Three Best Things in Life

Crush the enemy, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women.

Well, I've dealt another crushing blow to my home game counterparts with yet another $200+ victory. There weren't many pots where I didn't know exactly how things were going to turn out. Whenever we're playing hold 'em, nobody but me is looking at the reactions of others as they see their hole cards. Nobody but me is watching other player's reactions to the flop. They are truly missing out.

My cards were also running pretty well which never hurts. So well, that I let my wife play a hand for me. I let her look at the cards and make all the decisions in a 3/6 hold 'em game. After she peeks, she tells me to bet. We get 3 callers. A flop of 8,3,3 with 2 hearts doesn't faze her and she tells me to bet out. Down to 1 caller. The turn brings a 7, but not a heart. She says bet again. I do, and the remaining player folds. I finally peek down to see our hole cards. A,Q hearts. Well done, well done. Rabbit hunting confirmed a 3rd heart on the river, only sealing our victory that much more.

My wife proved to be a lucky charm in another game as well. We're playing Anaconda Hi only, getting dealt 6 cards and passing 1 each to the left and to the right. We had 8 players and couldn't deal everyone 7 cards. I'm dealt 3 pair, Q's, 9's and 2's. I show the hand to my wife and tell her to pick between the 9's and the 2's because I have to get rid of one pair and hope to match one of the other 2 for the full house. Originally, I was going to pick the 9's to get rid of since we were playing hi-only and I'd be more likely to catch a 2 than a 9 or Q. Someone argued later that I should have passed the Q's which might have been a good option as well. But my wife tells me to pass the 2's along so I do. Lo and behold, someone passes me a 9 and I'm set. I take down a huge pot as I overcome trip J's and a flush, neither of whom believed I had the full house.

During one game of what we call Kansas City (5 card stud, 1 down, 4 up, option to exchange 1 card at the end, hi/lo) I'm aiming for low against 1 player. There are 2 others obviously in the hunt for high. I exchange my 5th card, a Q, and buy a monster K, giving me a K-high for the low. Extremely not good. My opponent for low was forced to take an exchange since we declare with a chip whether or not we'll do so. This eliminates a bit of positional advantage inherent in this game. He tosses a J and gets a 6 in return, leaving him with 2,6,8,9 on the board vs. my K-high garbage. Now, here's where I check some math. I figure it's going to cost me an additional $6 in the remaining betting rounds to call him down. I have a feeling he may have paired his 6 on the exchange due to not seeing any 6's during play. So in effect I've got about 3 outs with roughtly 15-20 cards left, a 5:1, perhaps 6:1 shot. There's enough money in the pot for me to call him down and I do. Judging from his reaction, I think I've got him. After the showdown, I see his paired 6's and take home the low half of the pot with a piss poor K-high.

Later on, one of the players chooses Chicago as his game to deal. I hate that game, it's garbage. Low spade in the hole in a 7-card stud game takes half the pot. Where's the skill? Nowhere. After 2 cards are dealt down and 1 up, checks go all the way around the table to the dealer. He says, "C'mon guys, gotta put some money in this pot." I immediately say aloud, "Well there's the 4 of spades talking." I fold out of this game in a hurry and watch as play unfolds. Bottom line was that someone was slow playing the 3 of spades and the dealer did in fact have the 4 of spades as I claimed. I actually had people wondering how I knew. I really didn't know, but it was an educated guess. The kind of educated guesses that you need to make at the poker table. I told them they could learn my secrets if they bought my poker DVD.

So there sits my story, a microcosm of this year in general - cleaning up in live play and getting killed online. To be better at both is my long term goal, and this blog will of course chart the progress.