Friday nite poker with JC

It was another one of those nights where you find yourself.... patience, patience, screwed! It happened about a half dozen times last night.... hmmm, this morning. My son went to see the new Pirates last night so I spent some time with my lovely wife and headed down to Cary for the Friday night Omaha 8 Pot Limit game. I must have been high as I called before I got past Crabtree to check the status of the game and I somewhat suspected, there was a full table with a 1/3 table waiting, and I still went down there. I think that it might have been the allure of the 3 players waiting (and therefore, in front of me in the line).... Rick, John M and Ellie. When I got there, I didn't hardly even go in the poker room as Rick and John M were playing a tournament in the foyer on a coffee table... flopping the cards on the top of an upside down phonebook. The bottom of the phonebook was being used as the top of the phonebook had upper right and lower right corners curled up from frequent use. Interesting as I hardly ever use a phonebook anymore with the availability of such good information on the internet. The chip stacks were about even and they decided to call it a tie and play some $5/$10 No Limit hold'em with me and Ellie. Within about an hour we had more action than the O8 game. Pretty soon there were some folks leaving the O8 game and Rick was the first to go... then John and Ellie and I played heads up for about a half hour for John S decided to sell his seat to Ellie. In 3 different hands, I flopped top pair and he would call my bets with bottom pair and either two pair on the turn/river or make trips with his bottom or second pair. Killing me.

When I went in to the poker room to watch a little of the action, I did some quick math and determined that there were only nine players at the table. This is actually a house rule as there are about 4-5 players who really slow down the action. O8 is one of those games where the house rake can really suffer if there are some slow players or "drama" players at the table. Guys who insist on squeezing the life out of their hand before every action and then when they do call, rather than just announce their action, will slowly and deliberately count out their action using their smallest chips. C'mon guys! Move! Chuck has really improved in his handling of the deal and running the game. Every time there's any action, he stacks the chips in stacks of 10 so it is fairly easy to determine what the appropriate pot limit bet is at any given time. If we screw that up, Rick, the math whiz, can tell us within a dollar or two at any given time exactly what is in the pot without even checking the stacks. Scary. So I make a quick plea to stretch the game to 10 players and although everyone at the table was OK with my dead money getting in sooner than later, it took about 15 minutes of convincing Joe to permit me in the game. I try to play pretty quickly and although I am little larger than most, because of the kneeling chair that I use, I really don't take up as much space as some because the chair footprint is much smaller.

Well, back to the story.... patience, patience, screwed. Probably the best example of this was a 3 way hand after the turn with Rick and Big Dave. (Rick is on the other end of the table from me and I am on the Big Dave's immediate left. At any rate, the turn gives me the nut straight with 6, 7, A, 9... the board is 4x, 5x, 10x and 8x. Dave had bet the flop and then a nice bet on the turn. I had my suspicions so I just smooth called. When he made the $300 bet on the river, I had a really good idea that either my nut high was going to get quartered so I only smooth called. Sure enough, Dave turns over almost the same hand with A, 6, 7 (don't remember the 4th card) and Rick gets half the pot with the nut low. Dave and I barely got our final bet back. Nice.... yes.... patience, patience, screwed.

My first big hand of the night was against Big Dave.... the flop was Q, Q, 10 and I was holding Q, 10, X, X. Dave leads out with a $50 bet and I smooth call. I think that everyone folded except Elvie. The turn is an 8 and Dave checks and I bet about $250 more. Elvie folds and Dave smooth calls. I put him on a Queen and was thinking "no paint... no paint" --- yep, King on the river. He pushes all-in... I can't fold, I've only got about $35 remaining and he turns over Q, 9, K, K. He actually had one of his own outs meaning he hit a 2 outer on me.... Nice! I wish I could get that lucky.

As the morning dragged on, it did appear that John M was becoming impatient as he was ratcheting up his aggression and there were a couple of times in multi-handed games where I laid down the best hand that would have either won the high or low outright or at least would have tied. But that's poker.... and if you play well at O8, you will learn patience or you'll be re-buying a lot. So I waited.... and one of biggest hands of the nights was the LAST hand of the night. If I remember correctly, I was the first to act and limped in with Kh, Qh, Qc, Jc.... John raised the action with a pot limit bet. These may be isolation bets at a lot of tables, here it is like chumming the water. So there are 5 of us to the flop with a $125 pot. I remember thinking, c'mon Chuck, hit me... you've wanted to all night. And the flop, Qs, 10h, 10d. Got to love it. And Action John M is to my immediate left. I thought for a very brief moment about betting and I checked and John fired a $100 bet. There was one caller and I raised the action to $250 on top. John re-raised all-in and I immediately called. He asked me if I had a 10 and that made me feel considerably better about him NOT having quad 10s (which would be par for the course and I would remind you of Rick's Law's of Omaha chapter and verse.... Law #7a – If you flop top set and the turn pairs the board, you’re about to lose a big pot to quads. You’ve been waiting patiently all night, you’ve finally got the top boat, and players are actually giving you action! You think you’re “walking the dog,” but trust me, the dog is walking you. That idiot who just called your large flop bet with bottom set is about to take your entire stack. Well, John turned over pocked aces and as it turned out was drawing to only one out and in a truly un-PKR like turn and river, didn't hit it. So I ended up scooping about $1700 pot.

Well, I got home in time to shower and take a little nap and now we're off to the Memorial Day stuff.... and in the spirit of Memorial Day, I would like to say THANK YOU to all the veterans and active duty military who do what they do so that we may enjoy the liberties that we have here in the US. One of my favorite people is a guy named Mike Hefner that I met at the USPC last year in AC. Mike is a true hero and was wounded in a fire fight in the War on Terror and several of his team were killed during that fight. I haven't seen him in a while, but I do think about his sacrifice that he made for my freedoms. Mike, if you are reading this, thanks buddy! And come play poker with us.

Salute!