Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Four of some kind

We had our fourth li'l homegame NLTHE tournament yesterday. Much fun and a few beers was had by all, we even had a "guest" player aside from the regular crew. Five players, could have been seven. Maybe next time.

As usual, a few hands that induced groans of pain, most memorable was the flopped flush going all-in out of necessity and being beat by a riverred aces full of kings. And some hands where neither player wanted to back off, bets are rising and at the showdown "So you have an ace and a jack as hole cards. Me too.". Split pot.

How did I fare? In the three earlier tournaments I consistently placed second, but now I finished fourth out of five. But I didn't make a rebuy, which three others did.

Once again, if you want to run a small poker tournament (4-40 players) and have a Windows computer, I can very much recommend the software The Tournament Director.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Lucky seven

Yet another homegame. No Limit Texas, four participants and this time we had all the good stuff.

  • The green felt we've used before.
  • Card shuffler. (Got one for Christmas)
  • Real heavy chips, Dice. In aluminum case.
  • A proper blinds structure so you don't have to make change so often.
  • Beer!

So, that was fun. Some interesting hands, I can tell you about one. I had A5 on hand and the community cards gave me a pair of fives after the flop and an ace-to-five straight on the turn. However, the river made it a six high straight for everyone. My opponent raised but I thought that he was probably betting the six high straight and trying to scare me off, so I call and expect a split pot. I ask "Do you have a seven?".

His calm, cool and measured response was "Actually, I have two...". Seven high straight, broadsiding me.

So, yet another legendary hand for our little poker gang. A story to tell alongside my four of a kind deuces, a few fantastic all-in recoveries and amusing attempts at chip tricks.

I can't say that I'm not consistent. We've played three times now and every time I finished in second place whereas the others place more randomly. They've learnt to play NLTH (got the hang of the basics instantly) and are now starting to understand position, outs, draws, kickers and such and I've learnt how to manage a (small) poker tournament, what with chips, blinds and rulings. Fun!