See CC

The host’s curse lives on.

Last night we had the welcome addition of CC from Quest of a Closet Poker Player and his brother-in-law Marshall, who henceforth will be known as Marshall-Will-and-Holly-on-a-Routine-Expedition.  As it is always with the home game gamble, when you invite new people to your game, you never know what you’re going to get.  I like to think that you can paint a decent picture of a person’s personality by reading their writings, and having read CC’s blog for a while, I really wasn’t worried.

Sadly, he turned out to be a very disrespectful, obnoxious, evil-doing, poker-playing bastard that will never get another invite to G-Vegas.

I kid.

CC and his cohort were great guys and fun to play with.  They were introduced to the G-Vegas home game in all its glory.  Stacks were pushed, stacks were lost, and yours truly managed to play some pretty horrible poker.

I played three big pots poorly.  Here’s a rundown of my missteps.

Pot #1:  I flopped top two pair with 65o and check-called knowing my hand was good.  Until the river of course when the straight draw hit.  Pushing on the turn or even a nice check-raise would have won me that pot and I blew it big time.

Pot #2:  In late position, I called a raise with J7h and saw a flop of J72, all diamonds.  The pre-flop raiser bet into that flop and I put him on a single high diamond.  I raised 3x and he came over the top all in.  Remaining with my read, I called.  He had 2 diamonds.  I was able to spike a 7 on the river for a full house, but still, it was a big misread on my part and not a hand I’m too proud of.

Pot #3:  AQo in EP and I raised it up standard style.  TheMark, who’s called 90% of my pre-flop raises sitting directly to my left, called.  The flop was AK7 with the A and K of hearts.  The Q of hearts was in my hand.  I made a standard continuation bet and TheMark smooth called.  The turn was the 8 of hearts giving me TP-good kicker and nut flush draw.  I checked with the intention of check-raising all-in.  TheMark bet, and I executed.  He went into the tank and I thought my raise might be able to push him off a two-pair type of hand.  Unfortunately, he asked to see one card and I obliged by showing him my Queen.  Bad move on my part.  It solidified his read on me of holding AQ and he called with his set of 7’s.  No heart on the river and the $400+ pot slid to him.  I was busto and we quit.

All-in-all it was still fun, especially having met new poker playing friends CC and Marshall.  I’m sure they’ll be back as the Sleestack-fighting patriarch actually lives in G-Vegas proper.  CC himself lives not too far away, so hopefully he’ll be able to make it back up for some tourney action that I’ve got planned for later this summer.

Oh yeah, Otis set the record for biggest medium game cash out so far.  Bastage.

But still, the curse of the host lives on.