The Last Home Game

Last Wednesday was the last ever session of the home game that my college roommate Logan has been hosting for the past three years. He and most of our fellow players are about to graduate from Harvard Law School and move away, so this was my last chance to play with many of them. It was agreed ahead of time that everyone would be playing wilder than usual, and I decided that I was going to experiment with some unconventional lines, including a lot more check-raising and overbetting than I usually do.

Jeremy, a fairly tight and straight-forward player, opened for $1.50 from the CO, and Logan called on the button. I re-raised to $7.50 with AT in the SB, Jeremy called, and Logan folded. The flop came out QT9 with a flush draw. Not really what I wanted to see, but I’ve got no choice but to pot the flop now. Jeremy calls $15 after a moment’s hesitation. I tell myself I’m done with the hand unless I turn a T, but then that’s exactly what happens.

Now what to do? I don’t really want to bet hard again, because I’m probably going to lose the hands that are drawing thin against me and get action only from draws or better hands. The problem with getting action from a draw is that I don’t know which draw and may get bluffed on the river. So I checked, Jeremy bet like $35, and I shoved on him. Cursing the T, he folded. Works for me.

My next big pot was with AT again. I opened this time for $2 and got called by both blinds. Joe led into me from the SB on a K92r flop. I never believe people who lead in the pre-flop raiser on dry boards like this, so I called. The turn was another blank, and Joe checked and called a bet. I still didn’t buy that he had a K. The river blanked again, and again he checked. Time to practice the river overbet. I fired $40 at a pot of about $25. After much thought, Joe called with A9, telling me he would have folded to a more reasonable bet. “Nice suckout,” I kidded him, tabling my AT.

Since this was our last game ever, we had back a few regulars who hadn’t played with us very much this year. I played a lot of pots with one in particular, a guy named Sammy who’s one of the least experienced of the regulars (or, former regulars) in the game. He tends to get really excited about big starting hands and make some kind of reckless and blatant stabs at pots when people check to him.

For whatever reason, I decided to limp 7’s UTG, something I rarely do with any holding. Sammy raised to $2, Logan made it $6 from the SB, I called cold, and Sammy called. Logan was baiting Sammy pre-flop, telling him that he (Logan) had nothing and he was sure I had nothing too and Sammy ought to come back over the top. Stuff like that gets to Sammy sometimes.

The flop came out KK4, we checked to Sammy, and he bet $10. Logan folded, and I called. I checked a 5 on the turn, and Sami bet $20. From his mannerisms, I really felt like Sammy had trips, but I think there are so few Kx hands he’d raise me with pre-flop and then decline to 4-bet that I talked myself into shoving for his last $30. He called very quickly with AK. Whoops. Logan and Darren both thought I was crazy, and that if he didn’t have a K, he at least had a big pair. But I REALLY think he 4-bets those pre-flop, so I wasn’t too worried about that. Still poorly played by me.

A little later, Logan limped UTG, I limped behing with J8s, and a few others limped as well. I don’t recall the cards exactly but I flopped a flush. Once again looking to mix up my play and maybe throw out another river overbet, I just called bets from Logan on the flop and turn. Then when he checked the river (still three clubs and no pair on the board), I bet hard. To my surprise, Logan check-raised to like $110. There was like $70 left in the effective stacks, but I decided just to call, figuring he has either a bluff that won’t call or a flush that will, and with the A, K, and Q all live, I’m probably not ahead of his calling range.. He showed 72s for a worse flush. Bleck, if I had just played the flop and/or turn as aggressively as I usually do, I would have had it all.

Next orbit, Logan straddled UTG, I re-straddled, and Darren min-raised blind to $2 (we don’t allow straddling on the button). The action folded to Logan, who just completed from his straddle. Weeeeeeeak. I popped it to $10 with A3o on my straddled. “I gotta defend with this,” Darren commented as he called. Logan folded.

The flop was 632, pretty good for me. I bet $15, and Darren called. That doesn’t mean much, because he’s defending light from his straddle and knows I know that and have to bet a dry board like this. The turn was a 7 or something, I checked, and he bet $25, which I called. The river came another 6, we checked it through, and his T2 was no good. Sammy commented on what crazy hands we were showing with that pre-flop action.

We re-drew seats, and I ended up sitting with Sammy again. Early on, he raised to $1.50 from the button, and I re-raised to $6 with KK on my BB. He very quickly made it $16 in a way that he usually does with a big pair. I had a very bad feeling and just called. The flop came down J85r, which is actually not good given the range I put him on. Really I only beat QQ. I checked, and Sammy bet $25 pretty quickly. I felt like he’d hem and haw a little more with the nuts, so I discounted JJ from his range, but I still had a bad feeling. After some hesitation and perhaps visible discomfort, I called.

The turn was nothing special, I checked, and Sammy gave sort of a goofy little smirk, counted some chips, shrugged, and announced “all in.” I groaned. I really, really felt like he had Aces. You just get reads like that from Sammy sometimes. I couldn’t exclude QQ, though, and if his range is {QQ, AA}, the overlay from the pot is plenty enough to justify calling with 50% equity. But what about the risk that he has JJ? Finally I decided the pot odds outweighed that and called. QQ. Nice. Double up. Sammy reloaded for $60.

Now with a very nice stack, I started pouring on the aggression. Sammy commented again on this. The player to my right straddled UTG, I raised to $4 with 88, Paul called, and Sammy made it $20 with thirty-some behind. I figured there was a fair chance he was squeezing and/or pissed at how wild I’d been, so I popped it to $40. Paul folded, but Sammy got it in with KK. I felt kinda dumb shipping him the pot, but Paul said if I’d folded he was shoving a worse pair, so that gave me some validation.

Here’s another good example of experimentation with unconventional lines. Joe raised UTG, and I called with 8s 4s on my BB. I checked a 8h 5h 2c flop, he bet $2 and called a check-raise to $7. Joe is kind of nitty, so I wasn’t feeling great about my hand, but I decided to see how he responded to another check-raise. The turn was the Ks, I checked, he bet $10, I made it $30, and he called. A 4d on the river gave me two pair. In light of my previous overbet bluff against Joe, I decided to value bet $100 with this weak two pair. He thought for a long time and finally called with Kh 2h. Guess I was bluffing, whoops.

But I still wasn’t ready to give up on the overbet yet. I raised 3d2d UTG (remember we’re 5-handed), Todd called out of the BB, and we saw a Qh Th 5c flop. He checked and called $3. The turn was a blank, and I decided to see whether I could push him off. He checked and called $10. The river was the Kh, and he led into me for $15. I thought for a very long time, probably three minutes at least, trying to piece together how likely it was for him to have a flush versus a blocking hand. I thought he would have raised or folded at some point in the hand with a flush. After several minutes, I moved all in for like $85, expecting him to fold pretty much all non-flush hands.

Now it was his turn to think for a while. Finally he called with KK for rivered top set. Wow, I didn’t expect that in a million years. I mean, it’s definitely a good call, I just didn’t expect him to be anywhere near that strong. He said the possibility that I was value betting worse hands, as I’d done against Joe recently, led him to call. That’s also consistent with how long I thought. I mean, it’s not likely I’d wait that long with a flush, really.

For what it’s worth, I’m not always a lunatic. In this next hand, I forget the pre-flop action, but I ended up seeing an 8c 7c 7s flop sandwiched between Paul on my left and Darren on my right. I held 7h 4h for trips with a weak kicker. Darren bet $5, I min-raised to $10 just to needle him, but then Paul made it $30 cold. Huh. I thought for a while and folded face up. He let me choose one card to see, and I turned over a Th. Damn, he probably had T9. Nice play by him. At the time I was thinking I was crushed by all better trips, but actually I’ll chop with them quite a bit, so the chance of Paul making a move probably makes it worth getting the money in here. Oh well.

Appropriately enough, I ended our last home game by misreading my hand. I had opened with AJ for $2 and called a squeeze to $8 from Joe in the BB, who had just lost a big pot, and, I was hoping, would be on tilt. He bet $10 on a Q32r flop, and I, for some reason thinking I had AQ, min-raised him, hoping to get a tilt shove. He called and open shoved a Q turn. I insta-called, he said, “Crap,” and I told him, “Yeah, you’re in trouble buddy,” triumphantly turning over my… AJ. Ugh. “Aaaaah! I thought I had AQ!”

Everyone laughed as Joe turned over JJ and said, “You’re in trouble.” Truthfully, I thought Joe was full of it anyway, and while I wouldn’t have called knowing I had AJ, I’m not sure how bad that would have been against his range. Logan pointed out that it would have been amazing if I had been ahead and played it off like I had intentionally snap-called his turn shove with AJ high. Now that would have been the way to end three years of great companionship and competition at the Harvard Law School home game.