Big Game - The Result

Well just a brief update to accompany my previous blog. We played the big game last night and as expected it was beefy to say the least. Needless to say I didn't see much action early, I had a couple pots I took down some multi-limps when dealt big hands in the blinds and made decent preflop raises. 1st hand I got stuck into was a hand with AA under the gun. It's important to realise at this point that the game has been fairly aggressive, almost no limped pots, and the standard raise pre was to £7, so I limp, a couple behind me and then a raise from middle position to £9, one more caller and re-pop it to £31 and everyone folds. It wasn't particularly dramatic but roused some debate at the table as to what I was holding, which is always a good thing.

I pick a few small pots along the way and I'm up about £120 where a very interesting hand occurs. It's multiway limpage and I have 6, 7 suited on the BB so happy to see the flop here. Comes 4, 5, 6 rainbow, I check and there is a bet and a call, my theory is I have to take control of this hand right away to stop the pot size getting out of my control and maybe force a fold before the river if I can, I think the bet was £12 and I pop it up to £35, they both call. The turn is a 3 which looks like gold and I bet £55 where the original flop raiser shoves.... the other caller debates for a while and mucks looking pissed.... this is a tough spot, I'm finding 7, 8 to be a stretch but it's certainly not impossible, I try to convince myself it might be a deuce but that makes no sense to call my raise so my logical conclusion is we're chopping with one card to come and it's going to cost me £280 to find out. After much deliberation I manage to negotiate a return of my £55 and to see his cards if I fold, so I think this is a good result for me and he shows 7, 9 for the same straight plus a redraw, the other guy also had a 7, so pretty remarkable hand really. In all fairness, Bob played the hand very well, although I think when he made the move he originally thought I had a set when I reraised the flop and went for the kill on the turn. I wish I had the exact numbers to hand to work out if me taking that £55 back and not calling for a chop was a good move, but it seemed to be value to me at the time as I was convinced I couldn't be winning in that spot.

Well the game played on but if I am honest that kinda blew my confidence a little and found myself playing ABC thereafter, although a pretty cool hand came up against Princey who has been very tight all night, I'm feeling frisky and make it £6 utg with 3, 2 suited, and he pops it to £15 from the button, I call. Flop comes 8, J, 10 , we both check to the river and the board is now 7, 8, 10, J, Q and a possible flush on, I'm just thinking I can't really bluff into that versus his range and sheepishly check, he looks at me, smiles he clearly doesn't know where he is at either but I'm giving out all the signals I'm beat, but he checks. 'I play the board' I say.... 'really? So am i' and turns 5, 3 for a pretty big laugh from everyone and we chop a baby pot.

On the whole it's made me realise how much I miss playing live although it's a little bigger than I would like to play right now, £1/£2 afterall is much bigger than $1/$2 which is as big as i've played live before. The potential for ruin is very big, as demonstrated in one of the last pots of the night where a guy flopped an Ace-High flush versus a straight flush and naturally all the money went in for a £700+ pot, pretty outrageous for a home game lol. I'm not sure at this point where I'm heading in the game, I've considered going back online and maybe playing Limit, either HE or Omaha but I really don't want to play on FTP or iPoker.

Decisions, Decisions

Fun or Finance - Crossing the Line

I hope I'll be forgiven for the relative lack of blogging as of late. After an initial bad run in my PLO experiment I decided I'd be happy saving my money rather than spunking it online and I'm taking a little break. Truth be told I've not really 'enjoyed' playing online poker since I had to stop playing on PokerStars. I know some might say "you can find a game elsewhere' or 'Full-Tilt is just as good' etc, but to me none of them really are and when you're putting serious hours in enjoyment becomes a significant part of the game.

So anyways, that's a little background which brings me to the purpose of this particular blog entry. Although I've stopped playing online for the time being, I still have an itch to get in the game. I think if I were in Stoke I'd be at the Circus quite often this week, but alas the Isle of Man has little live Poker to speak of. That was until a few of us from work got talking during a little drinking session last friday at the local watering-hole. This was when the idea of having a home game was brought up...

Initially I wasn't impressed as I played a baby stakes home SNG here a few weeks ago and couldn't have been more bored. However the guy in question wasn't talk about a typical £10 donkament, he wanted to experiment in a 'modest stakes cash game'.
OK, so he has my attention at this point, I'm all ears.

Now it's important to note at this point that the person I'm speaking about I know is a good player and his circle of poker playing friends often get together to play some fairly folklore soaked Dealers Choice games, so i was airing on the side of caution. Anyways, his idea was to play an NL Hold'em game only, no variations but £1/£2 with a 25p ante.... I think my arse dropped on the spot. That would officially make this the largest live cash game I'd ever played in. After discussions on who might be invited and their penchants for out and out gambling I decided to sign up, although I'm wondering if this is a good idea. Thinking about this more logically I'm wondering if the size of this game will affect my performance, £1/£2 is alot bigger than $1/$2 nevermind having the 25p ante thrown in on top! I'm figuring I'll take 2 buy-ins (£400) and hope for the best.

But this poses the question in the blog title, where does a supposedly fun home game cross the line and become something much more? Needless to say I'll do my best to socialise with my workmates but I'll be taking the game extremely seriously. Or maybe i've bitten off more than I can comfortably chew on this one? Game is this weekend, report will come later lol.