The Sweet Smell of Success, Part Deux

Chalk up two wins in a row for poker night!

Between last month and this month, I brought home $710. Dave won $650 in June and a $35 side game on Saturday. I'd say we're doing ok!

If I do the math, between the $710 the last two months and the $100 second place I won a couple months ago, I'm up $440 since we started going to our monthly poker nights in November. Dave is up about $295, I think - I'm not sure what his buy-in was for January since I didn't go that month. His monster pot in June helped immensely with him being on the positive side.

The funny thing is, when we went to play on Saturday, I felt all out of sorts. I haven't been having the best couple of weeks and I really didn't have high expectations. I was just hoping I wasn't the first one out this month (I don't care about the money being the first one out, it's just a big bruise to the ego)! And this month it seemed to take a long time for people to start dropping. I think the first person went out around 9:30 or so, which seemed like much longer than usual. Unfortunately, the first guy to go out was someone Dave invited to come with us! They were talking smack all week at work about who would take who's money and all that testosterone-y stuff. But I took the pleasure of taking his money, not Dave, so if there will be any more smack-talking, I'll be the one doing it, sans testosterone.

The other funny thing is, I don't remember even getting cards that were really good. I mean, last month, I was pulling hands out of my ass. It seemed like I really had to work for a good hand this time. There were many times I didn't even get a piece of the damn flop! There are only a couple of hands that I really remember - one where a guy went all-in with a possible flush on the table. I had a pair of Aces, and it seemed like I was deliberating forever whether or not to call. Something just didn't seem right about him going all-in. But I didn't want to have my stack drop that much if I lost. I went back and forth, trying to get a read on him - I wasn't sure, and against my better judgement, I called anyway. Turned out it was a great call. He was totally bluffing - he had nothing. He said he was hoping to make me think he had the flush. Well he succeeded a little on that one, because I did think he may have had it, but I had to see.

Two other hands I remember were ones where I totally made a mistake. I was dealt a K-8 suited and flopped a full house. I checked to see what the other people would do. One person called, looked fairly confident, so I raised all-in. He folded. I should have just called his damn bet and hammered him on the turn or river to milk him for more money. The other one I had 4 of a kind - pocket 7s and two 7s on the board. I check-raised to the person still in, and he immediately folded, saying I raised too quickly. I'm such a dumbass. Tuck that mental note away for next time.

One good call I made was when it was down to three of us, I called the blind, the one guy folded, and the other raised $30. At this point I was probably the short stack by a little, and I was sick of getting pushed around by the other guy who kept going all-in (I can't blame him, though - although I think he thought he was the short stack since he had fewer chips, but I'm pretty sure they were bigger denominations). I went over the top and re-raised all-in with my puny 10-5 offsuit. He folded! Whew! After that, it seemed like it was going all my way. I realized I was the short stack by much more than I thought, after I went all-in twice and got called. I won both pots, but he had enough to cover me both times!!! I finally won at around 4:30AM.

I think I had a little advantage, though. My opponent never got to heads-up at our poker nights, so I knew he wasn't comfortable playing one on one. I at least had the two other times when I got to the final two, so that was a little bit on my side.

I think if I win next month, people will be out for blood.