Hands from some home games last weekend...

[DaHorror]

I joined in on some Friday night poker fun with some friends from a former workplace of mine. They go with what turns out to be a 6-max ultra-turbo style of game. A game lasts about an hour or so, and they like to get in around 5 a night.

The ultra-turbo format of it for $20 a buyin kinda irritated me, but I still had fun - and after the first few just considered it goof-off time with friends more than poker.

180 starting chips, blinds move up every rotation scheduled at 1/2, 2/4, 5/10, 10/20, 25/50, 50/100 max.

Thought I'd post a few hands just for shits and grins. These are totally from memory so I'm mainly guessing at the remaining chips, etc. - so bear with me there. Oh, and the hands are not all from the same tourney - I am just posting the semi-interesting ones that I took part in.


(1) 5 remaining, 2/4 blinds

Hero (195 chips) The table is not all that familiar with how I play, so they are a little scared to reraise or bet into any strength I show without the goods
UTG (265 chips)
CO (325 chips) Average player - he will bluff, but generally at least with some pair that he thinks might be best - he is a bit of a calling station, and chases missed overs in limped pots, straight draws, etc.
Button (115 chips)
SB (180 chips)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6 , 6 . SB posts a blind of 2.
1 fold, CO raises to 10, 2 folds, Hero calls 6.

Flop: (22 chips) 3 9 3 (2 players)
Hero bets 15, CO calls.

Turn: (52 chips) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets 30, CO calls.

River: (112 chips) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

Final Pot: 112 chips

Hero shows 6c 6s (a pair of sixes, Jack kicker).
CO shows Ah Kd (Ace high).
Hero wins pot 112 chips.


My thoughts on this hand? I wanted to find out right away whether or not this guy had a pair or overs. I feel pretty certain he would have just reraised me allin on the flop if he had had a pair higher than or equal to 99. Anything else - missed overs, flush draw, 88 etc. he's just calling to see what I do on the turn. Turn completes the flush but doesn't provide an over - I bet again, thinking that he is just on overs and not the flush draw - a bit risky as I'm committing a good bit of chips to this pot - but I'm still thinking that I'm good here. River - he's not calling any more unless he beats me, or unless it's really small, so I give/take a free showdown - fairly certain that he will bet if he at least thinks he has me beat, and will check otherwise.

(2) 4 handed, 5/10 blinds
Hero (150 chips)
UTG (275 chips)
CO (340 chips)
Button (125 chips)
SB (190 chips) Table idiot, as you will see.

Preflop: Hero is BB with T 9 . SB posts a blind of 5.
2 folds, SB calls 5, Hero checks.

Flop: (20 chips) 4 9 8 (2 players)
SB bets 40, Hero raises 140 (all-in), SB calls.

Turn: (300 chips) A (2 players)

River: (300 chips) T (2 players)

Final Pot: 300 chips

Hero shows Tc 9s (two pair, tens and nines).
SB shows 7h 3h (A flush, Ace high).
SB wins pot 300 chips.


This was a really odd hand. The table idiot looks at his cards, grabs a chip to complete his blind, so I say 'I check' - then he says 'AND' and he starts digging around in his mess-pile of chips (he didn't like to stack) to raise - then decides, I guess, screw it, and just allows the hand to proceed. On the flop I just knew my hand was best, I didn't have enough chips to F around here so I pushed. His call was mind-boggling. This is just a bad beat...I only post it cuz this kinda silly backdoor crap happens to me too frequently online, and now I got to experience it live lol - I was a good sport about it though, as several commented later after this joker left for the night.

(3) 3 handed, 25/50 blinds
Hero (360 chips) The table is not all that familiar with how I play, so they are a little scared to reraise or bet into any strength I show without the goods
Button (200 chips)
SB (520 chips)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7 , 7 . SB posts a blind of 25.
Button raise 200 (all-in), SB calls 200, Hero folds.

Flop: (450 chips) 4 6 2 (2 players)

Turn: (450 chips) 9 (2 players)

River: (450 chips) 5 (2 players)

Final Pot: 450 chips

Button shows Ad 8h (Ace high, 9 kicker).
SB shows Ac Kc (Ace high, king kicker).
SB wins pot 450 chips.


This is a hand I'm still confused about. I was helping to shuffle one of the 2 decks we were playing with, when the LAG/Maniac went allin, average player calls...then I look at my hole cards and see two sevens. I figured this was one of those situations where, even though I probably have the best hand now, I leave it to the big stack to take out the other guy and go from there - cuz if I call I'm pretty much crippled if I don't win, even though it will likely be checked down (though these guys don't know that strategy so it wasn't guaranteed). So I let it go.
Now it's probably due to the results that I'm wondering if this isn't just an easy preflop push or at least call and take my chances, due to how few playable hands I have a chance at and the extra chips I would gain would have put me over the chip leader and given me a great shot to win headsup - as it turned out I didn't have much of a chance as he played it conservatively and I blinded down to pushing 45os. The reason that I think I might have been better pushing here is due to the turbo nature of things. I would have still taken second place even if the big stack had beat us both. The big problem would be if Button won the hand but big stack had beaten me as well so then I'm stuck with 3rd.
Any thoughts? At the time I thought I made the right play - looking back I'm not so sure, due to the format of the tournament it's probably worth the risk to just run with this hand.

(4) Preface: This was the last game of the night, it was like 2:30 AM. Pretty early on in the game - I think it was still 1/2 blinds. Stacks were about even/starting so I won't post them. This was the biggest, or if you think the one above was worse, then second biggest, mistake of the night - and I feel like I didn't really make but these 2 mistakes in all honesty...but this one was nasty.

SB
Hero
UTG
MP1
CO
Button - LAG/Maniac - bluffs plenty, bets middle pair, way overvalues top pair, etc.

Hero is BB with A 6 . SB posts a blind of 1. Hero posts a blind of 2. UTG calls 2, 1 fold, CO calls 2, Button calls 2, SB folds, Hero checks.

Flop (9 chips): 2 5 6 (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Button bets 5, Hero calls 5, 2 folds.

Turn (19 chips): 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets 10, Hero calls 10.

River (39 chips): 6 (2 players)
Hero starts to reach for chips, Button declares that he is all-in. Hero doesn't think long enough due to Button's overbluffing/overvaluing tendencies, and calls.

Button shows 2 2 (a full house, deuces over sixes).
Hero shows A 6 (three of a kind sixes, Ace kicker).
Button doubles up and goes on to blow his chips within the next 10 hands.

This is one of those situations where I played passively figuring I was trapping him, and hoped to improve. As it turns out I just trapped myself. Online I wouldn't even get involved in this hand. Here I only did because of the specific player I was up against. However, I did not reflect for long enough on the river...I don't think he had pushed when he was bluffing or betting middle pair, even top pair, before...so he definitely had a good hand here - at minimum the trip sixes - but I should have thought about the fact that him having another 6 was not very likely, and reflected better on the straight or a FH. Anyway - happens - it was a good lesson in live reads for me

(5) I'm getting tired of manually entering the HHs here, so I'll just dump this last simple hand and make a run for the border.

5 handed, 5/10 blinds.
Hero is UTG with 9 9 . SB posts 5, BB posts 10.
Hero raises to 50, 1 fold, CO calls, 3 folds.

Flop (165 chips): 6 2 8 (2 players)
Hero thinks he bets 120 and declares it but really only puts 70 chips out doh! So the 70 bet stands. CO tanks and folds, talking about 'Damn how can I lose so many times with slick suited man - I mean, it's suited slick!'.

Sorry for the long post - any comments appreciated.
I ended the night break-even after taking 2 second place finishes, 2 blind-outs, and 1 early bust as shown above. Not what I'd like to see, but this is pretty much a crapshoot anyway so I figure I played 7pm to 3am poker for free lol. Oh, and this is only my 2nd time ever playing live - that was fantastic experience all by itself.

[givememyleg]

1 - When I get called on the flop and a falls I'm slowing down. Some people can never fold AK and I don't understand why.

2 - lol is this hand for real? Who are you playing against?

3 - The big stack called so I either push or fold. Don't mind the fold as I would rather push allin before action with 77 than call.

4 - The overbet on the river isn't really necessary, but as you said weak players sometimes call big bets with modest hands. Someone I play with at home just can't fold to a "curious" bet on the river because he always has to "keep us honest."

5 - I thought verbal bets were binding? Besides, there's nothing wrong with this hand anyway.. if your stack was short I might push the flop.

[Fnord]

givememyleg plays too much online poker.

In the last hand, once you say "120" it's binding. You can then make as many actions as you want to put the chips out there.

[DaHorror]

Thx for the comments - certainly more are welcome.

In response to #2 - that's why I dubbed him the table idiot
We had another encounter in a later game where he bet a J67 flop, I reraised, then pushed the K turn with my QJ and he folded. He got really mad and walked out of the room to cool off - I guess I will never know why...but I suspect he was upset that his bluff failed...as it did in this case as well and seriously he called with no hand, no draw and just two undercards - I was giggling internally and then pissed out a sixpack in my pants on the river.

In #4 it's ME with the A6s in the BB...I was calling with a modest hand because I suspected it might be best as the opponent in that hand would bet a pair of 5s or 2s with any kicker in the same way with one exception - he would not push the river, which is where I made my mistake in not reasoning that out. So now I have a better read on him for next time.

For #5 thx for the info both - I will remember that next time, as my action was definitely to pick up 70 chips and say that I bet 120 - so I guess the fact that I declared 120 as my bet gives me the luxury to put them out there 1 at a time if I choose - my lack of live play experience shining through there!

As far as #3 is concerned - that one bugs me and I'll blame my lack of experience at 'turbos' since I tend to play standard SNGs, even when they are 6-max, so I'd definitely let this hand go in those types since I have more opportunity to get more hands in. In these game formats you got dealt so much crap that you really had to run with your good hands and just hope they were still good and held up. Thus my treatment of the 6s in hand 1.

[Fnord]

As far as #3 is concerned - that one bugs me

I can only imagine calling here if it's winner-take-all.