More Pokerage

Last night found the regular gang at the Casa de Falstaff for a special Sunday evening edition of Friday Night Poker. We started with a hold' em tournament. My cards were completely dead. I got involved with the first hand where I saw a cheap flop with A8 and caught my A on the flop. I bet and got a call. The turn put a possible high straight on the board and my bet drew a big raise from Nate. Suddenly, my pair didn't look good and I got out. I proceeded to sit patently and wait for some cards, and wait, and wait.

I didn't get involved in another hand (save seeing an occasional cheap flop not hit me) until level 4. By then I was very short on chips. I caught J10o in the big blind and checked. I caught both a jack and a 10 on the flop. Since I needed some chips, I decided to check in hopes that at least one of the 5 players still in the pot would bet at it. The very next player (T) pushes all in for just a little more than I had. It folded around to me and I insta-call. She turns over Q8 looking for a gut-shot 9.

Now I'm not going to pass judgement on what she did here except it is something of a good play if she expected everyone to fold. Given that I was an 80% favorite to win the hand at this point, it was a very bad play if she expected to get a caller. Of course, this was one of the 20% as a 9 was the next card on the table and I was out of the tourney before I even won a hand.

The tourney finished up after another hour. Nate won with Jim coming in seconds and Dave was on the bubble.

We started up the cash game at this point and my cards didn't get much better. I got "beat up" in the second hand against Falstaff when my QT sooted couldn't get any traction. Then I sat quietly for about the next hour waiting for my cards to come. For those at home keeping score, that is three hours of poker without winning a hand.

Then things turned around. I didn't start getting great starting hands, but my playable hands started hitting. From that point, if I saw 4th street, I won the hand all but twice. One of those was a showdown with Nate trying to trap me with a river check. I didn't bite. The second was Falstaff overplaying his little pair into a ATA board where I had a T. I didn't want to take a chance on ruining a good night.

In any case, I ended the night up a healthy amount in league points (about 164 points after the tourney and cash game). I hope to host the game this weekend in Falstaff's absence.