I hosted another friendly little poker game last night. $20.00 buy in, winner take all. In this case, $20.00 bought you $2,720.00 in chips. The lowdown:
Players:
Tommy “too tall” Jordan
Ken “KeKo” Kotenko
Billy “Red Devil” Brose
Clay “Greenthumb” Johnson
and myself.
I only took out two people in the entire game. The first one out was Ken. I bet big before the flop, and he called me on it. Flop came A, 10, 2. All diamonds. Ken went all in. Now I thought he matched top two pair, A, 10. It was a little early to go all in on a bluff. Although, it was a pretty good pot at the time, and he could have been trying to buy it. But I had pocket Jacks. One of them being the J of diamonds. Here’s how I looked at it. If he does have top 2 pair, or just the ace for that matter, he’s got me beat. But, that would mean that he doesn’t have the flush draw. I have a pair of Jacks, with a flush draw. I figured what the hell, let’s see if Ken’s trying to buy the pot. I call, he’s got the ace, top pair, and he’s got me though the turn card. River comes 6 of diamonds and I take him out with a ace high flush. It was a good play on his part, he had a good hand, I just got lucky on the river.

Next out was Billy. Heads up against Clay. Those two love to go at it. Billy went all in on top two pair. Clay had a flush. Took him out.

Ken started to deal, which was great for us. Playing with a dealer is so much better. Anyway, Tommy then took out Clay, although I can’t remember with what. All I know is I was short stacked since the time that there was only three left, and Tommy taking Clay out hurt me big time. I was short stacked already, and Tommy doubling didn’t help my cause.

Heads up time.
Tommy vs. Me. We went back and forth for a long time. The cards weren’t coming, and I now knew that Tommy only bet when he had something. He never bluffed. This meant that I could buy a lot of pots from him, with shit. So I did. Over the next hour or so, I managed to buy enough pots to become the new chip leader. And basically nickel and dimed him down to nothing. He went all in, before the flop, on A, 10 off suit. I called with K, J suited. He flopped a pair of aces, and doubled up. This gave him around $1600.00 in chips. I still had the lead, by a large margin.

Ken and Clay ended up leaving around 1:15am. Tommy and I were still going heads up.

Now, you should know that we played with terrible cards, and even worse flops for around 1.5 hours. A pair of 4’s was the money hand. It was ugly. We were both calling the blinds (which were $200.00 and $400.00 by this time) every hand, because the cards were so bad. This is what allowed me to buy a lot of pots.

Tommy’s deal. I’m in the small blind, and my cards are 10,8 off suit. Again, we were seeing everything, so I call the big blind, and Tommy checks the option to raise. Flop comes 10, 10, 2. Ok, I have a hand, but let’s see if he does also. I check, he checks. Ok, so I’m thinking that he doesn’t have the ten, or a two. Turn card is a 3. Again, let’s see if he matched. I check, he bets $200.00. Perfect, I’m thinking he matched his three, and is betting his 2 pair. I raise over the top and go all in. I figure if he’s got a three and a good kicker, he thinks I have a three, and maybe a smaller kicker. Turns out, that’s exactly what he thought, and he calls. We show, and he realizes he’s drawing dead.

The game ended at about 1:45. It was the longest we’ve played yet. But it was fun, and I won $100.00. Although I’m paying for it today. I’m dragging ass, I have a pounding headache, my allergies went apeshit this morning, and I forgot to take an Allegra. I popped 2 Benedryl’s this morning, and I couldn’t be anymore drousy, without flat out being unconcious. (sp?)