never done one of these before, but i thought some of you would get a kick out of it. so bear with me
last night i had a home game going at my gf's house of about 12. buyin was $10 (we usually do $20, but we had some people there that couldnt really afford it) and rebuys for the first 45 mins for $10. no add ons. starting chips were something like 1820t (dont ask me why, they had this figured out before i got there) and blinds starting at 5/10 (the DD Tournament Poker software does a great job sorting all this out for you). there are 6 women, 6 guys. i am really the only 'skilled' player there. everyone else plays a bit, and CAN play poker, but rely more on luck than their pure skill. they are more or less fish. the only thing that really worries me when playing everyone is their audacity to play bad hands and get paid off due to lucky draws. been there, done that with this group.
i was at the 'women's table, 4 girls, 2 guys including myself. so i figure im in pretty good shape. not because they were women, but they were some of the 'easier' players that were there. most of the more skilled people were at the other table. the other guy at the table was my gf's father, and while he plays a bit with us, he is an alright player who values his aces a bit too much, if you know what i mean. he'll call you down to the end with an ace if its within his apparent best interest. so if an ace ever spikes the table, you better hope youre holding once as well.
only two really mentionable hands at this point... got into one confrontation right before the rebuy end with one of the ladies. she is a solid player who won one of our bigger tournies recently, but is another very mediocre player at best. she just doesnt make a lot of mistakes, such as big bluffs. so you have to be a bit concerned when she makes plays. she very well could have you beat. i raise 3xBB, me and her to the flop, flop is A X X (two spades) i have A8os, shes first to act and goes all in. hmm... id be calling off about 1/4th of my stack here. the more i think about it, the more i know i have the best hand. my only fear is that she is holding two spades. i realize she is hurrying to get her money in so she can rebuy, but im concerned about possibly being drawn out, and being in worse shape at that point than i really want to be. i dont have a WHOLE lot invested in this pot, but i dont want to be outdrawn. she MIGHT have something like AT, but i figure she wouldve moved all in before the flop with something like that. so i eventually fold, pretty much convinced i had the best hand. but like i said, i didnt want to potentially cripple myself too early on. i realize i could potentially buy back in as well, but that wasnt my intention. this is something that i think im doing very well at... making laydowns where i may have the best hand, but may not be in my best interest to make a call, lose and put myself in a crappy situation. i never found out what she had later on.
second hand, im in against the aforementioned gf's father. i look down and see 99, i raise about 4x BB. he calls. flop comes J X X. im first to act, and i bet out. only one card higher than my 9's on board, and im positive he doesnt have a jack, otherwise he'd have 3 and id already be screwed, and id know it. he calls. hmmm... turn is an A. i check, knowing that if he caught his Ace, id know, and i dont want to pay him off for it. so of course, he goes all in. immediately however, i dont think he has the ace. he knows we've pegged him as a player that would always hold onto an A, so im more leaning towards the fact that he may just be bluffing it. also, keep in mind we are about a MINUTE before the rebuy period is ending, and there are several people that are egging me on to hurry up and make the decision before the period is over.
sidenote - i realize the rebuy period should come at the conclusion of the hands, but we werent doing it that way. fyi. as soon as the 45 minutes is up, regardless of where we are, no more rebuys.
so of course, i take my time, like i always do. im pretty sure im beat, however, and lay down the hand. once again, i had a chance to get a nice chunk of change (i was already doing pretty well at this point). i find out later he matched his ace, so it was a good laydown.
after that hand, i knock out one of the other ladies at our table, and we merge the two tables into a table of 10. at this point, im pretty sure i have the chip lead, and im content on sitting on it until we lose a couple more players. we were paying the top 3 spots, so i had a good shot at at least cashing. there were about 5 short stack players at the table now, so i figured id stay out of trouble until we were down to 5, then kick it up a notch and take advantage of my chip position, which bodes well against these guys and their style of play.
so, its relatively quiet until we lose players down to 3. i say this because, like i said, i stayed out of trouble. so, im still chip lead, and get involved with a hand against 2nd in chips. i look down and see AKos. i raise 4x BB, and he calls. flop comes A K x. BINGO. i was hoping to get one or the other and get a nice chunk of change, but this was way better. so i make a bet, and he goes all in. i call quickly. he turns over JJ. so, after about 10 minutes of counting chips, to see if i have him covered, i dont, but it leaves him with around 150 in chips. i have around 16000+ at this point, and quite a large lead. he goes out in the next hand.
this puts me up against the gf's bro, ive got him 3x his chips - at this point, he has had 2 sets of quads - one of K's, one of 7's. so imagine his excitement when he gets another one against me... this time of A's! of course, i lay it down the first time he bets, as i have 8 high. so this makes 3 sets of quads in one night, with 2 of them being A's and K's. whatre the odds?
so eventually i take him down when i call the BB with 85os and flop 2 pair, and he calls with Q6 or something. so i win the $70 first prize, woohoo!
so overall it was a pretty good nite, although i cant believe one person got 3 sets of quads. ive maybe gotten 3 sets of quads in my 2 years of playing poker. A's and K's included in his, to boot. and it turned out i made some good calls, especially when the A flopped. i didnt even really super hands, i think the highest hand i showed down was a straight, and that was once.
so, hope this wasnt super boring. kind of long, but eh, oh well. thanks for listening.
