Home Game

I took down a rather interesting home game on Saturday night.  Despite the hosts insistence that this was a one-time affair with only the Top 8 from our standings playing for a winner-take-all pool, we ended up with nine players, three of whom were not in the Top 8 and one of whom was completely new to the game and had "never played with chips before".  He sat to my right and I never tangled with him despite him playing just about every hand. 

I was thoroughly card dead to start and for about the first hour and a half, played just about nothing.  Two interesting hands came around this point, though I can't remember the order.  For one, I was dealt AK in early position and made it a standard 3x to go (50/100 level).  Got a caller and our most savvy player said "Dave must have AK or a big pair" and folded.  I flopped an ace, got called down by our resident calling station who hit either middle or bottom pair on the flop and nothing else.  Chipped up nicely here. 

The hand that could have been the death of me was this.  I had Ad5d in mid position and limped.  The flop brought two diamonds on board, the highest of which was Td.  I checked, but then it was min bet in back of me with about five or six callers.  When I looked at the pot, I don't believe I had the right pot odds to play this hand, but I certainly had the implied odds.  Still, I was a bit short of chips and didn't want to sit there waiting for the diamond that might never come against a boatload of callers.  So I stewed and threw it away.  Well the turn is a third diamond and I'm pissed.  But people keep betting and calling it.  Huh?  WTF.  The river is a fourth diamond, and the same guy who bet/raised throughout makes a big move at the pot.  He's re-raised all-in by our dominant NLHE player and the original bettor calls.  Original bettor shows the K-high flush (he turned it).  Other player had Jd9d for the J-high straight flush.  Had I seen the turn and not scared him away (I think I might not have, as I might have slow-played the made nut flush from early position against a bunch of callers), I'd have been dead here.

I limped along, collecting a few more chips, but not tons.  Made it down to four-handed play after our "see every flop, make every call" contingent finally donked 'em all off.  When it was four-handed, we had a player who thought his 8-9-T-J-K hand was a made straight.  Before calling a bet on the river, it finally occurred to him that he was missing the lil' ol' queen from his hand.  This actually happened.  Astonishing.

Finally I limp into the final three.  The straight flush guy above has about 43k of the outstanding 56k chips.  Guy to my right has about 8k and I have about 5k.  I pick a hand and shove vs. the big stack with 8d 6d.  He has ATo and I river an 8 to stay alive.  A few hands later, I catch him trying to steal with 34s and my 78s outflops him.  Another double-up.  I'm up to around 13-15k chips when the big hand comes about. 

From the big blind, the big stack makes a pre-flop raise.  Guy to my right goes all-in.  I look down at JJ and go into the tank.  In hindsight, this isn't the time to go into the tank, but the following thoughts go through my head. 
* I can potentially fold my way into the money with a decent stack because guy to my right may shove here with anything - he's short in chips. 
* I can call and see what happens on the flop
* I can shove and see if my big pair holds up. 

Finally decide to shove and jump for joy when I see that I'm up against 44 (original raiser) and a couple of middle cards (guy to right).  Nobody improves, and I take the whole thing down AND assume a smallish chip lead.

I play pretty good, aggressive poker from there, chipping up to a sizeable lead and finally taking it down when I limped in with A6, caught another bullet on the flop and called an all-in from my opponent who had a gutshot straight draw, turned a flush draw, but blanked out on the river. 

Typically, I get zero POY points for this, but it was a rewarding win nonetheless.  Oh, and the concept of HORSE for our game is completely and totally dead.  Sad, really.