NL Home Game Report

Pre-Vegas trip, the enthusiasm and attendence levels for my home game had begun to drop off a bit. It became a bit of a struggle to round up 6 or 7 willing participants, and as G-Rob will attest to, it can be quite a pain in the ass to set up a home game.

Things seemed to have turned around; and with the acquisition of some new players to the list I'm keeping, I managed to round up a full table of 10 for last night's game.

The lineup was as follows:

Seat 1. BadBlood - Prides himself on a well run home game, has all of the required equipment to play, but less so the talent.
Seat 2. Mrs_Blood - Making her 2nd appearance at the NL ring game, this time bought in with her own cash instead of being staked by her obnoxious husband.
Seat 3. Ice T. - Another female player at the table - another member of the "I play better than my husband" group.
Seat 4. G-Rob - Surprisingly the last to arrive, he's normally the first. He also lives the closest to me. His hair was in non-TV mode.
Seat 5. Frank the Tank - The motorcycle-riding aggressive chip slinger has become a regular at the game.
Seat 6. MikeD - Solid player, when he goes in the tank he's either building a masterful gameplan or is completely confused.
Seat 7. DeBaggio - A regular on the limit, dealer's choice circuit. With his arch nemesis (The Rocket) not playing, he was looking to win big.
Seat 8. The Rankster - Recently back from Australia, the Rankster was looking very physically fit. Mentally, it was another story.
Seat 9. ShawShank Redemption - Shaw was also making his first appearance, but was no stranger to no limit suckouts.
Seat 10. ShepSmith - Brother of the infamous TeamScottSmith and father of the NewYear's Day Tourney Champ - The Wolverine. He's had trouble differentiating himself from his superior playing relatives.

Things got off to a slow start as is common. A few times pre-flop raises would take down the pot uncontested. Were Otis playing, he'd try to loosen things up with some blind raises and playing hands in the dark. My solution was to call AlCantHang. For the first round of dial-a-shots, six people joined the fun. That's the most ever. Things started rockin' not soon after.

As is his style (ask Otis and G-Rob), the Rankster was calling pre-flop raises with any two cards. Against whom do you think he caught? Yes, 'twas me. My 7x BB raise in a sea of limpers was certainly too small to persuade the Rankster to fold his K9o. My AJ was no match for his hand on the AK9 flop. The K on the turn sealed the deal and I had lost half my stack.

The Rankster was kind enough to redistribute some of my money to G-Rob and Mrs_Blood. G-Rob busted the Rankster twice and Mrs_Blood busted him once. On all three hands, he was dominated. Down 3 buy-ins, the Rankster was one of the first to leave amidst pleas to the contrary.

When round two for dial-a-shot came, it was a struggle to find anyone. AlCantHang - not available. Daddy - not available. Otis - not available. So we fired up shots anyway. Within seconds of completing them, AlCantHang called back. Perfect timing. All of a sudden, pre-flop raises were being called by 3 or 4 people. Interesting how that works.

The suckout of the evening goes to ShawShank Redemption. He came out firing pre-flop for $5.50, the biggest pre-flop raise we'd seen yet. IceT smooth called in late position. The flop was Q-high and ShawShank bet half of IceT's stack. IceT simply put the rest of her chips in, much to ShawShank's dismay. ShawShank reluctantly called with his pocket T's and quickly saw he was dominated by IceT's pocket K's. The turn was a T and IceT never improved. That was enough for IceT to pack it in for the evening, victimized by a two-outer.

As for myself, I finished down $9. I can't complain too much, most of the pots I won were flat out steals. I got caught once with my hand in the cookie jar against ShawShank, but that's what happens sometimes. As the table broke down to 5 players, I was lucky enough to find G-Rob to my left. Not an ideal scenario when he has a mountain of chips.

I'd lost a few pots to him earlier in the evening when this key hand came up. I had pocket 9's and was first into the pot for $3.50. G-Rob re-raised to $8.50 and it was folded all around back to me. He'd re-raised three times before earlier in the night holding AKs twice and pocket Q's once. For whatever reason, I didn't think his hand was that good this time around. He had more chips and tends to ramp up the aggression later on. I called.

The flop was all undercards, 578. I checked and G-Rob bet out $15. I thought for a bit and put G-Rob on a vunerable overpair, perhaps TT, JJ or QQ. I called the $15 for two reasons; first, I was tired of losing to the guy and second, perhaps I could take the pot away if a scare card came on the turn. The turn brought an Ace. If my read was right, I could take the pot right here so I went all-in. I sure wasn't 100% confident in my read, but I went with it anyway. G-Rob folded face up, showing his pocket T's. I showed my pocket 9's which I think surprised him a bit. It was a small victory for me considering I didn't catch much in the way of cards all night.

The big winners were G-Rob and Frank the Tank. MikeD posted a small profit as did ShawShank. Mrs_Blood broke even and was quite satisfied with her play. If things go right, I'll get this home game back up to speed as a bi-weekly event.

Rock on!