The night of suckouts

Most on me, one notably by me. You know it's been a long night when you hit a two-outer and someone else remarks something to the effect of "he was due for one."

The scene - my home game. The cast - the usual motley assemblage. Me, Special K, BG, T, Diamond Jim, Uncle Phil, Crazy Nate, Big Nick and Little Nick (coming later to replace a busted BG).

So I play a lot of pots. No, really, I play a LOT of pots. It's a $.25/.50 game, with a standard preflop raise of $3. That raise to $3 doesn't really thin the field, so I get a lot of chances to see a flop with suited one-or-two-gappers in a three or four-way pot. Just like I like. I dump most of these hands after the flop if I don't pick up a monster draw, but when I hit, I add more fuel to my reputation (mostly deserved) or playing a bunch of shit cards.

Blame G-Rob. I do.

So on this particular night, I'm running up and down. Mostly down. I hit two pair on the flop several times, each time to get run down by the straight or the flush on the river. Understand that this is a home game, and there's not a lot of consideration of pot odds or proper poker play. Some folks are going to chase anything all the way, some folks are going to play their underpairs like they're Aces, and some folks are going to slowplay or weak-play themselves out of big pots. Me, I'm gonna go after stacks, not pots, and I'm going after them with middle cards, because my hand strength stays more disguised. Even Uncle Phil, who's paid more attention to my play than most, admits that he can almost never put me on a hand. That's what I prefer.

So I'm now $200 into this $.25/.50 game, and I've gotten a little tired of being run down by mediocre draws, when I shove the last of my chips in the middle on a flopped set. Crazy Nate calls in a heartbeat, and I say "Do you have the straight?"

"Yep."

"Fuck. Pair the board, please."

And for the first time all night, the deck gives me my suckout. I felt a little bad about celebrating hitting a two-outer, but as BG mentioned, it was about damn time I got my money in behind and hit.

It's okay, though. Karma evened out a few hands later when Big Nick hit a two-outer to double through me for a $200 pot. Special K popped it preflop to $3.50, his standard opening raise. I was in the BB or the straddle, I don't remember which. I just remember K saying "Oh look, I'm under the gun," which with all the straddling and re-straddling that had gone on, he was for nearly half the hands. We see a couple of callers before it gets to Big Nick in the BB or SB (dunno, on my right elbow.Probably the BB). He goes all in over the top of the raise and two callers, for about another $76.

I've got about $300 sitting in front of me, having made a big comeback from stuck $200, and look down at two shiny red Aces. I know if I call the $76, at least one other player is going to come along, probably with anything JTs or better. I think, however, that if I shove, I can get heads-up. I wouldn't much mind Special K coming along, but I don't want to play a 4-way pot with Aces. I want to play against at most two other people. So I shove.

It probably took me about half a second to make all those calculations, and my "All-in" had all the confidence of someone who was holding Aces. As was my intention. I wanted it to be screamingly obvious to anyone who was awake that at that point in the hand, I was ahead of all other comers.

At that point, Special K took a couple minutes and then joined a group of players that only had two other members to that point - players I know personally that have folded pocket Kings preflop. Otis and Absinthe have told about their experience folding Cowboys preflop, and if I remember right, one of them made a good laydown and one didn't. I don't remember which. But K dumped his Kings, and the other two guys in the middle got out of the way.

I should just called, because on the Ten-high flop I coulda got the rest of Special K's cash outta the side pot, because the Ten in the door made the set for Big Nick and I was back to roughly even for the night. Oh well, I'll probably make the same move six days a week and twice on Sundays, so I don't feel too badly about it. I did manage to finish up about $100 on the night, so it wasn't totally an evening of treading water, and I dish out my fair share of suckouts, so it's only blog-worthy that I spent most of an evening actually getting my money in good, not that there were suckouts galore at the Falstaff home game. I'm just not used to actually having a hand when I put chips in the middle, that was the main trouble with my play all night!

Look, ma! Poker content on my poker blog! And you guys thought I was all about biking and losing weight, didn't you?