Sunday, December 02, 2007

Breaking In The Man Cave

The first poker night was held at my new house last Wednesday night in the man cave. The line up was Rob, Carlo, Greg, Mike, and Devin.

The man cave is set up with my old octagon poker table and a new 32” LCD Sony TV to watch the Suns game. I ordered a couple of pizzas from Papa Johns and we were off.

I was impressed with Carlo early on. He had control of the table and was pushing players off their hands. Of course I knew that eventually it would come back and bite him in the ass which it did. However I could see how he could do well in a real tournament. He was aggressively going after pots that no one wanted. If he could learn to slow down at the right time and be a little more selective, he would be tough to beat.

I knew that I would not be playing my best poker since I was busy trying to be a good host and the game was on, which kept distracting me.

I lost my first buy in when I raised with AdQd on the button. Devin and Greg called the raise and the flop was Jc-9d-6d. They checked to me. I could have checked and I thought about it. However the pot seemed big enough that I felt like taking it down now was ok too. I bet 25 into a 45 pot. Devin folded, but Greg moved all in on me. Since I was a favorite over everything but a set, I called. Surprisingly Greg had the 7d-8d for a straight flush draw. I was not as big a favorite as I thought, but it was still 58% in my favor. I had his diamond outs covered except for two of them and currently the best hand. He hit his straight card on the turn and I did not hit a diamond so I forked out another $20.

On my second stack, I won a big pot with pocket 8’s. Robert limped in and I called with 8’s on the button. Mike folded his small blind and Carlo raised. Since Carlo had been raising a lot and I figured Robert would not call a big bet from me, I reraised all in. Carlo was a little short do I did not think smooth calling would give me the right odds to flop a set. I was willing to race and I was hoping he might call me with something like A-5. I think he had K-10 and my 8’s held up.

Carlo rebought and then crippled me later. I limped in after a couple of others with QJ suited. The flop was Q-7-3 rainbow. Carlo led out from the big blind and everyone folded to me. I thought about raising, but I figured I had the best hand and I would let Carlo bluff at it on the turn and then drop the hammer. The turn was a 10. Carlo went all in and I called. Carlo had turned two pair holding 10-3. Ugh!

That crippled me and I later went out when my A-K did not win the race.

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