Poker Update

I hosted last night. It was with a different group of people. It was much looser and more social.

How’d I do? I think I played great. I outplayed everyone else. (I think. You never really know.) In the first round, I dominated. I had some good cards and some good bluffs. I confused the table by doing a lot of checking in the dark with first action – they didn’t know whether that meant weakness or strength.

But the bad beat streak continued. I think I was involved in about 10 bad beat hands. 2 of them were in my favor. 8 of them were the other guy bad beating me. Is it worth telling about any of them? No, but I will anyhow.

I went into heads up play with a 3-1 chip advantage. I ended up going all in with A-9. He had K-9. He got his K on the river. I was struggling after that. I went all in with a pair of 8s. He called me with J-8. He got his jack on the river, I got second place.

I felt like Phil Helmuth. I was going in with the right cards. I was making the right folds – I had to dump J-J one time and Q-Q another when overcards drew heavy betting. I went all-in with the best hand at least a half-dozen times. And it didn’t matter, I still got knocked out by bad beats. I also talked like Phil Helmuth, I was jawing at everyone. I like to tell everyone else what they should do. I’m always surprised how much they listen.

My favorite hand no one saw. I was short-stacked and drew Ad-4. It was enough for a semi-bluff, I went with 300 (3x) preflop. The chip leader called. The flop came 3-4-5 of diamonds. I had middle pair and a draw to both the straight and nut flush. I put in another 200. Partially because I thought my 4s were good, partially as a test to see if I could push him off the pot. He raised me up to 500. He was a conservative player who just played the value of his cards (I doubt he bluffed during the whole night). I called. The turn was something unremarkable, maybe 9c. I checked. He put in 400. I only had 1,000 left with 100-200 blinds coming next hand. Tough call. If I went all in, would he fold? I had checked already, could I represent strength? Was he sophisticated enough to be using his chip lead to bully my short stack on a bluff? It would be calling something like 1/4th of the pot, and there were 9 diamonds, 4 2s, and 2 4s for my outs. 15 outs said I should call him.

But I folded. For what it’s worth, he said he had something good, I think he had the flush already. Even though the math says I should have called him, I think it was a good fold. Sometimes the math has to give way to the read.

It was a very fun night. I’m tempted to not report financials, because it was a great night of entertainment for the price. But I suppose I have to keep it honest.

Net winnings: $-10
Overall: $-64

P.S. Mrs Muttrox played also. She played an early nut straight perfectly, getting two other players all in and getting a large chip lead. But from then on, she was very tentative. It’s only her second game, she has a hard time playing with anything less than super-premium hands. She got blinded down until she was forced to go all in and lose with a K.