks. Todd took his place next to Jen, finishing in 8th place. Damn aces. They get cracked a whopping 22% of the time or so... Bummer to be on the cracked end of 'em.

Level 3: 30/60

No stories to tell. Lamers.

Level 4: 50/100

I fold the suited hammer....

I won my first measly pot against Randy when my 6♥7♥ hit a pair of 6's on the flop. I bet the turn, and he folded (saying something along the lines of "why can't we just check it down like all the other couples?" No, dear... you know we could never live with ourselves if we did that! Make bets, not love, at the poker table....)

We have another all-in: Randy's AKo holds up against Jim's KQ. While he didn't need it, Randy spiked a King on the river to take the pot and double up. Jim is in a world of hurt.

On a board of A♠ 4♠ 2♣ 9♥ Jim announces that his is blind all-in against Randy. The river comes the 3♠ and of course, Randy does not lay down his flush with 6-7 of spades. It beats Jim's two pair, and Jim is out in 7th place. The blind all in was a curious bet. I can see it being done preflop, or with a hand that is the unbreakable nuts, but on a drawing board, with straight and flush draws possible and a card to come? Curious play.

Randy hits another flush against Brian, this time having voluntarily called to see a flop with 2-4 suited. (Who is this man I am living with? He is not the poker player I know!) Regarding Randy's choice of starting hands in this case, Derek exclaims:

I like it! Most people think that I'm stupid (to make such a play), but I say - It's CLEVER!"

Hmm. OK. I will resist the urge to ramble on about the hand having no high card strength and very little connectedness, and the fact that a made flush with that hand is just good enough to lose all of your chips over to a higher flush. Errr. Wait. I just rambled. Sorry. Then again, when you play against a regular group of people who know your game pretty well by now, I suppose it is necessary to mix it up a bit every now and then.

Level 5: 75/150

Having been notably absent from the game thus far (cold decked like a mo fo), I decided to limp with KQo. Derek put me all in, and I called. I was up against Ace Jack, and managed to match my cards to the board and make a boat! Sweet. One king would have been plenty, but boats are nice. I doubled up.

On the very next hand, Derek announces, "In that case, I'm all in. I'm on tilt!" Such a tempting offer, a blind all-in preflop - but nobody called and Derek took the blinds.

Level 6: 100/200

Derek pushes all in for his remaining 1300 chips. Brian calls with his pocket 9's, which hold up against Derek's A2o. Derek is out in 6th place.

Still on the short stack, I push my Sailboats all in versus Brian's Queen Ten. My 44 holds up and I double up again.

Level 7: 200/400

Finally, a hand with Scott's name in it! Scott raises preflop to 1000. Brian pushes him all in for another thousand. Scott's K♥ J♦ is not improved on a board of 5-A-6-Q-7, and Brian's pocket Aces take down the pot along with Scott, who finished in 5th place.

Level 8: 300/600

Brian raises my big blind, and I push all in for my remaining two big blinds. I discover that my J7 offsuit is dominated by Brian's J-10. No seven's rescued me, and I went out in 4th place. That sucked.

Level 9: 400/800

Scott has taken over the deal, and informs me that earlier in the game, when he attempted a raise preflop and got re-raised by Brian, he laid down an Authentic Hammer. No respect for the 7-2o on that hand, but raise a toast to Scott for the effort! The power of the Hammer has escaped the blogger contingent and is running loose in the wild!

With a board of 10♣ 2♥ 4♥ we see Randy push all in with his pocket 3's. Brian called with 55 (gutsy call, I thought) and knocked out Randy when the board completed with Q♦ K♦ - no help for Randy, bubble boy in 3rd place.

Ed managed to double up with The Roman (pocket 10's).

Level 10: 500/1000

Heads up: Brian versus Ed

Ed found himself all in with QT against Brian's AK. His future looked bright when the board came 5-6-2-10, but a river K shipped the chips and the championship to Brian's side of the table.

The end result:

1. Brian
2. Ed

3. Randy
4. Shelly (me)
5. Scott
6. Derek
7. Jim
8. Todd
9. Jennifer

Good game, all! Time for match #2. Same game. Off we go.

Seating was slightly varied from the last game:

1. Ed
2. Randy
3. Todd
4. Shelly (me)
5. Derek
6. Scott
7. Jim
8. Jen
9. Brian

Level 1: 10/20

Action Jackson on the first hand! Derek raises preflop to 150, and 4 players see a flop of 3-Q-2. Randy bets out big, and Jen calls. Derek and Mystery Player #4 fall out of the hand. The turn comes 9♥ and Randy moves all in. Jen calls all in, and we see Randy's set of two's (quack quack!) are leading Jen's two pair with Q3 with one card to come. The river 10♦ is no help to Jen, and she goes out in 9th place.

Level 2: 20/40

Derek wins the small blind.

Big blunder here... Scott pushes all in with what he thought was 2 pair against Ed's pocket Aces, but when the cards are flipped he sees that he misread his hand and only has one pair. His hand doesn't improve and Scott goes out in 8th place. Tilt factor: 10 Zillion.

Level 3: Nothing of note.

Level 4: 50/100

Derek pushes all in with the lovely Hilton Sisters. QQ is no match, however, for Randy's AA, and Derek is out in 7th place. For as many times as we saw Aces last night, they seemed to act in accordance with the statistics. They were beat once for the 4 times they held up.

Levels 5-6: Nada

Level 7: 200/400

I triple up all in on the short stack with my KTo and find two callers (yikes!) Jim's got KQ, and Brian has 33. Oh, that glorious Ten!

Brian makes his exit in this round versus Ed. Brian was all in blind against Ed's KQ suited. 6th place finish.

Jim gets unlucky and joins the railbirds when his Jack-Ten runs into Ed's Ace-Jack. Farewell to Jim in 5th place.

Level 8: 300/600

I push all in with K9 suited on a board of K-Q-Q-x. Randy calls immediately. "Do you have the Queen?" Yup. He did. Honey - why can't we be like all the other couples and just check it down? Another 4th place finish for me.

Todd made a nice double up against Ed when his dominating K9 faced K7 to a flop of K-x-x.

Level 9: 400/800

Todd is the comeback kid, tripling up when he went all in with 2 callers. His J6 matched a flop of JJx. Triplin' up with the trips. Nice.

More of Todd on a Rampage: he knocked out Ed with 99 when Ed's straight draw didn't improve. I didn't write down Ed's starting cards - sorry, missed 'em. Ed finishes on the bubble in 3rd place.

Level 10: 500/1000

Heads up: Randy vs Todd

Randy hits a wheel and doubles up against Todd's unimproved KJ.

Todd doubles up against Randy's JJ when he hits runner-runner two pair with A7. (He really only needed the Ace).

It was a solid heads up match, back and forth for a good 45 minutes or so. Eventually, Todd prevailed with 7-8 versus Randy's 5-6. Low connectors, be damned!

The final tally:

1. Todd
2. Randy

3. Ed
4. Shelly (me)
5. Jim
6. Brian
7. Scott
8. Derek
9. Jen

Congrats to Todd, Brian, Ed, and Randy for their money finishes, and many thanks to Scott for hosting. See ya's in two weeks at our house!