Last night myself and a few mates got together to play a few hands, down a few beers (or bourbouns, or vodkas - we’ve never been too fussy when it comes to alcohol ;)) and generally just have a bit of fun.

In my opinion a low stakes home game is some of the most entertaining poker you can play. I think I’ve said this before but when I play against strangers it’s all about taking their money, when I play with friends it’s about having fun. That’s not to say the poker isn’t played to a reasonable standard, our group of players have been playing against each other on a semi-regular basis for I’d estimate over a year now and it’s starting to lead to some interesting play.

Anyhow, last night there were four of us playing SNG style no-limit hold’em “tournaments”, over about a 6 hour period we managed to finish four of these. Congrats go to Vaughano who, through a combination of good play, good cards and a bit of good luck managed to take the first place in three of the four and was not beaten heads-up all night.

How did I do? Well, poker wise it’s a night to forget really. I did manage second place in two out of the four but card wise I was pretty unlucky. I won’t complain too much but I couldn’t win a race all night, whether a coin flip, way ahead or way behind nothing went right (Did you know I was nearly a 90% favourite to win that all-in with the queens???? OK, OK - I’ll drop it :D). It wasn’t only bad luck though, I did play a few hands quite badly. I’ll blame the beer!

Good times, if you don’t play in any home games I recommend getting one organised - remember the aim is fun, leave your serious game at the casino or on-line and you’ll have a great time. Guaranteed. Certainly the most entertainment I’ve had while losing at poker!

Thanks for the game guys, I’ll catch you at the next one.

I just witnessed what has to be one of the craziest hands of limit hold’em I’ve seen. I wasn’t involved but I had to share it with you as it sure gave me a laugh.

I’m sat at a $0.50/$1 10 handed limit hold’em table, it’s loose with something like 50% of the player’s seeing a flop but generally passive and pre-flop raises are rare. I’m not getting anything playable which is annoying me because the two players directly to my right are seeing 50% and 75% of the flops respectively and calling down with almost anything, there’s money to be made here but I’m not getting the cards to do it. Although I’m multi-tabling at the time (and therefore not giving the table the attention is probably deserves), my interest is suddenly sparked when I see the betting capped four ways pre-flop!

One pre-flop raise was rare, but to see four players capping? I was intrigued. So the flop comes:

:5s::9h::2c:

Or what is better known in the business as “rubbish”. That doesn’t stop these maniacs with all four of them betting and raising to have it capped again for the turn. At this point I’m thinking surely we must have AA vs AA vs KK vs QQ or something wonderfully rare like that, these guys will surprise you though and they all see a turn:

So off they go again, betting, raising and capping. All four of them. At the river there is $32 in the pot, 32 BB! If you’re a no-limit player don’t be fooled - this is a huge pot for a limit hold’em game. They all see the river:

Surpsingly, this actually slows them down. The UTG player bets, second to act just calls this time, third position raises and fourth folds! UTG re-raises, second player folds and of course it’s capped. I’m a little disappointed because I only get to see half the players cards.

UTG shows:

:Kc::Ks:

Giving him a set of kings, but the third to act player turns over:

:8d::7c:

Giving him a straight. A straight he made on the turn! This guy had raised/called capped both pre and post flop before he made this straight. He simply does not fold. This time he got lucky, and took down a pot worth $40 - that’s 40 big bets at a limit table. With 67o. When you’re lucky, you’re lucky!

Am I the only one who wonders what the other two players might have had?

The frustrating thing is, I’m still at this table and he’s still sitting there two seats to my right. His stack is shrinking but it’s not heading my way, I’m card dead. Come on poker gods, give me a break ;)

EDIT: Just caught a club flush against him (and four others) - they all happily called me down to the river. What did he have? 83o for a pair of threes - the three came on the river. Patience is a virtue in this game, wait long enough and order will be restored on even the craziest of tables.

Well June ‘06 was a mixed month for me. On one hand in the cash games it’s been my best month so far up over 280 big blinds over around 5800 hands:

But tournaments both large and small were a different story with an ROI of -46% (this is on-line only so doesn’t include my first place at the monthly home game, which would improve this number a bit).

So then, my goals for July:

1. Keep the solid cash game going at my new limit.
2. Keep playing the low-level NL hold’em tournaments, aim for a positive return for the month.
3. Read “Harrington on Hold’em” volumes 1 and 2 (on order from Amazon, due to arrive middle of the month - darn international shipping).