…*lol*…

Haven’t played online in a while, too little time and too tired and mentally distracted to risk any serious dough. That didn’t keep me from playing some live poker last night though. In our little home game we play for peanuts and while playing poker is the central part of the evening, it’s not the only factor to consider. It’s basically about slinging chips and cards with new and old friends while chatting it up, drinking and eating the assorted random junk food. An evening in our home game is the total package so to speak.

Last night was no different. Eight donks sat down and started to play. I played my usual game, well, that’s not totally true, I mixed it up quite a little despite the fact that I was pretty card dead (my best hand was 44). I managed to win some pots by pure aggression, showing the occasional bluff (67o raise from UTG, etc), hoping to setup a big pot later on when it was my time to hold “a monster” (*wink* *wink* I’m starting to talk like Hellmuth *lol*…I guess watching all the poker shows isn’t that good for you after all). The time came once I finally picked up a real hand. Once again I was UTG and I look down at AKo…wheeeeeeee….10BB left…so what am I going to do? Open-push. UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 thinks, thinks, thinks and finally calls…fold, fold and another call by a player who didn’t even have 2BB left so no worries there.

The cards are flipped over and I show my AKo…UTG+2 groans as he shows the AQ s00ted…LP caller shows K4o…oh well…I like my chances here. Flop JQx…I don’t like my chances that much anymore…turn x….river Q…wheeeee…..I’m outta here….always nice to see 2 of your opponent’s 3 outs hit against you…*lol*…I congratulated him on his “nice call” preflop and left the table to get some steam out of my system (translation: I berated him for his donk call and moaned about my consistent bad luck in recent live events). Sure enough my opponent in that hand managed to push into a made hand drawing dead a few hands later…so sick.

As I waited for the game to finish, I cooled down again. So once the next game started I was fresh and ready to go and go I did. You gotta know that the second game (we only play tournaments and the second one after the main tourney) is only half the buyin for the same amount of chips and play. So I came out of the blocks raising almost every pot. Sure enough it didn’t take long for one of my esteemed calling station opponents to chase me down. It was the sixth or seventh hand of the tourney and I had raised 4 out 5 in the hands before this one. I look down at A4o on the button….two limpers…what am I going to do? Raise it up…one caller…and I know he’s got two face cards, fa-shizzle! Flop comes down Jx4…hmm…he leads out….I call…turn is another x…he fires again, this time BIG. I know that he’s got the jack and I’m frustrated. I put him on KJ and asked him if he would show me the hand if I layed it down. He was all too happy to show, so I was sure my read was correct. I layed it down, he shows the JTo…nice play…I’m the dealer and can’t resist to rabbit-hunt the last card…guess what…Ah….yuck.

Oh well…I guess hands like that come with the territory – it’s been a tradition that people just like to chase me down in our game. The old saying before the flop, on the flop or after the turn goes “oh well, I don’t have anything/much…but it’s against Ingo(al) after all…I call” and boom the headshot usually follows on the river. Pretty sick, but that’s what you get if you’ve got a reputation of being unlucky…(Side note: It’s obvious why I’ve got the reputation of being extremely unlucky in our home game…when a big pot goes down it’s usually me pushing or calling being a 60-98% favourite…so obv I’m going to take more beats than someone pushing in with a significant edge in 2 out of 10 big pots 😉 )….

But back to the game. I was down half my stack with that last hand, so I just waited for the next chance to push it in. That chance came once there were a few folds before me and I look down at TT…tempting…best hand all night…I got 8.xBB left…so what am I going to do with four people after me…push. Fold, fold, fold, call…KK….cya….*lol*…that one didn’t hurt at all…I was a 4:1 dog and I didn’t catch, surprise surprise…still sucks, but oh well…better luck next time.