Poker Home Game

7 people; I had Nick to my left, JJ to my right, John to his right, then Emily, then Ryan, and then Roman...so Roman 2 slots to my left, John 2 slots to my right...



I set the tone early. About the second hand I had medium pockets, raised pre-flop. Emily called. Pretty passive for her recent style. I put her on a decent Ace. Flop was great for me, only 1 over, an 8...I was not scared by that, I raised. She hesitantly called. Turn was another blank, I raised, she folded. I just threw out a possible, "Good fold, your Ace-Jack was no good." Shocked, she said, "How did you know?"



I didn't. I just knew a range of hands she might have had and picked one and got lucky. After I called a couple other hands I got in the heads of the people who didn't know me. When I can do that I like it because it establishes me as someone who has a good sense of what and how other people play...so it can intimidate them into laying down winning hands or not bluffing much.

Of course, then I went nuts and played rather poorly. I was playing too many hands. That has a tendency to sharply affect your chip stack and sure enough I was up and down a great deal. At one point I was chip lead but I bled them away playing too many hands.

Got down pretty low and was in the big blind with a not terrible 8d, 10H. Someone min-raised, I was getting 6-1 and decided to see what happened. Flop came 5/7/8, 2 spades. I had been short-stacked for a while and had seen a couple of expressions. They did not like the flop. I got a bit crazy and sent in the chips. Folded to John who said, "You hit the straight already?" and went into the tank for a long time.

When he said that I figured he didn't have the straight himself...if he did he would have called. He did not mention the flush draw but that was a definite possibility. However, the odds were not right for a flush draw as I had massively overbet the pot. I actually thought he had either 2 pair or medium pair, good kicker type thing, maybe top pair but I thought that was less likely. I was wrong...he had 8/Q but there is simply no way you can call 3/4 of your chips to someone who raised all-in on that flop. I could make the bet with my 8/10...but sure could not have called it! So aggression paid off, I took a nice pot and was in pretty good shape after I almost doubled up off Ryan a few hands later.

But Roman was hitting like a mother. He was taking down pots left and right. By the time we got to heads up I needed to double up about 6 times just to take the lead. I did double up a couple times. But when I picked up the Speed Limit I raised, he re-raised so fast I put him on a strong pair...maybe Jacks or better? It was obviously nothing he would lay down. A good player would have either folded or just called. I went all-in and he insta-called...with his 10s. He flopped a set and it was over.

Overall I played okay...my reads were awesome, I just played too many hands. But I had fun so I am fine with that. I like to play with a group like that and love to play a lot of hands. Overall, great evening and kind of re inspired my love of poker.