Home Game Redux

I’m in New York this weekend visiting my old friend and roommate Logan, and since two other players from the home game Logan ran for three years in Cambridge are also in NYC now, we were able to get a game going last night. We started out playing with $.50/$1 NLHE, a $100 buyin, and six players: myself, Logan, Darren, Joe, Mike, and Lionel. The stakes were twice as high as what we used to play, but we didn’t start out particularly deep, since Mike and Lionel weren’t particularly serious players and we wanted to keep it friendly.

I lost a stack early to Darren when I raised ATo in early position and called in three spots. The flop came AQ9 with two clubs. This is a really tricky board for my hand, since there are a lot draws people might play in a tricky way against me but almost no worse made hands that will play a big pot with me. I decided just to lead out and see what happened since most people will play pretty straightforwardly in a multi-way pot.

Most people, but not Darren, who was the only caller. Against the other two, I probably would have check-folded, but I just don’t like folding top pair to Darren, who is a strong but pretty maniacal player. Also, I thought on such a drawy, multi-way flop, when I’d already represented a strong hand, he would have played two pair or better faster. So, I check-raised all in, and he called with AJ. Oh well.

Not long after, I made it $3 with Aces, Logan reraised to $12, and Darren called. I shove for about $75, and Logan called with AQ. Given the dynamic of the game, it was probably a good call on his part, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again.

I had brought a bottle of Glenmorangie to celebrate my victory last weekend, and most of the others brought beer, so the game got wilder as we got drunker. At one point, Darren raised $5 UTG, and although he tried to convince us he did, we were all pretty sure he hadn’t looked at his cards. Joe re-raised to $15, and Mike called the $15 cold.

Joe is ordinarily pretty tight, so I tend not to mess around with his reraises, but I figured he’d often be making a move on Darren here. I wasn’t sure what to make of Mike or his cold call. He seemed like a pretty straightforward player, but he bordered on loose, but between the alcohol and the wild game, I felt he might be a little weaker here than he should be. I wasn’t going to squeeze with just anything, but I figured KJo was good enough and popped it to $55.

Darren peeked his cards and folded with an embarassed smile. Joe pitched it pretty quick, and Mike moved all in for about $90 more. I was clearly pot-committed and happy to see him turn over TT. The dealer accidentally turned over only two of the flop cards: an A and a T. Mike cheered, but the third card was a Q, and it was my turn to celebrate. He couldn’t re-suck, and I raked the pot while he grumbled about the ‘bad beat’.

I pulled in one more big pot when Darren and I got about $150 each all in preflop with my Q8o versus his KTs. Yeah, that’s how the game was playing. I put the last bet in preflop, but Darren is good/crazy/drunk, and I sucked out anyway. Outplayed.

Mike continued to run badly and lost a $500 pot with Ah Kh to Joe’s QQ on a 762hh flop. This was really a beat for the whole game, since Joe was a) better than Mike, b) playing like a nit, and c) getting ready to leave. So that was $500 taken off the table. Once again, Mike went on about the ‘four outer’, because the cards came 6h 6s, giving him the best hand on the turn, only to lose to a running full house on the river. But of course it was practically a coin flip when the money went in.

Not that our game needed any more action, but we introduced the 7-2 rule that was featured on High Stakes Poker, where any time a player wins a pot with 7-2, the rest of the table has to pay him a fixed amount of money. We started at $1 each, but it was up to $5 by the end of the night. This actually didn’t create as many exciting situations as we hoped, but it did get me into one tricky spot.

I opened AKo in early position to $4, and Logan reraised to $12. He’s always aggressive, and in particular had been reraising me a ton that night in position. I popped it to $36, and he called. Effective stacks were about $150. I really had no idea what to do on the 943 flop. His cold call of my 4-bet was kind of shady, but I also knew that Logan liked to make fancy plays like this. I didn’t want to bet-call all in, I didn’t want to check-raise all in, I just had no idea what to do. I ended up checking, and he checked as well after a moment of thought. I checked and folded to a $45 bet on an 8 turn, and he shouted “Ship it” and flipped over his 7-2. I’m such a fish.

Another tricky spot I had, I opened for $4 on the button with Js 8s, and Darren made it $15 from the SB. Obviously, I should probably just fold here, but we were deep, and how much fun would that be. The flop came Qc Jc 9d, he bet hard, and I called. The turn was a blank, he fired hard again, and I called. The river was yet another blank, and he moved all in for about $200 at a pot of roughly $130.

This isn’t a good board for me to slowplay a strong hand, so I know Darren knows I probably don’t have a monster. There’s some chance I have a straight, but if I don’t, my most likely holdings are either one pair or a busted draw, neither of which are going to be happy about a river overbet. Then again, Darren knows that I like to make heroic calls against him. I asked position to use the restroom, where I do my best thinking, and emerged shouting, “Call” triumphantly. He flipped QQ for top set, and I was reloading again.

By this point, we were buying in deeper, so I took $200 in chips, but it wasn’t long in this game before they were all out risk. Only Darren, Logan, and I were left, and we had redrawn seats. I opened for $4 with 5h 6h on the button, Darren called in the SB, and Logan called in the BB. The flop was a nice looking 3h 4s 9h, and Logan led out for $10. Without much thought, I made it $35 and shoved over his 3-bet. Maybe this is results-oriented thinking, but the more I think about it, the less sure I am that this is a good line for me to take with deepish stacks. Logan’s lead is pretty strong, and of the hands that he 3-bets (which is what I’m asking to do with my raise), most are probably sets or better flush draws. Sure enough, he had me in bad shape with Kh 3h and ended up winning.

I lost some more money, but without playing any other interesting hands. The last pot of the night, between Logan and Darren, was pretty noteworthy, though. Logan had about $800, and Darren had him covered. Darren open limped the SB, Logan min-raised “to be cute”, and Darren re-popped to $10. The flop came 8d6h5d, Darren checked, Logan potted it, Darren check-raised big, Logan 3-bet, Darren shoved, and Logan called. When the cards were tabled in this monstrous pot, the largest ever played in our home game, Logan had Darren smoked with 85 versus 65, though Darren had a back-door diamond draw that Logan did not.

“No diamond, no diamond!” Logan shouted as I exposed the turn card. Turns out he was cheering against the wrong threat, because a 6 on the turn suddenly made Darren the prohibitive favorite. The river was no help, and Darren pulled off a huge suckout in a huge pot to end the night and break Logan, who had been up pretty substantially for most of the evening.

Das no limit, baaaaaaby!