So, how'd it go then?

Hard to believe it maybe, but I'm not really looking forward to recapping our Saturday night mates shuffle.

Firstly it could be lengthy.

Secondly, well .... I'm pissed off!

See, I'm very frustrated with the way I played. On a scale of 1 - 10, my cards were probably a 5-6. Not great but not totally unplayable. But I'm really pretty steamed with the way I played a couple of hands that cost me. Hindsight tho, is a beautiful thing and I'm sure after I diarise the night's events I'll let it go and hopefully, improve. There's gotta be some reason behind starting a poker blog surely?!

Quick recap of structure. $25 buy in. $10 rebuy for half your original stack. Double rebuys allowed. Blinds go up when we 'feel like it'. Starting blinds 25/50.

Another interesting point, we 'show'. A lot. Rarely do we muck.

Players. 4 player game. Self, Deerhunter, C-nut and noob ... a great fella who shall herefore be known as Schmoll. I've known Schmoll for a good few years, altho loosely thru mutual friends. C-nut's known him better for longer. Really nice guy tho, and picked up the game very, very quickly. He'd never played the game before, but certainly had a nice run of 'beginner's cards'. The great thing is that he seemed to really enjoy himself, so if there's any justice, he might be up for it again down the track!

Anyway. After a few open hands to give Schmoll a clue about the way it's played, we got into it. It made for interesting play early, because it took a lot of the 'aggro' out of the game, because we had a noob there. See first hand covered.

(Note. All hand histories are approx. No notes are taken at the time and we do party while playing!)

About second hand in, I pick up something like KJ. There was a min raise before me, and I just called.

Flop. Rag - 7 - Jack.

So I pick up TPDK (Top pair, decent kicker). The Deerhunter leads out with a decent but not scary bet and I raise double his bet. Reasonably quick call. Turn card, another medium rag. Bet, raise, call. WTF? River another unthreatening card. Bet by the Deerhunter. Reluctant, crying call. He flips up red bullets. FUCK!

Not great play, sure, but not exactly diabolical. I didn't quite find out where I was 'at' in the hand tho, and I probably should have read it better. Part of the thing is, that The Deerhunter's every chance of firing a couple of shots with air when he commits to a pot, so I was reluctant to let this go. I definitely didn't put him on a set, and there were no flush or straight draws out there. Overpair? DING DING!!!! Earth to Dillo!!! Oh well. (When we 'regular' three guys shuffle up, we rarely read it when someone's playing bullets. I slowplayed bullets on someone (Pretty sure it was C-nut) later in the night, and he said he had NO idea. We'll call it even!)

I was playing pretty tight, which is NOT my normal game. I tend to be (and probably play my best) when I'm aggressive and play quite a few pots. I've always felt like a decent post flop player. That's probably why I'm pretty annoyed with the way the night panned out. I laid a fair few hands down (when not in the blinds) that I'd normally play. Suited connectors and gappers. Unsuited medium connectors. K9 - K5 etc. With some of them the flop wouldn't have helped me. Some of them, I would've fucking cleaned up. That's the old 'roundabout' style game that I really enjoy playing. See flops. Bigger swings in stacks, sure .... but the flops where you hit HARD, you more than make up for the extra chips you put in to play those extra hands. I'm sure some of you play that style too. But Saturday night, I didn't ... for some reason. Hence my frustration.

I was taking down a few pots early with reasonable preflop raises. A8 off. Medium pocket pairs. Stuff I'm happy just to pick up the blinds with. Also got tangled in a few pots that I maybe shouldn't have. The Deerhunter and C-nut (in particular) are quite happy to pop you with 'not much'. And if I wasn't absolutely sure that I had them, I'd get away from it. Maybe, more than I should have.

Another hand that came up, and looking back on it, I reckon it could be something that needs attention and some modification in my play.

I'm dealt AJ off. Two players in this pot. The Deerhunter and myself. Quite a bit of action pre. He raises it up and I pop him double his bet. Call. I put him on a decent Ace at least, but has he got me?

Flop comes A - x - x.

Deerhunter leads out with a pot sized bet. (500?) What do I do here? My automatic response was to raise. If he's holding AK or AQ I'm behind, and it's in my best interests to find out NOW. So I raise, and he thinks, then folds.

Poser #1. Should I have flat called here and let another card come off?

I just feel that I could've really put some hurt on him here and increased my stack. We all know how AJ is fraught with danger. Very easily dominated. Plus I figured that if I was to even give him a chance to pair his kicker I wanted more chips in the pot to do it. Still, I rake a sizeable pot and you can't be too disappointed with that. But, could I have played that differently?

At this point C-nut was chip leader. Then Schmoll, and myself and the Deerhunter slowly losing ground. Not long after, deerhunter busts and rebuys his full stack again for another $20.

Not long after that, I pick up J8c out of the blinds. Rather than just limp, I pop in a smallish raise to change it up. Remember, I'm the shorty now. (Not a percentage play, but nonetheless.) The Deerhunter in the BB calls.

Flop. 10 - 8 - 4.

Deerhunter checks. I'm holding middle pair, I'm going to have a crack at this pot. Pot sized bet. Raise. Narp, he's putting the acid on me coz I'm the shorty. Jam. He flips over .......

10 fucking 4.

So after I lambast him for calling my preflop raise with that shite, shite hand, he busts my sorry (and very donkish) arse. Trappy bastard!!!!

Rebuy for my original stack. Fuggit.

Then (and things get a wee bit murky here coz we're partying reasonably hard) I'm slowly blinded away. Not playing what I'd usually play .... moan... and C-nut bullying the table a bit which he always does with the big stack. Schmoll went on a nice run with great cards, and a few very nice bluffs (!) for a noob.

This another part where I'd love some advice and feedback. I was getting mown down slowly but surely with not much in the way of cards. Really, not much! I'd be guessing, but my M would've been around 7/8 and I was looking to make a move and swell my stack some.

Got Kings once in the BB and everyone (even the SB) folded. Un-fucking-real.

One hand that pissed me off. I was in the SB, C-nut in the BB. I pick up pocket 9's. I raised to 500. He pops it up to 1k pre! I agonized over this. He's obviously on a very decent hand. I went into the tank for about 3 minutes (I never usually take that long) before folding. He had two over cards, (A-10?) which is what I feared. To my way of thinking, 9's was right on the cusp of what I could shove there. It's a coinflip. 10's, I woulda insta jammed. 9's I reluctantly folded. We ended up playing the hand out 'for fun' and he got his card that woulda busted me. At least my read was right. That's something!

Poser #2. Was I playing scared in that spot, or would you call that an ok laydown?

Over the next hour I picked up A2 thru A5 maybe six or seven times. Now I really wanted to push here. Heck, I needed to at some stage. (And in fairness, I did twice. With A8d and QJh, picking up the blinds in the process.) But the other A - shite hands, I didn't. Couldn't. WOULDN'T for some reason. And it's gnawing away at me STILL.

My (perceived) problem here was C-nut. As the big stack, he'd happily call my shove, barely denting his stack, and happy to knock me out (knowing it was too late to rebuy again.)

Is ANY ace really good to stuff down his throat here? My thought process was this. If he's holding any two reasonable cards here (say 9's and better), he's gonna call. If he's holding Ace, his kicker is every chance, statistically, to be better than mine. So basically I'm throwing all my chips out there on a A high card. He spikes a shit 10 or something and I brick out with my A, nigh nighs.

Poser #3. Feedback pliz!

My final hand of the night. Freeeky shizzle.

I pick up 59c in the BB. Two players, self and C-nut. He raises pre and I'm happy to call and at least see a flop here. You just can't fold your BB every freakin time there's a raise, especially the way my mates play.

Flop. 6 - 7 - 8. All spades.

Sorta W00t! But not really. I've flopped a str8 but have NO piece of that flush action. I've got to lead out here and try and get some chips. Now we all know that a flopped flush occurs very rarely. I can assume that he might have one spade. The chances of him having two is pretty slim.

So I lead out strong. He raises me, which he, or I would happily do if we were still drawing to the flush to try and take the pot down there and then. So now I figure I've got to jam here with my short stack, and a made hand, and give him a chance to fold. So I do ....

He flips up J4s. GG me.

FARK!!!!!

I can't really complain about my play there. "That's poker" comes to mind. I mean I had a great hand, but got trumped by a better one, and I'd jam with the short stack there again and again and again, regardless of the board. Because the next 20 times we replayed that exact same hand, I'd be in front 90% of the time. Shit happens.

Poser #4. Am I a complete idiot? Don't answer that.

So there it is. A really frustrating (but very enjoyable!) night of fun. Better cards would have been nice. Even the Deerhunter commented that my cards were nowhere near as good as what he was dealt, and I played as well as I could, considering.

If you've bothered wading thru this post, by all means, leave me a note. It would be appreciated.

For the record....

Winner - Deerhunter!
Money back - C-nut.

There's always next week ......