Young guns at the home game

The $10 Thursday home game was a fun one. We had some money moving around the table. I won three of the first eight hands, and had pretty good stack. My cards then went ice cold, so I observed the new folks (when I wasn't reloading chips for 40 Ounce Dave, who ended up in for $40).

Coworkers Francesca and Luis showed up, as did new kid Jeff. Swingdancing Andy graced us with his presence, and I was a bit concerned when Francesca crippled him and he started lipping off. On one of the first hands of the evening, the board read T765 when all the money went into the middle. Andy (-$20) was on a stone-cold bluff (J3 I think), and Francesca called him with K2 suited. She may or may not have had a flush draw at the time. The river was a blank, and I remarked, "Francesca's nothing beats Andy's nothing to take down a large pot." Andy started griping about how Francesca should've given him credit for a straight and folded to his overly large bet on the turn. I was amazed that Francesca could call that huge bet with just a king-high, but she truly believed she had the best hand at the time.

That hand highlights Andy's huge weakness. He makes certain plays, huge bluffs, expecting his opponent to give him credit for a hand. On his last trip here, he tried to bluff my roommate off a QQ5 board when Jason had the queen. And he still thought Jason might fold a queen. Andy needs to learn about table image (and how to lose gracefully). He's playing with strangers, and he hasn't shown down any good cards yet. He thinks he's a much better player than he is.

Luis barely had a clue about posting blinds, but he did reasonably well (-$2) considering. I get the impression he's very new to holdem, but he was lucky (or smart) enough to avoid making any big mistakes. If it's checked to him, he will take a stab at the pot, holding jack-high, no pair. He was just begging for a checkraise, but I don't think anybody else realized it.

Francesca was the big money winner that evening (+$50), and besides that K2 suited, showed down very good hands for the whole evening. She mentioned that she never shows cards if she doesn't have to. If she ran some bluffs on us, nobody caught her doing it. I never saw her showdown ace-rag, or make a preflop raise with something shaky like QJs or KTo.

She seems like a very straightforward player - she bets when she has something, and she doesn't look for places to slowplay or checkraise. She has no concept of pot odds. Uncoordinated, semi-safe flop comes, she has a piece of it, and bets $2 into a 60-cent pot. After she did that a few times and got no takers, FOD and I tried to explain that her opponents weren't going to want to pay two bucks to win that sixty cents unless they held something very good.

I didn't get involved in many pots against Francesca, which was probably good, because her cards were hot the entire night. Poor Paul (-$10) thought he'd get her to fold her raise with a big all-in reraise, but Fran held pocket rockets to Paul's pocket threes.

The gameplan against Fran will be to play good cards, not bothering to chase draws. I have a very good feeling I can slowplay an overpair or a set against her and take down a large pot. Her tendency to overbet the pot will work against her. Maybe I'll reread what Cloutier has to say about playing AA as "second hand low".

Jeff (-$29) just moved here from Oklahoma. His email made me think he'd be a young kid (he was) who had some shark-like tendencies (he hadn't). He made some mistakes, played some weak cards, and chased some. But he thoroughly enjoyed himself, so I bet he'll be back. I'm not going to write him off as weak just yet, but it's going to take some more solid play for his presence in a pot to worry me.

Jerry (+$16) continues to get better. He played solid, and he's still pretty tight, but he's expanding the kinds of hands he plays. He's getting less predictable, which is helping him get more action when he's got good cards.

Forty Ounce Dave (-$9, pretty good for being in $40) played a huge hand with me (+$4) that reminded me of one of my weaknesses that I'm working on. I raised preflop with pocket queens, and the flop came Q53 with two diamonds. FOD bet into me, $1 into a ~$1.50 pot. I raised it up to $4, and FOD called pretty quickly. At this point, I gave him credit for AQ, KQ, a set of 5's or two high diamonds. Turn was a black eight, and Dave checked to me. I bet $5, thinking I would take down a nice pot right there. Nope, call - he absolutely must have diamonds now. River was a diamond, and as it hit the unpaired board, I braced for Dave's obvious all-in move. But Dave checked. I checked right behind him. Disgusted, he threw down AT of diamonds - the nut hand. He took down a large pot (cost me $10 or so), but he wanted to trap me on the river for more. A man after my own heart, but I told him that I was suspicious after the $5 call, and probably wouldn't have even called a $1 river bet. (I'm dumb to explicitly give Dave this info. Oh well. I like talking poker.) This one hand turned a moderate win into a small one for me, but at least I avoided a losing session.

I love to slowplay huge hands and trap aggressive people, but as I play against better competition, especially online, opponents are going to check along to see why I've been calling the whole way. Online at least, a river bet slightly less than half the pot gets called even when my opponent has a sneaking suspicious that he's beat. I've been rockin' the suburbs in UB point sit 'n goes with that move. (Speaking of, I'm up above 3000 UB points for the first time ever. I might even start trying the 500 pt UB sit 'n goes.)