Seems Like Old Times

I haven't been blogging much about Home Games for one simple reason. I have been going to them lately. Part of the reason is the Home Game schedule is lighter in the summertime. My regular Saturday night game that I used to run has been on hiatus for the summertime, although it starts back up next week. There has been a decent amount of Friday night games. But as a mailman, I have to work on Saturday morning at 7:30, so playing until 2am on Saturday morning isn't a good idea.

Last night, Julie had a $80 Deepstack Bounty Tournament ($20 goes to the Bounty) that started at 3pm. Since I didn't get off of work until 4pm, I arrived to buy-in late at 5pm. The tournament started with 18k chips, and 30 minute levels. So I got there at the first break, and received a starting stack of 16500.

Even though I'm moving to Reno, and will be playing poker 3-5 times a week, one of the things that I will be missing about our Home Games is the great tournament structures. Even our quicker structures are much better that the daily casino tournaments that I will be playing. However, this tournament was a Deepstack with extra levels added. After the first break, I started in Level 5, which was 125/250 (That's a level I will never see in a casino). There was only two tables, and 23 total players with the late buy-ins. But this was not a tournament where "Folding To The Final Table" was a good strategy.

There is another thing that I will miss about playing in Home games. I've been with the CPMG for almost five years, and been playing with some of these players for the entire time. We've got a lot of stories together, and a bunch of inside jokes. Last night was a blast, with a lot of laughs and goofing around. In a casino, you just don't get that same level of entertainment sitting at a table full of 60 yr old men hoping to hit the Bad Beat Jackpot so they can fund their retirement.

As for my tournament, I ended up finishing in 13th place. The main reason was due to two Hero calls that didn't work out. I really should cut the Hero call out of my game, because my win percentage just plain sucks.

The first was against Linda. I called her preflop raise with 99, and had position against her. The Flop was J-high and rainbow. She made a small bet (1600, I believe), and I called. The Turn brought a Spade draw. She made another bet (3200ish) that was about 40% of her stack. After thinking about it for a bit, I figured that she either had a Set of Jacks or something like AQs. I had chipped up nicely to well over 25k, so I decided to put her All-In, and take a shot at the Bounty if she was on the Spade draw. Instead, she was on the Boat draw with her JJ, and I was drawing dead. I lost around 7700 with the Turn bet. But I was able to eventually get those chips back, and got to the second break with 28600 (next level after Break was 300/600).

The second Hero call was against Cheryl. It was a limp pot in the 400/800 level. A couple of players limped, and so did I on the Button with A9o. Flop was Ac 6h 3c. Cheryl lead out from UTG with 1500. I called, and so did the BB. Turn (Ac 6h 3c) 7h. She bet around 2500 (don't remember exactly). I thought for a moment, and called. The BB folded. River (Ac 6h 3c 7h) 3h. She stacks up all of her chips, and goes All-In for 12800.

This bet really confused me. She's a fairly tight player, so an All-In from her looks really strong. I'm less likely to call the All-In rather than a bet of 4000. It was a limp pot, so she probably doesn't have a Big Ace (AK, AQ, etc). She could have had something like KQc or KJc, and was betting the Draw. Earlier in the night, I did make a big semi-bluff on her, showed her the bluff, and she was visibly "not amused" with me. So she could be trying to bluff me. She could have also have limped with 66, and is trying to look like a bluff with her Full House. Plus, this would be a Bounty for me if I pick her off. I really went deep into the tank with this one, and started thinking out loud. Someone called Clock on me, and it almost got the 10 second countdown before I made the crying call. She said "Ace", and turned over ATo. I got that "Are you serious?" look on my body, and turned over my card to show that I was out-pipped. I still think that shoving there with AT is a bizarre play, but maybe I'm just out-thinking myself. Later in the night, she did make a River bluff on a missed Flush draw, but it wasn't an All-In.

That Hero call left me with 12k at the 400/800 level. It hurt, but I had time to rebuild with this great structure. But I went card dead for a while, and just maintained my stack in the 12k-14k range.

In the 500/1000 level, it folded around to Chris (?) who raised in the Cutoff to 2500, and had about 10k behind. It folded to me in the BB, and I looked down at Td 9h. I hadn't been playing many hands lately, so this seemed like a good time to make a move since she's a tight passive player. I went All-In for 13k. She thought for a minute, counted her stack, and said, "I'm feeling lucky with this hand." ( I love to hear that when I'm bluffing.) She calls, and shows ATh. I miss my 3-outer, and I'm left with 1500 chips and the SB next hand. Naturally, I go All-In in the SB, and was eliminated.

I did manage to win one bounty early in the night. Meat went All-In on a Flush draw, and got called by JJ. He hit his Flush on the Turn. The 4th Heart hit the River, and the JJ won it with a 4-Card Flush. This left Meat with just 1600, and he went All-In on the next hand from Early Position. He got two callers. I was in the SB, and looked down at AKo. I made it 6000, and the two callers folded. Meat showed T8o, and airballed the Board.