New Year's Eve to New Year's Day

I had a great time this past New Year's Eve. Mrs. Blood and I were invited to G-Rob's party, who happens to live about 5 minutes from my house. Mrs. Blood was a bit reluctant to go; several times I'd invite her to tag along with me to parties at which she'd know relatively few people. She'd go, but usually just to humor me. For whatever reason, we'd end up leaving early - she can only fake having a good time for so long (yes, I know when's she's faking!)

G-Rob's party was different. She and I had a blast. I knew it would be great when not 5 minutes after we arrived, G-Rob, Otis, myself and yes even Mrs. Blood hoisted a shot of SoCo to our favorite Philly blogger - Mr. AlCantHang. Much of that party remains blurry, but I do remember the following:

• The team of G-Rob and BadBlood went UNDEFEATED at beer-pong (email me for rules).
• Apparently I was challenged to bench press a local female TV personality with 1 arm. I did.
• G-Rob, Otis, CJ and I played community Party Poker with Otis' account. That's the closest I'll be to a 10/20 table in a long time.

The next day I was hosting a Hold 'em Tourney and Ring Game Event. In order to get a few people willing to play who probably normally wouldn't, the buy-in to the tourney was only $20. This attracted 15 people to my humble abode and we began a two-table tourney at about 5pm. Top 3 paid. I say that now, just so you know where I'll finish before reading any further.

At first, I thought Party Poker had come right to life in my dining room as the first hand on the other table saw 3 people go all-in. A set of 5's vs. a set of J's vs. pocket A's. The J's held up and the Rankster immediately tripled up. G-Rob's AA were cracked and he was forced to watch some football for a while. The other player who busted, the Rocket, would also be relegated to the couch until the ring game started.

I was treading water, having dropped about T60 of the starting T200. Luckily before the 1st break, I won two hands in a row. The second of the two wins was pocket Hellmuths taking down Q,J suited on a Q-high flop. I was sitting at about T350 when we condensed to a single table.

I didn't play too many hands for a bit and saw a few more players go broke. Otis busted out after being short-stacked when he found A,Q suited. The pot had already been raised, so it wasn't completely surprising he was going up against A,K. He got no help and finished about 8th or 9th.

One hand Mike Sexton would say I "earned" was when I found A,Q UTG. I pre-flop raised to T60, 3x the BB. Team Scott Smith re-raised another T60 and I called. The flop was J-high and Team Scott bet out only T25. That bet helped me put him on A,K and I figured I might be able to take this pot away if the turn was a rag. It was, and Team Scott Checked. Having only about T250 left, I bet out T100 and Team Scott went into the tank. Thankfully he folded and told me he had A,K. That was a classic hand where my position and my read on him allowed me to win a pot with an inferior hand. I told him that I wouldn't have been able to do that to many players, only good ones who knew what they were doing. I don't think he appreciated my honesty right there :)

Before you know it, we're down to 4 players. Team Scott Smith and I are the short stacks compared to the Rankster and the Wolverine - a 15 year-old who's dad had already been eliminated. I used my negotiation skills to strike a deal with Team Scott to split the 3rd place prize of $60 should one of us bubble out. He agreed. I put Team Scott all-in with Q,9 suited and he called with K,6 off. I unfortunately doubled him up and became the shortest stack. My fate was sealed when I tried to steal the Wolverine's big blind with K,3 and he called with Q,J suited. As is tradition, I was rivered with a spiked Q and finished 4th. But, I got paid baby! That $10 will go a long way.

Team Scott finished 3rd, the Rankster 2nd, and the Wolverine ended up the big $150 winner. His dad was proud to see his son do so well. I mentioned that you had to be at least 18 to get paid at my house and he'd collect nothing but Smarties and M&M's for his payout. He wanted the cash.

The ring game broke out not soon after. By this time, the blogger's who'd been at G-Rob's party the night before were running on fumes. CJ, Otis, G-Rob and myself were dead. Perhaps CJ was less so, as he built up probably the biggest stack of the table when his broadway straight took out the Wolverine's Dad's two-pair.

For whatever reason, J,4 off became the hand of the night. Otis took out his brother when he hit his gutshot straight with the hand. Someone also took out A,Q with their J,4 and we needed to come up with a name for the hand since it was doing so well.

We have officially (I think) dubbed J,4 offsuit as - "The JackHammer" Look for it at a blogger table near you.

The table broke up at about midnight, with the Wolverine and CJ taking home big profits. Yours truly was happy to book a modest $17 win to start off the new year. My no-limit ring games will assume their regularity in the following weeks and I will try to do a better job with capturing pix of the event. In the meantime, I'm here to wish Otis a safe and successful trip to the Bahamas to cover the Carribean Classic. I think I speak for all the other bloggers when I say "You bastard!!!!" :)