Night of Cards

"A town with money is a lot like a mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and damned if he knows how to use it." - Simpsons

We set up a poker night last night and we had 5 people playing. It was a 20 dollar buy in with 25-50 cent blinds. I had 21 dollars to my name, so I sat down to play. I don't think I have ever been happier to lose at a night of poker. I forget exactly how it happened, but I think I had a pocket pair, an overcard hit the board and I went on in to take my pre-flop raises. I had been tight until that mistake and Mark holding the overcard and a 2nd pair (he had two pair all night) called. I didn't suck out that final 10 and lost my buy in. Then I remembered I had a secret stash of 20 bucks in my truck that I put in there and forgot about because its for emergencies, like for gas or such. Well this was as close as it was going to get. I got my 20 bucks and bought back in. Another guy lost 20 later and bought in for another 20 after hitting up the ATM. Andrew later bought in again too. So now we have 166 dollars on the table. (the six is a long story). Mark dominated all night and he was drunk. It was uncanny. He played great, but he also played anything and hit two pair a lot. My defining play of the night, the play that saved me was actually a terrible play on my part. I had started playing trash, despite all the book knowledge I have that it makes sense to play tight in a loose game. I had 9-3 of diamonds. Flop comes out d d K. I have a dimond draw. I incorrecly decide to put the pressure on Andrew and bet 6 dollars, all the money he has remaining and hopefully take down the pot. There are two players in front of him. The first player folds his K with low kicker. Then the unexpected happened, Mark goes all-in. He was supposed to fold. This gives Andrew great pot odds to call, so he calls and now I'm sitting there trying to decided if I should commit the rest of my chips. I know Mark isn't on a draw because going all in would just be stupid, but wouldn't it be more stupid to call an all in with a 32% chance of catching. I think about it for a while and I figure, I'm the underdog, but if I hit, the payoff will be amazing and I already have a lot of my stack in there. (Later we figured out the pot odds and it was close, probably still not worth it). I call and Mark flips over one of his favorite two pair. But then Andrew flips over his A-10 of diamonds. Usually I'd be crushed here, but I was happy that the side pot was big enough to where if he did hit it, I would still make money. If we both missed, Mark would get all our money and the game would end. We hit a 4 of diamonds on the river and Andrew wins the main pot and I win the side pot, making about a 5 dollar profit. I got really lucky. I got more agressive after that and when we called it a night, two players were cleaned out. Andrew had 26 dollars, I had 36 dollars and Mark had the rest, about 100 dollars. He won 80 bucks for his 20 dollar buy in. I ended the night at -4, but that is a win when you had to buy back in and almost got wiped out. Andrew lost 14, all of it going to Mark of course. I put 20 back in the secret stash and put 16 in my wallet for lunch tomorrow. It was a fun night of poker.

Another cool thing was our institution of man laws stolen from the commercial. If someone made a lie, you could call him on it and if it was lying you win a dollar, if true you pay him a dollar. So when a person says, I just folded 72 offsuit, and you call man law, if he has the 72 then you pay up, if not he pays up. It probably happened about 3 times that night, and once I won a dollar, but I later lost it to Andrew in a side bet on whether Mark was holding pocket kings or aces. A great beat to take if you are Andrew.

4 dollars an hour