greg's game

I woke up so sick I did not think I'd make the poker this week. I did not make lunch with Peter but he brought me a nice Subway tuna fish sandwich. Man, those are really good!

I was so dysfunctional leaving the house that I forgot my wallet. It is hard to come to a poker game without any money. It is the worst place to be asking for a loan. Generally, I never loan money for gambling unless I am ready to never get it back. Greg, however, is more generous and he lent me $100 for the day.

Jerry, Bruce, Phil, Greg, Peter, Bill, and I played.

I think Peter, Phil, Bruce, and Greg left the rest of us with money. I ended up $134 ahead, a very good game indeed. My wins were based on a couple hours of pocket pairs every third hand. I had almost all of them and most went to trips or held up on their own. Jacks came over and over again.

Bruce did very well until one hand at the very end when Bill had a larger full house than Bruce and they were both all-in on a board that hinted at straights and flushes. It was a tough beat. This was not a two pair board where one card made the full house. Each player needed both cards and the full houses were surprises to us watching the action.

Peter seemed to get hit the hardest, but I think he overbet many of his hands and found that no one believed him and that someone had the better hand. I took him once for an all in, but I have forgotten the cards.

I took Phil a number of times by having just a bit better of a hand. On his way home, I took all his chips, calling his all in bet with a club flush draw and catching the club on the river. It was bad poker really, just a lucky win.

I wish the same had happened when Greg made me pay for my royal flush draw which did not come on river. In fact, nothing came so I folded. I held the king and needed four hearts, preferably the queen. Perhaps Greg had it.

Jerry learned the beauty of the seven dollar bet. It is just nicely balance for this game. It is not an overbet. It makes the chasers fold or pay for their cards over the course of the day. It builds a pot without scaring out the weaker hands. It discourages bets in the next round and so often provides free cards, and since it does all of that, no opponent really knows which of those is the goal of the bettor or if it is simply a bluff and none of those goals apply.

I guess I'll have to experiment with ways of answering the lucky seven dollar bet.

I thought it was the most pleasant game at Greg's in a long while with hardly any rule squabbles and only a bit of "unbelievable" angry rants at lucky river cards.
And I needed that.
My migraine head ache stayed in part with me throughout the afternoon, but ti was greatly diminished. And my hand managed to bollocks up a bit of the dealing.

Meanwhile Vegas is moving in the other direction:
(from las vegas advisor)
Go Ahead and Slow-Roll ’em
Wanna go Phil Hellmuth on someone? Then check out Trash-Talk Tuesdays in the Hard Rock Poker Lounge, where players are encouraged to slow-roll losers, berate players who beat them, and generally mouth off with impunity. (Note: These things aren’t tolerated the other six days of the week.)

I did like the new system of starting with eight very different decks all arranged in order like a new deck so no cards can be missing and not noticed if the dealer fans the cards and checks before dealing. I arranged them again for next week when I got home. It only takes a minute.

I also liked my fresh deck of Hawaiian cards I bought when Eliz and I went with Keith and Bernie to the Islands. That was a fine trip! These cards cost about $5 a deck, so I was happy when I opened them to find they were not just a souvenir, but practical as well.

Jo9hn Blowers was on the radio this morning talking about poker and promoting Kim's tournament. Since it is at night, I can play and still make Eliza's graduation. Yippee!!