Welcome to my game, I'll be sucking out later

Tonight I hosted my regular Sunday night tourney, only this time, I had blogger company. Poker Poison made the trek from Parts Unknown to play in my humble low-buy-in affair. Seventeen players, and we were off...

Unfortunately, the draw didn't quite work out, as I prefer to be at the same table as the new players - and we had two this evening besides Yosoy. All the first-timers were at the red table, with me at the black. After getting aces, then queens in the rebuy phase, I was insanely card dead. It seemed like every sixth hand, I'd look down at a K, then a 6. Foooooook!!!!! (fold)

Down to the final nine and short on chips, I had just passed up two chances to jam preflop, with KJo and A5o. On the KoJack hand, I noticed two players look very interested in the hand, so I folded in a pot that was folded to me. One had AJ but would've fallen to my turned trips. For the A5o, the hand was raised and called already before it got to me. Certainly, I was dominated, right? I figured as much after a guy behind me called too. Then silently swore as the flop hit... A-7-5.

Then, the blogger vs blogger action. Yosoyveneno shoved her smallish stack all-in and it was folded to me. At this point, I was on folding tilt, saw that ace, ignored the offsuit 4 kicker, and called. For less than Yosoy had. I was *that* short. 2100 in my stack, with the BB at 800, perhaps?

She had black nines. Hellmuth loves black nines. Yosoy didn't after the ace flopped, but she didn't say a peep about my bad-hand-turned-good. Acting unlike Phil, I'm sure, by taking her beat in stride. I tried really hard to gift her some chips when she was running low, but failed. My ace held up. A class act, that Poison.

On the very next hand, an awful-but-unpredictable player limps in, and I jam with JJ. Because, hey, I'm on a rush! Albert gives me credit for something moderately decent and folds KQs. The limper calls without much hesitation with 66. There's a K on the board by the end of it, but no 6, so I double up. Again. And just like that, I go from almost dead to having a useful stack of chips. Rise, Lazarus, rise!!

I managed to parlay those chips into a money finish. Poor Yosoy's final all-in was called in two places, and her AJ was beaten.

HORSE cashgame 2: Electric Boogaloo

For knowing very little about the non-holdem games, everybody had a lot of fun. We'll probably have HORSE once every other month. Good stuff.

My favorite quote was know-it-all Russ showing me his JT87-ds Omaha/8 hand and telling me, "That's a pretty good hand, right?"

I think I muttered something about it "having possibilities".

Forty Ounce played stud/8 with a big sign next to his chips that read "Scoop me, please."

And Albert went on a nice, slow, simmering tilt to start the evening when I and Adam Jr dropped limit holdem beat after beat on him. I rivered a nine to beat his AJ with my A9 in one tasty instance. On another hand, he three-bet me preflop with position, then we checked it down and he mucked when I showed my unimproved AJo. Huh? "I knew you were calling if I bet, so I just checked." Clearly, this is a man who has momentarily lost confidence.

Tarheel finished down for the evening, and Shawn finished up, both of which were surprising. Albert and Quagmire bled chips during Omaha/8. For guys who appear to know poker (at least NL holdem), their grasp of O/8 needs a lot of work.

Russ was the big winner, despite getting frisky with a lot of mediocre holdings. The deck was very kind to him.

My favorite hand of the evening I lost.

(AA, black)7d in 7-stud for me, and there are a few calls before Russ completes with a 6 showing. I call, and perhaps two others do. On fourth, I catch a Td and it's checked to Russ, who bets. I raise, and everybody else folds. Russ actually states "HP's on a draw" and 3-bets. This is *exactly* what I want him to think, so I smoothcall. I figure my aces are best, and I'm very likely up against a pair of 6's or something wired in the hole. Fourth street didn't help Russ.

Unfortunately, 5th street did. It paired his fourth card, so it would appear I'm behind to 6's and 5's. My fifth is the 8h, so I might look like I've picked up a straight draw of some sort.

Sixth is a brick for us both, and I call once more, figuring my odds are good and any two pair will beat him. Russ actually asks me wtf I'm doing calling. Sadly, seventh is a brick for me as well, and I call crying, just in case Russ was BS'ing with a lonely pair of 5's. He wasn't - he had sixes up. He also mentioned that I played that hand very strangely. I figure I confused my opponent, but I just didn't win the hand.

I finished up for the evening, and I'm looking forward to Ladies Night this coming Sunday for my tourney. Unlike the usual sausage-fest, there will be at least two poker-playing females in attendance.