The Sweet Smell of Success

I finally won a poker night!

After the dismal showing I had at the $100 game, I've been on a mission to redeem myself. Even though I did ok at a little $10 game after that, I still didn't finish in the money.

Saturday was a little bit of redemption.

There were 14 players this month. I started off slow - usually I know I'm going to do well if I win the first or second pot. This time I didn't. I was down a little bit, but I got a seemingly crappy 5-8 offsuit when I was on the big blind. Thankfully no one raised pre-flop or I would have been out. I checked to see the flop, and when it came out, it was 8-8-5. Everyone still in checked, and I followed since I didn't want to scare people into thinking I had 3 of a kind. The turn and river were A-K, and I successfully check-raised on the turn to someone I suspected had an Ace in their hand. Turns out I was right and I grabbed a monster pot on that one. A couple of people were eyeing me with suspicion after that. Most other players (but not all) at the table will bet as soon as they get something good, so no one really saw it coming. That works for me!

Around 9:30 or so, one of the more aggressive players went all-in for around $25. I had pocket 10s and a 10 on the flop, and figured he was on a pair of Kings. He seemed a little surprised when I didn't even ask him to count it, I just called. First one down.

By the 11:00 "intermission" I had a decent chip stack - nearly $85. Considering I started with $60, that was pretty good. I did do "Dave's Hoarding Bastard" trick, though... I don't think it's legal in regular poker tournaments, but it's quite effective at poker night. The table has cup holders, and I'll stack my $3 and $5 chips in there. That way my opponents don't really know how much I'm holding. I had about $30 in that cup holder after the intermission.

Unfortunately, I had to dip into my stash around 1AM or so - the ante was up to $3 and blinds were up around $6 and $9. It just seemed like after the break I wasn't doing so well anymore. I was afraid my streak ended. I had $16.50 left and I pulled out another full house on the flop. I went all-in - interestingly enough, people thought I was doing that to just steal the blinds since I was shortstacked, so I had a couple of calls. Thus began my comeback.

I started cleaning house. I felt a little more freedom to see the flop on hands that I would have folded with less than $20 in my stack, and I just kept getting great cards. I was getting to the point where I was getting such good cards I could successfully bluff - with the luck I was having, no one wanted to mess around.

I also had the pleasure of knocking Dave out - he was shortstacked on the big blind and went all-in. I had an A-K, and I had to call. I beat his pair of 2s on the river with an ace. I felt a little bad, though, I know he wanted to play longer, but you can't forget the #1 rule of poker - Don't be afraid to be a bastard. And he gets that, so it's all good.

By the time it got down to the final two, I had personally knocked 5 players out. Not too shabby.

I still need to work on heads-up play, though. It's like I'm afraid to double up my opponent. Even with my horde of chips, I was afraid I only needed 2 or 3 mistakes to completely turn the tables. On the third hand, I got dealt A-Q offsuit. I was the big blind, but raised $10. After my raise, my opponent raised all-in. I kind of made a little mistake there - I said "whatcha got?", meaning - "how much to call?" He was reaching for his cards to turn them over, thinking I meant, "I call, let me see the cards". As soon as I saw him reaching, I closed my eyes and told him I meant his chips. At that point I felt like a moron because why bother counting beforehand? Ok, so I called. I was a little scared at that point. I flipped over my cards, and he flipped over Q-5 suited. I was biting my nails a little bit about a possible flush as two spades were turned over on the flop, but turns out neither of us got anything. I won with Ace high.

So I finally got my picture on our poker night's "Wall of Fame" - it was funny - our host finished third, and he was standing behind us in the photo holding his $50 prize. It was a $50 bill and the way he was holding it was like he was giving both of us the finger. It was pretty funny.

So with my $310 victory this month and Dave's $650 victory last month, I figure we should only have to win 6 more games or so to pay for the work being done to the porch.