I like to tell people about that time I went to state. I was left fielder on an All Star team of little leaguers from lil' ol' Ashland. We won district and regionals, and hopped on a charter greyhound to Murray with the best of our 12 year old ambition. Murray has a cool boy scout museum with a ropes course that scared the hell outta Eddie Dixon. That was the highlight of our double elimination tourney. We lost the first 2 games.
Still, in a way, we were part of the state championship. And, by that same token, I was part of the WSOP last night.
BadBlood and I are always looking for a game. We play every Thursday at the very least. I hosted this time, we had 10 players.
1s : Moi.
2s : The Rocket
3s : The cleaner
4s : Tatwood
5s : Rankster
6s : Matt "Overdraft Protection" Cardone
7s : BadBlood
8s : The Mark
9s : AxeMan
10s: Kevin
In some ways, I'm playing against these 9 uber-sharks. In another, I'm tempting fate and stealing from the "PokerPundit". After my last homegame post, he left this in the comments,
"My bet. You will lose in 5 of the next 7 sessions."
HEY KIDS! AN ICEBERG! NEAT!
So here's the first buyin.
I'm in the big blind with a pair of garbage spades. It's raised 4x under the gun, but 5 people call and I decide the odds are groovy. Groovy odds would be my undoing all night. Perhaps there's a cosmic whack entailed for anyone who uses the word "groovy" while doing math. Still, the flop was pretty, all spades, and no paint on the board.
I'm first to act and made a $5 bet. With the blinds at .50 and all the pre-flop action, I was hoping for two things. I figured the bet was small enough to entice anyone who had strong overs or a piece of the flop to call. Plus, I assumed it was big enough that no one would put me on the flopped flush with that bet in early position.
Everyone folds around to THE MARK who raises it to $15. I instantly push for another $27 and he calls, showing top 2 pair. The turn is garbage. The river fills him up. G-Rob REBUYS! The Mark went on to build a monster stack, which he and several others would lose...to Blood.
AS FOR THE WSOP
We had our first dial-a-shot from Las Vegas at about 10:00 EDT. That was the first break out west. Otis, Pauly et al (who are doing a FANTASTIC job in their coverage by the way) called from the "hooker bar" and, in that bizarre way G-Vegas was part of the big game. I had the perfect hometown flavor, Moonshine. (CJ WILL SHOW YOU WHAT I MEAN WHEN HE POSTS A LINK TO THE MOONSHINE STORY >>>>HERE). [Ed. note: Link added]
The moonshine story airs Tuesday night, by the way, I'll post it here Wednesday. I think you'll like it.
But I digress.
The next MONSTER hand of the night was make or break for Dr. Blood. Needless to say, he's made like Pauly Walnuts.
The Mark: A Qo
BadBlood: KdQd
MattyC: A Ko
The Cleaner: 9d 7d
Plenty of preflop raising here, especially from Matt Overdraft who has a nice premium hand. The Cleaner will ALWAYS chase a flush, especially with connectors or one-gappers. BadBlood had to call and The Mark certainly had odds to call with his hand.
The flop
Qh Td 8h (corrected for accuracy)
The Mark flops top pair top kicker. Blood pairs his queen. The cleaner is open ended. Matty has overs. More aggressive betting.
Turn: Ad
The Mark now has top two pair. Matty has top pair top kicker. The cleaner has an open ender with a flush draw. Blood is drawing to the nut flush AND the nut straight. Blood ends up all in here and everyone's still playing.
The main pot outs :
Blood needs any of the 4 remaining jacks or any of the 7 remaining diamonds and he has the nuts. That's what makes his 11 outs so outstanding.
The Cleaner needs on of 3 non-diamond 6s to fall for the straight. Any other diamond gives him the side pot.
There are only 2 kings left. Matty needs one of them for top 2 pair.
The Mark has the nuts with an Ace or Queen. He's also scooping if a non diamond..non-jack..non-6...non-king falls.
Got it? Good.
River: 4d
Blood catches the nuts. The cleaner has his flush. The Mark and Matty Overdraft suspect they're introuble but can't put 2 players (remember Blood's already all-in) on a runner-runner flush. More insane betting.
BadBlood takes the main pot of $215.
The cleaner mops the side pot.. $110.
So, more dial-a-shot stupidity..
The moonshine was getting to me now. I could tell it was affecting the Rocket too. Even BadBlood was feeling tipsy. Soon, The Mark was begging me to turn on the ceiling fan. The room wasn't warm, but we were.
Soon, the Mark was busted. He flopped an open ender and ended up all in against BadBloods Kings. Rankster, Rocket, and Tatwood cashed out. Matty and the Mark went home.
With 5 players and the night winding down, the cleaner was short stacked and ready to give away his remaining chips. I was in UTG and raised it to $4 with my pocket 9s. The Cleaner came over the top for another $3.50 and Kevin called the $7.50. I went over the top again and put Kevin all in for another $32 which he called, showing AJo. The cleaner had 57o.
I won the race. And, after 6 hours of play, finished UP $3.
BadBlood finished up $302.
Take that pundit. A winrate of .50/hour? EAT IT! More homegame madness tonight at The Mark.
And if you aren't playing in G-Vegas...or the WSOP...you're retarded.