My Tuesday night game seems to be slowly dying off. Two years ago when I started attending, we routinely had 16-24 players each week. These days, we struggle to fill a table, averaging 8-10 players each week. Tonight, we had 6.

I was card dead for most of the night, picking up a couple of hands early but then getting garbage for the rest of the tourney. Still, I was making good reads and good folds, and ended up folding my way to second place while watching the other players lock horns and eliminate each other. I went into HU with <6 bb and about 12% of the chips on the table, and it lasted two hands.

Ah, crap, I thought this was an April Fools prank. I can't imagine I was the only one.

Bad timing, eneely.

Or else you've out-leveled us all.

You weren't the only one, and it was just bad timing on his part, no level.

I believed you eneely.

I wish I could make a more sincere offer to help out, but my day job is in a very demanding phase right now. We really appreciate the effort you've put into the forums.

no kidding. if i had more time, i'd be in like flint.
but i just don't have the ability to give.


eneely will be missed around here...

hopefully he'll be back before too long.

Damn I thought the same thing....

A few months ago I permabanned a player from my home game for angleshooting, douchebaggery, slowrolling, hit-n-running, and for having piss poor etiquette. Recently, he's been trying to get back into the game claiming he has reformed. I told him there's a chance but only if my players are okay with it. A few players had strong opinion against the idea of his return so I said he can't come back.

Yestermorning, I tell him that even if I'm okay with him coming to my home game, if others are not okay he can't come. It's out of my hands. He exploded, saying that it's my game and that I can do whatever I want. He used so many colorful words that I told him I don't want to talk to him and that if he wants to have an adult conversation talk to me when his emotions aren't talking for him.

Last night, I had many players who haven't played at my home game for months. Mr. Permabanned was brought up and one of the old returning player interrupted saying, "oh that guy? dude, we used to play together back in 05. He's a cheater, and we would let him cheat because he and his friend sucked at it. Despite the fact he was cheating, he will still lose. Everybody knew he was cheating but no one said anything because we would just avoid playing hands against him on his deal."

I turned to one of my more regular player who also played at the big '05 games. I asked, "how come I've never heard about this from you?"

His response? "oh, it was never an issue at your game. you have an elaborate system of passing the deal. He could never stack the deck like he did back in '05." wtf O.o??

Now I have an iron-clad reason never to invite Mr. Permabanned back. At this point I don't care that he has "reformed." once a cheater, always a cheater.

First, I'd be chewing out some players about THIS
and, btw, nice slipin of a brag there, Mr. Superhost


Second.... your response was WAY too mild to villain. If I was being NICE, his tirade would have resulted in "Well, moran, I guess you won't have to worry about anyone else's opinion NOW."

i'm getting the shakes...
haven't played since thursday night...
7 days ago...

didn't play on my birthday (4/2)
partied like a... ok. i can't lie.
i did party, but not like anything special...

but i haven't been able to play in 7 days. i'm crossing my fingers for tonight. the thursday game is juicy.

I never like the "it's out of my hands" line, but his reaction sure sealed the deal. The very notion that you somehow own your friends while they're in your house tells you how he approaches things.

This guy has a personality flaw, and it's "I don't care about other people. All I see (and expect you to see), is what I can force, negotiate, or trick out of them". It's antisocial, and the last thing you want in a poker buddy.

Exactly. That's why he is still permabanned.

But the other players should have still given you the whole cheating story earlier.

Went to an underground boxing match last night at the site of one of my favorite poker games.

The first rule of Fight Club is to post youtube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIuTmubQj_k

Pfap, were you the guy who shouted, "Eat his f$@kin' soul?"

Haha, no. I did laugh at it, but I'm not that guy laughing at it.

I missed the finishing shot. Hipster got up, and there was some sort of spinning around, and he got nailed in the face by Punk's elbow. He went down, came up with a bloody mouth, and called it quits.

Is it time for zombie kitteh?

Hello home poker fans.

I have just come back from a game that I attend semi-regularly. Technically speaking it is a 25p/50p (british pounds) game but after about 20 minutes it is effectively playing like a shallow 1/2 game.

Despite not being particularly good at poker i'm the second best player at the table behind my friend who plays poker professionally, 3/6 mainly but sometimes as high as 5/10. Strangely he is also the guy who takes the game the most seriously as despite having a lot of money online he has a relatively small 'life roll' with which to buy beer, food etc.

The game was fun but unfortunately I finished down after 5? bet shoving pre with 9,3 and getting snapped by my brother's 9,J sooted.Like I said, not hard to be the second best player in this particular game.

It was pretty much a typical session in which I used all my experience gained from crushing the 5c/10c games on Full Tilt to grind out a steady win before spewing massively after a few drinks. There were a few interesting pot's to note. Including one that happened after my 9,3 spew that I would like the Home Poker community's views on:

Villain A-The aforementioned pro poker player.
Villain B-My brother, sibling rivalry means we don't really fold to each other, although he is a complete aggro-monkey and does not really ever fold to anyone-Is capable of playing well and is quite knowledgeable about poker (has watched some video's etc, but he gets bored and tilts easily)
Villain C-Semi-Competent half French half Swedish guy. By semi-competent I mean to say he can occasionally fold (enough to make him a big favourite in this game). Plays and beats up to 25nl online but is probably slightly underolled for this game, (he is an 18 year old college student).

The hand in question (play is generally 8/9 handed but I think only 5/6 people played this hand as some people where having a cigarette break.)

I raise pre from early position to £1.50 with 10,10
My bro repops to £5 and Villain A+C call.

flop- 9,2,6 two flsuh cars (can't remember the suits)

Swede leads out from the S.B for -£10
Pro flats.
My bro makes it £40 (capable of doing this with any two cards)
I????? I have about £100, maybe a bit less.

There are no real two pair possibilities and neither the swede or the pro where really getting the odds to set-mine (im guessing they had about £50), although it makes no sense for the swede to lead out as a bluff knowing my bro is likely to raise, the pro's flat looks extremely suspicious for the same reason. Also we can not completely rule out my brother having a hand.

On the other hand they could all have a flush draw .

What would you do?

Let it go. I'm more worried bout Pro's range since he only flatted. You're behind 90+% of the time. Besides, calling two to the face or 3betting all-in represents monster hand, something you don't have.

another playing drought update...

my name is drew, and it's now been 13 days since i've played poker...

and i hate it.

As Zak says, I'd probably let it go at that point without having a really good read. It is more or less a coin flip---if you put one player on a flush draw with an overcard and another player on two high cards, you are 42% to win, the flush 45% and the overcards 13%.

My general approach to a hand like 10 10 is to 3bet/4bet pre and take the pot down if the villains are laggy and capable of folding to a large re-raise and/or get heads-up, or to call and set mine/fold if the board is not friendly and/or the action indicates I'm beat or flipping.

What happened?

Played in a new (to me) game last night. Pot Limit Rotation.

One one of my turns to pick, I chose Omaha 3-2-1 HiHi. It was so awesome, the next guy picked the same thing.

My regular Tuesday game had 8 players last night. I got off to a strong start and was the big stack early on, but couldn't keep it together. The cards got colder as the blinds got bigger, I caught a couple of second-best hands, and my steal attempts just weren't getting any credit.

I felt really good about my play; I was very image-aware and adjusted well vs. different villains. But ultimately, I just didn't get enough good cards against the calling stations when the blinds were big.

Two plays that I felt good about (but am open to critique):

#1: Villain is a thinking player who always c-bets, slowplays AA, plays draws and weak made hands aggressively but with undersized bets, and usually has his face in his iPhone whenever he's not in a hand. I called his preflop raise from the BB with QJo, hit TP on a QTx flop and decided to play it passively, trying to look like a flush draw. I check-called villain's small flop and turn bets, then led big into him on the river when the third spade didn't come. It worked perfectly, he snap-called with MP and gave me about 1/3 of his stack.

#2: Blinds are 300/600 and I have about 8k (~13bb). Villain is a weak player who routinely limp-calls preflop with weak aces and trouble hands, is somewhat image-aware, can steal in position with nothing, can fold to a 3bet, and thinks about bets in $ value or % of his stack rather than # of big blinds. He barely had me covered and raised 3x on the button. I had been folding a LOT, and I look down at A9 in the SB. I don't want to see an ace on the flop, and I think I can end it now, so I shove.

Villain tanks and starts talking to me, but I just shut up and look at the felt. He sounds really weak, and after about 2 minutes, he grudgingly calls and tables AQ! I flop a FD but it never comes in, so I go home. Still, I felt good about my image-aware move, and I felt even better that in spite of running into the top end of villain's range, he nearly folded it anyway.

3-2-1 Omaha

Omaha High. Best overall high hand wind the entire pot. There are THREE flops, TWO turns, and ONE river. Flops cannot be combined. Turns cannot be combined. Same Omaha rules apply regarding using two cards in your hand, and three on the board.

Looks like an action junkies dream... Play for the nuts or nothing?

This is Chowaha, I believe... or a variation thereof.

Hmmmm.... compared to the current one, I don't know...