Starving Crazed Weasels League

What with Kevin & Cassie having a kid, then Kenneth & Stanica getting jealous so following their lead, we had not played in a while. Finally got it going again.

Started with Emily to my left, Kevin to her left, Cassie to his left, Josh to her left, Mark to his left, and Kenneth to my right. Not where I wanted to be...

Emily normally plays a solid game but when she is at the table I am at she becomes more aggressive because she is, by her own admission, "super competitive" with me. That means she makes out of character plays around me. That is tough for me because so much of my game relies on reading people as far as what is in character or out of character. When someone plays their own game I usually have a fair idea if I am ahead or behind. But when they play out of character it throws me off.

Kenneth is also tough for me for two reasons; first, I sometimes do the over-competitive thing with him and make dumb plays, second because he switches his game every time we play. One time he will be a rock, another he will be wild and all over the place. Sometimes he plays a conservative game, other times he pushes hard, verging on the maniac. He has a couple twitches which pretty much let me know how his hand strength is, but the nature of his game means I play fewer hands until I know how he is playing since he often will make non-standard raises at strange times. Also, he is a good player, so having him on my right is not where I want him...

Anyhow, on the way out there I wasn't "feeling" it and told Emily I would probably be the first player out. Early on I played pretty non-descript. Won a couple small pots, got out of a couple, then Mark mentioned he had, bizarrely enough, a late-night job interview. So we knew he wasn't going to play long and I stayed in a couple pots knowing he would be playing looser than normal. And got rivered. Twice. Now I was short-stack. Not in trouble...yet...about 1200 chips, blinds just 50-100. After that, Mark had to leave so we just pulled his chips.

By the time they went to 100-200 I had about 1600. Picked up Queens, a couple limpers, I went all-in hoping to just pick up the limps and blinds. Kevin went into the tank from the big blind. I put him on something like a medium pair, maybe a medium Ace. If he had the Rockets or Cowboys he would have beat me into the pot, if he had Big Slick he would have called pretty quick. Thus I put him on a more troubling call since, while it would not even remove him from the chip lead, it would still be 20 - 25% of his stack. Medium pair, maybe medium ace sounded about right.

Even there, I really did not want a call. If he just folded I would be over 2K with no risk. If he called, even if I was a 3-1 favorite over a lower pair, I would be at risk. Well, he did call...and flipped up the J/9. On the one hand I am happy...no overs so it takes 2 cards minimum to beat me. However, he can win in a lot of ways. He can pair them both or trip one, he can hit a straight, he can hit a flush. And sure enough, the flop brought a 9. But he got no more help, I survived and was out of danger with over 3500 chips. Picked up a couple more pots.

Then Kenneth got taken to the cleaners when he had the Cowboys but Kevin flopped 2 pair. He ended up having only 125 chips left and a couple hands later in a multi-way pot he got in with about 5-1 on his money, or as good as he was going to get, and I got lucky, hit a queen and mercy-killed him. For small risk I actually added about 15% to my stack since it was nearly a family pot.

Now Emily and Cassie were short stacked. Emily went all in, Cassie thought it over for a bit and then called, everyone else folded. I looked down at a 6/8 off suit. Now, normally I am just going to toss this away. But I did a quick bit of math. I was getting a little better than 3-1. I had cards that were unlikely to be dominated. I put neither of them on a pair, I thought Emily probably had something like a strong Ace and Cassie maybe a couple face cards, maybe anywhere from a strong Ace to a dry ace...so a wide range, yes, but most of the hands I could hit my 6 or 8 and possibly take TWO players out. At this point it would be about 20% of my stack...but winning would about double it. I called.

Emily was weaker than I thought...Q/3 hearts, and Cassie had K/Qo. So I was wrong about Em's strength but right about being behind but not dominated. Emily was the dominated one and Cassie had a big lead. Her lead got bigger when the flop gave us an A/J/rag. The turn was a blank. But the river was an 8 and I took them both out. I also gave myself a good deal of breathing room as now I was threatening the chip lead. But was it the right call?

That is something I need to work on. Statistically, was it correct to call there? Why risk my chips to take out people who probably have me beat? I was figuring I would PROBABLY lose...and I suspect if I crunch the numbers I was probably slightly worse than a 3-1 dog so in retrospect, probably I should have folded. Sure, this time it worked out...but in the long run it was a bad call.

Anyhow, now we were down to Kevin (big stack), Josh and I. Kev and I traded the big stack a couple times, then started one of those runs. I got Josh all-in. I had 2 pair, Aces and...Queens? He hit runner runner on me to nail a flush and doubled up. I got him all-in. He rivered me and doubled up.Now he and Kevin were the big stacks.

I came back, hit a few hands, he hit a few, Kevin took a couple beatings, I doubled him up, he lost a couple big hands and Josh put him away.

I think Kevin kept track and it was 8 times I doubled Josh up. I could not put him away. River. River. river. I rivered him once or twice as well so it was not all one way. But it happened so often it had become a running joke even before Kevin went out. Finally I rivered him one last time and had the win.

For the night I played fairly well most of the time. There was one case where I knew I was beat early on but paid 2 200 chip bets hoping for the 2 outer to hit and knowing I shouldn't. But on the river I let the 500 bet chase me and was upset with myself. I was chasing the bad math opportunity for 2 reasons; 1, I planned a bluff on the river and 2) I had not seen any sort of hand in a long time so when I got pockets, even though they were only 7s, I held them when the board only brought one over. This was poor play for many reasons:

1) 2 people called my pre-flop raise. They needed SOMETHING to call my first raise of the night.
2) Yes, there was only 1 over on the board, a Queen...but TWO people showed interest. I actually even put Kenneth on the queen. So knowing I was behind I still was chasing the miracle 2-outer. If I could reasonably pull off a bluff that might be okay but with 2 callers there is too little chance of the bluff working. Besides that, when he expresses interest in a hand Kenneth is almost impossible to bluff.
3) I was chasing because I did not want to lay down a hand I had raised pre-flop and on the flop. But that is a poor reason.

A couple hands where Cassie raised and I figured her to have me beat combined with this to put me on the short stack. So this play caused me problems.

But I countered that with shrewd short stack play. I waited...and waited...I was able to check into a hand from the big blind. I hit bottom pair, went all in, everyone folded so I picked up a few chips. It was a well-timed move because it was believable and I was pretty sure from the disinterest nobody else had hit anything.

And when Josh kept beating me on the river, that fact remained...he had to come from behind. I was ahead time after time so I was getting my chips in good.

So yeah, I played well enough to win and am happy with how I played. Much more importantly...I had fun.