PhantomMut

I went with the intention of playing very tight, and I was more conservative than I have been in the past, but in the end I did see a lot of flops. I started out getting very lucky. At one point in the space of about eight hands I got pocket queens three times, winning all three hands (and with the ladies, that really means I was getting lucky) going to showdown twice. So I started building a nice stack.

Dawn, meanwhile, is playing bust-out-the-boys poker, scooping at least two buy-ins.

(Again, sorry I don't have details. What with the Scratch-Off Madness instigated by Mary (thanks Mary!), people coming and going, and general cell-phone cacophony, much of the early evening is a blur.)

(Mary is one of those incredibly nice/effective people who do things like giving the people in the home game she attends fun-and-witty presents on the Wednesday night before Christmas. The world would be a much better place with more Marys in it.)

(Update: Mary is also the only person who plays at the Crackhouse who gets universal respect. "Mary's in the pot? Danger, Will Robinson!")

Anyway, Dawn is playing bust-out poker, and I'm starting to build a stack, when I get dealt Ace-Ten suited in spades in early position. I bet out a conservative buck (four times the blind) get a couple of calls including Dawn, and we see a flop.

7 8 10 rainbow. I've flopped top pair, top kicker. Not bad. I bet five dollars.

Dawn goes over the top, seeing my bet and adding fifteen more.

For good or ill, I'm something of a defender. I stand up, start channeling Norman Chad, saying "she doesn't have Nine-Jack" (to which F-Train responds "No, all her chips would be in the middle right now"), trying to figure out what she's got. I stop with the real-time verbal analysis, but what I'm thinking is that if she'd been dealt a pocket pair she would have raised pre-flop, so she doesn't have a set. I put her on Jack-Ten for top pair with a patented Crackhouse gutshot draw; I also figure she has my hand worked out, and is on a buy with the the four outs, figuring I won't want to risk all my chips on top-pair top-kicker. I consider the possibility of a flopped two pair, but don't think it likely.

So I put her on a hand and act appropriately.

Stupid thinking. She has in fact flopped bottom two, my hand doesn't improve, and at showdown I'm felted.

Re-buy!

But that was my only re-buy for the night. Played mostly loose-passive pre-flop (something I need to get away from, but it's an easy habit to get into online), folded like a little girl whenever the flop missed me, played (mostly) aggressively when it didn't, and started collecting chips again. Busted people out at least three times. Paid off some big hands (more on that later) but in the middle of the session I thought I was playing some pretty good poker.

Especially considering I had TheRock to my left. I might have been collecting chips, but he was reaping them.

One hand where lack of aggression probably cost me: Took some junk from middle position into a family pot (something like Five-Seven off), flop comes out Two-Five-Six, with two spades, I call a smallish raise and three players see a Seven on the turn, and idiot me says "Hmmm, a golden slow-play opportunity" and it checks around. Of course, a Nine of spades falls into the river, Ari bets out five dollars, I put in a whimpering call hoping she's making a move, and TheRock raises is way up, putting Ari all in and making me go bye-bye. Ari shows the straight, TheRock shows a flush, and I have shown my inner Donkey. (Back to the shed, Dutch!)

Nonetheless, my largest stack of the night had something like $90 in it, putting me up $70 for the evening.

Unfortunately, as it got later, I lost some focus. Earlier in the evening when someone someone would ask "can you beat a straight" I would answer with "yes" because I'd seen it there, checked my nut flush on the turn, and raked when the other guy caught his card. Later it was like "nope, was hoping it had missed you and my two pair would be good". (Even worse when the two pair was imaginary....)

In short, I stopped taking care of business, I stopped taking care of my stack, and I lost a good portion of it before the game broke.

Still, these are errors that I can recognize and correct, so even if I came home up only $14 instead of $70, I'm pleased.

Plus of course, poker aside, the Crackhouse is a fun night out.

About paying off big hands: I paid off way too many straights last night. I think there is some utility in paying people off, but I was doing it too much. My game is evolving, but it's easy for me to see that I'm always going to be the kind of player who wants to see flops. If I'm going to do that, I'll have to also be the kind of player who can fold even a very good hand if signs and portents indicate I'm beat. So I need to practice my folding.

Four things inherent in poker are fun:

• Playing a hand in general.
• Winning a hand
• Playing smart (which often means folding like a little girl)
• Building a stack

The other things that make for a fun poker night are made much better by not losing sight of the Cardinal Pleasures, but not getting too wrapped up in them either. At one point GuyOnMyRight was on low-grade muttering tilt, and it was pretty obvious he wasn't having (at least at that point) the best of times. After felting him with top pair better kicker I apologized (another bad habit I have to get out of) because I really did feel bad about contributing to what he must have felt was a night of Universe v. GuyOnMyRight. Having been there (and deeper into it than he was) and now having seen it, hopefully I'll be able to recognize it in myself earlier and keep it from getting in the way of having a good time.

Extra-short recap: The poker was good. The stories were good. The company was good. What's not to like?