Redirecting

Monday, December 19, 2005

Stacked and Re-stacked

Sunday evening at the club, familiar faces: Me, H0nus, Vortex, Asian Paul, and Vortex's boy Ryan. Ivan joined us later, as did some others.

In the second orbit, I passively played a 2-3 offsuit open ended draw on a 4-5-Q board. I check called a small flop bet from H0nus. We both checked the turn, and when I missed my draw on the river he bet out. I mucked, and he triumphantly dropped the hammer on me. I'm not sure if it counts though, since he was bluffing with the best hand!

A few orbits later, we played a real pot. 1-2NL, $5 straddle. 3 call the straddle, I call in the cutoff with $400 and A-2 of diamonds. H0nus on the button makes it $20, and everyone calls.

Flop: 9-6-5 with two diamonds. 3 checks to me, I bet $50, and H0nus raises. He was trying to make it $120, but didn't announce his amount before his first stack hit the felt, so it was only $100 total - $50 more to me. I thought for 8 seconds and moved all-in, counting down my stack: $250 more.

H0nus went into the tank and was about to muck, before he decided to make a boner call on me. Fuckin Douchebag. The turn was the 3 of spades, giving me a gutshot draw (PASS THE SUGAR!) but the river paired the 5 on the board. Vortex, and everyone else at the table was certain I had a big hand (at least SOMEONE was paying attention to the story I told), but alas H0nus was the only one that mattered, and he caught me. H0nus tabled his aces, and I tabled my hand with the Ace of diamonds pinned on top of the deuce, announcing "CHOP!" H0nus freaked for a split second before I smiled and spread my cards, showing my busted draw, and reaching into my pocket for a rebuy.

I was down to $250 off my second $500 buy-in when I doubled through Ivan on two separate hands: once with A-J when I flopped top pair, and then after I spiked a set of 5's vs. Ivan's A-J on a J-5-x board.

Paul and H0nus played the hand of the night: 3 callers of the $5 straddle, and H0nus in the SB made it $40 to go. Paul quickly responded "$100" from the BB, and everyone folded back to H0nus. "Three hundred" he announced, pushing 3 stacks of red chips forward, and the Bigger Dick Contest was officially on as Paul insta-called.

When H0nus bet $200 into the A-K-8 flop, I was SURE he had a set or A-K. Paul, however, stood up, walked around the table rubbing his head, and called! The turn blanked off, and H0nus thought for a minute, before saying "I'll let you bet it," as he checked. Paul checked behind him.

As the river blanked off again, H0nus ($400 left) bet $100 into a $1000 pot! Paul ($400 left) called! When H0nus turned over his QQ, I cringed... but Paul rapped the table and announced "It's good!" Holy fuck - what just happened?!?!?!

Paul is an excellent player, but as you can see here, he is subject to momentary lapses of reason where he loses focus and fucks up: his preflop call with anything that cannot beat queens is terrible. He makes an AMAZING flop call, somehow realizing that this pot can be taken away, but then doesn't follow through when given the opportunity to take the pot on the turn! Then again on the river, H0nus's ABSURD blocking bet actually worked! Paul somehow decided that he wanted to see a "cheap" showdown with his hand after he made the flop call, which was a massive error in judgment, and H0nus stacked chips for 5 minutes.

Paul recovered later by putting a throw-up-in-your-mouth beat on Vortex, who had previously dropped Quad Tens on Paul! Later, Paul and I played this pot:

I was in the SB with 3-3. Paul straddled, there was one limper, and then Paul's brother raised to $15. I called, Paul called, the limper called.

flop: 3-8-9 rainbow. I bet $30, Paul calls, the others fold.

turn: offsuit Q. I look at my chips - but something smells funny... Paul just hammered a straight on me - I can feel it. I check - he checks behind me, and now I KNOW something is wrong... Pair the board!

river: 8, pairing the board! I bet $100, and Paul quickly makes it $300. We each have about $300 more behind. Now I'm a little taken aback, as Paul can easily hold Q-8 here. 8-9 is a possibility, but he'd probably bet the turn with 8-9. What about the straight - which is what I'd previously put him on? He can't call a re-raise with the straight can he? I call after 30 seconds, and he triumphantly announces "straight." I table my 3-3 "full." And he's shocked. I rake a nice pot. Raising the river is certainly a feasible option. It's a close call I think.

I finished the session +104, after making another nice comeback.

until next time,
KD



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