Patience is a virtue

Time for some venting...

I miss Tabletalk Tommy, who is currently residing in San Luis Obispo. Poker politics abhors a vacuum, apparently, and Shawn is filling the tabletalk void. Poorly.

He's getting on my damn nerves. I don't enjoy the constant reminders that his trash hand would've beaten whatever was shown down. Speech peppered with "you know" is really grating. His horrid overuse of "you never know" when attempting to put a player on a hand bothers me. Well, Shawn, if you never know, then you shouldn't bother trying to put a player on a hand or a range of hands.

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

Shawn has also proven that he's got thin skin. I raised my voice at him, one time, when I wanted him to stop fucking up a main pot/side pot count. His reply was classic, and amused me and the rest of the table. "Don't raise your voice at me. That was uncalled for."

The bottom line is that I would prefer to have him at my game than not, so I'm not going to insult him or dis-invite him. I'll consider it a lesson in patience and forebearance.

Whining over.

~~

We had a total of ten this evening, witnessing the initial visit from soccer-teammate Tony, and the return of Bruiser, slinger of beers and drinker of chips... no, that's not right... wait a sec...

Plenty of loose chipslingers seated.

The highlight of the evening for me was watching Bruiser's first attempt at raising blind preflop. Sitting in the cutoff, the only caller he got was Miguel. Miggy promptly flopped a king-high straight, but checked it because the flop was all clubs, clashing with his red cards. Playing the information game, Bruiser checked blind rather than give in to the temptation of seeing if he had a club. The turn was a blank, and the river was another king. A small raising war broke out on the river, after Bruiser checked his holecards for the first time. His 74-clubs was a winner.

Shawn thoroughly enjoyed the all-in preflop, three-way pot he won against me and Bruiser. Shawn's pocket kings flopped a set, cracking my aces. Bruiser's AQ ran a distant second at our five-handed table. (Shawn was grating on me well before this happened.)

The Man of the Match award has to go to Jefferson. He was in for $10 and out for $21, and played smart poker. It was nice to see him do well, and make good decisions along the way. Of the three roommates I've given poker tips to, he's picked it up the fastest. Good for him.

I made a few decent plays, and several bad ones. You know that huge, sinking suspicion you're beat? Listen to it.

I ran AJ into Forty Ounce Dave's AK. FOD had been playing ace-wheelcard for the whole evening, and I manage to catch a hand when I'm outkicked. Doh.

I slowplayed my A6 when the board flopped an ace and turned a set of aces. Albert was doing the same, and his A8's kicker played. In this case, slowplaying saved me money.

On a K77 flop, I thought my top pair had Albert outkicked. The only problem was that his king's kicker was a seven. Oops. I could've lost a lot more on this hand. His smooth check-call on the flop told me something was up, so I checked behind on the turn. But then I called his river bet anyway. Hey, how about you make a read and stick with it, hmm?

I even lost a prop bet. I wagered a dollar that either FOD or Albert had a flush on a 3-heart board, after Shawn (who, like me, wasn't in the hand) declared vehemently that nobody had the flush. Shawn wouldn't take the bet, but drunkass ("I've been drinking since 1pm today!") Bruiser did. And Bruiser was right. Dave had only the ace of hearts.

I'm sure there are lessons I can learn from these mistakes, but right now I'm a little too irked to focus.

In for $10, out for $0. At least I lasted the whole 5 hours.