Spades were good to me all night

My Friday Night Home Game Web Page

We began the night with 13 players who all got the standard 1500 in chips. Along with the regular cast of characters, my grandmother and her boyfriend both showed up from WV to join our game. I drew my slip of paper from the counter and my "4" put me at the octagon table which become the final table later in the night. I hate playing at the big round table because it is so large that you have to pick up out of your seat to rake a pot or collect the cards from the center. I also hate when I make the final table and have to transport my chips, beer, cigars, bubble gum, my lucky turtle card capper and the vintage Bank of Paden City Deposit bag with all my poker paraphanelia to the other table. I just find that it breaks my momentum somehow in addition to being a pain in the ass.

I have David "Bozie" on my left which sucks because he chases and calls all night and drives me nuts. On my right sits Burl, my granny's boyfriend who is 70+ but a good poker player and very patient. FNG Tony who put me out last week sits across from me but I think I have drawn a very good table.

I played strong and aggressive early and scouped several nice pots on my way to building a sizeable chip lead at my table. From the table behind us came the moans and groans that could only signal one thing. Jimmy was rolling and everyone knows it when Jimmy is on a roll. I put all that aside and focused. I tugged my hat down firm and adjusted my sunglasses. The Miller Lite was going down kinda easily and started to feel all warm and tingly. About 1 1/2 hours into the game I get dealt Jc5c in the BB and I just check. In the pot are myself TJ and FNG Tony. The flop copmes 5 5 7. I check. TJ Checks. FNG Tony makes a bet about 1/2 the pot and I flat call him. TJ folds. The turn is a brick and I check again. Tony bets 1/2 the pot again and I immediately asked "How much you got left?". He counts his chips and calls. He had shown his hand to TJ who remarked "There can't be too many of those left". I splash my J5 into the center and Tony sinks in his chair as he tosses down his measley 45. The river brings no 4 for Tony and the revenge tastes sweet. We shake hands I and remind hin of the hand where he took me out a week ago and he smiles. Tadow ! I'm in great shape as we filter down to one table.

Ronnie was having his best night in a few months at the other table by rivering everyone who dared enter a pot with him. He had a mountain of chips and was starting to get a bit loud. The blinds are now at $40 & $80 as we redraw for the button. Toby pulls a King and thats puts me in the BB for the first hand. So we go about 20 minutes and then I run into a big time pot with Ronnie, who rivers his idiot gutshot straight after making a bad call on the turn to my big bet. That river card cost me almost half my chips and it put Ronnie into the lead by a wide margin.

The Final Table Looks like this
Me ( going to my left ) Jimmy, Jimbo(dad), Bill, TJ, Ronnie, Toby, Burl.

Then comes that hand that puts me back in the tournament. I'm holding Q6 off and I limp in one off the button which is Bozie who also limps. The SB and BB call limp and we have a 4 way pot.The flop comes J63. Sb and BB check and so do I. Bozie throws in a raise of $100 into a pot of $320. The SB and BB fold. I pause, take a drink and then call. As the dealer burns a card I reach for my cigars and announce ala Marcel Luske "Check in the Dark" as I try to act uninterested in the turn card coming off of the deck. I glance out of the corner of my eye and from behind my shades to see that another Jack has hit. Everyone is just sitting there quiet and I don't make a move for 20 seconds. Bozie looks at me and asks what I am going to do. Nobody at this game has ever payed attention to me when I make a check in the dark so I had to remind Bozie that I had already checked. He looks down at his chips and pushes forward $200. So I look down at my chips and I start to count them all. I gather two stacks of $100 with my hands shaking and place them in front of my cards. Then I reach back and make 4 more stacks of $100 and press them together in a group. Bozie is looking a bit worried as I push in the call and announce "raise" in a confident tone whilst gliding the other $400 about 6 inches ahead. The Jack had him spooked but he took a good minute and a half to lay down his hand. I raked in the nice size pot and mucked my hand. Bozie lights a cigarette and leans back in his chair. Several hands later he told me how hard it was to lay down those pocket kings. After he told me that I felt like nobody was going to be able to beat me. I never told a sole what I really had, I just represented the Jacks. My bluffs are always called at this game and when I pulled this one off I knew it was my night.

My dad finally busted when Ronnie raised $100 from the button with J10d and dad went all in with his pocket snowmen, only to have Ronnie river a ten to take him out. Ronnie had not won in several months and his mouth was getting dry. He was so elated with his success that he had me snap this picture with his giant chip pile. Good thing we got a picture while it lasted.

Ole Jimmy has a habit of asking other people how much the bet is all the time saying, "who is it up to?" Well the action up to Jimmy and of course he had no idea. He promptly asked who it was on and Uncle Bill snapped ! "It's on you for Christ's Sake !" he moans. Bill is like the referee at the poker table because he keeps the game moving and settles many disputes because he actually pays attention. Bills patience and scrutiny would pay off later in the night when he ended up winning the losers table along with a bigger payout ($220) than the main game becuase Jimmy bought back into the game 4 times and kept busting out. Congrats Billy !

yada yada yada ( people bust out, people drink beer )

The final three came down to myself, TJ and Ronnie. Even though he had a massive chip lead, Ronnie was playing very conservatively and TJ just wanted to get in the top two so he would at least make something. 2nd pays $40 tonight while first will get $200. I saw this as the best time to start stealing again. The blinds went to $100 and $200 and I began to raise on the button everytime. I took several small pots and got into 2nd chip position over TJ. TJ had a little under $2000 and I had maybe $3500 when I get dealt J10S in the BB. I look back at my cards again and decide to rasie $400 into the pot of $600. TJ moves all in and I call. He turns over a really bad hand for me..........JJ. I'm dominated. But the flop comes a ravishing SPADE SPADE SPADE and I take TJ out. : ) I love J10 suited.

Ronnie and I play back at each other for 20 minutes or so as the losers table heats up with action behind me. 11:16pm Jimmy is on his 3rd rebuy by now and somehow I look down to find that I'm in the chip lead. At one point I had dipped below the original buy in with 4 people left but I had persevered and put myself in position to win. I thought had a good read on Ronnie by now and when he made a small raise into me when I held "the speed limit" I felt it was time to push back a bit. I went all in and Ronnie felt he had to call at this point. He sheepishly flips over his own 55 and I let out a chuckle and show mine. Nobody makes a flush and the pot gets chopped.

I really had success tonight by playing the man and not the cards. Ronnie wasn't even looking at me by now and I wasn't looking at my hole cards. There must have been 7 or 8 hands where I bet without looking at my cards. I was raising when he looked weak and betting when the flop looked like it didn't hit him. I was taking alot of chips through pure aggression and a keen sense for when to fold.

It's now 12:40 am and we hae been playing steadly with no breaks since 7:20pm. I've got $7100 and Ronnie has $6900. Ronnie limps in weakly again and I peer down at KQ offsuit and prepare a $2000 raise. Ronnie ponders the raise and then decides he has had enough and goes all in. I call in a shot showing my KcQs and Ronnie drops his Ah6c which has me a small dog but with a great chance to win the whole tourney. The flop comes 345 all of spades. This flop gives me 9 spades in the deck that can give me a winning flush with my Qs but I am still behind Ronnies Ace at this point. Then the turn brings a lovely lady, the Qh. I'm now a big favorite with only one card to come. Wouldn't you know it ? River Rat Ronnie pulls an Ace on the river to give him a pair of Aces that whip my Queens. Ronnie bolts out of his chair and yells as I slump back into my chair in disgust. It takes 2-3 seconds before I see that it's the Ace of Spades and I have made a winning flush to knock Ronnie out ! Ronnie sits in stunned silence as he looks down at the board and sees the awful truth. I guess spades were good to me all night.

Chase has won again ! This is my third win in a month if you include my losers table win from last week. Even worse for Ronnie is that he bought into the losers table for $20 in hopes of being able to join the game when our heads up session was over, but it took over an hour and by then TJ had lost all Ronnie's dough for him.

As a side note, I got home around 2am and decided I was too wired to fall asleep so I sit down in a .10 .25 Pot Limit Omaha High game on UB where I have no bonus left to clear : ( and I was down to only $11 after losing $50 in three hands with FH over FH in a .50 $1 NL Holdem game that my pal WBrumfiel told me I had no business in.


So I sat down with $7 of it and decided to play conservatively. I made some monster hands and took alot of dough from that table really fast. I was up to $50 in the first hour after a triple up and a double up. And by the time I hit the hay at 5am, the birds were chirping and I had turned $7 into $131. I slept like a baby, up $325 on the night.



Next week I'll be back in WV for my highschool alumni so no poker.


Hand Of The Week ??

Pick one of these two hands and leave a comment telling me which was better.

Hand 1)
TJ Flops trip Kings (the flop called "The Noose") KKK. TJ checks and Toby bets out with his measley Q2 and position. TJ smoothe calls him. The turn is a queen and Toby bets out again. TJ raises him just a little and Toby Calls. The river is yet another King giving TJ ("The Big Unit" KKKK ) and TJ thinks a minute before pushing all in. Toby now sits on a FH and thinks it might be good. Finally Toby lays it down and shows his FH. Being the good guy he is, TJ flashes the King and Toby felt he had escaped. Well, he had, but it didn't last long.

Hand 2)
Chase robs Bozie with Q6 offsuit.






Thanks for stopping by, have a drink on me.