They won't let me win

Yesterday was yet another of our biweekly friendly homegames, NLTHE.

Nope, didn't work out at all. We were seven this time, and I ended up on sixth place, being knocked out after the rebuy period was over. To make the game lively, we all start with 3000 in chips and 25/50 blinds and have rebuy possible for the first four rounds. Over time we've fine tuned the tournament parameters to maximize the fun factor and we're nearing an optimal setting.

Same guy won, third time in a row. There is a proverb "Never play poker with a man named Doc". In this particular case it can be tricky, because he is a doc. Yup, got his Ph.D. last year. And some of the other regulars have master's degrees or are on the way to getting them. However, all in Computer Science, not statistics, probabilistic analysis, game theory or such. Me? Just a diploma, but kinda sorta vaguely working towards a bachelor's degree.

And they're getting good too. Damn! They've grasped all the concepts, and my moves and plays don't work well anymore. When I do make a gamble, it's river suckout and goodbye Martin.

You know the worst starting hand in Hold'em? 2-7 off-suit? And how it's a special occasion when you still make it work? I did even better than that, didn't even have The Hammer (2-7 off-suit). I had J2o in an unraised Big Blind and the flop comes 2-7-7. Bet a thousand with blinds 100/200 and the remaining player folded. Ha! I don't even have to have 2-7, I only have to make people believe that. Bwahaha!