King of Chip Mountain

When's the rush going to stop? When will the deck stopping hitting me in the face, and Lady Luck throw suckouts at me like chin music from Roger Clemens?

I hosted my $10 buy-in cash game Thursday evening, and if cash is the scoreboard, I killed it. I was in for $10 and out for $78, which I believe is the best I've ever done at my homegame. There was $185 in play, so I cashed out 42% of all the chips in play at an eight-handed table.

Seat 1: Mike (that's me!)
Seat 2: Oklahoma Jeff
Seat 3: Forty Ounce Dave
Seat 4: Albert
Seat 5: George
Seat 6: Woody
Seat 7: New Guy Andy (not to be confused with I Love Rounders Andy)
Seat 8: Shawn

Oklahoma Jeff started the fun by calling my preflop raise with K3-suited, hitting top pair, and calling me down to lose to my Big Slick.

Woody made the next mistake against me. It was early in the night, but I know my game. We are a loose bunch, especially with Forty Ounce Dave, Jeff, and Shawn at the table. Woody limped in with pocket aces. I had the button and 54 offsuit. Plenty of callers, so I followed suit. The flop was 543-rainbow. He bet large into me, I raised the pot, and he called me all the way down, not improving. It felt nice to crack aces with little baby cards.

George may have outplayed me on a hand where I raised preflop with pocket sixes on the button. Flop was all overcards, T87-two clubs or something like that. He checkraised me, and I folded.

Pocket rockets under the gun. Gotta love that. I raised to 80 cents, a typical preflop raise. Forty Ounce Dave, who seems to pick the worst times to reraise me preflop, made it $3 total. Dave tends not to fold to a re-reraise, so I went all-in for $16 or something. I had him covered, and he called with his pocket jacks. Two queens hit the board, scaring me a little, but the pot was mine in the end. That was FOD's first rebuy. It would not be his last.

Perhaps five hands later, I see pocket aces again. Clearly I'm living right, eating my veggies, and saying my prayers. Nobody wants to play with me preflop, except for Shawn, who called my reraise. Great, a guy who is so loose, he could really be playing any two cards if the fancy strikes him. More likely, he's got two facecards or two suited cards. Regardless, his looseness makes him much harder to put on a hand. The flop wasn't dangerous, but I didn't want him making some disguised two pair. He folded to my 2/3 pot bet on the flop. He hinted that I could've gotten him in trouble by giving him a free card so he could hit a pair.

And then, the lightning bolt struck. The preflop action wasn't important. The flop was 6c, 5c, 4d. Shawn and Oklahoma Jeff were the combatants. The turn was the Jc. All the money went in. Shawn had 8c, 7c, for the flopped straight-turned-flush. Jeff showed Kc, 4c. Jeff had the better flush. Shawn thought he was drawing dead, until I reminded him that his straight flush draw was openended. And that Jeff had one of his two outs. The nine of clubs hit on the river, giving Shawn the miracle nine-high straight flush. He hit his one out. Insane.

And then, more fireworks. I had chips, and my table is loose. Why be tight? Most preflop action is giving me great odds to call with decent drawing hands. I limped in with K5-diamonds. Forty Ounce Dave bumped it up to dollar. George and Woody called, so I had to call 80 cents to get into a $4 pot. Sounds good.

The flop came out just about perfect for me. T87, all diamonds. Woody checked, I checked, FOD bet $4, and George folded. Woody called. Wow. There's some strength here, and I bet the ace of diamonds is out there somewhere. I pushed all in, for $30+. I had Woody and Dave covered. Dave called, like I thought he might. And Woody called. Now I was starting to get a little nervous.

Dave showed two red aces. He's drawing to another diamond, or a running full house. Woody showed a flopped straight, 9d, 6h. He's got an openended straight flush draw. So, what are the odds that we see two straight flushes within an hour of each other?



A red queen. Oh. It's a heart.



A black two. Yeah!!!

And I corralled the largest single pot I've ever won at my home game. In a $10 buy-in game, a $50+ pot takes a while to stack.

That was another rebuy for Forty Ounce. Apparently I was supposed to pick on Dave that night. He lost more than half his stack to somebody else, before raising me all-in with a king-high flush draw that never came against my top pair. And another rebuy for Forty Ounce. All told, he was in for $50, and out for $0. I would've felt a little sorry for him, but he did just get back from a trip to Phoenix, where he watched spring training baseball, smoked plenty of sticky icky, drank beer, and won almost a grand from a few different casinos playing blackjack.

Then I had a hand where my read and my gut conflicted. I held Q8 offsuit in my big blind. Free look at the flop, which fell Ac, 8c, 7h. Shawn checked, I bet out 50 cents at a 60-cent pot, and New Guy Andy raised me an extra $2 from the button. Shawn folded. I thought it would've been very odd for Andy to limp on the button with an ace. I just didn't think he had it, but I thought he hasn't been very aggressive tonight, so he probably has me beat. I called. My reaction to his bet was puzzled, and it showed. As the next card was burned, I thought that I could bluff at Andy if another club showed up. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance, as the turn and river were blanks, and I checked and called all the way down (for another $5 total). And I was right, sort of. Andy didn't have an ace. He showed down 87 offsuit for a flopped two pair. My read was right, but losing the hand cost me $7. Anybody else, and I'd have a better read on what they were up to. I chalked that one up to calling for information.

Apparently I like suited king-rag in my home game. Like I said, so much looseness preflop yields good odds to see flops. I limped in with K8-spades, and Albert raised from the button. I was the only caller, but I thought his raise was a large one. A little too large. Perhaps a middle pocket pair like sevens or nines?

I was sold on betting into him if a king hit the flop, and was considering whether or not to bet into him if a pair of eights hit, when I saw the flop: Ac, Js, 8c. This is a dangerous flop for a lot of hands, and Albert is one of the few players in my game tight and smart enough to fold in situations like this. My almost-pot-sized bet got him to fold after some deliberation. And he showed... pocket kings? Holy laydown, Batman!!

I showed him my sneaky play. He asked me if I thought I outplayed him on that hand. I wasn't even tempted to tell him 'yes'. I told him I misread the situation, and was aggressive when I saw a dangerous-looking flop. Basically, that I got lucky. Albert's a smart guy, fairly tight, and therefore bluffable. I also consider him one of the few in my game that considers position when acting. The fact he had the button made me more suspicious of his raise than I should've been.

George, Shawn, and Albert joined me "in the black" for this session. Dave, Andy, Woody, and Jeff weren't so lucky. Somebody asked me about previous sessions, and I looked back at a few. I found out that the last time I had a home cashgame where I was in the red, was Feb 17 and I was down $5. Go me.

Go me, indeed. I'll be going with Jesus from the PCS and Albert to the 7pm $15 (+$20 for double rebuys, +$20 double addon) NL tourney at the Crystal Park Casino in fabulous Compton. I'm on an insane run lately, and it would be sweet to use Thursday's profits to hit a Friday night final table. And I do solemnly vow and swear to semi-bluff by pushing all-in instead of checkraising, if the situation warrants.

Who am I kidding? The cards have run so nicely for me recently, I'm due for multiple suckouts at Crystal Park. I've already been warned that the players are insanely loose for the rebuy phase, and only a hair tighter afterwards.